Alan Rickman: The Perfect Villain And Much More

If you've read some of my previous posts you'll know I have a thing for Die Hard being The only Christmas movie that everyone should watch, and not just because it has explosions and witty one-liners and action galore but because of the superb Alan Rickman.

Forget Bruce Willis.

Alan Rickman is the man.  Charming, debonair with just the right amount of snark and a voice that could turn you into a swoony puddle.

It's no wonder he made such wickedly wonderful villains.   

Then again he was pretty much wonderful in everything he did.  Whether as the suave Hans Gruber in Die Hard or as the evil Sheriff in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves or as a the romantic ghost in Truly, Madly, Deeply; if he was in a movie you just knew you had to watch it just for him a lone.

With his sudden passing binge watching all his movies seems like the perfect thing to do so why not check out some of his best work 

The Axe Factor - nominate your contestants

It's hard to stand out from the crowd as an author. When there are fifty million other people all trying to make it in print, and now on their own blogs as well, how on earth do you get yourself noticed?

One way, of course, is to write something so kinkily filthy it outrages all demands of decency, plot, dialogue or character and makes a splash in the papers. Not mentioning any trilogies in particular.

The other way, of course, is to introduce a character so twisted, so monumentally and memorably evil, that it attracts an audience like a fire at the Playboy Mansion. Hannibal Lecter, I'm looking at you.

Mr The Cannibal aside, who is your favourite (or most hated) villain? Who sticks in your mind from all the nasties you've encountered? Now I read, or at least test-drive, more than 100 books a year. I really tried to squeeze my brain, but in fact, it wasn't the killers who got in my head so much as the general feeling of horror. I remember being positively sickened while reading Mo Hayder - but can I recall anything about the murderer? Nope.

Film villains are a dime a dozen. The T1000, Hans Gruber and the Joker are easy to remember, as are any of the Disney crew. No one does high camp like Disney - I can only think of the Bond villains to match them in literature. Anyone help?

Please - no spoilers if the villain's identity is supposed to be a secret!

Here are a few of my most memorable: