D. J. Taylor / Features / Untitled Books

"I’m not the McEwan fan I used to be."

D. J. Taylor

D. J. Taylor is novelist and historian. His biography of George Orwell won the Whitbread Biography award, and he has also published a number of critical works on British fiction. At the Chime of a City Clock is his seventh novel.

Cheapjack by Philip Allingham

Recently reissued by an enterprising small press called Golden Duck, this 1934 picaresque follows its authors attempts to tell fortunes on the inter-war fairground circuit. Philip Allingham (1906-1969) turns out to have been the brother of Marjorie, the celebrated crime novelist. Addicts of bygone slang will find huge amounts to delight them in its four-and-a-half page glossary.

The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters by John Gross

The Independent asked for 500 words on 'The Book of a Lifetime' and, thinking that newspaper readers had had enough of time-worn classics, I chose this. First published in 1969, and sub-titled 'Literary Life Since 1800', it's essentially a history of British literary criticism before and during the time it was colonised by the academics, which combines immense scholarliness with the raciest of styles.

Hearing Secret Harmonies by Anthony Powell

The final volume of his epic roman fleuve, the 12-part A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-1975), which I re-read on a kind of continuous loop. The style was getting a touch convoluted by this time, and there's an inevitable degree of recapitulation which doesn't affect the earlier books so much, but all Powell's subtlety and ear for dialogue is still abundantly present.

Mike and Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse

A classic from 1909. I'm writing a piece for the Times Literary Supplement about Psmith in the City (1910), whose centenary falls this year, and decided to indulge myself by reading all the Psmith novels by way of research.

Solar by Ian McEwan

I'm not the McEwan fan I used to be, as a teenager reading his early stories, and this dramatisation of the global warming debate is a bit of a curate's egg.

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At the Chime of a City Clock is published by Constable & Robinson.

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Tuesday, 30 March, 2010