Pigeon English, We Had It So Good and Must You Go, My Life With Harold Pinter

The common denominator for these three books? They all end with a death. Apart from that, they are all excellent.

Though shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2011, the subject matter for Stephen Kellman's first novel Pigeon English was not at all encouraging. Being narrated by an eleven year old immigrant boy growing up in a poor high rise flat in London (think "Attack The Block"), it would normally be a book I would never consider. How wrong can you be. When I read the first page, I knew immediately I was in for a treat. The whole novel is both funny and shattering at the same time. Peppered with "innits" and "advise yourself", we come across some extraordinary characters in and out of school. The dialogue between Harrison and his older sister Lydia is some of the funniest I have read for a long time. Lydia: "Get out of my face now, you're vexing me" - Harrison: "Well your face is vexing me, fish lips".

From boyhood in suburban Los Angeles to a prosperous adult life in north London via a wasted Rhodes scholarship at Oxford, the story of Stephen Newman and his family, which straddles the 20th and 21st centuries, is  always fascinating. We Had It So Good is Linda Grant's fifth novel and as the title says, how lucky we were to have been born in the baby boomer years (although I am slightly older). Although Stephen's wife's best friend Grace may be the exception. Told chronologically, it is fascinating to see how their lives change, and how Stephen and Andrea's children grow up to become nothing like their parents. Grant is an excellent writer, and the book is always interesting. But I'm glad I never did drugs in the sixties.

I had forgotten that Antonia Fraser had written a memoir of her life with Harold Pinter. So when I opened a present from our neighbours at Christmas and found Must You Go, I was both surprised and delighted. It is actually a wonderful story of their thirty three years together. What started as an affair in 1975 became a marriage which is described as a wonderful love story until Harold's death in 2008. The book is based on Antonia's diaries, and these are quoted verbatim with occasional recollections to fill in the gaps. Harold was already 44 when they met, and Antonia two years younger. They both had children from their first marriages. So Harold was in his prime as a playwright, and his fame was spreading. I had not realised that he also directed many plays by other writers and wrote many film screenplays including "The Servant", "The Go-Between", "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "The Handmaid's Tale". Antonia was also a highly regarded historian and her biographies of Mary Queen of Scots and others were best sellers. So they obviously moved in theatrical and  literary circles, and their encounters such eminent figures as Samuel Beckett (who I had not realised also directed plays) are amazing. Melvyn Bragg gives a dinner at The Garrick Cub where Harold meets David Cornwell (John Le Carre), my favourite modern playwright and novelist. Harold also met Alun Owen (see Memories of Mum and Dad). The later years are not so enjoyable a read, from when Harold is diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in 2001. Although he recovers, he has medical problems from then on, and Antonia does not spare us the detail. But they still enjoy some happy times together, the celebration after Harold's award of the Nobel Prize is a highlight of the whole book. I was enthralled throughout.