My favourite novel of the year (so far)

And my fave non-fiction

May 03, 2025

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I KNOW, I KNOW. It’s only (barely) May, so round-ups of the year feel somewhat premature. But I’ve read two brilliant books lately and wanted to share them. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

My favourite novel of 2025 so far…

I’m a sucker for a country house drama. Like the majority of Britons, I lap up Agatha Christie and Jane Austen adaptations on telly and gorged on Bridgerton and Downton Abbey.

I read Brideshead Revisited in my first term at university and wondered why I couldn’t find a handsome rich man to drive me out to his country pile when I bunked off lectures. (Applications still open.) I once spent an entire Christmas with my family watching the 1980s TV adaptation; we were sitting in front of the fire with port and Christmas cake, watching them drink port in front of a (rather grander) fire.

Albion by Anna Hope — my favourite novel of the year so far (though the delightful Three Days in June by Anne Tyler comes a very close second) — gives the country house novel a very modern twist.

The action takes place over the course of a weekend, as the Brooke family return to the family seat to bury its patriarch. No member of the tribe has an uncomplicated relationship with any other member, including the man they’re about to lay to rest. So far, so Waugh.

But what gives Albion its punch is its deft deployment of a familiar, bucolic setting to tackle some of the big themes of our time, particularly race and the extent of our duty to the environment.

Frannie, who stands to inherit, is determined to let nothing get in the way of her plan to continue her father’s vast rewilding project on the sprawling estate. But when a final mourner arrives, the family is at last forced to confront a hidden (or consciously overlooked) history that sheds sinister light on the foundations beneath the Sussex sandstone.

This is a wonderful family drama that asks big questions about what we owe the past — and the future.

And my favourite non-fiction of 2025…

Is This Working? by Charlie Colenutt (which I’ve already written about here) remains my favourite hardback non-fiction of the year. It’s an engrossing look at the world of work, told through the words of dozens of workers describing their jobs. It’s packed with telling details and revealing anecdotes that make it a fun — as well as thought-provoking — read.

But my favourite paperback, just out this week, is without doubt Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman.

It was a real treat to host Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, at Backstory this week to talk about the book and his philosophy of “imperfectionism”.

The book is stuffed full of Burkeman’s wisdom on leading a more fulfilled life, from the benefits of keeping a “done list” rather than/as well as a “to do” one to the surprising amount that can be achieved in three to four hours of focussed work a day.

It’s also chock full of wisdom Burkeman has amassed from others, including this lovely quote from the entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson: “Most successful people are just a walking anxiety disorder harnessed for productivity.”

I’d highly recommend the book to any fellow perfectionists. As I admitted to Burkeman, after reading the book twice, I am now berating myself for failing to be perfectly imperfect.

If you’d like me to share the recording of our conversation, just reply to this email.

You can pick up any of the books mentioned above in the bookshop. If you’d like me to reserve you a copy to “click and collect”, just reply to this email. Or if you live further afield, you can order them from our website.

Want more Backstory?

Come to one of our events.
Request a book to pick up in the shop (we can usually get a book for the next day)
Order a book from our website

Happy reading,

Tom

P.S. Furzedown LitFest is a local community book festival on 10th May, just across the common from Backstory. Come and celebrate literature with writers and journalists including John Crace, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, Gordon Corera, Saima Mir, Michael Donkor, Nicola Williams, Maryam Moshiri, Tom Newlands, Alice Hattrick, Zoe Williams, and more. There are also events for children. Head here for more information and to grab your tickets.