The Best Classic Books

The bestselling author tells us how his other job as a political journalist helps with thriller writing, and what makes le Carré, Forsyth and Buchan such masters of their trade

Author Matt Lynn says that good thrillers need a sense of foreboding and tension – and a brilliant central character. "The thriller has always been a very political genre, a kind of snapshot in time"

Greek myths were themselves elastic so there is no reason the classics of Roman and Greek literature shouldn't be updated, says classicist Daniel Mendelsohn. He talks us through some of his favourites.