I’’m fascinated by literary blockbusters, books that sell in the millions worldwide and create their own language and cultures, like Harry Potter, The Da Vinci Code and Twilight. These books owe their success to more than just their easy reading and vividly imagined stories. They tap into something deep within their readers; they express the zeitgeist, the collective unconscious, they are signs of the times.

So what can the two literary blockbusters of the noughties – The Da Vinci Code and the Twilight saga – tell us about our times, at the end of a decade that closes with the Copenhagen accord?