WHAT BOOK would children’s and Gothic novelist Michelle Paver take to a desert island? 

. . . are you reading now?

The Haunting Of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (1959). ‘Some houses are born bad,’ says one character. Hill House is certainly one of them, an isolated Victorian pile with an evil reputation. Nevertheless, four people volunteer to stay there, and among them is Eleanor — lonely, shrewd, prickly and unhappy. I find her a hugely sympathetic heroine.

For my money, this is the definitive haunted house novel. It’s incredibly readable, and the tension builds to a climax that’s as dramatically satisfying as it is shocking. I love the blend of nightmarish unreality with domestic detail and, as this is the Fifties, the characters never lose a chance to gulp a martini.

I’ve read it several times and I know it influenced Wakenhyrst, my own gothic novel set in a remote house that may well be haunted.

. . . gave you the reading bug?

Once Long Ago by Roger Lancelyn Green (1962). This was a birthday present from my father when I was five, so it was really special. I’d never owned such a splendid book — we usually went to the local library — and I was thrilled that my father had chosen it himself and knew exactly what I liked.

It’s a gorgeous collection of legends from all around the world — Iceland, Polynesia, Japan, to name a few. The stories are fierce and strange, which I absolutely loved, and their influence was immediate — they prompted me to hammer out my first story on my mother’s typewriter. It was called Ebany The Mouse Goddess and my mother still has it.

The influence of Once Long Ago has lasted my whole life. It’s no coincidence that I ended up delving into the myths of different cultures when I came to write my Wolf Brother series set in the Stone Age. Or that the very first tale in Lancelyn Green’s marvellous collection is called The Boy And The Wolves.

. . . would you take to a desert island?

As I’ve decided to take this question literally, it has to be the SAS Survival Handbook by John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman. He served 26 years in the SAS, so he knows his stuff. I’ve often dipped in to the book while writing the Wolf Brother stories and their sequels.

My all-time favourite bit is a section on how to survive what he calls ‘disaster on the home front’ (just so you know, that includes earthquakes, nuclear explosions and volcanoes).

‘If food is short, there will be none to spare for pets and you CANNOT afford to be squeamish. If the aquarium water has to be drunk, don’t waste the fish . . . the cat is next in the pot . . . and unless the dog is an exceptional hunter, it should go too.’ Yikes. I wouldn’t go quite that far.

. . . left you cold?

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (2012). I know that it’s powerfully written and beautifully observed, but I found it uninvolving and I didn’t care about any of the characters. That’s just how it goes.

Michelle Paver’s gothic thriller Wakenhyrst is published in paperback by Head Of Zeus, £8.99.