Authors, Who Do Ya Love?

Authors, Who Do Ya Love?

• Tuesday, 28 July 2015

 

What makes an author a favourite? Like any other avid reader, I've had a few over the years, in the early days, it was Enid Blyton, Anna Sewell and just about anyone who wrote about horses. Later, moving on to the historical romances of Georgette Heyer, then dropping the romance, I moved on to Jean Plaidy. Of course, in there somewhere were the Brontes, Austin, Dickens, all the usual stuff. Later I picked up on some Jilly Cooper because she wrote a horsey saga, but I never quite copped on to the Harlequin type stuff. Then I moved on to crime novels, reading all the usual popular authors. I've read a lot of books over the years, and can't be without a book on the go. Then there were the awful years, when academic reading commitments ousted fiction, no fave authors there!

These days, I'm choosy, very choosy about the authors who become favourites, naturally, the attributes for making an author a favourite are very personal, for me they must give me more than a good story. It's for this reason I've chosen my top three who are (in no particular order): William Shaw, Chris Nickson, and Adrian McKinty. All of these great authors add an extra dimension or more to their work, be it weaving in social history, music and/or humour. The narrative is so good that it transports me, the reader, somewhere far away from the mundanity of everyday life, and the dialogue is sharp, witty and realistic. Then of course, there's nostalgia, yes, I'm old enough to be nostalgic for the 60's, 70's and 80's, be reminded of my old portable record player and Dads' old radiogram. They also write stuff that makes me think, what's more, I can't just finish one of these authors' work and just forget about it, oh no! They linger in my head making it difficult to start a new book.

They are, quite simply, memorable.