The New Torchlight List: Britain

Some of Jim's favourite writers feature in this episode - V.S. Naipaul and Kazuo Ishiguro who, he says, is "perhaps the greatest novelist of our generation. His work is going to make him one of few novelists writing today who will be read throughout this century." Jim also rates Hilary Mantel's novels about Thomas Cromwell: "She captures Henry the eighth who is really a gigantic baby." Jim and Wallace heartily disagree over A.S.Byatt and Jim surprises Wallace by recommending Ruth Rendell - "I don't despise people just because they write in the detective genre."