In between reading work for Spelt, research papers and research books for my current work in project, journals and magazines, I managed to get through fifty poetry, fiction , narrative non fiction and non fiction books this year. In a year that was challenging at times as I dealt with grief around the death of my dad, books became my friends and my escape once again. Thank you to every writer who courageously puts themselves on the page, who creates something amazing out of the sparking of neural pathways in the brain, thank you to those who quietly wait for their books to be noticed, thank you to those who shouted from the roof tops, I salute you. You make the world a better place simply by doing the work that you love. Here are the fifty books I read in 2022:

1. Poetry – Much With Body – Polly Atkin
2. Non fiction – The Diary of Samuel Pepys v. III 1662 – Samuel Pepys
3. Poetry – Are You Listening?- Gill McEvoy
4. Poetry – The Kids – Hannah Lowe
5. Non fiction – The Seven Daughters of Eve – Bryan Sykes
6. Poetry – Litanies – Naush Sabah
7. Poetry – All the Names Given – Raymond Antrobus
8. Fiction – One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Marquez
9. Non Fiction – Meadowland – John Lewis-Stempel
10. Non fiction – The Cure for Sleep – Tanya Shadrick
11. Poetry – Like a Tree Walking – Antony Capildeo
12. Non fiction – Mantel Pieces – Hilary Mantel
13. Poetry – Life’s Stink and Honey – Lynn Valentine
14. Non Fiction – Becoming – Michelle Obama
15. Non Fiction – Why I Write Poetry – Various authors
16. Poetry – Field Requiem – Sheri Benning
17. Non Fiction – Tamed – Professor Alice Roberts
18. Non fiction – Body Positive Power – Megan Jayne Crabbe
19. Poetry – Geography III – Elizabeth Bishop
20. Non fiction – A Journey With Two Maps – Eavan Boland
21. Poetry – Untanglement – Matt Nicholson
22. Non Fiction – Manifesto – Bernardine Evaristo
23. Fiction – Grown Ups – Marian Keys
24. Fiction – Normal People – Sally Rooney
25. Poetry – Shelling Peas with My Grandmother in the Gorgiolands – Sarah Wimbush
26. Non fiction – Madhouse at the End of the Earth – Julian Sancton
27. Poetry – The Battle – Antony Owen
28. Non Fiction – The Living Mountain – Nan Shepherd
29. Poetry – Panic Response – John McCullough
30. Poetry – Girl Parts – Betty Doyle
31. Non Fiction – The Grassling – Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
32. Poetry – The Illustrated Woman – Helen Mort
33. Poetry – 163 Days – Hannah Hodgson
34. Non Fiction – Islands of Abandonment – Cal Flyn
35. Fiction – Black Car Burning – Helen Mort
36. Non fiction/fiction – Wild – Amy Jeffs
37. Non fiction – Fen, Bog & Swamp – Annie Proulx
38. Fiction – The Luckiest Girl Alive – Jessica Knoll
39. Fiction – The Book of Form and Emptiness – Ruth Ozeki
40. Poetry – Following Teisa – Judi Sutherland
41. Poetry – Dust – Kathryn Anna Marshall
42. Poetry – My C&A Years – Roger Waldron
43. Poetry – a girl in a blue dress – Rachel Burns
44. Non fiction – Maid – Stephanie Land
45. Poetry – The Telling – Julia Webb
46. Historical fiction – The Gallows Pole – Benjamin Myers
47. Poetry – Unexhausted Time – Emily Berry
48. Fiction – The Lost Daughter – Elena Ferrante
49. Fiction – Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan
50. Poetry – Bunny Girls – Angela Readman

And my top five books of the year, the books I fell in love with and know that I’ll return to again (in no particular order):

1. Much With Body – Polly Atkin (Poetry)
2. The Cure for Sleep – Tanya Shadrick (Narrative Non Fiction)
3. Mantel Pieces – Hilary Mantel – (Non Fiction)
4. Normal People – Sally Rooney – (Fiction)
5. Why I Write Poetry – Various Authors (Non Fiction)

Happy New Year readers, I can’t wait to start my next book on January 1st. Thanks for reading this blog!

Until next time

x