My reading this year combined some great literature (‘In Search of Lost Time’ by Marcel Proust) with necessary research for my Harold Wilson biography (‘Marcia Williams’ by Linda McDougall) and a rare bit of re-reading (‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ by Louise de Bernieres, which I first read thirty years ago).
My favourite books published this year were ‘The Peepshow’ by Kate Summerscale and ‘Gabriel’s Moon’ by William Boyd.
As usual, I read a couple of George Simenon’s great detective novels (‘Maigret in New York’ and ‘Maigret and the Old People’) and loved them both. I also returned to another old favourite with ‘Stiff Upper Lip Jeeves’ by P.G.Wodehouse.
The book I enjoyed the most this year was Honare de Balzac’s ‘Cousin Bette’. There seems to be a French theme developing here, although Simenon was of course Belgian. If you’ve never read Balzac make a New Year resolution to rectify this in 2025. He’s a wonderful story teller.
My most disappointing read of 2024 was ‘Uncle Paul’ by Celia Fremlin. I was expecting an overlooked crime classic like last year’s ‘Mr Bowling Buys a Newspaper’ by Donald Henderson. What I got was a slow moving dud. Fremlin, I’m told, has been compared to Patricia Highsmith. Having read ‘Cry of the Owl’ this year I too made the comparison, concluding that Highsmith is in a league of her own as a 20th Century novelist.
Merry Christmas and happy reading in 2025.
