Ten books from the last twelve months

Last year was the first time I did this (it's quite likely I was procrastinating over organising a Christmas card list then too), it was interesting to look back and assess what books really stood out - looking at that list again tonight I wonder how many would have made the cut pitted against this years books. There were plenty of good books last year but it was quite hard work to pick ten that really stood out. This year couldn't be more different, the difficulty has been in narrowing it down to only ten - whatever else has been less than satisfactory on the last twelve months the books have been tremendous.

So once again in no particular order here are my favourites - the ones I've actually buttonholed strangers in bookshops over and tried to persuade them to buy, or bought to press on friends with utterly evangelical fervour, and if you're not already acquainted with these books you really should be...

John Sutherland's Lives Of The Novelists was a birthday present from my sister, it's great for dipping in and out of as well as for reference. I don't read much biography generally being more interested in the writing than the writer but sometimes curiosity gets the better of me. What I love about this book is that you have the basics of a career, a few key dates, a recommendation for the must read text of each author, and quite a lot of gossipy detail - everything I want in short. 

Ford Madox Ford's 'The Good Soldier' was my first successful foray into modernism, I liked it so much that it really shocked me to find that not everybody is a mad keen fan. Personally the conversational nature of the book, the narrator's chronic unreliability, and the way it bends itself to any number of interpretations were all irresistible. I'm really curious to see what I make of this book when I get round to a re-read, I have a feeling that I'll hardly recognise it and that's an exciting thought too. This has also been the year that I overcame my prejudices regarding Dickens and read 'Great Expectations' I have no idea how it compares to the rest of his oeuvre but this just totally hooked me in - what more can I say?

Shirley Conran's 'Lace' did much the same sort of thing, hands up the writing can be pretty dire, but it all bounces along in the most encouraging way and when you strip away the trash there's plenty of substance. It's not everyone who could deal with child exploitation, alcoholism, and rape in the way Conran does. There's an energy about this book that really brings the eighties back to life as well as a passionate manifesto for female friendship and saying when something just isn't good enough. 

Somewhere between 'Great Expectations' and 'Lace' lies Elizabeth Jenkins 'Harriet' (probably not entirely the company she's entirely used to keeping). There's a gothic quality to 'Harriet' that puts me in mind of 'Great Expectations' as well as a burning sense of social injustice which ties all three books together. 'Harriet' is an extraordinary book - despite knowing better I tend to think of Persephone as being a source of cosy books - this one really isn't cosy. It's shocking and provocative; almost a horror story this is a subtle examination of how ordinary enough people can find themselves doing terrible things without ever really noticing they've crossed a line until far to late. 

My love affair with Trollope continues, I'm by no means blind to his faults but I still adore him. 'Can You Forgive Her' comes with it's frustrations but it's also glorious. The heroine can't make up her mind about who to marry which leads her into all sorts of bother; honestly she's quite annoying, so happily that's not the only story line. Where Trollope excels is in creating thoroughly human and nuanced characters, whilst I'm reading his books I really feel like I'm living in his world - I just think he's wonderful. 

Back in the spring I replaced my disintegrating copy of 'Ring of Bright Water' which lead me to discover Little Toller books, from there I found first Frank Fraser Darling's 'Island Years Island Farm which felt like a book I'd been looking for for something like thirty years (ever since I grew out of Enid Blyton's island books) and then onto so many others. Islands draw me in, this account of family life in tents and huts speaks of adventure without ignoring the more mundane aspects of life on a deserted island. Gavin Maxwell's Harpoon at a Venture probably shouldn't be on this list. This is a favourite from way back, it's also out of print at the moment, but it's worth tracking down - it was Maxwell's first book and to me is probably his best. There is a rawness about that it that creates a real bond between reader and writer. It could have been all boys own adventure but I think it's a far more significant book than that. It touches on what life was like for the many ex service men who struggled with peace, and for boys who perhaps weren't quite ready to grow up. It's also a brilliant, visceral, read.

  'Findings' was a serendipitous discovery off the back of my island reading, reading it was an unexpectedly profound experience; It's one of those books that quietly encourages you to look at the world around you again and find new patterns in it. There's nothing flashy about it, it's simply a beautifully crafted piece of art that should on no account be overlooked.

Finally, and this might not come as a surprise, there is Diana Henry's Salt Sugar Smoke, in a vintage year for every sort of book that's crossed my threshold this is the One, something really special. I've mentioned it a few times but will say again; it's given me a huge amount of satisfaction already. The kitchen shelves are groaning under the weight of preserved goods waiting to go out as Christmas presents, soon the post man will be groaning under the weight of copies of 'Salt Sugar Smoke' destined to be yet more Christmas presents. Promise me you'll look at it...

Lace - Shirley Conran

Back in our early teens my friend Rachel was my source of bonkbusters, well read copies of Judith Krantz and Sidney Sheldon were smuggled home in my school bag, read at break neck speed and returned to be giggled over - possibly before they were missed. Later I read a lot of Jilly Cooper and hotly defended her writing to the more sceptical of my acquaintance, I don't think I ever read or watched 'Lace' though. 

It's amazing what a respectable publisher can do for a book - I would never have read 'Valley Of The Dolls' if Virago hadn't republished it yet it was an eye opener. The endorsement of Canongate releasing 'Lace' had the same effect, so when they sent me a copy I pounced on it with real enthusiasm and stormed through it in a weekend (I hear there was some sort of sporting event on but I was so immersed it totally passed me by). It's easy to remember that books like this are a bit trashy, that the writing often leaves something to be desired, and that the descriptions of sex are frequently more laughable than erotic. It's just as easy to forget how much fun these books are to read - and perhaps what I would hardly have realised at 14 - what a powerfully feminist message there can be behind the best of them.

'Lace' is undoubtedly a feminist book, and definitely amongst the best of those great 80's doorstops full of scandal, glamour, and dodgy shagging. It opens with a heart-rending description of a 13 year old girl undergoing a back street abortion, flips forward 15 years to four women being summoned to meet a notorious actress who has a bombshell to drop; one of them is her mother, but which one... After that we're pitched back almost 30 years to a Swiss finishing school where the 4 first met and from there on in explore their lives and fates.

A lot happens. Conran throws everything into this book so along with plot there's a whole lot of stuff about the fashion industry (strictly at the couture level), interior design, public relations, how Champagne is made, journalism, the magazine trade - anything I guess Conran had an inside track on or an interest in. Her women are held together by tight bonds of friendship which makes them infinitely stronger together than they would be apart. That's one good feminist message. She has them talk again and again about how women should have been taught how to earn money and what to do with it when they had it. All the characters are successful, all do it without the help of men to the point that when one is given a fortune by an elderly lover she's defrauded out of the lot by an unscrupulous lawyer - it doesn't matter, she soon makes her own fortune. That's another good feminist message. 

After that take your pick. I've seen this described as the book mothers didn't want their daughters to read. If I had a daughter I really would want her to read it. Yes, she tells us, losing your virginity can be disappointing  - but it will probably get better. If it doesn't than it's not good enough, you deserve better. She touches on rape and violence within marriage, as well as outside of it. One of the women becomes an alcoholic, a subject probably even more taboo than underwhelming marital performance. Another woman endures 3 years of infidelity whilst her friend has to settle for being the other woman for the man in her life. Eventually she will decide not to marry him on the basis that he's used to being unfaithful to his wife - and this way she gets to keep her identity and hard won independence. When Conran tackles the sexual exploitation of a young girl she's bang on the money describing how grooming works and how her character is manipulated first into a relationship, later into making porn films. All of this is still depressingly relevant. 

30 years on in a climate of economic gloom  it's been really encouraging to read a book that essentially tells you to pick yourself up and try again if things go wrong, and that absolutely insists the happy ending isn't a ring on your finger but having friends you can rely on. You can keep your fifty shades of impossibly rich and demanding men, I'll stick with sisters doing it for themselves.