Julie Burchill
My favourite novels were Dependence Day by Robert Newman (Century, £8.99) and Essays in Love by Alain de Botton (Macmillan, £12.99, Picador, £5.99). In an age when pop stars look like Phil Collins, it is very good to have such an injection of wanton glamour into literature. Both books are extremely funny and sad, like all the best art.
I also loved Alan Clark's Diaries (Phoenix, £6.99), but the audiotape is even better, because you can hear his brilliant voice; half George Sanders, half Uncle Scar from The Lion King.
I discovered this year the Inspector Barnaby books of Caroline Graham. This woman is simply the best detective writer since Agatha Christie, and like Margery Allingham she writes books that are real novels too. They are awash with sex and drugs, so I was shocked to find out that she is in her sixties. These are the sort of books I would like to write when I am old; in the meantime I shall be collecting material
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