In the great canon of science fiction, aliens are anthropomorphised in some way or other - from the Alien and E.T. to Yoda and the "greys" of Roswell fame.

Beware the eminent cultural critic, for they are often wrong.

During the course of a long and fruitful writing career, Agatha Christie produced a remarkable canon of literature - according to her estate, the number of her books moved sits just behind the Bible and the works of William Shakespeare.

Religion, like sex, has always been a thorny subject to write about, especially for novelists keen to preserve their literary integrity and make a decent living.

There is an accepted belief that English writer Thomas Hardy wrote most of his novels to fund his first true love: poetry.
And while there could be some truth to that (he purportedly saw himself more as a poet than a novelist), it does provide a good indication as to the predominant style in which he wrote.

Britain in 1982 was a strange, sad old place. It was the year when the IRA stepped up its bombing campaign, the Falklands war got under way, and national unemployment reached a 50-year high of 14 per cent.