Tis the season when the papers are filled with people listing their favourite books of the year. Which makes sense. Not only because people are looking for gift ideas, but because now’s the time when you think about curling up by a cracking fire with a nice cup of tea and a good book. So I’m going to list a few of my own favourite books, though not especially ones I read this year. Just books I loved and continue to love, even if I haven’t read them in decades. Books that for one reason or another are special to me. Some are adult books; some are kids’ books. And I’m not listing them in any kind of order, just as they occur to me.

CHARLOTTE’S WEB by E. B. White

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller

Just about anything by Kurt Vonnegut.

Ditto Charles Dickens.

The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary.

I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith.

LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott.

CARBONEL KING OF THE CATS by Barbara Sleigh.

STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG by Kate Atkinson

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF The DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon

Every Sherlock Holmes story written by Arthur Conan Doyle.

C. J. Sansom’s Shardlake mysteries.

MIDDLEMARCH by George Eliot.

THE MOONSTONE by Wilkie Collins.

The BOTTLE FACTORY OUTING by Beryl Bainbridge.

A PATCHWORK PLANET by Anne Tyler.

THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING by T. H. White.

THE EDIBLE WOMAN by Margaret Atwood

Get that fire going and have a jolly holly time!