At the Guardian Review

Hilary Mantel persuades me of something I knew already, that I must get and read Andrew O'Hagan's Be Near Me as soon as possible; also, Jane Stevenson writes about her Margery Allingham obsession. I too have an Allingham obsession, there is something uncanny about those books and I have read them again and again in every stage of life. The best of them are absolutely unforgettable: I wish I had a complete set, I would reread them all (barring a few that I have already reread so many times that there is no need to revisit) and it would transport me to that foggy malevolent world (sometimes it's London, sometimes East Anglia or elsewhere; she does country and city both very well, as Stevenson observes here) with its strange combination of interests (pure evil and demented playfulness). Hmmm....