is week sees the launch of a new series on the Books podcast, The Books That Made Me, with China Miéville.
He talks about how growing up in a world where music is cobbled together from samples of other music has given wing to his piratical tendencies as a writer, and names Beatrix Potter, Max Ernst and Charlotte Brontë among those who have shaped his writing life.
Miéville cites visual art – from comics to the surrealists – as a major inspiration, confesses that he used to have a tin ear for poetry and issues a plea for help in rescuing from oblivion two novels by the Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera.
Reading list The Tale of Mr Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter Une semaine de bonté by Max Ernst Mindblast by Dambudzo Marechera Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë The General Theory of Law and Marxism by Evgeny Pashukanis Creepy Creatures edited by Barbara Ireson