What’s the greatest English-language novel of the last quarter-century? A recent survey of American literary experts says it’s Toni Morrison’s Beloved, but in the UK, the poll went in an entirely different direction. “In the novel, as in everything else, there are Anglo-Saxon and American attitudes. We celebrate a literary tradition of astonishing variety. They want to believe in the Great American Novel, the classic exemplar, the last word. We don’t really believe in the last word, prefer not to be told what’s best and would rather make our own discoveries. They subscribe to the pursuit of (literary) happiness.”