Ken Follett (pictured) has loved reading The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Ken Follett
(Never, Macmillan)
My favorite thing about my job was The Vanishing halfBrit Bennett. It’s about twin sisters, African-American but light skinned. One twin, who is African-American but light skinned, decides to pretend to be white to get a job which would ordinarily only be available to white people.
The suspense kicks in when an African-American man gives her a knowing look and she realises that some people can tell she’s faking it. Her harrowing experience of telling a lie and her insightful insights on both sides of the race divide had me completely absorbed.
Santa Montefiore
Santa Montefiore (pictured) said her favourite book of the year is Circe by Madeline Miller
(Flappy Entertains, Simon & Schuster)
The book that was my favorite of the year is CirceMadeline Miller It’s a refreshing and imaginative take on the Greek myth about the witch Circe. The Song Of Achilles was a book I loved, and I knew this would be a good one.
Madeline tells compelling stories of adventure and magic that are full of emotion. Her writing is beautiful and I was captivated by some of her metaphors.
It was also something I loved. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, and if you want a ‘diet’ that really works, read Dr Steven Gundry’s The Plant Paradox.
Greg Wise
Quercus is not that kind of love, Quercus
Natasha Lunn’s Conversations about Love. I’m not including this just because I’m in it, honestly. Beautiful exploration of love and the human heart. Positive and uplifting.
The Mother TreeSuzanne Simard. Trees communicate on the Wood Wide Web and help each other.
This story, although it may seem scientific in nature, is all about our relationships with the outside world. This tree will forever change the way I look at it.
Kathryn Mannix’s Pay attentionThis is my favorite book. It is all about listening in on the hard conversations that we have. Essential reading.
Francis Spufford
Francis Spufford (pictured) enjoyed Jon McGregor’s Lean, Fall, Stand
(Light Perpetual, Faber)
I deeply enjoyed and admired Jon McGregor’s Lean, Fall, Stand, This novel is about an Antarctic Explorer who has a stroke. It then follows him through his speech therapy. There’s no drama.
It’s a virtuoso piece of work — because the author writes about the stroke and what it does to language from the inside — but it’s all in the service of quiet, almost domestic truth-telling. My most uncategorisable read was Maria Stepanova’s marvellous In Memory Of Memory. It is a profound reflection on the way we relate to the past, using her Jewish family’s history in the 20th-century Soviet Union as the central thread, but reaching out to cover almost everything.
Joan Bakewell
Virago, The Tick of Two Alarms
My favorite thing about my job wasSwimming in the Rain:George Saunders (Booker winner, teacher), explains why four Russian writers are great, and gives some tips on how you can improve your writing.
Shuggie BainDouglas Stuart’s heartbreaking, honest and painful account of struggle and love in a family. This year’s Booker-shortlistedNobody is talking about thisPatricia Lockwood has written a novel that combines Twitter and real life. . . This is a great overview of what social media has done to our brains.
Francesca Simon
(Two Terrible Vikings, Faber & Faber)
Kevin Crossley Holland is the best at retelling myths and legends. His latest book has no equal.Arthur the Always KingThis is an amazing collection of Arthur’s epic stories and those of his knights at the Round Table.
He collaborates with Chris Riddell in this latest version. Chris draws giants, ogres, and maidens just like the Camelot court artists. All myth-lovers.
Maggie Shipstead
(Great Circle, Doubleday)
I loved venturing from London to the fictional African nation of Bamana in Chibundu Onuzo’s SankofaIt was a book I struggled to put down. The story was captivating. The Third Pole, writer-mountaineer Mark Synnott’s non-fiction exploration of the mystery of whether George Mallory and Sandy Irvine summited Everest which he interweaves with an account of his own climb.
Jonathan Franzen’s Crossroads is a meaty glory of a novel. I also blew right through Dolly Alderton’s Ghosts.
Mary Lawson (pictured) enjoyed Mick Herron’s Slough House series
Mary Lawson
Chatto: A Town Called Solace
Mick Herron’s Slough House series. I was able to get out of lockdown thanks to these brilliant thrillers that featured a group of outcast spy-spies. To my husband’s annoyance, they had me laughing out loud at 3am.
ActressAnne Enright is a brilliant writer. You have comedy and tragedy all in one.
Sonya, Agent: Mother, Soldier and SpyBen Macintyre. What makes this story so jaw-dropping is that it’s true.
Sonya, a communist spy and mother to three children, rose to colonel rank in the Red Army. MI5 assumed she couldn’t do both.
Claire Fuller
Unsettled Ground for Fig Tree
Damon Galgut’s The Promise. It was on the Booker Prize shortlist, and I enjoyed it. It’s a layered, clever and sometimes uncomfortable read, but with a gripping story.
It’s about four deaths in a white South African family, and the promise one member makes to another.
Galgut is a fast-moving, looser with time and perspective. It makes it seem like Galgut’s troubled and often racist family. It was hard to understand how Galgut did this, but I found myself immersed in the story.
Rev Richard Coles
(The Madness Of Grief, W&N)
I was gripped by David Baddiel’s Jews Don’t Count. You are asked to look calmly and wittily at the dramatic rise of anti-Semitic attitudes and comments. The more sinister it is that they have been hidden or concealed,
I adored Susie Boyt’s novel The Loved and the MissedThis book examines what happens when addiction or dereliction suddenly strike a family. It is amazing how determination, encouragement and goodwill can help bring everything back together.
Matt Haig (pictured) loved reading Greg Jenner’s Ask A Historian
Matt Haig
Canongate: The Comfort Book
The year has seen a lot of books, fiction and nonfiction. I have had quite eclectic taste in 2021, reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s great and masterful sci-fi exploration of humanity and mortality Klara and the Sun, then following it with Miriam Margolyes’s brilliantly cheeky, warm and emotional memoir You can trust this muchThis is all you’d expect from Miriam Margolyes’ memoir.
As an amateur history geek I loved the fun of Greg Jenner’s Ask a historian, which answers all the burning historical questions, such as ‘when was the first Monday?’
Jake Humphrey
High Performance Random House Business
Sarah J. Maas (pictured) chose Archangel’s Light as her favourite book this year
I’ve read every Jack Reacher by Lee Child and am a huge lover of action. Yes, they follow a formula: he always beds the girl, drinks the coffee and then leaves town after getting rid of the bad guys… but I love them. The Sentinel particularly.
Sarah J. Maas
Bloomsbury, House of Earth and Blood
Nalini Singh is the Queen of Paranormal Romance. I would read anything she has written, and I’m absolutely obsessed with her Guild Hunter series. This is the latest. Archangel’s Light, is the story of a love that’s been building for centuries. It’s thrilling, epic and beautiful.