I love reading books that have influenced a genre, and the impact of The Rats on horror is obvious. A pulpy, gory, over the top and sometimes campy tale, this book is an important work of British horror.

Most impressively, The Rats shows incredible insight into class and social issues of 1970s London. Strangely, the main character is dull and the main plot a little underwhelming. What I really enjoyed were the vignettes scattered throughout the book. They are of average people, unsurprisingly, getting eaten alive by rats. Herbert gives these characters surprising depth and tragedy even though they’re not on the page for long.