Sylvia Townsend Warner's first novel, Lolly Willowes, was about witches, self-reliance and the rights of single women to do what they wanted for themselves. It was a fashionable and critical hit when it appeared in 1926, and is still loved by its devoted fans. But civilised witches are less in fashion than they were. Lolly Willowes is about the subtle pleasures of witchcraft as a means to an end, when the ends are independence and some decent privacy from interfering families. For readers who walk in the woods rather than on the paths, and who prefer the smell of wet leaves to incense.

He's not a forgotten author, The Witches of Eastwick is not forgotten either, but this is a book I really, really like, and it's all about witches. Updike writes about Rhode Island witchcraft as if it were European, and his devil is a money-splashing New York loudmouth. There's a hint of Lovecraftian occult in here too, but it's a great novel of innocent corruption and the simple pleasures of the coven. For those who like their snacks spicy and their hot tubs steaming.

One day, the other planets came to earth to deal with the evil that lurked within our own. Lewis finished his science-fiction trilogy with a hard-edged satire on university politics, mixed with spiritual warfare. Mark the half-hearted gives in to political persuasion of the wrong kind. Jane the resolute refuses to believe in God but falls in love instead. Mr Bultitude the bear finds something deliciously hot, bloody and crunchy to eat. Merlin is woken for his Dark Ages magic, which brings chaos to the right places, and evil is crushed. It's stronger stuff than Narnia. For those who want more moral oomph from fantasy fiction.

A simple life interrupted by a quest to to visit a lonely mountain, and come back again through terrifying dangers into safety. A spiky fantasy about tearing up notices and laughing at committees. Small creatures are found again, unhappy creatures are comforted, and Moominmamma makes pancakes while a comet is about to crash into the earth. The Groke breathes cold into the world. Moomintroll is given a birch-bark schooner on the first day of spring. Tove Jansson's immortal tales about the creatures of Moomin Valley also draw on the dark effects of the Second World War, and give life to Nordic mythology. For those who think adults can read children's books too.