11 brilliant writers on the books that made them who they are today

When it comes to being whisked away into a whole other world, nothing quite beats a book. Unlike a TV drama or a big new cinema release, words on a page encourage you to conjure whole universes inside your mind – textures, smells, landscapes, emotions, adventures.

Whether fiction or non-fiction, books can make us feel seen. They can help us escape. They can serve as a guide. A lot of the time, they can even shape our lives.

EM Forster put it beautifully when he said, “What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.”

We spoke to some of the stars of the literary world, appearing at this year’s Hay Festival, about the books that made them who they are today…

Anne Enright – Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll

“When I was a child, the book I adored, the one that intrigued, delighted and held me was not  but the lesser classic,  The first volume may soars above the best verse that can provide – I am speaking, of course, of the minimalist, failed haiku, .”