Which writer does Jeremy Vine think has been unfairly cancelled?

I’m into Frank Gardner. It’s a little strange, because Frank is a BBC colleague I’ve known for years.

I vividly remember in 2004 being in a devastated huddle with other Newsnight colleagues when we heard he had been shot and left for dead in Riyadh (Frank survived but his cameraman, a lovely guy called Simon Cumbers, died).

Frank’s books are as gripping as anything. I started with the first, Crisis, and am now on the latest, Invasion. International espionage set in the near future. And on Audible, read by my friend himself!

I would attempt, for the second time, The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon.

With six volumes, 1.5 million words and eight thousand footnotes (some of them jokes in Latin!) it defeated my father, who died before finishing it, and it defeated me at the first attempt, after I made it my vainglorious mission to honour my dear dad’s efforts! A desert island would be the place to try again.

I remember Gibbon saying most Caesars died violently, on average after 13 years – such a great Roman Empire stat.

Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember him shooting into the sky in the glass elevator on the final page so well; I reckon I was nine years old when I read it.

I couldn’t imagine how he could end the book on the next page and then he did.

I find the rewriting and near-cancellation of Roald Dahl 35 years after he died a silent abomination. Okay, he was not a very nice person but when was that ever the test of a great writer?

No writer likes to answer this question, but I regularly read prizewinning books (e.g. The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida) and don’t quite get them. Probably the most drastic example of a classic that I felt guilty about not enjoying was Dune by Frank Herbert.

It was just so dense and unbelievable, and the print was tiny, and I got to the end and realised I hadn’t really touched the surface. This led me to the realisation that I’m not very good with science fiction. I find the appearance of any spaceship destroys it for me. Sorry, sci-fi fans.