An undisputed masterpiece

A poet, a rebel, a philosopher, a genius far ahead of his time, [Stevenson] has given us some of the most powerful characters of English literature

What I didn't anticipate was the power of Stevenson's prose. His ability to bring everything vividly to life is still astonishing. It was probably the first time for me that reading became as exciting as messing about. The pirate has a dangerous glamour to him, a degenerate dandyism, something, once I was in my teens, that I would admire in people like David Bowie and Sid Vicious'

Reading Treasure Island at the age of seven or eight was my real awakening as a reader... it is all as frightening and exciting when read for the umpteenth time in middle age as when first discovered in childhood

I believe Treasure Island to be Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece. The very opening - the murder-bent Blind Pew, tapping his way towards the isolated inn - is designed to make our flesh creep. Long John Silver is a great literary creation. Re-reading the book, it gripped me as firmly now as it did under the torch-lit blankets 60 years ago

How perfectly structured and paced it is, every episode carefully weighted, every chapter end a cliffhanger, scarcely a word wasted

Scary, funny and loaded with the kind of unforgettable characters that make all writers want to try harder

Beautifully crafted...a compelling debut of youthful daring. His quietly poetic prose is charming, and there's real warmth and depth here in his explorations of friendship and guilt

Part nostalgic reverie, part taut little thriller, it makes for a promising debut

Wodehouse is so utterly, properly, simply funny

I've recorded all the Jeeves books, and I can tell you this: it's like singing Mozart. The perfection of the phrasing is a physical pleasure. I doubt if any writer in the English language has more perfect music

Wodehouse was quite simply the Bee's Knees. And then some

I constantly find myself drooling with admiration at the sublime way Wodehouse plays with the English language

Quite simply, the master of comic writing at work

To pick up a Wodehouse novel is to find oneself in the presence of genius - no writer has ever given me so much pure enjoyment

Compulsory reading for anyone who has a pig, an aunt - or a sense of humour!

The Wodehouse wit should be registered at Police HQ as a chemical weapon

Witty and effortlessly fluid. His books are laugh-out-loud funny

The funniest writer ever to put words to paper

The greatest comic writer ever

P.G. Wodehouse wrote the best English comic novels of the century

Sublime comic genius

You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour

Sublime comic genius

You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour