'The Good Soldier' is an odd and maybe even unique book. That it is a masterpiece, almost a perfect novel, comes as a repeated surprise even to readers who have read it before.

Before I write a novel, images float around in my head that work like icons - they are meaningless in themselves, but serve as reminders.

Oh, that sound? I'm in the hot tub, reading a novel.

I discovered that the horse is life itself, a metaphor but also an example of life's mystery and unpredictability, of life's generosity and beauty, a worthy object of repeated and ever changing contemplation.

We sort of read two or three big newspapers but we don't get the flavor of the local events, the local news as much.

Ford Maddox Ford's 'The Good Soldier' is my favourite novel. I first read it in the 1950s and have read it about 20 times since. It's possibly the best-constructed book in the English language.