Adam Thorpe's top 10 satires

Adam Thorpe is a poet, playwright and novelist. He selected a top ten list of satires for the Guardian. Most of his picks were written by men long dead.One possible reason for that, according to Thorpe:"Satirists have it hard, these days. They can barely match the truth. And shallow satire is no good at all; it is merely cynical, as husked of all value as the average TV chat show and its