Friends. Here is a by-no-means-comprehensive list of the books I most enjoyed this year.
(I read quite a lot more for work, research and review purposes, not included here.)
A Meal In Winter by Hubert Mingarelli
Names for the Sea: Strangers in Iceland by Sarah Moss
Acid for The Children by Flea
The Catch by Mick Herron
The Penguin Book Of Oulipo – anthology
Lord Of The Flies by William Golding
William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord Of The Flies by John Carey
Sombrero Fallout by Richard Brautigan
A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym
The Sound Mirror by Heidi James
The Spire by William Golding
We Are The Young Men by Rob Doyle
Millstone Grit by Glynn Hughes
Of Love And Hunger by Julian McLaren-Ross
With Nails by Richard E Grant
There Are Little Kingdoms by Kevin Barry
This Is The Ritual by Rob Doyle
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Whos Fuckin Planet by Martyn Goodacre
Summerwater by Sarah Moss
Northern Exposures by Chris Steel-Perkins
The Tiler’s Afternoon by Lars Gustaffson
The Life To Come & Other Stories by EM Forster
A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean
That Old Country Music by Kevin Barry
Dark Lies The Island by Kevin Barry
King of Dust by Alex Woodcock
The Gentle Art Of Tramping by Stephen Graham
Glitch by Lee Rourke
Beatlebone by Kevin Barry
Cherry by Nico Walker
This Is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill
Pink Floyd Are Fogbound In Paris by Ben Graham
Graham Bond: The Might Shadow by Harry Shapiro
Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan
Death In Venice by Thomas Mann
The Order Of The Day Eric Vuillard
Smash by Ian Winwood
Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez
Crow Court by Andy Charman
Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins by Rupert Everett
Holy Terrors by Arthur Machen
The Seed by Tarjei Vessas
Wild Swims by Dorthe Nors
The White People & Other Stories by Arthur Machen
Somebody’s Husband, Somebody’s Son by Gordon Burn
Greyhound For Breakfast by James Kelman
Mainly About Lindsay Anderson by Gavin Lambert
The Sound Of My Voice by Ron Butlin
One Clear Ice-cold January Morning at the Beginning of the 21st Century by Roland Schimmelpfennig
The Freak Brothers Omnibus by Gilbert Shelton
Believe In Magic: 30 Years Of Heavenly Recordings by Robin Turner
A Lonely Man by Chris Power
Tales From The Colony Room: Soho’s lost Bohemia by Darren Coffield
The Death Of Francis Bacon by Max Porter
Benjamin Myers 