From the review of the new Alex Rider book, Snakehead, in The Times:
"Anthony Horowitz, and the best spy kids authors such as Charlie Higson, Joe Craig and Robert Muchamore are too often dismissed as pulp fiction when in fact they are outstanding at both writing and plotting. Far too many adults think that children should read books as a kind of Weetabix for the brain rather than because they give pleasure. These writers will, however, lead young readers on to Dickens and Dostoevsky."
I would allow myself to feel more proud of that if I'd ever read any Dickens or Dostoevsky.
Nabokov and Gogol are favourites of mine, of course, but I haven't got round to the Dickens-Dostoevsky duo yet. Maybe I should if I'm leading unsuspecting children there...
(PS. Yes, the review in The Times is by Amanda Craig, but WE'RE NOT RELATED, OK? We've never even met. But she obviously knows a thing or two about books.)
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