How to be Well Read

Generous, enjoyable and well informed. * Observer *A dazzling array of genres, periods, styles and tastes … chatty, insightful, unprejudiced (but not uncritical) and wise. * Times Literary Supplement *500 expertly potted plots and personal comments on a wide range of pop and proper prose fiction. * The Times *John Sutherland has been teaching English literature to university students for half a century. Now he’s put the ‘common reader’ in the classroom in this capacious, witty guide to all the books you should read to claim the epithet ‘well-read’… Each book gets a potted plot summary and a lively squirt of literary analysis, plus intriguing nuggets about the way reading tastes have changed through time, all told in Sutherland’s breezy, intelligent voice. * The Times *Anyone hooked on fiction should be warned: this book will feed your addiction. * Mail on Sunday *A glorious selection of books to tempt you - all considered in witty and elegant prose. Highly recommended. * The Bookbag *

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus of Modern English Literature at University College London and previously taught at the California Institute of Technology. He writes regularly for the Guardian, The Times and the New York Times, and is the author of many books including Curiosities of Literature, Is Henry V a War Criminal? (with Cedric Watts), biographies of Walter Scott, Stephen Spender and the Victorian elephant Jumbo, and The Boy Who Loved Books, a memoir.

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