Just out of curiosity, why is your favourite author your favourite? I mean, what is it about their writing that draws you to them rather than somebody else?
Personally, I get different things from different writers. Orwell and Dickens give me a weird sense of nostalgia and comfort. When I read them, it’s like returning to the womb. Most of my ancestors were English (and Scottish and Irish), so I feel like I’m re-connecting with my roots somehow - reminding myself who I am. I suppose Russians feel that way when they read Tolstoy. I also get that feeling when I read H G Wells and Anthony Burgess. Dickens, Orwell, Burgess and Wells all wrote about ordinary working people. Much as I love Jane Austen, she’s not writing about my ancestors!
With writers like P G Wodehouse it’s different. I turn to him for cheering up. But it’s not just that he’s funny. Douglas Adams, David Sedaris, Kingsley Amis, Evelyn Waugh, etc, are all funny. The difference with Wodehouse is the exquisite beauty of his writing and the sheer joy of his world. Stephen Fry called his books “sunlit,” and it’s the perfect word. Reading him is like escaping to paradise, where nobody is sad or frightened or ill.
Actually, many of the writers I like create a world you can escape into. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde, Dickens, Jane Austen, Wodehouse, etc. If you buy their complete works, and immerse yourself, you are in a distinctive world of its own. I think that’s why I dislike contemporary fiction. For me, literature is an escape. I don’t want books to remind of the world I already live in.