Books of the Year 2024
Another year, another 70 or so books read. Perhaps I should get out more? I do get out, but I always take a book with me, often I come home with several more.
I’ve changed the criteria this year for my top six, basically anything I’ve read in the last 12 months, some published in 2024, others not, but none by Nancy Mitford. Unusual for me, but there’s time yet for her 1932 festive farce, Christmas Pudding (again). I did read Wait for Me!, one of several memoirs by Nancy’s youngest sister Deborah Mitford. Debo was the Mitford sister who was neither a fascist nor a commie, merely dead posh. The book is dreadful, but I struggled through for titbits about dear Nancy. Anyway, onwards …
The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe, Viking (2024)
This is a crime novel but a crime novel written by Jonathan Coe so there’s a lot more to it than simply guessing whodunit. It’s not obvious from the off that that is what we’re dealing with anyway and, stylistically there are three distinct parts told by separate characters in different styles. It’s set during the recent period of history when Liz Truss was PM and HRH QE2 died, so, a short window. But a lot is packed in: politics (obviously), social commentary, academia, mansplaining and he manages to shoehorn in a pastiche of himself.
Jonathan Coe always comes over as avuncular but underneath that calm exterior there is genuine anger at the state of our country and his targets here - the Tories, free market capitalism, our crumbling transport system, the NHS, privilege - remain as they have been since his 1994 breakthrough novel What A Carve Up!
Hugely entertaining. My book of the year.
The Perfect Golden Circle by Benjamin Myers, Bloomsbury (2022)
My introduction to Benjamin Myers was the TV adaption of his novel The Gallows Pole, a grim story of coin clipping in the 18th century Yorkshire. Having watched that, I binged on Byers’ novels, Beastings, The Offing and, published this year, Rare Singles, a charming story of a forgotten Chicago singer making a comeback at a Scarborough soul weekender.
But the book that I loved the most - and can see myself re-reading - was The Perfect Golden Circle. Set in the long hot summer of 1989, Myers introduces us to Falklands veteran Calvert and hallucinogenic-taking punk outsider Redbone, the ultimate odd couple. The only thing that draws them together is the planning and creating of crop circles, which, as the summer progresses get evermore elaborate and ambitious.
There’s a weird combination in this novel of the mystical and a rural England lost, even if only a rural England of 35 years ago. Beautiful.
Stargazing by Peter Hill, Canongate (2003)
The book is subtitled “Memoirs of a Young Lighthouse Keeper” and that’s exactly what it is. Sometimes, straightforward storytelling works best.
In 1973 Peter Hill was 19 and an art student in Dundee. “Everyone had plans in those days. They were of course based on a full-employment economy. Don’t try this at home if you were born any time after 1970. Stress had not yet been invented and wouldn’t catch on in Scotland until well into the Eighties.” Hill wrote to the Commissioners of the Northern Lights asking if they took on student lighthouse keepers over the summer, had an interview and got the gig.
He describes how his summer spent on the islands of Pladda, Ailsa Craig and, finally, Hyskeir weren’t quite “the romantic notion of sitting on a rock, writing haikus and dashing off the occasional watercolour”. However, it transpired to be the experience of a lifetime. Loneliness is rarely mentioned - there were always three keepers on each lighthouse - and he expresses great sadness that all Scottish lighthouses have since been automated. The book is dedicated to “The Last Lighthouse Keeper - wherever you are, Shine on Brightly …” And yeah, as you might expect, the memoir is peppered with late 60s and early 70s music references.
Johnson’s Tour of the Hebrides by James Boswell, Blackie and Son (1785)
I stumbled across this looking for something else. It belonged to my mother. Her name is on the inside cover as is the date she bought it: January 1947.
Slightly to my surprise, I can report that this book is superb. Of course it is: James Boswell’s account of his 1773 tour of Scotland with English writer Dr Samuel Johnson is widely regarded as one of the best pieces of travel writing ever produced. Again, sometimes straightforward storytelling works best.
Their escapades in Edinburgh, St Andrews, Aberdeen and Inverness as they make their way to the Highlands are frequently hilarious. But what caught my interest was when the two of them reach the Western Isles, islands that I have visited in recent years, Skye, Raasay, Mull and Iona. Travelling to those islands can be a bit of a hassle now but 250 years ago with no ferries, no cars, no Skye Bridge, it was really tough. A rowing boat and horses was the best that was on offer, and, aged 63, Dr Johnson was no longer a young man. This was quite the adventure.
Can’t remember now what the “something else” was I looking for, but nice to find things by chance.
Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin, Chatto & Windus (2024)
Lauren Elkin is a New Yorker who lived in Paris for 20 years but now lives in London. Her 2021 book No. 91/92: A Diary of a Year on the Bus was exactly that ie a diary written on her iPhone during her regular commute to and from her work in Paris.
Although Scaffolding is a work of fiction, fixed spatial limitations are again a theme, with the majority of the action taking place in a Parisian apartment. However, there is a double narrative, a time shift, two young couples occupying the same apartment almost 50 years apart. In 2019, Anna, a psychoanalyst on leave from work after a recent miscarriage, her husband David working in London. And in 1972 Florence, finishing her degree in psychology while hoping to get pregnant, her husband, Henry, who doesn’t much want a baby, unsure if even wants Florence. Both couples are making alterations to the apartment too.
In truth - like all the best French films - nothing much happens. But beautifully written and, as an exploration of the dynamics of relationships, very perceptive.
Killing Time by Alan Bennett, Faber & Faber (2024)
One of the joys of the London Review of Books (aside from that rarest of occasions, coming across an actual review of a book) is the annual reading of extracts from Alan Bennett’s diaries. This is a tradition that has been ongoing since 1982 but last year, nothing. The author, playwright and screenwriter had written to the LRB to say that “his life is so dull he won’t inflict it on LRB readers. If it suddenly gets more interesting he promises he’ll let us know.”
So, the appearance of a new novella, Killing Time, earlier this month was a surprise gift to those of us who had perhaps given up hope of reading anything new by Bennett. With a red cover, white lettering, and an illustration of a perfume bottle you might be duped into thinking that this is a cosy Christmas yarn. But look more closely at that gold motif on the bottle - a hammer and sickle - and remember, this is Alan Bennett.
Set in a council home for the elderly during the Covid pandemic this is a darkly comic tale, full of trademark dialogue and observations from Bennett. At just over 100 pages, reading it won’t kill much time but dull it is not.
As ever, if you’re buying any of these books, shop local. My favourites in Edinburgh are Edinburgh Bookshop, Toppings and Portobello Bookshop. For second-hand books, Tills at the east side of the Meadows and also in Portobello is good. All of them need the business more than Amazon. Happy reading! 🎄