Last refreshed at 0600GMT Friday The best five books on everything | 30 July 2010

Journey into Fear

Eric Ambler
Image of Journey Into Fear

It’s set in World War II and what’s amazing is that it was written in 1940 and he didn’t know what the outcome of the war would be. We know Germany lost and everything was OK, but if you were writing in 1940 you’d think: ‘Cripes, these people look very scary and good and we don’t really look very good at all.’