Andrew Ffrench chooses 10 of his favourite books - a tough challenge for the Page Turner to limit himself to just 10

The Black Island: Herge I discovered Tintin at the age of seven and was captivated by Herge's artwork and tales of derring-do.

The Black Island, which was first published in 1938, is like a comic book version of John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps and tantalisingly there are three different versions to collect.

The Secret of the Unicorn and Prisoners of the Sun also deserve repeated reading.

The Boy Next Door: Enid Blyton Once I had learned to read comic books like Dandy and Tiger & Scorcher I quickly moved on to novels by Enid Blyton and devoured tales like The Island of Adventure and the Famous Five series. Who cares if the books are not politically correct? They're great yarns and still a good way to get kids reading. This edition of The Boy Next Door dates from 1971.

Room At The Top: John Braine Braine uses a first-person narrative to tell the story of ambitious Joe Lampton, who is so keen to make a success of his life that he marries the boss's daughter, sacrificing his love for an older woman. The plot might sound cliched but Braine's novel, published in 1957, is a gripping read. It also pointed me towards other Angry Young Man novels, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe, and Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse.

The End of the Affair: Graham Greene After spending my childhood summers at my grandparents' in Hove, I perhaps should have selected Brighton Rock. I also love The Human Factor and Travels With My Aunt, but this novel, published in 1951, is probably the best of the lot. Also told in the first person, this intense account of sexual obsession was heavily influenced by Greene's own affair with American Catherine Walston.

The Bonfire of the Vanities: Tom Wolfe This was the book that confirmed my suspicion that a career in newspapers could be a thrilling proposition.

Wolfe's morality tale about a New York bond trader, compromised when he knocks down a black teenager in the Bronx, is a lively social satire.

But it was the portrait of Peter Fallow, the deadbeat reporter at The City Light newspaper, that kept me turning the pages.

Rumpole's Return: John Mortimer The author is a lawyer, playwright, novelist and raconteur, whose greatest creation remains Horace Rumpole. This dinosaur of a defence barrister is just about clever enough to stay one step ahead of his fiercesome wife Hilda (she who must be obeyed) and frequently wins impossible cases, unless they are in front of "Mad Bull" Judge Bullingham.

The stories are slightly formulaic but so what? They always leave me laughing out loud. Rumpole's Return is an engrossing novel, and the story collections are also great fun.

Any Human Heart: William Boyd A natural successor to Graham Greene, I like almost everything Boyd has written, particularly The New Confessions, Armadillo and Star and Bars. But Any Human Heart, written in the form of a journal, remains the most memorable. Boyd told me that he received letters from fans saying they were upset that Logan Mountstuart had died.

The Wind-up Bird Chronicle: Haruki Murakami Trust me on this one. When this 600-page blockbuster was first published in Great Britain at the end of the 1990s, I was nervous about picking it up, but I'm so glad I did and now I have read other books by this acclaimed Japanese author.

What happens in a Murakami novel doesn't matter quite so much as the thought processes behind the characters' actions.

On the face of it this is the story of Toru Okada and how he is forced to make a journey outside his suburban comfort zone.

Rabbit at Rest: John Updike If you're going to cross the pond, then choose Updike's Rabbit tetralogy - it might well be that elusive Great American Novel. This is the final part of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom's life, and it's incredibly readable, considering it's all written in the present tense. All Rabbit's chickens come home to roost and there are some very dramatic scenes, including the boating disaster which leads to a heart attack. Also try The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

Daniel Martin: John Fowles Published in 1977, most critics believe this novel pales in comparison to The Magus but I find myself coming back to it every so often. Fowles was one of the finest writers of the 20th century. This 700-page tour de force takes the reader from Devon to Oxford to Hollywood and back again.

11:32am Monday 3rd March 2008

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