Hunger by Knut Hamsun. He was a Nazi so there's a lot of business around him that affected his reputation over the last 50 years or so, but I think it's important to let the work of the writer float free from the politics.

I know that's contentious but I think Hunger is such a great book.

It was one of the first books I read that did a very good job of the first person and it was one of the first books I read that persuaded me that writing was something I'd like to attempt to do.

George Orwell's Down And Out In Paris And London is an astonishing book. It's entertaining but so thoughtful, so full of ideas, so funny at times.

Descriptions like "dead white face and scarlet lips reminding me of cold veal and tomatoes" to describe a fat French woman . . . he's a master of vividness and clarity.

Jose Saramago is a Portuguese writer who wrote Blindness. It is stupendous.

Sometimes I had to put the book down it was so frightening. It is so real to an extent I don't think I've ever experienced in another book. To me this is writing perfection. I can't imagine a better book. Saramago writes as though seeing the world for the first time. He's a beautiful writer too, simple and pared back.