In the third of our series asking writers about the books that formed their literary personalities, the Booker prize-winning novelist Penelope Lively explains why the myths of Troy and Greece were so vivid to her as a young girl growing up in Egypt. She also reveals why she could never have cut it as a historian, even though history writing – such as Keith Thomas's Religion and the Decline of Magic – is one of her passions, and talks about the fascination with landscape that has informed so much of her fiction.
She also explains why she values short novels, idolises William Golding and admires Henry James's skill at showing all the things Maisie doesn't know.
Tales of Troy and Greece by Andrew Lang
Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas
The Making of the English Landscape by WG Hoskins
The Inheritors by William Golding
What Maisie Knew by Henry James
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
