The 50 best books of 2018
From page-turners to poetry, sport to science, our critics pick the perfect gift for every reader
For 20% off all these titles from Telegraph Books call 0844 871 514 or see books.telegraph.co.uk/christmas
50. A First Book of the Sea by Nicola Davies (Walker)
This picture book, gloriously illustrated by Emily Sutton, contains 50 poems which each capture a particular seaside excitement.
49. London Rules by Mick Herron (John Murray)
The latest of Herron’s hilarious Slough House novels finds the disgraced spies labouring to foil a plot to assassinate a populist politician.
48. Why We Get the Wrong Politicians by Isabel Hardman (Atlantic)
This riveting study explains the flaws in the political system that mean we are left with MPs who so often disappoint us. Read the full review
47. The Beautiful Cure by Daniel M Davis (Bodley Head)
We all think we know how the immune system works, roughly. This exciting and elegant book on new discoveries shows how wrong we were. Read the full review
46. Being John Lennon by Ray Connolly (W&N)
Connolly draws on his archive conversations with the Beatles to give a superb portrait of a dissatisfied star who couldn’t stop reinventing himself.
45. Fear by Dirk Kurbjuweit (Orion)
This supremely skilful crime novel sees a German family so terrorised by a neighbour that planning his murder seems the sanest response.
44. Ruby in the Ruins by Shirley Hughes (Walker)
The poignant tale of a girl in blitzed-out London, reunited with her father for VE Day, written and illustrated by the creator of Dogger.
43. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (Raven)
A man wakes up in a different body each day in this crime-novel sci-fi mash-up.
42. The Only Girl by Robin Green (Virago)
A sharp exposé of life as the lone female journalist at Rolling Stone in the early Seventies, complete with sex, drugs and wild discrimination.
41. Letters Home: 1936-77 by Philip Larkin (Faber)
The poet’s letters to his family (chiefly, to his mother Eva) paint a vividly enjoyable picture of chilly houses, disgusting food and his own tender side. Read the full review
40. Kudos by Rachel Cusk (Faber)
The concluding novel in Cusk’s trilogy about Faye, a surrogate for herself, is delivered in her customary vodka-clear prose, with a hint of artifice. Read the full review
39. Into the Jungle by Katherine Rundell (Macmillan)
In this superb prequel to The Jungle Book, Mowgli’s friends reveal their pasts: Mother Wolf was a famous fighter, Bagheera was born captive.
38. A Boy in the Water by Tom Gregory (Particular)
This evocative memoir recounts an agonising, hallucination-filled 12-hour swim across the English Channel in 1988, when Gregory was just 11 years old.
37. The Reading Cure by Laura Freeman (W&N)
A recovering anorexic records in this sparkling memoir how books restored her appetite to try things, like “saffron buns on a walk with Laurie Lee”. Read the full review
36. Invisible Agents by Nadine Akkerman (OUP)
A revelatory study of the 17th-century Englishwomen who began as “mere couriers” of secrets, then ended up as full-blown spies. Read the full review
35. Left Bank by Agnès Poirier (Bloomsbury)
In Fifties Paris, de Beauvoir and Sartre, Picasso and Giacometti (and other greats) chatted in the same few cafés. Poirier brings their scene to life. Read the full review
34. A Treachery of Spies by Manda Scott (Bantam)
One of the year’s best spy thrillers combines a wartime SOE operation with a present-day murder case linked to the French Resistance.
33. I am the Seed that Grew the Tree ed Fiona Waters (Nosy Crow)
A sumptuous anthology of nature poems for every day of the year, drawn from writers as various as Wordsworth and Updike.
32. An Inconvenient Death by Miles Goslett (Head of Zeus)
Goslett’s well-researched book about the death in 2003 of the weapons expert Dr David Kelly raises troubling questions about abuse of process.
31. People Like Us by Caroline Slocock
Slocock was Margaret Thatcher’s private secretary for her last 18 months in office, and gives a rivetingly fresh portrait of life behind the scenes. (Biteback) Read the full review
30. Thomas Cromwell by Diarmaid MacCulloch (Allen Lane)
The Tudor minister brought to fictional life in Wolf Hall is given a definitive scholarly treatment in this long-awaited, masterful, wry biography. Read the full review
29. The Letters of Sylvia Plath, vol II: 1956-1963 ed Steinberg and Kukil (Faber)
Written in the last seven years of Plath’s short life, these candid letters record her growing fame, and domestic anxieties. Read an excerpt
28. The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran (Faber)
In this beautifully written and splendidly weird thriller, the private eye Claire DeWitt hunts as many existential truths as criminals.
27. First Prize for the Worst Witch by Jill Murphy (Puffin)
40 years after Mildred Hubble first appeared, Murphy delivers the seventh and final tale in her beloved series, with a happy ending at last in sight.
26. The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton (Picador)
The Antipodean novelist’s tale of a teenager on the run over the vast saltlands of Western Australia is a visceral story of survival.
25. Francis by Ann Wroe (Jonathan Cape)
The ever-inventive biographer retells the life of Francis of Assisi in deft, lyrical rhyming verse, alongside lines from the saint’s companions and earliest biographers. Read the full review
24. Coal Black Mornings by Brett Anderson (Little, Brown)
For an antidote to drug-fuelled destruction, try the Suede frontman’s memoir of his days as “a snotty, sniffy boy... raised on salad cream”.
23. Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking (John Murray)
In this posthumously published gem, the physicist gives his predictions for Earth over the next 1,000 years. Read the full review
22. Don’t Call us Dead by Danez Smith (Chatto)
This Forward Prize-winning poetry collection opens with a Miltonic vision of an afterlife for black boys. It might just be the year’s best poem. Read the full review
21. The Quest for Queen Mary ed Hugo Vickers (Hodder)
A magnificently gossipy edition of James Pope-Hennessy’s spiky, hitherto unseen notes for the official life of Queen Mary that he wrote in the Fifties. Read the full review
20. Circe by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury)
Casting the witch goddess in the Odyssey not as a bit player in a man’s epic but as the star of her own show, this lissom novel is a triumph.
19. Soho in the Eighties by Christopher Howse (Bloomsbury)
Howse’s extremely funny, neatly observed memoir is about the “menagerie of monsters” who drank themselves to oblivion in the pubs of Soho. Read the full review
18. The Spy who Changed History by Svetlana Lokhova (William Collins)
An immaculate study of a Soviet spy-ring in the Thirties which helped to close the superpower technology gap. Read the full review
17. Darwin Comes to Town by Menno Schilthuizen (Quercus)
Evolution is happening in cities, at unsuspected speeds – each London Tube line now has its own species of mosquito, this riveting book reveals.
16. Yes to Europe! by Robert Saunders (CUP)
A revelatory look at the 2016 Brexit vote through the prism of Britain’s 1975 referendum on the same question, showing how much things had changed. Read the full review
15. Berlin 1936 by Oliver Hilmes (Bodley Head)
This engrossing, anecdote-filled study shows how the Nazis tried to present Germany’s best (and most Aryan) face to the world at their Olympics.
14. Mud by Emily Thomas (Andersen)
Set in the late Seventies and semi-autobiographical, this funny and moving Young Adult novel tells the story of life on a dilapidated barge.
13. City Without Stars by Tim Baker (Faber)
A grim but unputdownable thriller set in Mexico, where the homicide rate is so high that a prolific serial killer goes nearly unnoticed.
12. The Language of Kindness by Christie Watson (Chatto & Windus)
The novelist’s memoir of her years as an NHS nurse is a masterclass in how to count your blessings when really you want to cry. Read the full review
11. Jinx by Abigail Parry (Bloodaxe)
Monsters, masquerades and B-movie stars are all serenaded in infectious rhythm and rhyme in the year’s most exciting poetry debut. Read the full review
10. My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen (Blink)
Filled with hair-raising revelations and blunt self-criticisms, Allen delivers one of the most remarkable pop star memoirs of the decade. Read the full review
9. Churchill by Andrew Roberts (Allen Lane)
This superb Life is the sort of biography that Churchill himself would have wanted: colossal, energetic, learned, critical and in places deliciously funny. Read the full review
8. Normal People by Sally Rooney (Faber)
Rooney’s tale of two students and their fluctuating romance lacks the bravura of her hit debut Conversations with Friends, but is still the year’s most deeply enjoyable novel. Read the full review
7. The Skylark’s War by Hilary McKay (Macmillan)
A standout among recent Young Adult books about the First World War is this beautifully unravelled family saga about three cousins.
6. Snap by Belinda Bauer (Black Swan)
The most out-and-proud crime novel ever to be nominated for the Booker, Bauer’s latest thriller is a tender, hilarious, multi-stranded mystery.
5. The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis (Allen Lane)
American bureaucracy sounds a dry topic, but what The Big Short author has unearthed about Trump’s administration will set your hair on end. Read the full review
4. The Re-Origin of Species by Torill Kornfeldt (Scribe)
This beautifully written and perceptive book examines the science of bringing creatures like the dodo and woolly mammoth back from extinction.
3. The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy (Hamish Hamilton)
A miraculously crisp memoir in which the novelist picks apart the strangeness of ending a marriage and starting a new life aged 50.
2. A Certain Idea of France by Julian Jackson (Allen Lane)
Charles de Gaulle and his fanatical devotion to his country are anatomised to the point of brilliance in this truly great biography. Read the full review
1. Warlight by Michael Ondaatje (Jonathan Cape)
Our book of the year – and maybe of Ondaatje’s career – this is both a terrifically tense spy thriller and a delicate coming-of-age tale. Read the full review
For 20% off all these titles from Telegraph Books call 0844 871 514 or see books.telegraph.co.uk/christmas
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