and often lonely islands and documenting the tragic dying out of the dragons, whilst on the other very richly detailed and beautifully written.

6. The Wind on Fire trilogy by William Nicholsen. This is a bizarre and yet fascinatingly beautiful and simulataneously shocking tale of the people of Aramanth's struggle for freedom, first from the Morah, a legion of tormented, half-dead souls, and later from the Mastery, a huge empire built upon slavery. The characters are very boldly different and yet all incredibly likeable in their own ways.

7. The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. A very interesting and again gripping series of books, based upon a world much like that of the time of the British Empire, but rather than academics studying the usual arts and sciences, they study magic, which consists in the summoning and control of djinn. The trilogy follows the 'life' of a djinn called Bartimaeus, and his inextricably tangled fate with a magician called Nathanial who successfully summons him despite great danger at an early age.

8. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling. These books do not require much of an introduction. Opinion is clearly divided on them but personally I think they are fantastic - and their vast readership shows just how likeable and easy to read they are.

9. Falling Sideways by Tom Holt. This is hilarious but incredibly weird fantasy story telling. Tom Holt books always start with the appearance of normality and then quickly descend into a highly surreal and often grotesque world where nothing is really as it seems (to use the old cliche). Worth a read, but you may well finish the book thinking, "What?!" To illustrate, here is the blurb:

"From the moment the first Homo Sapiens descended from the trees, possibly onto their heads, humanity has striven towards civilisation. Fire. The Wheel. Running Away from furry things with more teeth than one might reasonably expect - all are testament to man's ultimate ascendancy.

It is a noble story, a triumph of intelligence over adversity and so, of course, complete and utter fiction.

For one man has discovered the hideous truth: that humanity's ascent has been ruthlessly guided by a small gang of devious frogs."

10. Coraline by Neil Gaiman. A very dark, grotesque fantasy story (recently release in stop-motion version on the big screen), telling the tale of Coraline, a girl who discovers another world behind a door in her new house. At first the new world seems fantastic - her "other" parents are far nicer and more caring than her real parents, and the new world is much more exciting. But of course things quickly take a turn for the worse... A very unusual read, often bordering on the downright scary, it is nevertheless a very interesting novel.

Learn more about this author, Algernon Moncrieff.
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