One of my resounding memories from school is the snort of collective sniggering when I admitted I'd drawn up a list of novels I wanted to read. And, after the sniggering, the taunts for being a square and a sap. I know I should have known better, but I didn't think my confession would cause offence - we were, after all, in an A-Level English Literature class.

For those students willing to brave social ridicule and pariahdom by reading novels for pleasure, our teacher had compiled her own list of contemporary authors to check out. One name that appeared on both our lists was the writer Hanif Kureishi.