I started reading the British children's stories (Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins)  and went on to Dickens and C.S. Lewis, which I think is the primary form my prose takes - original Brit lit. But I love to follow a good mystery, and most of my own stories have something that has to be solved in them. It's a great way to connect with an audience and take the journey with them. I also love the scale of the 'larger than life' stories by Tolkien and Lewis. They brilliantly created worlds both different and familiar, which is a task I aspire to repeat in my own work.