The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard: 'The literary world's best kept secret' The Times Kick the Latch A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing Sheep's Clothing
Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor The Shutter of Snow (Faber Editions): 'Extraordinary.' Lucy Ellmann Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard: 'The literary world's best kept secret' The Times
Kick the Latch A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing Sheep's Clothing Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor
The Shutter of Snow (Faber Editions): 'Extraordinary.' Lucy Ellmann Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard: 'The literary world's best kept secret' The Times Kick the Latch

Books of the Year 2023

By Adelle Stripe

Books of the Year 2023

By Adelle Stripe
The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard: 'The literary world's best kept secret' The Times

The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard: 'The literary world's best kept secret' The Times

Jo Ann Beard

£17.99 £17.09

This year's major discovery is courtesy of Serpent's Tail, who have published (incredibly, for the first time in the UK) the writings of Jo Ann Beard. Her low-key, understated prose has immense power, and is one of the finest collections of creative non-fiction I have come across in recent years. Filled with poetic observations, deeply humane characters, and a sense of wonder, these snapshots of small-town life are brimming with pathos and unexpected moments. One for fans of Raymond Carver, Lucia Berlin or Eileen Myles.

Kick the Latch

Kick the Latch

Kathryn Scanlan

£9.99 £9.49

Is there a better emerging writer than Kathryn Scanlan in the US right now? I doubt it. This moving, devastating account (an oral history told through vignettes) tells the story of one woman's life as a horse trainer. It is bruising, exhilarating and a masterclass in economic writing. Reminiscent of Steinbeck, and to a lesser extent, the work of Harry Crews, this visceral account of blue collar womanhood is one the most original novels I have read this year. I have bought copies for all of my friends, who have bought copies for theirs, ad infinitum. Kick the Latch is a word-of-mouth sensation in our neighborhood and Scanlan deserves to win every prize going. She is a formidable talent and I cannot wait to see what she writes next.

A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing

A Memoir of My Former Self: A Life in Writing

Hilary Mantel

£25.00 £23.75

An absolute essential read for all Mantel fans. Containing her Reith Lectures, film and literary reviews, and unpublished offcuts, each page glimmers with her perfectly polished sentences, resolute opinions and hilarious digs at those who did not pass muster. Like her finest creation, Thomas Cromwell, Mantel broke into the establishment, and got away with saying what could not be said. She was by many lengths, the greatest working-class writer of her generation.

Sheep's Clothing

Sheep's Clothing

Celia Dale

£9.99 £9.49

A late contender in this year's list, congratulations go to Daunt Books for republishing this menacing account of two female ex-cons and their devious quest to earn money. Celia Dale's final novel explores moral bankruptcy, the cruelty of women, and digs beneath the façade of respectability. I couldn't stop reading it. Brilliant writing.

Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Roger Lewis

£12.99 £12.34

This bitter, brutal and belligerent account of the doomed romance of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton took Roger Lewis 13 years to write. At 605 pages in length, I wasn't convinced that a subject I had no interest in could hold my attention. Don't be put off by its length. This eviscerating biography doesn't hold back, Lewis digs deep into the murkiness of celebrity, and not only seems to despise this odious pair, but also takes every other published work on the subject to task. Hilarious, scathing and bitchy in parts, deeply moving, tender and empathetic in others, Erotic Vagrancy is a highly entertaining read.

The Shutter of Snow (Faber Editions): 'Extraordinary.' Lucy Ellmann

The Shutter of Snow (Faber Editions): 'Extraordinary.' Lucy Ellmann

Emily Holmes Coleman

£9.99 £9.49

‘The only thing to do is to put hammers in the porridge and when there are enough hammers we shall break down the windows and all of us shall dance in the snow’. Written in 1930, and set within the walls of Gorestown State Hospital, this unsettling novel is told from the perspective of an asylum patient, who alternates between her perceived friends and enemies, and runs from the secrets she holds inside. Told in breathtaking modernist prose, The Shutter of Snow could easily have been written today. The writing is fresh, haunting and impossible to shake off. I am still thinking about it months after completion.

Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors

Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors

Ian Penman

£12.99 £12.34

Ian Penman is one of the UK's most respected music writers. His deeply considered, expansive takes on culture are artfully rendered, and if facts are hidden within, then the reader barely notices. Fassbinder Thousands of Mirrors is an extended essay / meditation on the German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder displayed as a numbered list, with a memoir about Penman’s early life discretely lurking as a subtext. Described as a ‘melodrama, cold war thriller, drug memoir, essay in fragments, and mystery,’ this is a bold and experimental approach to biography. By the closing pages, there is no solid conclusion, although the influence of Fassbinder’s films (and the setting of post-war Berlin) is a constant presence in Penman’s creative life.