Greatest Novels of the 21st Century - Our Favourite Five - Sunday Times 10th August 2025

The Sunday Times of 10th August 2025 featured "Our pick of the top British and Irish fiction of the past 25 years" compiled by Ceci Browning, Laura Hackett, Robbie Millen and Johanna Thomas-Corr. These are their top five, of which I have read all but one. 

No 5   Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

My post of 4th January 2010 extolled the virtues of this book, even though it is not my favourite from this author: 

It is hard to describe Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. In a very original piece of fiction, contemporary England has been changed by just one imagined twist straight out of science fiction. It is memoir written by thirty one year old Kathy, starting with her childhood at the Hailsham school which is her home. There are questions that haunt her friends and the answers are gradually revealed through her lifetime to be not only disturbing, but in the end horrific. I liked the way the narrative was directed firmly at the reader. Kathy says things like " I need to tell you about this, but that will come later". I found the novel to be compelling and shattering. Not for the those of a sensitive nature.

No 4   Atonement by Ian McEwan

I had read this book in 2002, so well before my reviews on this blog or on goodreads. But here is my review of the film on 18th September 2007.

I was so looking forward to "Atonement". The book by Ian McEwan was one of the best I have ever read. But I did wonder how it would translate to the big screen. And then I heard the cast and thought how exactly right that was and I was right. They did not let the film down. Nor did the script, the location photography (especially that in the street outside the cafe where Cecilia and Robbie say goodbye before he goes off to fight in France), the costumes and the music. What did, in my opinion, were the gaps between the dialogue in the first half. There nothing happens. Is it meant to be artistic? If so, it failed, as the pace is already as slow as it could be. It just did not need slowing even further. I wanted to scream "get on with it". The director gets it right in the second half where pictures of Dunkirk and a London hospital are full of action. I think I knew the story and the ending too well to be too critical, but that is probably why I am.

No 3   Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

My post of 14th July 2023 below fails to remind me whether this was truly a great book. May have to read it again to find out.

It's 1985 somewhere in Ireland and times are hard. Bill Furlong has a wife Eileen and five daughters and works hard to keep his coal delivery business afloat. Christmas is coming on fast and last orders have to be made. Crucially to the story, a delivery to the Convent reminds Bill of how lucky his mother was, carrying an illegitimate child and kept on in her position as housekeeper by the kind Mrs Wilson. The girls there are not so lucky. Chapter 4 is ten perfect pages. The next chapter is equally brilliant. At the Mass just before Christmas Bill's mind is filled with the lost girls and their hardship at the Convent, and how his five girls are so lucky compared to them. When it comes to Communion, he "stayed contrarily where he was, his back against the wall". His wife is not sympathetic.

What is he to do? Near the end there is a warning which, at first, I did not understand. But then came one act of kindness which might ruin his family. Now I remember Eileen had also warned him and what would her reaction be to this act of selfishness. This is what so upset me at the end. Not what would happen to Bill but to his family. Thank goodness we never get to know. I actually swore at Bill at the end, how could he do this? His background is no excuse for what I came to believe was a despicable act. Someone says that Bill is as saintly as Atticus Finch. Absolutely the opposite. Another reviewer says "If you had the chance to do the right thing, no matter what the cost, would you do it". For me, this completely misses the point. What if the"right thing" ruins your family? I know what I would do, kick Bill until he realises family comes first.

No 2   The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

My post of the 7th March 2013 seems to give this book a mixed review

It sounded like my kind of book. London in the 1980's and Nick Guest has moved into the West London home of a friend from Oxford, whose father has become one of the new Tory MP's. And The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurts was winner of the 2004 Booker Prize. But had I realised that Nick was gay? I dont think so. But as the story unfolds, his relationships with two men over the decade were actually quite interesting. But what I did find a little tedious were the set piece dinner parties, birthday parties, wedding anniversaries and holidays that seemed to go on forever. So for the second book running (Elizabeth Bowen's The Last September" is the same) there is very little plot. Just the same people meeting and talking. It is difficult to imagine that the Feddens would have accepted Nick so readily into their fold, given the dangerous aspects of his private life and that Gerald Fedden's situation in politics is such a public one. But the members of the family are very well drawn, Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel,son toby and daughter Catherine. Nick seems quite useful to them all in different ways. I do have to give credit to the writing. If it were not for Hollinghurst's prose, I would have given up. But he does write superbly well. In the end, there are events that happen through this pretty long novel, that eventually come to haunt the powerful conclusion. It might just have been better if we did not have to wait so long.

No 1   Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

I loved the TV series, but the book seemed too intimidating. So no review.