Charlotte Moore
Three fine and subtle novels, all concerned in different ways with the emotional aftermath of the second world war, were Thomas Keneally's The Widow And Her Hero (Sceptre, £16.99), Penelope Lively's Consequences (Fig Tree, £16.99) and Alan Judd's Dancing With Eva (Simon & Schuster, £8.99).
The most striking memoir I read this year was Miranda Seymour's absorbing, chilling account of life in the grip of her father's obsessive delusions of grandeur — In My Father's House (Simon & Schuster, £14.99) Most enjoyable poetry of the year was Simon Armitage's robust reworking of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Faber, £12.99).
Best discovery from the past was Independent People by Haldor Laxness, Iceland's equivalent of Thomas Hardy. It's a magnificent epic about a crofter family in the early 20th century, when life was so harsh that the sight of a dandelion was a cause for celebration (Harvill, £8.99).
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