We asked Lorraine to reveal her all-time top ten reads. Here we review her favourite titles.

The Gormenghast Trilogy,
Mervyn Peake
£15,
Vintage Classics

Enter the world of Gormenghast... the vast crumbling castle to which the 77th Earl, Titus Groan, the eponymous hero of the first three books, is the Lord and heir. This darkly humorous tale is followed by Gormenghast and Titus Alone. A Gothic labyrinth of roofs and turrets, cloisters and corridors, stairwells and dungeons, it is also the cobwebbed kingdom of Byzantine government and age-old rituals, a world primed to implode beneath the weight of centuries of intrigue, treachery, manipulation and murder. The fertility of incident, character and rich atmosphere combine in a tour de force that ranks as one of this century's most remarkable feats of imaginative writing.

Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
£6.99, Vintage Classics

Raskolnikov, a destitute and desperate former student, who commits a random murder without remorse or regret. He imagines himself a great man, acting beyond conventional moral law. But as he embarks on a dangerous game with a police investigator, he's pursued by his conscience, with the noose of his guilt tightening around his neck.

Gone With The Wind
Margaret Mitchell
£8.99, Pan Books

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the American Civil War, Margaret Mitchell's historical epic is an unforgettable tale of love and loss, of a nation mortally divided and a people forever changed. Above all, it is the story of beautiful, ruthless Scarlett O'Hara, whose fickle heart wins and loses her the love of the dashing soldier of fortune, Rhett Butler.

Jayne Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
£5.99, Vintage Classics

Orphaned Jane Eyre grows up in the home of her heartless aunt and later attends a charity school with a harsh regime. But when she finds love with her employer, Rochester, the discovery of his terrible secret forces her to make a choice. Should she stay with him and live with the consequences, or follow her convictions, even if it means leaving him?

Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen
£4.99, Vintage Classics

Elizabeth Bennet is the perfect Austen heroine: intelligent, generous and sensible. But if provoked, she's not above skewering her antagonist with her exceptionally sharp, yet always polite, 18th-century wit. The critical question which will keep you fixated throughout, is: will she and Mr Darcy hook up? Even knowing the answer, the tale bears reading again.

Perfume
Patrick Suskind
£7.99, Penguin

Survivor, perfumer, killer: this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Abandoned on the streets of Paris as a child, he grows up to find he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human's. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances. Yet, one odour he cannot capture is the scent of a young virgin. To get it,
he must kill. And kill..

Of Mice and Men
John Steinbeck
£8.99 Penguin Classics

Streetwise George and his big, child-like friend Lennie are drifters, searching for work in the fields of California. They hope that one day they'll find a place of their own and live the American dream. But dreams come at a price. When Lennie gets into trouble with the boss's daughter-in-law, George may not be able to help.

South
Sir Ernest Shackleton
£8.99, Penguin Classics

This is the epic, first-hand account of Shackleton's expedition to the South Pole. Of how he and his men trapped by ice, were forced to survive in one of the world's most hostile environment. And how, despite treacherous seas, brutal cold and hunger, the men, through their own strength and Shackleton's leadership, all made it to safety.

War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
£20, Vintage Classics

At a glittering party in St Petersburg in 1805, conversations are dominated by the prospect of war. Terror swiftly engulfs the country as Napoleon's army marches on Russia, and the lives of three young people are changed forever. In War and Peace, Tolstoy entwines grand themes - conflict and love, birth and death, free will and fate.

1984
George Orwell
£8.99 Penguin

Hidden away in the Ministry of Truth, Winston Smith rewrites the past to suit the needs of the Party. Inwardly, he rebels against the totalitarian state which controls him through the all-seeing eyes of Big Brother, symbolic head of the Party. In his longing for truth and liberty, Smith begins a love affair with a co-worker Julia; but the price of freedom is betrayal.

Synopses courtesy of Amazon.co.uk