This is a book for everyone, and everyone should read it. Male, female, young, old. Just everyone. It’s a must-read classic.

I read Monte Cristo about five years ago and it remains one of my favourite ever books. It would possibly be my desert island book.

The prose is quite fabulous, all bejewelled and rich; the epic sweep of the narrative is breath-taking, spanning oceans and different ages; and the imagination of Dumas, to have dreamt the whole thing up in the first place, is heroic.

As a writer, I can only sit at his feet and weep.