The top ten of everything – Books

What are your ten favourite books of all time? Which is your absolute number one. Here's a starter for ten from my 93 years old bookworm father -in-law, William. Some great books and some real surprises. It was really nice to be able to share this activity with him. He spent the day looking through his book shelves to generate this for us.  

Bill’s favourite fiction of all time

1. Atonement - Ian McEwen
2. Gentleman in Moscow  - Amor Towles
3. An Officer and a Spy – Robert Harris
4. Girl with a Pearl Earring – Tracy Chevalier
5. Waterworld – Graham Swift
6. H is for Hawk – Helen McDonald
7. A Kentish Lad – Frank Muir
8. Double Cross – Ben McIntyre
9. Cider with Rosie – Laurie Lee
10. Far from the Mad in Crowd – Thomas Hardy

Top Choice: Laurie Lee

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Kevin's favourite fiction of all time

1. State of the Art (or anything else) – Iain M Banks
2. The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse  - Charlie Mackesy
3. Lord of the Rings – J. R. R. Tolkien
4. Deathworld (Omnibus is best) – Harry Harrison
5. First Lensman - E E ‘DOC’ Smith (First of the Lensman Series - or read Triplanetary)
6. White Fang – Jack London
7. Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy – John Le Carré
8. Five on a Treasure Island – Enid Blyton
9. To kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
10. This Is the Bear – Sarah Hayes

Top Choice: Charlie Mackesy

Bonus works of fiction that were on the list

1. Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach
2. Animal Farm – George Orwell
3. 1984 – George Orwell
4. Where’s Spot – Eric Hill
5. The 45th Goes on a Virus Hunt – Donald J Trump

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Charlotte's favourite fiction of all time

1. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
2. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
3. Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azar Nafisi
4. Tender is the Night - Scott F. Fitzgerald
5. The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
6. Jazz - Toni Morrison 
7. A Long Long Way - Sebastian Barry
8. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
9. Little Woman - Louisa May Alcott
10. Trumpet - Jackie Kay

Bonus works of fiction on the list

1. David Copperfield - Dickens
2. White Noise - Don Delillo
3. HandMaid’s Tale - Margaret Attwood 

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Conor's list: 

1. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
2. All Quiet on the Western Front -  Erich Maria Remarque
3. Words by Jean-Paul Sartre (biographical not novel)
4. American Psycho - Brett Easton
5. Snow Crash - Neil Stephenson
6. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
7. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
8. A Perfect Spy - John le Carré
9. Flicker - Theodore Roszak
10. When Nietzsche Wept - Irvin Yalom

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More to come ...