We all need inspiration in life, and never more so than when starting or buying a business. So I believe that heroic examples of entrepreneurs in fiction can serve an important purpose beyond their literary merit – they might just motivate someone to go out and build a company. To further that cause, I have compiled a shortlist of the best novels featuring entrepreneurs I have read over the decades.

● The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick. The author is easily the best science fiction writer of all time. This book, published in 1966 and one of his best, tells the tale of a sinister interplanetary businessman who discovers a new compound called Chew-Z. It seems to be the perfect recreational drug. Those who take it are taken to an imaginary universe – where entrepreneur Palmer Eldritch is god.