[JayScore]

1. The once and future king, T.H. White.
2. Hothouse, Brian Aldiss
3. A plague of demons, Keith Laumer.
4. Men, Martians and machines, Eric Frank Russel.
5. Little Fuzzy, H, Beam Piper.
6. The warlord chronicles, Bernard Cornwell.
7. East of Eden, John Steinbeck.
8. Bonfire of the vanities, Tom Wolfe.

1 and 6 are Arthurian stories, but universes apart. The once and future king is the "master" version from which Disney produced The sword in the stone, and others used likewise. Cornwell's trilogy shattered all that went before, and gave us a scheming, freely sexual Guenivere, a vain and thoroughly despicable Lancelot, and a berserker Arthur. Both are superb.

2, 3, 4, and 5 are just SF masterpieces, by SF masters, and each deals with important social situations, as well as being damn good pageturners, too.

7 and 8 you will recognise as US "classics". They are not here to gain me snob points. Growing up in England, we were fed the "classics". Most of my class (social not schoolroom) dismissed them, for good reason; they were written by the upper/middle classes for those same classes. The working classes were universally ignored - except maybe by P.G Wodehouse who clearly valued Jeeves, and certainly thought more of him than he did of Bertie and they had the added bonus of being very funny. They had absolutely nothing at all to do with us working class lads or lasses. Since maturing, I've re-examined them, and most are no better now than they were when I was at school. Some British classics, of course, are good reads, but those are mostly those which have also gained the title - "standards"; Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island, Gulliver's travels. With no shame, I will say that Shakespeare leaves me cold, and while I can value Dickens, I can't read his stuff. English classics are for the most part old fashioned, wholly irrelevant to me and mine, deeply classist, and just poor reads; or, perhaps, just done to death and too familiar.

The two US classics named I obtained while living in Spain, and were chosen as the best of a bad lot - I must always have something to read or I get panicky, and of those available, at that time, in 2nd hand bookshops, these seemed the lesser rubbish (shelves of "bodice- rippers"). Both turned out to having nothing in common with English "classics". They are both superb reads, excellent yarns depicting their periods perfectly, and again, excellent pageturners. Following my discovery of these, about 12 years ago, I have relaxed my overall dislike of everything bearing the superlative, "classic", and give all such things a try. Mostly still disappointed by English stuff, but I no longer view the term, "classic" as derogatory; which is nice.

1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 go back about 40 years since I have been re-reading them every few years, and number 6 since the publication of the final part.

Others since have, or will, become regulars - those I keep and will re-read and re-read. Cornwell, obviously, Scarrow, Iggulden, Sidebottom and others I have read more than once, and will continue to read the lot again at the publication of the next in the series. I now truly fear that life may well be too short. (Interestingly - to me, at least, when younger, I read almost exclusively Science Fiction, and as I approach my closing years, historical fiction is my main sustenance.)

I'm just on the final part of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove series, and that, too, is marked for future re-reads. Very similar to East of Eden. As far as English working class novels go, there aren't that many. We tend to laud the Eton\Oxford\Cambridge\left bank\celebrity authors, and apart from The ragged trousered philanthropist, I find it difficult to name suitable authors that fit. But, if you want everyday tales of poverty and working class life in Britain, and quality penmanship, Catherine Cookson's hard to beat. Yep, I said that, and stand by it. I don't wish to be seen as a rabid communist here. I have read and enjoyed Goodbye, Mr Chips, and To serve them all our days, and was a huge fan of the Jennings books - all set in public schools, but these few, to me, stand apart from the other pedestrian and separatist "classics" that formed almost all of English A level texts. Or, maybe it's just me.

Good question, apologies for the wandering.