Read all about the big books for 2024
Experts offer their predictions on 2024’s bestsellers, which you may want to bag. By
HANNAH STEPHENSON
WITH a General Election looming and the forthcoming 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, 2024 is set to be a big year for politics and history in the world of books.
“With politics, there will be a lot of books which are examining the state of things at the moment,” says Caroline Sanderson, associate editor of trade publication The Bookseller.
Notable political autobiographies include MP Nadhim Zahawi’s The Boy From Baghdad (HarperCollins, £25, March 14), charting his journey from boyhood in Baghdad to Chancellor of the Exchequer, she predicts.
In other genres, celebrity memoirs featuring everyone from RuPaul to George the Poet, Jill Halfpenny, Earl Spencer and Tom Selleck will hit book shops, while new offerings from big name novelists including David Nicholls, Alex Michaelides, Marian Keyes, David Baldacci and Peter James should be flying off the shelves.
Here are just some of the titles which are set to create a buzz in 2024.
ROMANCE
Top choice:
You Are Here
By David Nicholls (Sceptre, £20, April 23)
“For fiction, this is our biggest title at the moment, and very much along the same lines as his bestseller One Day,” says Bea Carvalho, Waterstones’ head of books.
It’s a love story which develops on the Coast to Coast footpath in the north of England, in which two single people who are introduced by mutual friends find themselves together on the most epic of walks. Ones to watch: Irish author Colm Toibin, with Long Island, his longawaited sequel to Brooklyn (Picador, £20, May 23); TikTok star and bestselling novelist Emily Henry’s joyful new novel, Funny Story (Viking, £18.99, April 25), about a pair of opposites with the wrong things in common.
THRILLER Top choice: The Fury
By Alex Michaelides (Michael Joseph, £18.99, February 1) The bestselling author of The Silent Patient brings readers a locked room-style mystery set on a Greek island, featuring an unreliable narrator and a tale full of twists and turns.
It’s out in February, but Waterstones is predicting it’s also going to be a real staple of summer reading. Ones to watch: All the Colours of
The Dark by Chris Whitaker (Orion, £20, July 16), which is part missing persons mystery, serial killer thriller – and part powerful love story; Anthony Horowitz’s new novel, Close To Death (Century, £22, April 11), which sees an unpopular resident shot dead with a crossbow, while all his neighbours have a motive to kill him.
HISTORICAL
Top choice for fiction: Clear
By Carys Davies (Granta, £12.99, March 7) Set against the rugged backdrop of Shetland, this short, powerful, historical novel set in 1843 during the final stages of the Scottish Clearances, sees a minister dispatched to a remote Scottish island to “clear” the last remaining inhabitant, who has no intention of leaving. It’s an unforgettable tale of resilience, change, and hope, from the awardwinning writer.
Top choice for non-fiction: Empireworld
By Sathnam Sanghera (Viking, £20, January 25) Following on from his bestselling Empireland, the award-winning author and journalist extends his examination of British imperial legacies beyond Britain.
Travelling the globe to trace its international legacies – from Barbados and Mauritius to India and Nigeria and beyond – he demonstrates how deeply British imperialism is baked into our world.
D-DAY ANNIVERSARY Top choice:
Sword Beach
By Stephen Fisher (Bantam, £20, May 23)
This book from the marine historian focuses on the untold stories of D-Day’s forgotten battle, providing fresh insight into one of the least wellknown of the D-Day landings.
Often overshadowed by the more famous American landing at Omaha, Fisher now shines a light on the capture of Sword Beach, which was crucial in securing the Normandy Landings, he says.
FANTASY
Top choice: House of Flame and Shadow
By Sarah J Maas (Bloomsbury, £22, Jan 30) This is the third book in the Crescent City series, which has been described as “Game of Thrones meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, from the New York Times bestselling author.
One to watch: Jasper Fforde’s Red Side Story (Hodder & Stoughton,
£20, February 6) is set in a world where your social status depends on which colours you can see.
POLITICS Top choice: Head North
By Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram (Trapeze, £22, February 22) For the first time, the Mayors of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram, speak out about their experiences of modern British politics, and the fight for Northern voices to be heard.
They offer a new vision for Britain which centres a Northern perspective and reimagines our country beyond the Westminster bubble. Ones to watch: Keir Starmer: The Biography by Tom Baldwin (William Collins, £25, February 15), taken from more than 100 hours of interviews with the man himself; Another England by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas (Hutchinson Heinemann, £22, April 18) aims to offer a progressive vision of what Englishness is.
DEBUT
Top choice: The
Cautious Traveller’s
Guide to the
Wastelands
By Sarah Brooks
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
£16.99, June 20)
This fictional tale tells the story of a curious cast of characters on board the Great Trans-Siberian Express in the 19th century as they cross the Wastelands, a vast terrain that lies between Russia and China.
The Great Trans-Siberian Express, an impenetrable train built to carry precious cargo across continents, now also transports anyone willing to cross the irresistible Wastelands. It is thought to be completely safe... except something happened on the last journey.
Ones to watch: The Kellerby Code by screenwriter Jonny Sweet (Faber & Faber, £14.99, March 21), a manor house mystery and part-spin on the classic golden age thrillers with a mixture of crime and comedy and a nod to P.G. Wodehouse; The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr (Orion, May 9), an uplifting and joyful debut about a bright young man finding his place in the world.
REAL LIFE
Top choice: Knife
By Salman Rushdie (Jonathan Cape, £20, April 16) The bestselling author details for the first time the traumatic events of August 12, 2022, when he was stabbed multiple times as he was about to give a public lecture in New York. He uses the power of words to make sense of the unthinkable, in a gripping, personal and life-affirming meditation on life, loss, love, art – and finding the strength to stand up again.
Maurice and Maralyn
By Sophie Elmhirst (Chatto & Windus, £18.99, February 29) This is a true story written by journalist Sophie Elmhirst, about a couple who in the Eighties set sail around the world until their beloved boat was struck by a whale and they were cast adrift in the Pacific Ocean, battling to survive on a tiny life raft. This is the story of their 117 days at sea, when their love was really put to the test. Ones to watch: To celebrate his 80th birthday, veteran explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes showcases his greatest adventures in Around the World in 80 Years, right, (Hodder & Stoughton, £25, March 7); A Thousand Threads by Neneh Cherry (Fern Press) sees the Swedish singer-songwriter and pop icon of the Eighties and Nineties delve into her story, artistic collaboration, family and love; and Track Record by George the Poet (Hodder &
Stoughton, £22, April 25) follows the story from one of our most unique voices, as he explores the forces that restrict black creativity and interrogates the history of colonialism, delving into the music scene and films from his childhood.
May began in full pomp and ceremony with the Coronation of the King and Queen during a service steeped in medieval ritual. Two days of celebrations followed.
A PRIME minister ter battling to turn around his party’s ty’s fortunes in the polls, economic c gloom, industrial strife and a growing wing rift between the Sussexes and the e rest of the royals have all characterised erised 2023.
January kicked d the year off with the release ase of the Duke of Sussex’s s explosive memoir Spare. are. In it, Harry made claims about his family ly and alleged his brother ther – the Prince of Wales – physically attacked ttacked him.
At Westminster, er, Prime Minister Rishi hi Sunak attempted to restore estore a sense of stability ility after a dramatic atic 2022 which saw his predecessors Boris oris Johnson and Liz Truss ejected from office.
Strikes by nurses, rses, ambulance workers rkers and train drivers ivers rumbled on from m the beginning of the year – with h teachers also votting for industrial al action.
In Lancashire, e, a huge search ch began after er mother- of- two wo Nicola Bulley ey went missing ng while walking her er dog on January 27.
The case attracted cted huge attention, but was mired by online nline misinformation and police blunders. Her body was found d in the river Wyre the following month. h. An inquest in June found she drowned wned accidentally.
In February , Nicola Sturgeon stunned ned Scotland, announcing she would resign as first minister.
She told reporters at the time she was stepping down for personal reasons. Later she and husband Peter Murrell were arrested in connection with a probe into SNP finances. They were released without charge pending further investigation.
In England, Mr Sunak hailed his Windsor Framework deal to reduce checks on goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, but plans to deal with the NHS backlog were derailed when junior doctors announced they would join other health workers on picket lines, with NHS consultants walking out later in the year.
In March , the BBC came under fire when it asked Gary Lineker to step back from presenting Match Of The Day after he compared language used by the Government on asylum policy to 1930s Germany.
Pundits including Ian Wright and
Alan Shearer refused to appear on the show without Lineker, before the former England footballer was reinstated after three days.
In April , Dominic Raab resigned as deputy prime minister and justice secretary after an inquiry found he bullied civil servants.
Meanwhile diplomats raced to organise evacuation flights to rescue Britons stranded in Sudan after the country descended into civil war.
May began in full pomp and ceremony with the Coronation of the King and Queen during a service steeped in medieval ritual. Two days of celebrations followed.
ITV was rocked after it emerged veteran This Morning presenter
Phillip Schofield had an affair with a much younger male colleague, which led him to step down from his job.
In June , Boris Johnson resigned from his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat after MPs on the privileges committee found he had misled parliament over lockdown parties.
The nation was united in grief after a knifeman stabbed students Barnaby Webber and Grace O’MalleyKumar and school caretaker Ian Coates to death in Nottingham.
For a few days later that month, attention turned to the fate of the Titan submersible which had gone missing with three Britons on board during a trip to see the wreck of
Titanic off Newfoundland, Canada.
Adventurer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were killed alongside US national Stockton Rush and Frenchman Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
In July , Britons were scrambling to return home when the Greek island of Rhodes was hit by wildfires.
In August , the Government announced the first migrants would be boarding the Bibby Stockholm barge harboured in Portland, Dorset, but they had to be evacuated within days after legionella bacteria was found on the vessel.
Nurse Lucy Letby was unmasked as the UK’s most prolific serial killer of children after being found guilty of murdering sev seven babies and trying to kill six ot others following a 10-month trial at Manchester Crown Court. The Th Countess of Chester Hospital, w where she carried out the killing spre spree while working there between 2015 and 2016, faced heavy criticism over why she was not stopped and the Government G has announced a statutory st public inquiry into the case case.
In sport, the Lionesses Lio reached the final of the Women’s Wom World Cup in Australia, only to lose 1-0 to Spain.
Parents’ plans for fo the return to school sc in September te were thrown th into chaos when w a dangerous ou form of concrete cr was found in scores sc of classrooms. ro
Hamas H militants tan killed more than tha 1,000 Israelis on October 7 after storming sto a music festival fes near the Gaza border b and took hundreds hundr of others hosta hostage.
Hundreds Hu of thousands sand of Britons took to the streets to join pro-Palestinian protests. prot
Ho Home secretary Suella Braverman was increasingly increasi vocal in her opposition opp to the demonstrations demonstr which she branded br “hate marches”, while the Government unsuccessfully pushed for f one march through L London on Armistice Day t to be banned.
Storm Babet caused devastation devastatio across much of the country cou while this year look looks set to be the hottest on record, the Met Office reve revealed. By November, November , the controversy around Mrs Brav Braverman saw Mr Sunak sack her fr from the Cabinet. Former prime minister David Cameron – now Lord Cameron – made a dramatic return to politics, as Foreign Secretary, in the subsequent reshuffle. Shortly afterwards Supreme Court judges ruled Government plans to send small boat migrants to Rwanda unlawful just days later and net migration reached a record high.
Away from politics, the year ended almost how it began when another royal book, this time Endgame by Omid Scobie, caused a huge row when a Dutch translation named two royals who were said to have asked what colour skin Prince Archie would have before he was born.
By December , the Prime Minister was facing an increasingly ungovernable party as different factions branded his new plans to get Rwanda flights off the ground as too tough and not tough enough.