China Miéville (who should always have been on my neglected authors list*) has put together this intriguing reading list of sci-fi and fantasy for socialist readers, while hastening to warn us that "their quality ... though mostly good, is variable."

Of these, I have read a few:

• The Master and Margarita - Bulgakov
  
• "The Yellow Wallpaper" - Gilman
• Beloved - Morrison
• Northern Lights (American title: The Golden Compass) - Pullman
• Frankenstein - Shelley
• Gulliver's Travels - Swift

From this short list you can make a number of deductions. First, Miéville has a broad and inclusive definition of science fiction, and is wide-rangingly well-read. Secondly, although I have read a lot of sci fi and fantasy in my time (I thought), my list reads painfully like a that of a graduate student with the most rigidly snooty reading habits. Sigh.




*and would be now if technical difficulties had not intervened.