This book was recommended to us by David Miller, literary agent and director of Rogers, Coleridge & White.  Indeed Mr Miller prepared a list of writers and books he thought ‘might be useful…either because it is a personal favourite, or because I believe it might be useful to you in your creative reading’.   Books, books and more books!  Wade and wallow, wade and wallow.

There is a kingly heap of suggestions but the main highlighted entries are:

Barker, Nicola – Darkmans, Fourth Estate 2007

Coetzee, J.M – Diary of a Bad Year, Harvill Secker, 2007

Eco, Umberto – Reflections on the Name of the Rose, Secker & Warburg, 1984

Fuentes, Carlos – Myself and Others, Andre Deutsch, 1988

Martorell, Joanot, and de Galba, Mart Joan – Tirant lo Blanc (The White Knight), Valencia, 1490 – not a clerical error there – published in 1490!

Summerscale, Kate – The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Bloomsbury, 2008

Thirlwell, Adam – Miss Herbert, Jonathan Cape, 2008

Toibin, Colm – Brooklyn, Viking 2009

I should perhaps have titled this post ‘The Recommendations of Mr Miller’.

I have just finished thoroughly enjoying Mr Whicher, a marvellously unsensational account of true events and a fascinating insight into the birth and the world of detective fiction.

Tirant lo Blanc can be found on Project Gutenberg and the link for that site is down the right hand side of this page somewhere.