She is too modest to concur with the view that she is Britains bestknown crime writer even though her books  12 major detective novels  are read avidly by millions all over the world She herself is a great fan of the works of close friend Ruth Rendell I particularly enjoy her psychological works written under the name of Barbara Vine Books beside her bed are most likely to be by women writers such as Iris Murdoch Anita Brookner and Penelope Lively although not to the total exclusion of male authors like Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh whom she considers to have been the greatest novelists of their generation