Sunday 26 December 2010

GOOD WRITING

'The point about every single book that I re-read in order to laugh is that every one is so much more funny because the authors write so well. Wodehouse uses the English language to perfection, Durrell evokes scenes so wonderfully, Nancy Mitford's prose is so elegant, so arch. One could learn to write from any of them and I wish more people would. No matter what the genre, good writing always tells. Crime novels? Look at Raymond Chandler, master of style. Spy novels? How many do you know who write as well as le Carre? Style wins every, every time.'
Susan Hill, Howards End is on the Landing, p.57.