I love historical fiction. You get a history lesson as well as an exciting adventure tale.
I particularly enjoy chivalric stories, from Malory to Morpurgo, via Spenser, Tennyson Treece and Sutcliff.
I love historical fiction. You get a history lesson as well as an exciting adventure tale.
I particularly enjoy chivalric stories, from Malory to Morpurgo, via Spenser, Tennyson Treece and Sutcliff.
oops, didn't quite answer the question, did I?
Japanese literature
Science Fiction
For me, it was a combination of Michael Moorcock and Yukio Mishima. Strange combination, I know! Mishima taught me the value and beauty of words, whilst Moorcock (in particular his Jerry Cornelius stories) gave me the ability to think beyond conventional narrative.
Mishima's work is definitely of a time and place and taught me much about Japan and its culture. Moorcock took me on a trip around the world and dumped me back in Notting Hill - a place both home and alien to me.
I'm a Sansom fan. Reading A Place Called Armageddon at the moment by Humphreys which is shaping up nicely, and Conn Iggulden's conqueror series was brilliant.
But all in all my fave is still the Flashman series by MacDonald. :D