Codes, IT, history, social anthropology, communications theory - the ultimate omni-nerd's cyberthriller? I loved it, I'm afraid...

Medieval masonry, adventures in stone and light , religion and social history: an engaging story and enough ideas to keep you going for ages.

Further wartime novels backed up with painstaking research - good in their own right, but lacking the tragic depth and epic sweep of 'Bomber'.

Classic children's tale - generates a world of its own, full of governesses and witches, cats and bats and owls and rats and foxes , con-men and pirates: wild magic with an English country air.

A gripping, documentary-style novel, meticulously researched follows the events of a slingle day in World War II, seen from many different points of view. Inspiration for BBC Radio's day-long 'real time' dramatisation.

What changes will the stranger and her daughter bring to the little French town? Is the seductive power of chocolate stronger than the call of Church and tradition?

I can't begin to do this work justice. Four short books, telling the linked stories of generations of craftsmen in the author's native Cheshire: with few words and large type, they look like children's books. But these stories are as tightly crafted as poems, and they hold the riches of real lives. They are great and modest and moving, historical and timeless, and quite unlike anything else I know. I have read them before and I wiill read them again and again, and never come near to exhausting what they have to say.

Darkly atmospheric children's story from the 1950s - I remember a terrifying TV adaptation from the 1970s. There is something more strange and sinister in the slow build up of tension, the skewed relationship betweent ream world and reality than you would find in any amount of gory horror. Those stones live on in my imagination, still!

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Novels about the men of the Royal Flying Corps and the RAF, in World Wars I and II. About flying fighters to the same extent that Patrick O'Brien wrote about naval swashbuckling: it's there, and done superbly well, but that's only a fraction of the story. These books explode as many myths as bombs. Think 'Catch 22' meets Spike Milligan's war diaries. and that still won't do these books justice. Action, a kind of ruthless compassion, cynicism and the blackest of humour. Must find the rest...

Ransome's classic detective story - allegedly for children, but actually, he claimed, written mainly for Ransome himself. Set in the wet and muddy landscapes of the Norfolk Broads, rather than the Cumbrian hills and lakes of "Swallows and Amazons", with some down-to-earth, working class heroes, this is a superbly crafted story that keeps its suspense right up to the denoument in the last chapter.

The ultimate dysfunctional family? Lydia Millet's cautionary fable pokes sharpened talons into many of the less agreeable aspects of men. The cover features a piece of fruit stylishly propping up a dead bird, and the opening chapter features some very nasty things to do with moths: the momentum sort of carries it along from there. Engagingly unpleasant.

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Haven't read this since I was a youngster. Satire on the devloping 'mad scientist' culture, or British Imperialism, or just one of the first great science fiction novels? Doesn't matter. The description of the journey, and of the moon's arid surface waking after the long, lunar night - for all it doesn't square with what the Apollo astronauts found - sticks int he mind.

The story of Uncle Daniel Ponder, told by his sharp-tongued, would-be wise niece. Part modern fable, part morality tale - mostly comic, but tragedy is nearby. The hero could be a highly original innocent aborad or an old rogue - other protagonists include town vs country, age vs experience, the law vs common sense (both seem to lose, here) et al. Odd, charming, unique.

A reworking of an ancient - and very strange - fairy story. Set in 18th Centruy Louisiana, this is a tale of rich merchants and bandits, ladies, gentlemen and rogues, disguise, mistaken identity and sexual awakening. A unique voice: the only writer I know who even comes close to evoking this atmosphere is - strangely enough - James Thurber (e.g. in his two children's stories 'The Thirteen Clocks' and 'The Wonderful O')

A fiction-enhanced account of the life of Grace Marks, notorious murderer or victim of the system. Margaret Attwood shows us events from Grace's point of view, and others' - it is both a gripping story and an in-depth study of the circumstances surrounding a ghastly crime. The main characters are complex, and drawn with absolute attention to detail. At the end, you are left feeling satisfied, but also with the space to make up your own mind. Skillful and profound.

Gothic fantasy, firmly grounded in mud, blood, grease and sewage. Solidly set in an alternative-reality city state, where muck and magic, engineering and science all overlap. Some interesting characters play out an absorbing story against a dark background with some splashes of violence and cruelty.

Memorable short stories, legends and fables, written and illustrated with great precision by Alasdair Gray. Tales from an eastern empire, warnings against excessive pride, support for an independent Scotland and a non-shaggy dog story. Amusing and disturbing.

Speaks with an authoratative voice about the experience of making music, about love lost and regained, and about resignation and acceptance. Compelling.

Another of Jeff Noon's uniquely-surreal cyberpunk-inspired fantasies, set in an alternative Manchester, both near-to and far from our own. This one has much to say about dominoes, lotteries, advertising and curry.

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Everything that's really worth knowing about prehistory. Ernest, a highly articulate proto-human, explains how we owe much of human progress to his father's impatience and consequently gung ho approach to DIY evolutionary practice. Deeply amusing, pokes at art, science, religion and po-faced palaeoanthropologists, but is also a shrewd comment on human strengths and weaknesses.

Cleverly intertwined lives interact and influence one another. As the title suggests, music and art are ever present themes.

This is very different in setting (LA glamour and mid-Western extremes, here) but there are common themes: dealing with bereavement; self-knowledge and self-esteem; partnership (on and off stage); illusion and deception.

Part tove story, part mystery or detective novel . Set in the world of a professional magician, which, we come to realise, overlaps with many other worlds, this is also a surprisingly deep story about identity and self-perception, and dealing with grief and personal loss.

A remarkable book. It's kind of black fairytale or fable, set in eighteenth century France, about the rise and fall of a most unusual parfumier. A sustained - breathtaking! - immersion in the rich world of smells.

I'd forgotten just how good this man is. One of two late collections of short stories, these tales, live on the borders of literature, science fiction, fantasy, poetry and folk tales for a technological age. There is humour, sadness, and always a sense of the wonder of things. A line in one of the tales even made my eyes sting with tears - not bad for a 'mere' short story.

Golding's last novel, left in draft at his death. A short, spare book, which gives in sparse, clear prose, a sense of what might have been like for a famous oracle, in the decllining days of classical Greece. For all its small size, it says a lot about power, communication, truth and dependence.

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Young Scotty Ocean announces to his mother 'seven is going to be my year'. He's in for a few surprises, and may eventually come to accept that being eight could have its good points, too. Growing up in the 60s done with aplomb - warts and all.

Subtitled 'The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine' this novel tells the story of a seventeen year old American and her family, as they try to carve out a living in Arizona's frontier territory. Part love-story, part coming of age tale, part wild-west epic with an engaging and memorable heroine, who is more than a match for her hero.

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The twenty-somethingth Discworld novel : just as good as usual. This one deconstructs the Hollywood vampire/Frankenstein myths pretty thoroughly. 'Nosferatu' will never be the same again.

I've read it before, but it's good to revisit. The passage of time has not made this story any less scary. More a psychological chiller with a touch of the 'mad scientist' than a full blood-and-gore horror, but horrific nonetheless. One of the best ever descriptions of the moment when the scientist realises that his experiments have got beyond his control.

Quaint and curious fables of a far future universe inhabited by intelligent, quirky, philosophical robots. In mood, somewhere between science fiction and the darker sorts of fairy tales. Very thought-provoking...

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All four Molesworth books in one, issued as a '20th Century Classic', forsooth! Razor-sharp, witty observations of English (private) school life in the 1950s, throwing light on the inpenetrable English class-structures, or indescribable nonsense? Yes, indeed. Read them if you can!

Children's sci-fi/fantasy ca 1971 - some appealing characters - plot has strong similarities to Madelein L'Engle's 'A Wrinkle in Time', but not as satisfying.

The latest Aubrey and Maturin book (number 20, I think) - so a 'must-read' for me. While there is probably little scope for totally new development,s at this stage in the cycle, the qualities that made me enjoy the previous 19 books are still present in undiluted form.

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An early O'Brien sea story, but showing the same meticulous research and humour as his better known tales of Aubrey and Maturin .

From the author of the famous 'Father Brown' mysteries, a less well-known, totally bizarre, almost surreal set of detective stories, featuring Basil Grant, terminally eccentric ex-judge.

Sinister goings on in medieval London, during an earlier 'information revolution'. Worried scribes try to sabotage the rise of new technology in the shape of William Caxton's printing press. Children's book now rather dated in tone, but gives an insight into an interesting historical period.

A tale of two boys growing into young adults, in the 1920s, and of their unlikely friendship, which develops, and ultimately survives against all the odds. Told in precise, beautifully economical prose.

Follows a young girl and her companions, a younger boy and an older woman, over one turbulent summer in a small town in the southern USA. This is a book about many things, especially belonging and growing up - less grotesque than The Ballad of the Sad Café, but just as strange and haunting.

At a critical stage in her life, Melanie is catapulted into a totally unfamilliar world, which orbits around Uncle Philip and his sinister toyshop.

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Crisply written - concise, almost condensed style. Story of a film director and some of the women in his life. What do dreams and reality mean to different people?

It's been on my shelf for ages. Took a while to get into it, but it now has me and won't let go. A study in minute detail of the characters and events surrounding a murder

I first read this when I was about 14. Some good set pieces (the Casino, Bond's escape on skis).

"Cyberpunk" - human inventor helps robots to evolve intelligence - robots proceed to act in interestingly unpredictable ways.

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1950s science fiction classic - dated.

Entertaining critical essays on Orwell’s ‘1984’ plus Burgess’s own, updated future vision

Beautifully written account of a dying man’s last journey to his home country

ñ August 1999 ñ

Subtitled "Further thoughts by an apprentice", this beautifully designed little book gives a personal view of one of the 20th Century's great artists in typography, sculpture and engraving. From being an apprentice, Kindersley himself went on to become a superb and influential stonecutter and designer of lettering - a bridge between the Arts and Craft Movement and today's computer-orientated design.

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I thought this was going to be a straightforward autobiography of 'the man behind' The Clangers, Noggin the Nog, Bagpuss and other favourite children's TV programmes of the 1960s and 70s. In fact it proved to be much deeper and more thought-provoking than I expected. This is a portrait of a many-sided man - artist, humanist, inventor, pacifist - whose great gifts include the ability to look at people, and the extraordinary things they do, from a startlingly fresh perspective. A book which, once read, stays with you and works on you in subtle ways.

The 1997 UK General Election ended 18 years of Conservative Party rule. If you're a leftie at heart you'll find this the most wonderful knife-twisting gloat book. If you just find the whole political circus a thing of awful fascination, it makes a mine of gripping information. Replays the whole night: personal triumphs, tragedies, sheer, rampant eccentricity - the lot.

Could be subtitled "let's reclaim Tolkien for the Catholic church" - quite illuminating, but with a clear agenda.

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A BBC correspondent's-eye view of the 1997 UK General Election. Alive with the whirr of revolving spin-doctors, and the sharpening of political knives.

A rich collection of Arthur Ransome's letters - he emerges as a complex man with simple tastes. A storyteller, chronicler of the Russian Revolution, reluctant war correspondent, sailor, fisherman, bestselling children's author. Ransome's second wife, the formidable Evgenia, once Trotsky's secretary, emerges from these letters as a rounded and satisfying - if difficult - human being.

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Like Zindell's novels (including the famous 'The Pigman'), this memoir of a turbulent adolescence in a small town on Staten Island is transparently written, off-beat, rebellious and surprising. It seems to make no concession to its young audience, but hits the spot exactly. As in Zindell's other books , the writing achieves the impossible by taking a delight in the baroque byways of language, within a terse, tight framework where every word counts.

Memoirs (which loosely translates as 'autobiography minus the boring bits') of a British TV and radio personality, writer and cultural icon. Very droll - explains a lot. Why can't I have a silky smooth, resonant voice, a limitless supply of anecdotes and reasonable amounts of money?

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Biography of Paul Erdes, by all accounts an extraordinary mathematician and all-round remarkable human being. A man who lived, ate and slept mathematics, but still managed to earn freindship, respect and even love from all those around him.

Interesting background to this famous film: reminded me how exciting it all was when it came out. Must see it again one day - I guess there will be a re-issue next year!

Sacks' definitive guide to an often- misunderstood or misdiagnosed condition. I was looking for more on the experience of migraine; and the light it might shed on the nature of perception: this is in fact more like a medical textbook, and a bit beyond me, in places.

Famous neurologist, traveller, storyteller, Sacks tells of his travels to exotic locations: a volcano, a tropical island, the frozen wastes or the even stranger places within the human mind.

A glossy, colourful, well-researched look at the history, making and packaging of perfumes. Found, ridicuously cheap, in a remaindered book shop just in time to make interestesting background reading to Peter Susskind's Perfume (see other column). Coincidence?

A truly imaginitive, descriptive, speculative, whimsical journey round Irish traditional music, alcohol, pubs, the nature of time and the crucial importance of a good breakfast. Among the best ever descriptions of the experience of making music, and accounts of Irish Breakfasts both lyrical and epic. If you have a musical soul or a poetic stomach, get this book and read it!

This is the 'other Durrell biography' (see below): notable for being the first serious attept to show the man with warts and all. Especially valuable for its habit of getting sidetracked from some big event and studyng with interest anything else going on around.

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A history of the alphabet, looking at the development and symbolism of letters from the earliest recorded writing to the present day. Very detailed, lots of illlustrations.

Erik Satie was a composer of rare distinction, who raised eccentricity to something of an art form. His letters show this side of his character to perfection, but also give a glimpse of the serious purpose, and even sadness that lay behind the public face.

Revised and concentrated version of Green's celebrated 1950s biography of Kenneth Grahame. Shows its age a little by a certain stiffness about its subject's moral and spiritual development. Still a fascinating insight into the creator of one of my all-time favourite books 'The Wind in the Willows' and the background against which it was conceived.

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(I'm obviously having a P O'B phase) A biography of a favourite artist by a favourite writer - a great combination! Still reckoned to be one of the best ever biographies of Picasso, this manages to be frighteningly well-researched , highly detailed, - and addictively readable, too.

A curious book,: treats the Periodic Table as though it were the map of a strange continent ; equates the properties of the chemical elements to physical features of the landscape. An attractive idea, but a bit disappointing as a book. Didn't say enough about the properties ('personalities') of the elements for me.

Paranoia grips the US as the Soviet Union launches the first satellite in 1957. The author is growing up in a mining town in West Virginia, and detcides to even the score. Building and testing rockets becomes an obsession and gradually drags in Homer's family, friends and neighbours. A funny, sad, angry and surprisingly moving book - now filmed as 'October Skies' - I'm looking forward to its UK release.

A highly readable biography of one of my favourite composers. It doesn't mince words, and helps make sense of Poulenc's bewildering range of styles (crudely, from devout religious music, to agressively modern, to music hall - often within the same piece).

One of my heroes since we read 'My Family and Other Animals' at school . Puts Durrell's published memoirs in context and throws some light on the gaps. As with most biographies, there is a sense of tragedy: we know the hero dies in the end. Must try and find the unauthorised version!

Artificial Intelligence researcher and polymath takes the translation of poetry as the starting point for a very personal journey of wordplay and ideas in language, music, thought, mathematics and memory.

Diaries of a depressed Russian film director

Biography of a justly famous double act