Author Sebastian Faulks has compiled a list of books that shaped his writing and ones he recommends.
As the first curator of bookseller Waterstone's The Writer's Table, Faulks had free rein in choosing each of the 40 titles. Personal favourites range from Charles Dickens to Iris Murdoch; Philip Larkin and James Bond writer Ian Fleming.
Toby Bourne, head of fiction at Waterstone's, said: "The selection offers an incredible insight into the influences that have helped make Faulks one of the best-selling and critically acclaimed writers today.
"The list is full of surprises and delights; the books he has chosen range from children's favourites to modern best sellers, poetry to true tales of derring-do, and anyone who has read and loved one of Faulks's books cannot help but find something new to read here."
Faulks's novel Engleby is currently one of Waterstone's bestsellers. The author's own Bond novel, Devil May Care, launches on May 28, marking the centenary of Fleming's birth. Faulks, author of best-sellers Charlotte Gray and Birdsong, described The First Day on the Somme by little-known writer Martin Middlebrook as a book that had an enormous affect on him.
He said: "A reconstruction of the events of July 1, 1916, perhaps the blackest day in British history, by a poultry farmer-turned-historian.
"Calm, detailed and horrifying, it was written at a time 1970 when no-one seemed to care."
The table, which launches in selected Waterstone's stores and online today, will run throughout the month, with Faulks's hand-written thoughts on each chosen title.
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