Regular readers will know my enthusiasm for Roth and that I first wrote about him and HOTEL SAVOY back on the old blog last spring. This, plus his masterpiece, THE RADETZKY MARCH was one of my 100 books you really must read and a lot of people did.

I was therefore amused to open my Spectator and find Allan Massie, in his always-interesting Life and Letters column, writing about JR and saying 'I don`t suppose Roth will ever be a popular writer.'  Massie has clearly not caught up with the blogs. Roth is becoming increasingly popular. Granta, who publish him, would probably vouch for a steady increase in sales over the last few years, though of course his books will never be 'popular' as in the Da Vinci Code.

But his particular genius is being recognised. He wrote about the twilight of the Hapsburg empire, and of pre-1939 Europe as no one else has, with a pereception, a melancholy, an intelligence and a deep human sympathy. He has been incredibly fortunate in his translator, Michael Hoffman, who manages to make you believe this, English, was the language in which Roth first wrote. Because it cannot have been easy. Roth was a great stylist. His prose is flexible, supple and yet precise, his descriptions and his observations telling and vivid.

The Radetzky March is his longest book - most of the others are short but there is no weak link. You re-read Roth. I have read Hotel Savoy a dozen times and every time you find something new. He can make you laugh or smile, and he certainly can make you cry. Roth`s work pierces the heart and gets under the skin. And stays there.

His collection of journalism from pre-war Paris, THE WHITE CITY, has just been  published and this is what Massie focuses on in his article. Anita Brookner chose it as one of her books of the year.

But he will be remembered for his novels. He was a briliant journalist but a genius as a novelist.

Now - let us prove Allan Massie wrong. It is a good cause so he should not mind. My mission is to make Roth even more popular; he already has a strong underground fan club  but let us bring it out into the light of day.

I am buying 10 copies of HOTEL SAVOY and 10 of THE RADETZY MARCH and giving them away to anyone who would like one. e-mail your address to mail@susan-hill.com

As you know, when I gave away the Michael Mayne book, I asked for donations to be sent to his chosen charity, The Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. This is a charity Roth would have supported I am sure, given that he  was a German Jew who fled to France at a time when the Nazis were beginning their own terrible reign of torture and terror. The charity has a website and you can donate online.

The books should be in next week. If there any availability problems I will report. I so want as many people as possible to appreciate the genius who was Joseph Roth.