C&TH’s Must-Read Books Of 2026
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26 minutes ago
C&TH friends and contributors single out their favourite reads of the year
2026 has been a brilliant year for books – and, in fact, their on-screen adaptations – from a satirical thriller about a ‘tradwife’ influencer to a gripping true story about the dark side of London’s riches – and so much more. To celebrate a standout year in publishing, our editors, contributors and friends of the magazine share their favourite reads of 2026. Browse their picks for something to nestle up with through the winter months – or the perfect present for a loved one this Christmas.
The Best Books Of 2026
Cat and Mouse
Günter Grass
Harland Miller, Artist & Writer
I was swimming in the sea in Norfolk this autumn and came across a WW2 bomb, which coloured this book for me. Set between the wars in a coastal town in Poland, it is a portrait of a local kid who becomes a hero when he swims out to a semi-submerged minesweeper. He makes himself at home in the Captain’s cabin amid Cuban cigars and a gramophone. No spoilers but it’s a wonderful read. (Vintage, £9.99)
Black Bag
Luke Kennard
Vassi Chamberlain, Journalist & Editor
The second I finished this, I re-read it. It reimagines the ‘mere-exposure’ experiment carried out by Charles Goetzinger, an Oregon State University professor in 1967, who engaged a student to attend classes dressed in a black bag with only his feet showing for a whole semester. Over the period, his students’ reactions turned from hostility to acceptance and then friendship. Original, clever, hilarious and viscerally moving. (John Murray, £18.99)
The Correspondent
Virginia Evans
Emma Barnett, Broadcaster, Journalist & Writer
This book, which won this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, made me want to letter-write again and become as formidable as the 73-year-old protagonist – the flawed but stunning Sybil Van Antwerp. It’s divine. (Penguin, £9.99)
All About My Mother: A Memoir of Diana Rigg
Rachael Stirling
Caitlin Moran, Journalist & Writer
Rachael is an actress and also, it turns out, an incredible writer. It’s a dazzling book about Diana Rigg being your mother, and the complex relationship between mothers and daughters. It’s so full of brilliant filth and scurrilous, incredibly truthful, gossip. Everybody I’ve given it to has adored it. (John Murray Press, £25)
My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein
Deborah Levy
Belinda Bamber, C&TH Book Reviewer & Journalist
This is a beguiling trip to Montparnasse in the company of Levy’s clever and entertaining auto-fictional narrator. It’s not just her vignettes about Stein sitting for Picasso and breaking the mould for women in writing, art and sex, but also how those stories spill into her new friendships. One to share with your own clever, funny, bookish friends. (Hamish Hamilton, £18.99)
Man & Dog / London Falling
Tony Parsons / Patrick Radden Keefe
Dylan Jones, Journalist, Writer & Editor
I have two: London Falling is a not as comprehensive as Patrick’s earlier work, but it’s a modern day parable every Londoner should read. Man & Dog is a love story like no other, a book which doesn’t resort to anthropomorphic tropes but will leave you weeping, as it did me. (DK Red, £20; Pan Macmillan, £22)
John of John
Douglas Stuart
Lisa Armstrong, Fashion Director, The Telegraph
Any book described as bleak goes on my slush pile, but you know how bossy a book club can be; this is when bossy book clubs are a gift from on high. Immersive, beautifully written with a heart so big it ended up swelling the bleak-averse one in me. Stuart is brilliant on families, shame, love and the terrible things people do to one another while believing they’re in the right. (Pan Macmillan, £20)
Art Cure
Daisy Fancourt
Claire Shanahan, Executive Director, Women’s Prize Trust
This is a brilliant exposition for culture lovers and data nerds alike. Bringing together thousands of scientific studies on the benefits of engaging with books, visual art, film, dance, music, Fancourt draws this out to consider the potential macro benefits on global society, with practical sections to embed more art if your everyday. (Cornerstone, £22)
A Woman of Substance
Barbara Taylor Bradford
Lucy Cleland, C&TH Editorial Director
I know it was written in 1979 but a glorious new television remake had me reaching for the original. Despite selling over 30 million copies, it never received the literary acclaim that it deserved but I can’t tell you of a more delicious way to drown out the world than immersing yourself in the rags-to-riches tale of Emma Harte. (Harper Collins, £9.99)
This Cursed Beautiful Land
Evan Gershkovich
Hugo Rifkind, Broadcaster & Journalist
This is by the Wall Street Journal journo who was jailed for espionage by the Kremlin in 2023. Before I read it, I’d assumed there was a possibility the Russians genuinely thought he was a spy. What stands out most from this fluent and at times surprisingly funny book is the absolute mendacity of the claim. They knew exactly who Gershkovich was, and they were playing a game. (HarperCollins, £25)
A Shadow Over the World
William Hitchcock
Anthony Scaramucci, Broadcaster & Political Commentator
By the writer of a great biography of Eisenhower, this is a portrait of FDR and so brilliantly and powerfully written. But the reason I recommend it is because it’s eerily similar to what is going on right now. You read this book, and think, ‘Okay, wow, let’s not make that mistake. Oh, wow, let’s make that mistake.’ You see what I mean? (Simon & Schuster, £25)
Heart the Lover
Lily King
Lucinda Baring, C&TH Deputy Editor
This begins with a band of students as they rip along through campus life at an East Coast college, sweeping you into their relationship dramas and disappointments. This well-observed easy breezy existence renders part two – with all its shattered hopes and heartbreak – so much more poignant. I was wrecked by the end. (Canongate, £9.99)
The Renoir Girls
Catherine Ostler
Ed Vaizey, Broadcaster & Journalist
Set in Belle Époque France, this takes us behind Renoir’s Pink and Blue, a portrait of sisters Elisabeth and Alice Caren d’Anvers. As history unfolds, Elisabeth escapes to Britain as the wife of an aristocrat, Alice becomes a Nazi collaborator, and a third sister dies at Auschwitz. It brings into sharp relief the horrors of war and antisemitism, and how fragile the lives of even the most gilded people can be. (Simon & Schuster, £30)
Knives & Spoons
Alasdair Gill
Alice B-B, Journalist & Writer
Take a big hunk of addiction, add a pinch of rag-tag misfits, stir in the underbelly of London’s restaurant world with a sprinkle of loving family and a big dollop of hope – ingredients for an un-put-downable memoir by writer and chef Alasdair Gill. And if like me you’re starving for the genius of the late AA Gill, his son Alasdair’s wordsmithery helps to fill that hole. (Pan Macmillan, £20)
Yesteryear
Caro Claire Burke
Jamila Brown, Sustainability & Social Impact Strategist
This novel is an instant re-read… if you make it to the end. Written by one of my favourite podcasters, Caro Claire Burke, co-host of Diabolical Lies, digest the text version before the inevitable film is released and flattens all the nuance. (HarperCollins, £16.99)
Last Night I Dreamt
Paul de Zulueta
Jeremy Isaac, C&TH Managing Director
Daphne du Maurier’s grandson has drawn here on family archives, interviews and his own memories of his iconic and unconventional grandmother, a woman who was central to his early life. This revelatory look into her life and family is a moving portrait of one of the great British artistic families, written with honesty and warmth. (Little, Brown, £25)
Featured image: © Pexels
