READ AND BE MERRY

Leading authors from Ben Elton to Lisa Jewell and David Baldacci share their favourite books of 2025 with MATT NIXSON

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covering pretty much any subject you desire.

A tour-de-force fantasy that delivers. The Land of Sweet Forever by Harper Lee (Cornerstoner) is a collection of stories and essays by the Mockingbird author. Lee’s skill is so seamless and effortless that it seems easy to replicate... until you try to do so. She brings heart and clarity and conviction with each word, paragraph and character sketch. If this is the last we see of this dearly departed writer’s work, it was a poignant finale.”

Emma Curtis, whose latest book is The Psychiatrist (Atlantic), says: “The colossal frustrations of Campbell Flynn are so acutely observed by Andrew O’Hagan it’s painful. Caledonian Road (Faber) explores privilege, poverty, hubris and a spectacular fall from grace. Astonishing! Prima Facie by Suzie Miller (Cornerstone) is the story of a young barrister who defends victims of sexual assault and becomes one herself. Intense and emotionally intelligent, this gripped me from page one.”

Ajay Chowdhury, whose new Kamil Rahman thriller, The Shadow (Vintage), is published in paperback in January, says: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares (Vintage) argues that we are wholly unprepared for machines that outthink us. Maybe the aliens who will eventually wipe us out are not ones from outer space but machines we are creating ourselves. Although occasionally stretching credulity, it’s a provocative warning that one hopes is not too late to heed. For relief from dystopian futures, Clown Town (John Murray), the latest in Mick Herron’s Slough House series, is an absolute riot. As Lamb (who plumbs ever-increasing depths of disgustingness) and Diana Taverner career towards their inevitable, delicious confrontation, Herron’s gift for dryly hilarious dialogue and ability to veer seamlessly from laughter to chills remains unmatched.”

Former policeman G D Wright