Do you have a favourite author? Mine is...

Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine especially Asta's Book.

Susan Howatch
Alice Munro
Aminatta Forna

MiddleAge, you met Iris Murdoch? Lucky you. Your description is much as I would imagine her. I haven't read her biography, I will do so.

I just finished The Sea, The Sea which I didn't love (though I liked), I just couldn't understand the protagonist's obsession with Hartley (I forget his name) and felt that I was missing some essential thread of the story. The first Murdoch I read was A Word Child, and it remains a favorite.

Lindsey Davis, I'm a sucker for anything Roman and I love her style

QueenAnne thank you. I'll get The Three Musketeers and give it a go. I think DH may have a copy somewhere.

TheLovelyBoots Iris Murdoch is good, isn't she? I was fortunate enough to meet her a couple of times, she was lovely but formidably intelligent. Typical 'North Oxford', shabby, academic and erudite. My favourite is The Bell but I also love The Green Knight and many others. Have you read the biography Iris by her husband John Bailey?

Nevil Shute is another favourite of mine. I love A Town Like Alice but also Pied Piper which is beautifully written. Requeim for a Wren and Beyond the Black Stump are others I've read a few times.

On the strength of this thread, I bought A Fine Balance and Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry today

I wouldn't be able to wait that long insancerre

Anne Tyler, definitely.
Other favourites are Lorrie Moore, Elinor Lipman, Jane Gardam, Elizabeth Taylor, Carol Shields
Favourite male authors: Ian McEwan and Douglas Coupland.

Doris Lessing is pretty amazing, I loved The Grass is Singing.

I read the Count of Monte Cristo over our summer holiday and I realize this is potentially blasphemous, but I think what Dumas really needed was a ruthless edit. Way too long.

I'm having a real love affair with Iris Murdoch at the moment.

And, I'm reading The Poisonwood Bible which is the best book I've ever read, toppling A. Karenina from its perch. I just started a thread about that. It has taken my breath away.

Nugget
I know but I'm getting it for christmas

Stephen King also insancerre. New book out tomorrow EEP.

I also love Austen, Oscar Wilde, Richard Yates, Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Marian Keyes, Ira Levin, Lionel Shriver and some Ian McEwan (he can be hit and miss though).

Middle I read The Three Musketeers first and thought it was utterly brilliant and so so funny. I was then told that I should read The Count of Monte Christo and I would love it more than TTM. I didn't believe it. But oh my goodness, utterly sensational - I am going to work my way through all of the D'Artagnan Romances next year.

William Golding. Genius. Depressing, though.
I was also pleased to see Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance mentioned too, as that is an awesome work of art, in my opinion.

QueenAnne I've never read any Dumas even though I love "the classics".

Where should I start?

Haruki Murakami is my favourite

Werewolf I've also made a big list from this thread!

My favourite (one of) is Richard Yates, I love him and the way he writes about relationships and hope, and then later on the lack of hope. His biography makes pretty tragic reading too.

Nancy Mitford
Edith Wharton
Wilkie Collins
Monica Dickens
Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Ngaio Marsh
Daphne du Maurier

Louis de Bernieres. I can still remember where I was when I read each if his books. His writing has the ability to make me laugh, cry, sigh, eye roll.

Jane Austen was my favourite dead writer and I love her BUT this year I discovered Alexandre Dumas and I have been questioning how I ever felt complete having not read his work. He is now my favourite dead author ever.

Dickens. All time favourite most amazing writer.

Agree with the description of Margaret Forster as easy but not trivial. Underrated too.

Thomas Hardy, above every other author.

I also love John Steinbeck - read The Wayward Bus recently for the first time and really enjoyed it.

Iris Murdoch and Doris Lessing for more recent authors. George Eliot and Elizabeth Gaskell for more classics. Tolstoy, but not a huge fan of War and Peace. Margaret Forster for easy but not trivial reading. Arthur Ransome, whose books I have read and re-read constantly for about the last 40 years.

Louise Rummer Godden - I must get some to read. I adored The Diddakoi as a child but have read very little since except The Greengage Summer years ago.

Yes, far too many books and so little time. (Logs off to go and read)

Love Orhan Pamuk although I am suspicious of his translators.

mupperoon, I am also a great fan of Pamuk. Maureen Freely is far & away the best translator of his work. I read 'My Name is Red' many years ago, translated by someone else & re read it when it was translated by Freely. The difference was amazing.

I tried to read 'The Silent House' which ha been re issued & the translator is not Freely & I found it very hard going.

Love Tim Weaver!
I find him a brilliant,fast paced writer,easy to read without being too wordy.I like thrillers but find that a lot of writers waffle on too much about the main characters' (usually the detective) personal life,and, whilst I know it can be important to the story,it can also detract from the main story line too much.Tim Weaver touches on the personal life but that's all.

It's a hard question to answer. I would say John Steinbeck and Edith Wharton as my classic favourites, Lionel Shriver and Wally Lamb as recent favourites and John Connolly as my favourite crime writer. I read Americanah and Purple Hibiscus this year and I'm going to buy myself Half of a Yellow Sun for Christmas so CN Adichie is my favourite writer of 2014.

Obviously that's meant to say Maeve Binchy - not Marge!

I love Marge Binchy and Rosamunde Pilcher - I realise these are very low brow compared to most that have been mentioned.
But they really do transport me away to a different time and place. RP in particular I find so comforting - like cosy slippers.