Cultural Capital: Fiction

Just in case you missed it, buried in the pile of goodies that was our Review of the Decade, here is our list of the top ten books of the past ten years. But what did we miss? Have your say in the comment box below.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)

The definitive post-apocalyptic novel. An unspecified disaster has befallen America, and a father and son wander unconsoled and afraid ... read more

Last week, Warwick University's Writers at Warwick Audio Archive went live. Containing more than 200 recordings of poets, critics, playwrights, journalists, novelists, academics and musicians reading from, and answering questions about, their work, it represents the digital realisation of over 30 years of collaboration and conversation. Researchers will be able to listen to, say, a 1979 recording of Allen Ginsberg (reading with Peter Orlovsky and Tom Pickard at ... read more

At a splendid party last night at the Naval and Military Club in St James's Square, the actor Charles Dance announced the winner of the Literary Review's Bad Sex in Fiction award. The competition was particularly strong this year, with this passage from Philip Roth's The Humbling the ante-post favourite.

There was some talk among veteran observers of the prize that Roth might even be in the running for ... read more

I'll be attending the Literary Review's annual "Bad Sex in Fiction Award" ceremony tomorrow night. You can see the shortlist, which is limited to "redundant passges of sexual description" from "literary novel[s]", as opposed to "pornographic or expressly erotic literature", here.

The smart money is on Philip Roth's novella The Humbling, described by Jason Cowley, in his review of it for the NS, as "an old man's masturbatory fantasy" ... read more

In this week's issue of the NS, our friends and contributors have chosen their favourite books of 2009. Among the titles to have been nominated more than once are Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, Amartya Sen's The Idea of Justice, The Spectre at the Feast by Andrew Gamble, Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, The Defence of the Realm by Christopher Andrew, Ian Jack's The Country Formerly Known ... read more