50 greatest villains in literature

The Telegraph has recently published a list of what its contributors consider to be the 50 greatest villains in literature.

Apparently the task was harder than they were expecting because 'the nature of grown-up literature is that it doesn't all that often have villains, in the sense of coal-black embodiments of the principle of evil. And even when it does, it's not always so easy to tell who they are. Is God the baddie, or Satan? Ahab, or the white whale?'

Well, they've obviously not read any of my novels lately! I'm just putting the finishing touches to my ninth novel (yes nine, count 'em!) and it's got a doozy of a villain in it... but to say anymore would spoil the surprise.

Some of my fellow Black Library writers have also been musing on the subject of villainy lately, namely Nick Kyme and C L Werner.

If we're honest, we all love a good villain, don't we? It is the villain, after all, who provides the dramatic drive for a thriller - like the kind of stories I write - which, in turn, gives our hero the chance to shine. Where would Batman be without the Joker, or Sherlock Holmes without Professor Moriarty?

If you can judge the quality of a man by his friends then, equally, you can judge a hero by the quality of his enemies.