This kind of thing is a real challenge, but fun. I've decided to divide the list into categories, so here goes:
Best Non-Fiction
I've read relatively little non-fiction this year. But the winner definitely has to be Mrs Woolf and the Servants. This fascinating book is not just for lovers of Virginia Woolf, but for anyone interested in relations between the classes, or between the sexes, or just between people in general (and that should cover pretty well everyone).
Best Contemporary Crime Fiction
This, on the other hand, I've read quite a lot of. I'm in no doubt here that Kate Atkinson has to win, for her wonderful trilogy -- Case Histories, One Good Turn, and When Will There be Good News? All three are stunning. Please, Kate, write another one soon.
Best Classic Crime Fiction
Lots of this, too, new reads and re-reads. I'm most delighted to have discovered the brilliant Francis Iles, and to nominate his superb 1931 novel Before the Fact.
Best Children's Book
I read some great classics in this category earlier in the year. Several of Noel Streatfeild's could have won, but I'd have to go for a pair of favorites since childhood, E. Nesbit's The House of Arden and its companion volume Harding's Luck.
Best Jane Austen Sequel
What a category to have! But this has been the year when I was introduced to this sub-genre, if such it is, by means of Diana Birchall's wonderful Mrs Darcy's Dilemma. I've read quite a few since then, some not so great and some pretty good, but the all out winner in this category must be Old Friends and New Fancies, first published in 1913 and an absolute joy from start to finish.
Best Classic
Well, I did love Little Dorrit, of course. But the joint winners are two American classics, neither as well-known as they deserve to be. They are Josephine Johnson's Now in November and William Maxwell's TIme Will Darken It. Two wonderfully written novels, both highly recommended.
Best Contemporary Fiction
This is what I read most of, so I'm allowing myself a longer list.
Owen Shears, Resistance
Anne Tyler, A Patchwork Planet
Sebastian Barry, The Secret Scripture
Maggie O'Farrell, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
Julia Gregson, East of the Sun
Ann Patchett, Bel Canto, which is practically a tie with the absolute top of the class:
Sebastian Barry, A Long Long Way.
