The ten best writers in novels

John Niven was born in Irvine, Ayrshire. He has written for The Times, Independent, Word and FHM among other publications. He is also the author of the novella Music from Big Pink, and the novels Kill Your Friends and Straight White Male.

One of his top ten writers in novels, as told to the Guardian:

Paul Sheldon
Misery by Stephen King

Sheldon, a novelist who is taken hostage by his “No 1 fan”, is now so bound up with James Caan, who played him in the hugely successful movie adaptation, that it’s hard to think of him as anyone but Caan. There are some crucial differences that make it worth reading the novel, however. Not least the fact that when Annie Wilkes performs the famous “hobbling” operation in the book, she doesn’t, as she did in the film, smash his ankles with a sledgehammer. No, she saws off his feet and blowtorches the stumps to cauterise them. A fine example of what you can do on the page that you can’t do on the screen

Read about the other fictional writers on Niven's list.

Misery is among Emerald Fennell's top ten villainesses in literature and Lesley Glaister’s top ten books about incarceration.

Also see: John Mullan's ten best fictional poets.

--Marshal Zeringue