Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson's latest Inspector Alan Banks novel is Bad Boy.

From his Q & A with Arifa Akbar for the Independent:

Choose a favourite author and say why you like him/her

Thomas Hardy, although I didn't like him when I was studying him as an English Literature student. I came to like him afterwards, when I started reading him for pleasure. The world he creates is so vivid and sensuous, yet there is so much doom and gloom.

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Which fictional character most resembles you?

Probably Jude, from Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. I have a lot of sympathy for Jude and his difficult journey to Oxford, maybe through having a Northern, working-class background.

* * *
Who is your hero/heroine from outside literature?

I have a real soft spot for Nelson Mandela, having been to South Africa and knowing quite a lot about his story.

Read the complete Q & A.

--Marshal Zeringue