Toby Litt  The author of Corpsing explains how a love of
stationery got him started, and why you should avoid writing
what you know Toby Litt 'There are no short cuts' ... Toby Litt.
Photograph: Martin Godwin  What was your favourite book as a
child and why?  How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired
Sportsmen by Russell Hoban and Quentin Blake. I liked this
because my father used to read it to me, and the forces of
anarchy and inspired improvisation won.  When you were growing
up, were there books in your home?  Yes and some good ones, too.
But my parents didn't have a library of the classics to force
upon me. They were very into things like Paul Scott's The Raj
Quartet. Not the kind of books I was likely to pick up and get
into. I remember starting one of my father's Robert Ludlum
novels on holiday, and being shocked by an extremely vivid
sex/murder scene within the first 10 pages.  There was a nice
little library in Ampthill, where we lived, and I used to get
Michael Moorcock novels out. I hated most of th