Here are seven books I love, for Valentine’s Day:
* Pincher Martin by William Golding – for his entirely unexpected ending
* Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine – for her poetic honesty about racism
* Possession by AS Byatt – because Byatt allows her academics to be fully human (they fall in love and make mistakes)
* After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell – her first novel and still, excepting Hamnet, her best
* Beloved by Toni Morrison – for her heartrending story (inspired by a real story) of an enslaved woman haunted by the ghost of the child she killed, so that child couldn’t be enslaved
* Restoration by Rose Tremain – for her poignant evocation of the Time Before, a sane time, before a person succumbs to insanity
* The Passion by Jeanette Winterson – for her passionate fantasy and fantastic passion
A few covers:
And if you love reading (and/or writing) there’s a new competition: the Libraro Prize 2026. Go here, if you’re a writer, to submit work by 16 February (I just have). Go here, if you’re a reader, between 19 February–20 March, to review entries and win a reader prize.
