The author Harlan Coben has admitted to experiencing "imposter syndrome", despite a prolific career behind popular book series including Myron Bolitar.

The 64-year-old writer, whose works such as The Stranger, Fool Me Once and Safe have been brought to the screen by Netflix , suggested self-belief is a quality found exclusively in poor writers.

Speaking to Lauren Laverne on BBC Radio 4 ’s Desert Island Discs, he said: "I actually think only bad writers think they’re good.

"We all have a little bit of that imposter syndrome, and what’s interesting is it sounds like a paradox, but it’s not.

"Because on the one hand, I’m always like, ‘I suck, I’m terrible, I hate this’, but at the exact same time I have the hubris to think ‘you’re going to spend 20 pounds, and you’re going to spend five or six hours reading it, or listening to it on audio, and you should’.

"And those seem to be a complete contradiction, but they’re not inside of a writer."

Rather than categorising his stories strictly as crime or…