Elizabeth Day’s Top Ten
1. Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
I love the panoramic scope of this novel, and the hiss and spit of its fizzing kinetic narrative. Tom Wolfe was the first person who made me realise how you could meld journalistic observation with compelling fiction.
2. Vanity Fair by W. M. Thackeray
In many ways, I see this as a precursor to Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities: equally panoramic in scope, but set in 19th century London rather than 20th century New York. Thackeray writes with buoyant humour and pace, and his insight into character is just so good. Becky Sharp is one of the most memorable (anti-) heroines I've ever read. You can't help but root for her despite her scheming.
3. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
An epic story, told through heartbreaking characters that asks important questions about race and love and loss.
4. Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
Everything Tyler writes is an exquisite observation into the human condition. She elevates the mundane with every sentence. This - an examination of a long marriage during a long road-trip - is no exception.
5. The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard
A quintet of novels spanning the changing fortunes of an upper-middle class family during and after World War II. A moving, involving and beautifully observed story told from multiple viewpoints by a writer who seeks to understand, never to judge.
6. The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
Published in 1936, but in so many ways a quintessentially modern novel about a woman who chafes against the restrictions of family and society. Its depiction of a back-street abortion is unforgettable.
7. Mrs Jordan's Profession by Claire Tomalin (literally any biography by Claire Tomalin tbh)
Tomalin writes biographies as gripping as thrillers - this one, about the long-term mistress of King William IV is one of my favourites for the sensitive and empathetic way in which Tomalin places Dorothy Jordan back at the centre of a history which had sidelined her.
Smith turns her novelist's eye to one area of London and writes a story that is poetically expressed, philosophical and explores the shifting social demographics in a way that never stops being riveting.
9. Good and Mad by Rebecca Traister
A history of women's anger that changed my mindset. Traister encourages us to reclaim female anger as a force for meaningful change in an erudite polemic.
10. The Neapolitan Quartet by Elena Ferrante
I adore Elena Ferrante for bringing overlooked female narratives to the fore and for her continued refusal to play by the rules. This quartet takes as its subject a lifelong female friendship, with all its attendant passions and rivalries: a subject that has never before been given its due in quite this way.