6 Villainous Book Villains We Love To Hate

We all have our favourite hero's and heroines. Mine are an eclectic bunch including the Narnia gang, the Losers Club and David Lister - Last Human. Of course the only way they can be heroes is if there is a villain for them to fight against so that is what I'm going to cover in this list. Here are my picks for the book villains I love to hate.

An obvious one to start with. She's one of the most hated characters in the Potter universe, some say they hate her more than "He Who Must Not Be Named" because at least he has a reason to be horrible and I'm inclined to agree with them. I should point out that my knowledge of Madam Umbridge is purely from the books, I haven't read her Wiki article nor have I read anything about her on Pottermore. To be honest, I kinda wish JK had stopped when she released the Deathly Hallows, but anyway. Dolores Umbridge is a premium bitch of the first degree. She is so so so nasty. Imagine having her as an Auntie with her freaky kitten plates and toad-like face, she'd be a hard woman to love. But I do love her because without her The Order of the Phoenix would be a terribly boring book about Harry having nightmares. Instead we got an antagonist to rival "You Know Who" himself. From forcing Harry and various other students to slice open their hands with her "knife quill" to stomping on actual creative thought Umbridge is someone who deserves all that she gets.

Did you read Oliver Twist at school? Maybe you've been in a performance of Lionel Bart's version. Either way, I bet you've heard of Bill Sikes. He is a barbaric man and career criminal with few redeeming qualities. His prostitute girlfriend Nancy loves him no matter how much he beats her and he's trained his dog Bullseye to be terrifying to all. If that's not enough for him to deserve a place on this list I don't know what is.

Ladies my age will probably recognise this venomous vixen. Even if the picture doesn't clue you in, the name should. Corrine is the product of mistakes made by her parents - her father loved her too much, giving her everything she could possibly want, her mother jealous of her husband's obvious love for his little girl hid the truth about the true parentage of Christopher, the man Corrine would marry. Her love of fine things made her betray her children eventually murdering one and causing another to commit suicide. I bet you ring your Mother right away now and tell her how much you love her for not being Corrine Dollanganger

If you've been on the internet over the last couple of years you'll likely have heard of Outlander, a show set in the Scottish Highlands around the time of the Jacobite Rising. Incomprehensible men in kilts and handsome British Redcoats, am I right? Well no, I'm only partly right - the Scots aren't incomprehensible, not to me in any case. Just in case you haven't read it or heard about it I'll keep this pretty brief - Captain Randall is an utter bastard. His propensity for cruelty goes beyond anything Bill Sikes ever did and he's an officer who should clearly know better. If you want to hate him (and his future alter-ego) as much as I do, go watch the show. Tobias Menzies is magnificent.

I picked up "His Dark Materials" for some stupidly low price sometime in the 1990's. I didn't have any expectations of it, I think I read the first page of Northern Lights and bought them on the strength of that alone. Mrs Coulter (no relation to but possibly based on Ann) and her evil golden monkey are not the only antagonists in this trilogy but they are the most obvious. She's basically a modern day child catcher, stealing children to study them and destroy their innocence. I have seen "The Golden Compass" but I have no memory of it - in this case I'm not being a book snob at all, the book is 100% better.

A final classic nasty bastard for you. Napoleon the pig is ruthless in his ambitions. He steals the farms new born puppies in order to bring them up as his own personal guards, chases away another pig who is a rival to his power then stole his ideas to improve the farms lot (which failed). He lies to the animals who look up to him and then as a final act of betrayal joins with the humans. I've only scratched the surface of this bullying Berkshire boar - he's much much worse in truth. If you've only seen either of the films (the CIA paid for British animation or the 1999 Hallmark made for TV travesty) I urge you to read the book. Especially if you think Communism is a good idea. Ugh, I can't believe I live in a world where I have to qualify this. Orwell truly would be rolling in his grave.