1957: Our Man in Havana, Graham Greene
My favourite Greene, The End of the Affair, was published just before Princess Elizabeth’s accession.
1958: The King Must Die, Mary Renault; The Greengage Summer, Rumer Godden
The former is the greatest ever reimagining of the classical world, the second a hugely popular choice with Telegraph readers.
1959: Cider With Rosie, Laurie Lee.
1960: The L-Shaped Room, Lynne Reid Banks; The Country Girls, Edna O’Brien
This was an extraordinary year for ground-breaking novels about women’s lives.
1961: Unconditional Surrender, Evelyn Waugh
This was the final part of his Sword of Honour Trilogy, the greatest fiction to come out of the Second World War.
1962: A Leg At Each Corner – Thelwell’s Complete Guide to Equitation, Norman Thelwell
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, published the same year, is pretty good, but not good enough to overshadow this corker, a book of which the Platinum Jubilee Girl (and lifelong pony rider) would surely approve.
1963: The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark
Spark was on extraordinary fertile form; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was published just two years before.
1964: Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
It’s so hard to pick just one Roald Dahl, but this was your clear favourite.
1965: The World of Jeeves, PG Wodehouse
1966: Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
1967: The Day of the Jackal, Frederick Forsyth
A thriller so good it is still read every bedtime in my house. Although not by me.
1968: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C Clarke
A tough choice, my heart belongs to Kes (A Kestrel for a Knave) by Barry Hines.
