Culture Street

Before becoming a novelist, Michael Robotham was an investigative journalist working across Britain, Australia and America. He is the author of twelve Sunday Times bestsellers, both fiction and non-fiction. He has also worked as a ghostwriter for prominent military figures and star performers, as well as in the fields of science, sport and psychology.

Michael's haunting psychological thrillers have been translated into twenty-three languages and are currently in development for TV by Bonafide Films. He is a two time winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Australia's Crime Novel of the Year, and has twice been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger and once for the CWA's acclaimed Gold Dagger award.His latest book is Close Your Eyes. You can buy the book here.

A MOVEABLE FEAST by Ernest Hemingway

I was 22-years-old when I first read Earnest Hemingway’s posthumous memoir about first forays into writing fiction in Paris in the 1920s. Three years later I carried a battered copy of the book with me when I visited Paris for the first time. I sat in the same cafes and walked the same streets. I still have my original copy of the book, now patched, yellowed and dog-eared. Whenever I pick it up, I cannot shake the urge to write. I can picture myself in Paris, ordering a half-carafe of white wine and a dozen oysters before sharpening my pencils and opening my blue-backed notebook. Buy the book here.

A SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt

This is one of those novels that convinced me that there are no boundaries between crime writing and literary writing. The very best books tell a compelling story and have the power to change our perceptions of the world.
Best of all it starts with a murder, is set on a campus, and has the classic lonely narrator who lets us in on his secrets. Buy the book here.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving

Irving is one of my favourite writers and one of the few people with the power to make me laugh and cry on the same page. Most of his stories defy description because they are full of odd characters, orphans or dysfunctional families, but they also littered with remarkable observations about life and human experience. Buy the book here.

MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie

When I discover a book I truly love, I read more slowly – sometimes half a page at a time because I don’t want to finish. Midnight’s Children was like that for me. I first read it when I was travelling through Africa and books were hard to come by. I rationed myself, savoring every sentence. Set around the partition of India, the novel follows the lives of those children born at midnight on August 14, 1947, who will always be as old as their newly minted country. Buy the book here.

LORD OF THE RINGS by J. R. Tolkien

I’ve chosen this as my children’s book, even though it can be read by all ages. My battered copy has pride of place in my library because it is the first book I have ever ‘earned’. I had borrowed it so often from my school library, the head librarian, Mrs Fitzpatrick, forbade me ever borrowing it again. I began hiding it in the shelves and reading it at lunchtime. She caught me and donated the book to me – understanding my passion. I have treasured it ever since. Buy the book here.