Christine Haggerty has issued a challenge to write a blog post about literary villains, and answer five questions about your favourite. See her own choice on her blog.

1) What character is your favourite villain?
2) What makes him/her a villain?
3) What do you hate about him or her?
4) What do you love about him or her?
5) What aspect of this villain do you empathise with most?

This is a challenge I had to pick up as I find villains so much more satisfying to write about than heroes. For the reader it’s maybe different, as in the end most people want the hero to win. Where there’s a romantic element, much as we may be drawn to the bad boy or girl, if we’re honest, when it comes to happy ever after we tend not to go for baddie. There are exceptions to that rule…