Not the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction

Tonight's the night the longlist for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction is announced. Now I doubt there's going to be much on there that I've read, so here's my totally alternate Top Twelve of the last year. Is anyone likely to agree? Which were your favourite deserve-an-award reads?


So....in no particular order...

click on the links to read my reviews over on OurBookReviewsOnline



Caroline Smailes - The Drowning of Arthur Braxton - a strange mix of myth, magic and mundane in the public baths







Jo Baker - Longbourn - Pride and Prejudice from the servants point of view











Evie Wyld - All The Birds, Singing

certainly my Serendipitous Find of the Year thanks to Twitter





Lavanya Sankaran - The Hope Factory -
 a sort of modern, literary, Indian 'Upstairs, Downstairs'

 Rachel Joyce - Perfect - what could possibly happen in two extra seconds? Well, as it turns out for 11 year old Byron Hemmings and his family, enough to change his whole world.


Naomi Wood - Mrs Hemingway
the story of not one, not two, but the four wives of Ernest Hemingway









Anna Hope - Wake
a brilliant debut novel, deeply moving, well-plotted and engrossing, about the aftermath of war and its effects not only the combatants directly involved but a far wider circle

 Emylia Hall - A Heart Bent Out of Shape
a coming of age novel set against the backdrop of Lausanne

 Helen Walsh - The Lemon Grove
It's hot, steamy and full of illicit passion but it's more than a summer sex romp. It's also a wonderful portrayal of a family reaching a turning point in their lives.









Adele Parks - Spare Brides
everything you expect from a conventional romantic novel - glamorous parties, gorgeous clothes, an enigmatic hero and a passionate love affair - and more!

Natalie Young - Season To Taste or How to Eat your Husband
the title says it all - a darkly humorous tale of murder and body-disposal








Meike Ziervogel - Magda

a short perceptive novel trying to get inside the head of Magda, wife of Joseph Goebbels