In the numerous pieces published about the death of Martin Amis, a number of contributors felt the understandable need to provide an assessment of his best work. Many of these lists included his essays and criticism; and in terms of his novels, there was an almost unanimous agreement that Money should be at the top, closely followed by London Fields, with third place allotted to a later – sometimes much later – work, presumably to offer an indication that the writer of the piece had kept abreast of Amis’s work during the erratic second half of his career. They are wrong, though. While Money wo ..read more

When I look back on my reading in 2022, it strikes me – a little to my surprise – that there aren’t that many books that I absolutely loved. There was plenty of stuff that was engaging, readable, admirable even; but not a huge amount of material that I would thrust into a friend’s hand and say (nicely), “Read it!” Anyhow, here are my hits, misses, and in-betweens of the year. (And, as ever, the year of publication has limited impact on the year that I actually read it – I’m happy to admit that I’m a couple of years behind the times.) Hits Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe There’s probabl ..read more

Like many people, I imagine, my reading habits changed in 2020. I read more; and I read different types of books. It’s been a year of comfort reading, no doubt, and as the year went on I found myself increasingly drawn to either 19th century staples – Austen, Hardy – or to ‘boy’s own’ thrillers from the 60s and 70s by the likes of Desmond Bagley, Hammond Innes and Victor Canning. Still, amongst all that retro reading there was still time for some relatively new material, although by no means all of it was published during the year itself. Here’s my best and worst of the year, selected from all ..read more

Back in 2005 Peter May was not an unknown author, having published most of his China thriller series as well as several standalone novels, but he was certainly without the necessary clout for publishers to put into print whatever came their way from him. And so it was that his thriller ‘Lockdown’, set in London during a pandemic, failed to make it into print and instead stayed hidden away in a bottom drawer. But this year, when the coronavirus hit, it was hastily pulled out of that drawer and has become a deserved hit 15 years on. The book certainly shows a remarkable prescience in predicting ..read more

It’s a tricky old thing, dialogue, and has an effect which is much like that of background music in television programmes. Done well, it can lift something out of the ordinary. Done adequately, you barely notice it’s there. But done badly and it can jar in the most horrible of ways. I recently read a Times review of The Seduction by Joanna Briscoe, which described it as having some of the worst dialogue the reviewer had ever heard. That’s throwing down the gauntlet if ever I heard it. So, this is my choice of the most teeth-clenching dialogue from books I’ve read so far this year.   Patri ..read more