There’s no better time than the winter season to get down with a good book. Perhaps you’re looking for a cosy indoor activity across Christmas – or maybe your resolution for the new year will be to read more and get through a certain number of books each month. But with so many titles released throughout the year – how does one go about choosing?
The Telegraph’s regular book reviewers – as well as writing specialist guides to 2021’s best history, fiction, biographies, crime and other genres – have each put forward their own ranked list of suggestions for the best books of the year. Compiled by the Telegraph Books team from those suggestions, here is our definitive ranking of this year’s essential reading.
Which book would you put at number one? Let us know in the comments section below.
Best books of 2021
75: The Duchess Countess by Catherine Ostler
The story of Elizabeth Chudleigh, the society beauty – inspiration for Vanity Fair – who in 1776 was convicted of bigamy and ran off to Estonia to run a vodka distillery. Read the full review. Buy the book.
74: Letters to Michael by Charles Phillipson
Marvellously decorated with his drawings, the letters the artist Charles Phillipson wrote to his young son in the 1940s are a charming window into a bygone era.
73: 12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson
The novelist’s anarchically playful essays cover the history of computing, AI, “the cloud”, and an imagined future in which sexbots are hacked by feminist programmers. Buy the book.
72: Blood and Ruins by Richard Overy
In a stunning account of the 1930s and the Second World War, Overy frames the events leading up to the conflict as a last-ditch attempt to shore up or remake empires. Buy the book.
71: This Much Is True by Miriam Margolyes
The Harry Potter actress’s memoir is so warm and likeable, so outspoken and full of surprises, that even if you have never heard of her, you will want to read her life story. Read the full review. Buy the book.
70: Little Bear by Richard Jones
The enchanting story of a boy who finds a tiny polar bear at the bottom of his garden. As their bond grows, so does the bear, until the boy accepts that it is time for his friend to go home. Buy the book.
69: Beyond a Fringe by Andrew Mitchell
The MP’s account of “failing upwards” is wonderfully funny. He’s a perfect example of a particular breed of Tory: born to rule, or at least to have a jolly good go at it. Read the full review. Buy the book.
68: The Greatest Adventure by Colin Burgess
A splendidly nerdy history of the golden age of space flight, from the Soviets shocking the world with the launch of Sputnik I to the moon landings. Read the full review. Buy the book.
67: Last Chance Texaco by Rickie Lee Jones
The Grammy-winner casts shade on the famous men in her life, notably Tom Waits, with his sailor hat, pointy shoes and “chafed and childlike nature”. Buy the book.
66: SBS: Silent Warriors by Saul David
David argues that the Special Boat Service (the “Cockleshell Heroes”) changed the course of the Second World War by making D-Day possible. Read the full review. Buy the book.
65: Landslide by Michael Wolff
The last days of Trump’s presidency were the most chaotic of all, as Wolff reveals in the irresistible (though not impartial) final part of the trilogy he began with Fire and Fury. Read the full review. Buy the book.
64: The Aristocracy of Talent by Adrian Wooldridge
A worthy successor to the 1958 classic The Rise of the Meritocracy, this sparkling study shows how much less meritocratic our society has become since then. Read the full review. Buy the book.
63: Rememberings by Sinéad O’Connor
The controversial Irish singer’s stories of maternal abuse would be the stuff of misery memoir if they weren’t related with such eccentric charm and cheery fortitude. Read the full review. Buy the book.
