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Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell No book has more effectively demonised our rodent neighbours. "The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world." For Winston Smith, this can mean only one thing: rats! At the very thought, he is a broken man.

The Tale of Samuel Whiskers by Beatrix Potter Another ratty nightmare, in which the inquisitive Tom Kitten goes exploring up a chimney and blunders into the apartment of a huge old rat and his baleful spouse. They tie him up and cover him with dough, as a prelude to feasting on him. At the last minute he is rescued by a dog.

"God's Judgement on a Wicked Bishop" by Robert Southey Nasty Bishop Hatto herds the starving poor into a barn and sets fire to it. But vengeance will come. An army of rats pursues him and corners him in his tower. "And in at the windows, and in at the door, / And through the walls by thousands they pour; / And down from the ceiling and up through the floor, / From the right and the left, from behind and before, / From within and without, from above and below, / And all at once to the Bishop they go." Soon, only his bones are left.

The Rats by James Herbert A very gruesome bestseller, which opens with a tramp being eaten alive by giant rats and continues in this vein. Throughout London, more and more people fall victims to the ravenous rodents (whose bites also cause deadly disease). Even worse, the rats communicate with each other and have a leader with two heads. Herbert wrote two ratty sequels.

"The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire" by Arthur Conan Doyle The scariest rat of all? This domestic mystery, involving a jealous sibling and a supply of poisoned darts, has one of the most tantalising rat references in literature. Holmes mentions "the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared". Several novelists have written the tale that Doyle never penned.

"The Pied Piper" by Robert Browning "Rats! / They fought the dogs, and killed the cats, / And bit the babies in the cradles, / And ate the cheeses out of the vats, / And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles, / Split open the kegs of salted sprats, / Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, / And even spoiled the women's chats, / By drowning their speaking / With shrieking and squeaking / In fifty different sharps and flats. . ."

"The Rats in the Walls" by HP Lovecraft In this classic horror tale, the rats lead the narrator to horrific discoveries. Investigating the noises that they are making in the walls of his ancestral home, he finds an underground city whose denizens are cannibals. The narrator is driven mad and ends up in an asylum, still hearing rats in the walls.

La Peste by Albert Camus Rats are victims too. One day, in the Algerian port of Oran, Dr Bernard Rieux sees a dead rat. Soon the city's inhabitants begin to notice the increasing number of dead or dying rats, and their fears turn to panic. The authorities organise the collection and burning of the rats, which merely helps spread the disease. It is an allegory, but of what?

"William the Rat Lover" by Richmal Crompton Our hero sets out to vindicate the reputation of rats, innocent victims of malicious rat-catchers. William feeds the local rats so generously that they become attached to him and follow him around, allowing him inadvertently to win a children's fancy dress competition as the Pied Piper.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame Funny that one of the best-loved characters in children's fiction should be called "Ratty". But is the jovial animal who befriends shy Mole and introduces him to Toad actually a rat? Or is he a vole? The debate rages. JM

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