The Queen’s reading habits are a bit of a mystery beyond her love of the Racing Post, but truckloads of brilliant novels have been published over her 70-year reign. That’s why for a Jubilee special we asked a panel of our critics to whittle them down to their 50 favourite fiction titles from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, from 1952 up to today. The final list might surprise you: from A (Atonement) to Z (Zadie Smith's White Teeth). Here’s one from every decade:
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym (1952)
There’s probably no more perfect comedy in the English language than this droll little novel by the perennially under-read Barbara Pym, writes Claire Allfree. It’s narrated by Mildred Lathbury, a spinster who inhabits a postwar England of boiled eggs and tins of baked beans, of flower arranging and making do, of quietly dashed hopes and gossip about the vicar. As I say, perfect.
Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser (1969)
Harry Flashman was by his own admission “a scoundrel, a liar, a cheat, a thief, a coward and — oh yes, a toady”. But what a man! writes Robbie Millen. What an exemplar of Victorian heroism, of imperial adventure! George MacDonald Fraser’s antihero appeared in 12 funny and historically vivid novels, bonking (or “humping the mutton”, as he’d put it) and biffing his way through scrapes. In this, the first one, despite trying to save his own skin, he accidentally becomes a hero for his role in the 1842 retreat from Kabul.
A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul (1979)
“The world is what it is,” begins VS Naipaul’s great novel of postcolonial Africa, “men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.” Not one of Naipaul’s contemporaries could summon up this tone: unsentimental, unillusioned, tragic. Nor could they summon the ambition: over decades an African state (possibly based on the Congo) collapses into war. Naipaul was born into poverty in Trinidad and ascended the British literary establishment to win the Nobel prize. A Bend in the River is his masterpiece, writes James Marriott.
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst (1988)
The elegiac tale of young William Beckwith’s unlikely friendship with the elderly Lord Nantwich in pre-Aids London is nothing less than a defiant culmination of all the gay literature that had come before: Ronald Firbank, EM Forster and John Rechy (whose City of Night came out in 1963; he’s now 91!). Erudite, erotic and very funny, this astonishing debut immediately felt like an instant classic and so it has triumphantly proved, writes Mark Sanderson.
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding (1996)
Nine stone 3, alcohol units 14, cigarettes 22, calories 5,424, copies sold worldwide 15,000,000. Bridget was the Nineties everywoman, writes Laura Freeman, Lizzie Bennet with a fag and a hangover. Ugh. If the Americans had Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, we had Bridget “Mrs Ironknickers” Jones, who started life as a column in The Independent, railing against smug marrieds, turkey curry buffets and “emotional f***wit” men. Through a haze of chardonnay, pinot grigio and £3.69 sparkling wine from Norway, millions of readers pronounced Bridget’s diary v v v good.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (2009)
“So now get up.” The first words of Hilary Mantel’s epic trilogy about Thomas Cromwell prompt shivers in devotees, writes Antonia Senior. The three books won two Booker prizes and endless accolades. Wolf Hall follows the rise of Cromwell from Cardinal Wolsey's loyal servant to king’s counsellor. Henry, determined to father an heir, turns to the brilliant commoner Cromwell, who suffers his own griefs. Mantel’s depiction of a ruthless but humane politician and his relationship with a capricious king is a masterpiece.
The Past by Tessa Hadley (2015)
The greatest “Hampstead adultery novel” of the 21st century is not set in Hampstead, but in an old country house where an extremely middle-class family have decamped to holiday. They are impelled by sex, family jealousy and the secret of the past. Tessa Hadley’s superb descriptive gift and psychological insight make this book irresistible, writes James Marriott. It’s a special treat to see such convincing 21st-century characters (the LSE student Kasim, the moody teenager Molly) written up by a novelist who has so brilliantly mastered all the old-school tricks.