10 overlooked novels: how many have you read?

A hilarious romance by a precocious nine-year-old. The fantasies of a septuagenarian foot fetishist. An aristocrat's life spent doing nothing on a sofa. Just some of the riches contained in 10 little-known books that deserve to be treasured

Most novels come, have their day, and are gone. For ever. Most deserve their "do not resuscitate" label. Every so often, though, a novel rises from the grave to claim its belated fame. On 5 July last year, addressing the nation on the Today programme, Ian McEwan did a revival job on Stoner a novel published to modest praise in 1965 and long out of print. John Williams's bleak, but exquisitely written, chronicle of a second-rate prof in a third-rate American university went on to become the 2013 novel of the year.

What other dead and forgotten works would one dig up from the dusty vaults of the British Library? Everyone will have their own overdue for resurrection list: here's my top 10. Not all of them are what the critics would call "great novels" (a couple most certainly are) but they are, I can guarantee, great reads. And what more do you want from a work of fiction?

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