Antony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda is a delirious farrago of doubles, red hair, and desperate plots against the king's life, in Ruritania. Will Princess Flavia realise she is being wooed by an Englishman and not by the king? Will Black Michael succeed in his wicked plot? Will Rupert of Hentzau scupper the secret? For duellists expert with both sword and pistol.

Romping over the heather, running through the hills, scampering among the dragoons, and tearing down the hill to the ferry to get across the river in time: can there be anything more exhausting than reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped? A great swashbuckling novel of the aftermath of the 1745, for readers who can run with their sword drawn.

What do you do when the man you had thought was dead, and who had tried to kill you first, is back from the dead, talking about champagne cocktails in Paris? You go to Paris to find him, and then when a bad lot beat you up to throw you off the scent, you head straight for the south of France to do more snooping. John Welcome's Run for Cover is a fine first novel from 1958 about fooling the enemy, and a lot of fast driving. For thriller heroes who insist on a decent dinner every night.

The gentlemanliness of the Cold War spy, hitman and cold-blooded killer in Her Majesty's Secret Service is all about sex. And race. And class. And cheating at cards. Ian Fleming's James Bond is a complicated mixture of pre-war gent and post-war ruffian. For readers who hop from book to book looking for more of the same.

Digging your own rabbit burrow? This is the manual for you. On the run from foreign gunmen with multiple passports? Look no further than this novel for career advice. Need guidance on how to hide in open country and survive without being spotted for weeks? Household's Rogue Male is the classic text for aspirational survivalists. For armchair outdoorsmen.

This is the one where Plato puts his hand down Audrey's shirt, so we know he's doomed. Dornford Yates' Gale Warning is a cracking thriller of map-reading, fast driving, navigation, and a gentleman's hunt to avenge the murder of a friend. For drivers who do what they're told without question.

Come to London clubland in 1923, and follow Richard Hannay on the trail of a riddling rhyme and secret plots to overthrow civilisation as we know it. In John Buchan's The Three Hostages, human evil battles with the manners of the gentleman's club, and north London is revealed as a den of criminality and sin. For those who live north of the river.

Links to extra programmes and recordings on the Internet:

A Pod Academy interview about Forgotten Fiction.

Blogging at Vulpes Libris.

A one-hour radio discussion programme about First World War poetry.

Recently I took part in a radio discussion programme on English First World War poetry, and what it means to Belgians, and to British ex pats living in Belgium, on whose soil a lot of the battles of the First World War were fought. You can listen to the programme by clicking on this link: http://www.prx.org/pieces/87043-first-world-war-poetry-with-dr-kate-macdonald

The programme is 54 minutes long, and includes readings by local actors of poems by Wilfred Owen, Helen Hamilton, John McCrae, Rupert Brooke and Isaac Rosenberg.

Its glorious summer in Barsetshire, and the boys of Southbridge School are preparing to persecute their suffering classics master, who is engaged to the lovely but terminally stupid daughter of the headmaster, and is hating every minute of it. Angela Thirkell's joyous romp Summer Half brings the warm weather back, whenever you read it. For suffering parents everywhere.