Internet bookseller Amazon has come under fire from Booker Prize-winning author Ian McEwan, who said the company should "pay its taxes like the rest of us".

McEwan said he is concerned at the "preponderance" of the US-based giant in the book market and he would like to see "three or four Amazons" to prevent the harmful effects of monopoly provision.

But the author, whose latest novel The Children Act is released this week, admitted that he uses Amazon himself, describing it as being "like some delicious drug" he cannot resist.

McEwan told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I do worry about the preponderance of Amazon, and many publishers have been in direct conflict with it.

"Giant monopolies are never good for any enterprise and of course I would like it to be paying its taxes like the rest of us."

But asked if he personally boycotts the website, he admitted: "The trouble is it is like some delicious drug - you can't really resist it.

"I have forsworn it many times, but then I want a book the next morning, so I am like everyone else.

"I would just like there to be three or four Amazons, that's what I would like."