How else could even the most eccentric, wealthy old man play his 'god-game' and interfere in the life of a young Englishman without recourse to magic? I read it first at an impressionable age and it became my ideal of a great novel. Not usually classed as a fantasy, but I've always thought it must be. Pierce Moffett, a child of the 60s in New York, investigates his suspicion that the world might have split at some point in the past, creating more than one true history. Ægypt by John CrowleyĪ fantasy of history, concerned with occult practices, memory palaces, John Dee, etc, yet utterly grounded in real places and times in our world. For all its length, I wished it would never end. Set in a magical Britain during the Napoleonic wars, this is a deeply strange and satisfying creation, elegantly written, an alternative history filled with treasures and reflections of other works of literature and historical events, real and imagined. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke It's an astonishing tale, funny and scary by turn, about two people who go in pursuit of the author whose books for children have shaped their lives, only to discover that they were not the fantasies they seemed. But The Land of Laughs was the first I read, and will always be the closest to my heart.

When an author has written more than a dozen books, and is still writing, he might be annoyed to have his first novel cited as his best, so let me say that all Carroll's books are worth seeking out, and any one of them will give you the brilliant, heady taste of his sinister and charming storytelling. They don't have dragons or sexy vampires, but they're filled with real magic. So, if you think you don't like fantasy – or even if you do – check these out. But there have always been fantasy novels that break the mould, and it's these more distinctive, individual explorations of the fantastic that are my favourites. In his introduction to The Best British Fantasy 2013, editor Steve Haynes warns: 'British fantasy is not what you think it is.' He argues that in the short stories he's collected, writers were able to take more risks, be more experimental, and generally offer darker, more dangerous visions than are to be found in most popular novels. Whether used as inducement or warning, that sort of labelling implies there's a strong consensus view of what fantasy literature is, both among those who read it and those who wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

(That was before the TV version of Game of Thrones changed everything.) My own novel The Silver Bough, about the inhabitants of a remote town at risk of being overwhelmed by Scotland's mythological past, was once criticised by a disgruntled fan as 'fantasy for people who don't read fantasy'.

I t doesn't seem long ago that George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series was being promoted as fantasy for non-fantasy readers as a way of attracting those who imagined 'fantasy' was twee escapism involving fairies.

The silver bough lisa tuttle