My best reads of 2025

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Judging by my spreadsheet ‘Books Read in 2025’, I have enjoyed an excellent year whether I’ve been reading for research or reading classics or keeping up with contemporary fiction. Here is a selection of my favourites together with a brief update on my writing year.

I like to start the year with a book of nature writing. To fill this seasonal slot, I read Adam Nicolson’s Life Between the Tides: In Search of Rockpools and Other Adventures Along the Shore. This delightful book helped me to appreciate, more deeply, the inter-tidal zones on the Isle of Bute where I have lived for the past eight years.

Michael Cunningham is a must-read author for me, and his novel Day became another early read in 2025. It did not disappoint. Day is a tender portrayal of love and loss, set during lockdown, and it’s yet another Cunningham masterpiece. I love everything he writes!

As per usual, I look out for novels with a climate/ecological angle. In that field, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed James Bradley’s speculative crime novel Landfall and Christine Lai’s near-future novel, Landscapes. And I read in manuscript E. J. Swift’s When There Are Wolves Again, which is an excellent pairing with her previous novel, The Coral Bones.

I am always drawn to novels with fragmented narratives especially those with a thread of historical fiction (I included a historical storyline in my second novel Sleeping Embers of an Ordinary Mind, and there’s a substantial historical element in my upcoming novel Alston Moor). This year I devoured Sarah Hall’s epic, multi-stranded novel Helm spanning from neolithic to contemporary times. The titular Helm is Britain’s only named wind. I also enjoyed Helen Marshall’s structurally complex novel, The Lady, The Tiger and The Girl Who Loved Death – another book I read in manuscript. The political and propaganda themes in this fantasy novel really drew me in.

Throughout 2025, I’ve found myself committed to reading a mass of non-fiction as research for my current work-in-progress. So, I’ve taken periodic breathers from heavy tomes by reading a number of compelling novellas including Aerth by Deborah Tomkins (winner of the Weatherglass Novella Prize) and The Last To Drown by Lorraine Wilson.

Somewhat belatedly, I read the brilliant, short memoir/travelogue, Orison for a Curlew: In Search of a Bird on the Edge of Extinction by Horatio Clare. An homage to the slender-billed curlew, this is also the human story of the birdwatchers and conservationists who have sighted this near-extinct bird.

Among several other novels I have admired, the ones that stayed with me are One Boat by Jonathan Buckley, and The Headland by Abi Curtis.

Despite the fact I’d finished writing Alston Moor, I have continued reading books relating, one way or another, to that novel. A case in point: prompted by an episode on the Backlisted podcast, I read The Corner That Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner, set in a medieval Norfolk convent. Unputdownable, for me at least!

Following several years of research and drafting, my fifth novel – Alston Moor – will be published in Autumn 2026 by Goldsmiths Press/Gold SF. Edits are now complete and I will be revealing the cover art soon!

Digital Advanced Reader Copies will be available for reviewers from Goldsmiths Press/GoldSF in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I am scouring everyone’s end-of-year roundups to discover must-read books, which will jump to the top of the pile!

Wishing you all an eventful yet peaceful 2026.

Happy reading everyone!

My best reads of 2024

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This year I smashed through all my previous records for number-of-books-read. How did I manage that? Well, I joined the jury for The Kitschies Awards along with Leila Abu El Hawa, Nick Mamatas and Molly Tanzer. Not surprisingly, my best reads of 2024 can be summarised by reminding you of the shortlists. It was such fun to spend the year talking books. And I’m pleased to say that the judges were in very close agreement on the shortlists and winners!

The awards search out progressive, intelligent and entertaining novels with a speculative element. Back in 2014 – a decade ago! – I was bowled over when my novel A Calculated Life was shortlisted for The Kitschies debut award. So, I have a fondness for their shortlists, which invariably bring overlooked books to our attention.

Sadly, this turned out to be the last year of the Kitschies. So, in retrospect, I feel doubly delighted and honoured to have joined the jury for the Red Tentacle (Best Novel) won by Julia by Sandra Newman, and the Golden Tentacle (Best Debut) won by The Centre by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi.

Needless to say, in the course of reading the submissions, I came across a number of speculative novels that made a great impression on me and I can heartily recommend two alternate history novels – Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford and Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. Also, I thoroughly enjoyed the multiverse novel Bridge by Lauren Beukes for its fascinating exploration of a mother-daughter relationship. One of the debut novels that impressed me was Sarah K Jackson’s Not Alone, which combined a post-apocalyptic story with wonderful nature writing.

Beyond reading for the awards, I dipped into non-fiction anthologies and collections for the sake of varying my diet! I adored Hilary Mantel’s A Memoir of My Former Self, which brings together her essays and other non-fiction works including film reviews and her Reith Lectures. I have also appreciated Antlers of Water, Writing on the Nature and Environment of Scotland edited by Kathleen Jamie. Plus Fen, Bog and Swamp by Annie Proulx.

In May, I spent a few sunny days at Hay Literature Festival and caught fascinating talks about bird watching by Hamza Yassin and Mark Cocker. And having already read Cahokia Jazz, I made a bee-line for Francis Spufford’s interview – a totally engaging insight into his research. During October, I visited Wigtown Book Festival in Dumfries and Galloway, and the highlight was a conversation between author Carys Davies and critic Stuart Kelly about Davies’ brilliant historical novel, Clear.

And, most recently, I’ve enjoyed something completely different – Ursula K Le Guin’s generation-starship novella, Paradises Lost.

Two of my favourite novels of 2023 (In Ascension by Martin MacInnes and Orbital by Samantha Harvey) featured this month on Barack Obama’s best reads of the year. Not that I’m suggesting the former president follows my book recommendations! (But let’s see which books he selects next year).

On my bedside table, I have a mountain of books that I simply didn’t have time to read this year. I now want to read them all at the same time! I’m desperate to get to the following, in no particular order:

Curandera by Irenosen Okojie, Parade by Rachel Cusk, 381 by Aliya Whiteley, The Deluge by Stephen Markley, Day by Michael Cunningham, Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood, The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid­, The Work of Art by Adam Moss, The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.

Will I read them all in 2025, or will I be diverted throughout the year, as usually happens, by recommendations from other writers, reviewers and readers? Already I must add Deborah Levy’s The Position of Spoons which I received as a gift – a book I can’t wait to read having devoured all her memoirs to date.

And no doubt when I read other end-of-year lists, my TBR pile will immediately double in height!

Happy reading, everyone! All my best wishes for 2025!