The 100 greatest British novels

BBC Culture polled book critics outside the UK, to give an outsider’s perspective on the best in British literature.
An interesting list, ruled by women writers, with Middlemarch as number one. More information
100. The Code of the Woosters (PG Wodehouse, 1938)
99. There but for the (Ali Smith, 2011)
98. Under the Volcano (Malcolm Lowry,1947)
97. The Chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis, 1949-1954)
96. Memoirs of a Survivor (Doris Lessing, 1974)
95. The Buddha of Suburbia (Hanif Kureishi, 1990)
94. The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (James Hogg, 1824)
93. Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954)
92. Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons, 1932)
91. The Forsyte Saga (John Galsworthy, 1922)
90. The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins, 1859)
89. The Horse’s Mouth (Joyce Cary, 1944)
88. The Death of the Heart (Elizabeth Bowen, 1938)
87. The Old Wives’ Tale (Arnold Bennett,1908)
86. A Legacy (Sybille Bedford, 1956)
85. Regeneration Trilogy (Pat Barker, 1991-1995)
84. Scoop (Evelyn Waugh, 1938)
83. Barchester Towers (Anthony Trollope, 1857)
82. The Patrick Melrose Novels (Edward St Aubyn, 1992-2012)
81. The Jewel in the Crown (Paul Scott, 1966)
80. Excellent Women (Barbara Pym, 1952)
79. His Dark Materials (Philip Pullman, 1995-2000)
78. A House for Mr Biswas (VS Naipaul, 1961)
77. Of Human Bondage (W Somerset Maugham, 1915)
76. Small Island (Andrea Levy, 2004)
75. Women in Love (DH Lawrence, 1920)
74. The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy, 1886)
73. The Blue Flower (Penelope Fitzgerald, 1995)
72. The Heart of the Matter (Graham Greene, 1948)
71. Old Filth (Jane Gardam, 2004)
70. Daniel Deronda (George Eliot, 1876)
69. Nostromo (Joseph Conrad, 1904)
68. A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess, 1962)
67. Crash (JG Ballard 1973)
66. Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen, 1811)
65. Orlando (Virginia Woolf, 1928)
64. The Way We Live Now (Anthony Trollope, 1875)
63. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark, 1961)
62. Animal Farm (George Orwell, 1945)
61. The Sea, The Sea (Iris Murdoch, 1978)
60. Sons and Lovers (DH Lawrence, 1913)
59. The Line of Beauty (Alan Hollinghurst, 2004)
58. Loving (Henry Green, 1945)
57. Parade’s End (Ford Madox Ford, 1924-1928)
56. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (Jeanette Winterson, 1985)
55. Gulliver’s Travels (Jonathan Swift, 1726)
54. NW (Zadie Smith, 2012)
53. Wide Sargasso Sea (Jean Rhys, 1966)
52. New Grub Street (George Gissing, 1891)
51. Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy, 1891)
50. A Passage to India (EM Forster, 1924)
49. Possession (AS Byatt, 1990)
48. Lucky Jim (Kingsley Amis, 1954)
47. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (Laurence Sterne, 1759)
46. Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie, 1981)
45. The Little Stranger (Sarah Waters, 2009)
44. Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel, 2009)
43. The Swimming Pool Library (Alan Hollinghurst, 1988)
42. Brighton Rock (Graham Greene, 1938)
41. Dombey and Son (Charles Dickens, 1848)
40. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll, 1865)
39. The Sense of an Ending (Julian Barnes, 2011)
38. The Passion (Jeanette Winterson, 1987)
37. Decline and Fall (Evelyn Waugh, 1928)
36. A Dance to the Music of Time (Anthony Powell, 1951-1975)
35. Remainder (Tom McCarthy, 2005)
34. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro, 2005)
33. The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, 1908)
32. A Room with a View (EM Forster, 1908)
31. The End of the Affair (Graham Greene, 1951)
30. Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe, 1722)
29. Brick Lane (Monica Ali, 2003)
28. Villette (Charlotte Brontë, 1853)
27. Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe, 1719)
26. The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien, 1954)
25. White Teeth (Zadie Smith, 2000)
24. The Golden Notebook (Doris Lessing, 1962)
23. Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy, 1895)
22. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (Henry Fielding, 1749)
21. Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad, 1899)
20. Persuasion (Jane Austen, 1817)
19. Emma (Jane Austen, 1815)
18. Remains of the Day (Kazuo Ishiguro, 1989)
17. Howards End (EM Forster, 1910)
16. The Waves (Virginia Woolf, 1931)
15. Atonement (Ian McEwan, 2001)
14. Clarissa (Samuel Richardson,1748)
13. The Good Soldier (Ford Madox Ford, 1915)
12. Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell, 1949)
11. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen, 1813)
10. Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848)
9. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley, 1818)
8. David Copperfield (Charles Dickens, 1850)
7. Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, 1847)
6. Bleak House (Charles Dickens, 1853)
5. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, 1847)
4. Great Expectations (Charles Dickens, 1861)
3. Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf, 1925)
2. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf, 1927)
1. Middlemarch (George Eliot, 1874)

The Guardian children's fiction prize 2015 winner

David Almond’s A Song for Ella Grey has won the 2015 Guardian children’s fiction prize - available to read from the Library.

The book is a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice set in the north east of England. Told in lyrical, dream-like prose, Almond revisits a story that he said “has pestered me ever since I began to write” - the legend of music-maker Orpheus descending to the underworld to bring his love back to life. Set in contemporary Tyneside, Almond’s version features inseparable best friends and sixth-formers Claire and Ella. Through Claire’s narration we learn how Orpheus entrances Ella and the terrible tragedy that unfolds as a result.
The book beat novels by Kate Saunders, Frances Hardinge and Sally Nicholls to win the only children’s book award judged by authors
From http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/nov/19/david-almond-wins-guardian-childrens-fiction-prize

Children's Book Award - Readers needed!

You are invited to read all 3 of the shortlisted books in the Older Readers category of the 2016 Children's Book Award so you can rate them 1, 2, 3. Your vote will count towards the award, as this is the only award where children decide who wins. You need to read the books between November 2015 and the end of April 2016.

The shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2016 Older Readers category is as follows:

– Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
– Smart by Kim Slater (Macmillan Children’s Books)
– Listen to the Moon by Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins Children’s Books)

About the Award

The Children’s Book Award (previously known as the Red House Children’s Book Award) is the only national award for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children themselves. It was founded in 1980 and each year since then children in book groups and around the UK have been reading as many new books as they can and voting to pick both the shortlist and the eventual winners. Past winners include J.K. Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton, Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and Oliver Jeffers. Now in its 36th year, the award has often been the first to recognise the future stars of children’s fiction and has the ability to turn popular authors into bestsellers.

In 2015 this involved 800 books being submitted, with 48,000 votes for the shortlist alone and a grand total of over 80,000 votes being cast. Through the school's membership of the Oxford Children's Book Group 'Testing Group' several OLA students test-read and voted for the books which were in the Top 3 Older readers category. Two lucky OLA readers were invited to the Awards ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall in London in February 2015. They also attended lunch with the shortlisted authors and illustrators and talked to then Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman.

The shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2016 Younger Readers and Younger Children's categories:

Younger Readers
– My Headteacher is a Vampire Rat! by Pamela Butchart and Thomas Flintham (Nosy Crow)
– Boy in the Tower by Polly Ho-Yen (Doubleday)
– Horrid Henry’s Krazy Ketchup by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross (Orion Children’s Books)

Younger Children

– Fabulous Pie by Gareth Edwards and Guy Parker-Rees (Scholastic)
– Is There a Dog in this Book? by Viviane Schwarz (Walker Books)
– Ready, Steady, Jump! by Jeanne Willis and Adrian Reynolds (Andersen Press)
– This Book Just Ate my Dog! by Richard Byrne (Oxford University Press)

Source and more information

The Guardian children's fiction prize – shortlist 2015

Two local authors have been shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, which is judged by their fellow authors. Sally Nicholls and Frances Hardinge, both from Oxfordshire, and David Almond and Kate Saunders make up the shortlist of four.

As described on the Guardian website:

An Island of our Own by Sally Nicholls
This is a joyful Treasure Island-style mystery for the Instagram generation. A loveable young pair don’t face pirates as they seek their late auntie’s buried hoard, but more contemporary devices - from crowdsourcing clues to metal detectors - winningly deployed in this funny and tender exploration of what makes a family.

A Song for Ella Grey by David Almond
An intense, windswept re-working of Orpheus and Eurydice that reverberates with intensity and passion, as beautifully presented as it is written. The transformative potential of art and the imagination radiates from every page of this book, which is as short, intense and all consuming as the love story it describes.

Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders
E Nesbitt’s classic Five Children and It gains an outstanding sequel, with the ingenious conceit of transposing the cosy Victorian setting for the eve of the First World War, yielding devastating results. Enthralling, witty and often unbearably moving, an elegy to not only a lost generation but the first golden age of children’s literature.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge
A compelling fantasy spun from one mesmerising idea: what if telling lies gave you the power to discover other people’s secrets? This gothic yarn of Victorian fossil hunters gone bad features an unforgettable young heroine, who fearlessly takes on monsters of the present and the past to build herself a better life.

The winner will be announced at the award ceremony on 19 November 2015.

Book-related art work

Some enjoyable art work around the school.

Sir Vince Cable

Sir Vince Cable attracted a big crowd to OLA for the Festival of Reading evening event, which was open to the public. He was here to talk about his new book After the Storm: the World Economy and Britain's Economic Future. As former Secretary of State for Business under the Coalition Government, and Liberal Democrat MP for nearly 20 years, until he lost his seat in this year’s General Election, this was an absorbing yet accessible insight from someone at the heart of government. This was followed by questions and book signing organised by local book shop Mostly Books. Many people bought copies, including the Mayor of Abingdon and members of staff.

A great champion of reading and bookshops, he started his talk by saying how reading novels during the challenging times of government helped keep him clear-headed.

Edgar Gerrard Hughes Chief Writer for The Day

Edgar Gerrard Hughes is Chief Writer for The Day. He talked to Year 10, and again to Sixth Formers about writing about the news. The Day online newspaper, to which the school subscribes, features three main stories each day. Each report aims to explain each news story so that anyone coming to the story for the first time will understand its context. Below Edgar signs the Library's Author Board.

Kjartan Poskitt

Kjartan Poskitt who created the Murderous Maths series gave two performances packed with laughter and maths! Years 7 & 8, and in a separate session, Years 5 & 6 from OLA Junior school plus visitors from St Edmund's School, Rush Common and Long Furlong schools, learned the 1089 times table in under 15 seconds, played poisoned chocolate, a strategy game, and even were squeezed through a greetings card! Maths at its funniest and cleverest presented by a witty mathematician, and if you want to learn a few tricks then visit his murderous maths website's Tricks section.

OLA Festival of Reading 2015

Ali Sparkes set the Reading Festival alight with her sparkling talks to OLA pupils.

Years 9 and 10's creativity was kindled through the stories which inspire computer gaming. The students needed no persuading to produce some clever and fun mash-up game story beginnings, which were delivered to the group. These included Slender Tubbies, Noddy and GTA, Call of Duty Ghosts meets OLA!

Music is a strong theme in many of her stories - her sparkly boots a nod to the time she released a single - featuring in Frozen in Time, Dark Summer and her sci-fi adventure Destination Earth. Years 7 and 8 pupils heard about Ali's link with legendary 80s funk pop band Level 42 and their lead singer and bassist Mark King, who are in the story, helping to save the earth from aliens.

Pupils from our Junior School enjoyed an entertaining and interactive talk on 'How I Became an Author', explaining how her determination and enjoyment of writing spurred her on. Her early career in journalism gave her good grounding in writing and lead eventually to her full-time career as an author. With a 'hypnotic disc' creating an optical illusion, flash cards to elicit groans, ahhs and cheers as she told her stories, this exciting session needed no trigger for the spontaneous applause which came at the end of each of her sessions.

Thank you Ali Sparkes for your energetic and fun sessions!

Carnegie Forum becomes Christmas in summer

Why, on a hot sunny day in mid-June, did 100 pupils in Abingdon Guildhall say it was like Christmas? Because they had each been given 5 recently published bestselling books, thanks to Penguin Random House publishers!

The Joint School’s Abingdon Carnegie Forum is an annual event, taking place in the Guildhall. Seventeen of OLA’s keen readers from year 7 & 8 joined pupils from the other five secondary schools to debate the shortlist, and vote for their Abingdon winner, of the Carnegie Medal, the highest accolade in the UK for children’s literature. Previous winners include legendary talents such as Arthur Ransome, C.S Lewis and Frank Cottrell Boyce.

As well the book reviews they had written earlier the mixed school groups produced a short drama about each of the shortlisted titles performed in front of a group of judges from the world of publishing, bookselling and education, and the Deputy Mayor of Abingdon. The judges included Kirsten Armstrong of Penguin Random House, who arranged delivery of 500 books to Abingdon, five new best sellers for each of the participants. This was kept as a surprise for the end of the afternoon, after prizes had been awarded for Best Book Review - OLA won four! Well done Bethan, Danann, Isabel and Naomi. Best Contributor in Group, went to Isabel again! Read all our reviews here.

The book ‘shadowing’ is part of a national scheme, now its 21st year, involving over 90,000 young people across the world. In Abingdon, a link has been forged with Oxford Brookes and Oxford Universities, making use of future English teachers who have been completing their PGCE qualification, who helped facilitate the group work. The value of this joint schools’ event is recognised by Abingdon Town Council who have awarded the Joint School’s Forum a grant, which covers the hire of the venue.

OLA was hosting this year’s Forum. This is one of my favourite days of the year, where we see keen readers coming together. They have been insightful, articulate and passionate about their choices. Surely, where reading is involved everyone is a winner. And how delighted we were to have this affirmed by the generous gifts from Penguin Random House.

Naomi said, “ It was a good day and worked well. It was also really nice that we got 5 books! It was really enjoyable and fun, and it was good that we got to eat lunch in the park.”

Which book won the Abingdon vote? It was More Than This by Patrick Ness. The Forum never agrees with the official Judges, and it was no different this year. The winner announced on Monday at the British Library was Buffalo Soldier by Tanya Landman.

What do our ‘shadowers’ think of the result ? “ Cuckoo Song should have won the Medal because it was such a good book!” “ I think Buffalo Soldier deserved to win, but there were many other amazing books such as Cuckoo Son, Tinder and More Than This.” Judge for yourselves by reading the books; that’s what we did!



P.S. With great forward planning Tanya Landman was already booked to come as our Joint Schools' Author, visiting in March 2016.

Installations in the Library

As part of OLA Arts Festival 18-28 June 2015, some exciting book-themed installtions are taking shape in the Ratcliffe Library.

Infinity Drake author to visit OLA

Just ahead our exciting Arts Festival, we are delighted to say, that as part of his nationwide publicity tour, author of the new Infinity Drake series, JOHN MCNALLY, is coming to OLA on Thursday 11 June.

Year 8 will be hearing him talk about his two exciting adventure stories which feature a bullet-sized hero with plenty of gadgets and thrills. This new author seems to be taking the world by storm, with the first book already translated into Spanish. The second in the series was published yesterday, and the books look likely to be snapped up by film studios.

Reading for pleasure and the rights of a reader

​Reading for pleasure - for those who know how to choose a book, it's easy, but ​it needs time.

A​n experienced​ reader knows what to do - are the cover, the blurb, the pictures important? It's what the author is writing that counts. Those who know how to choose will start to read the book to see if it grips them. When I'm asked for a recommendation I often offer three suggestions and tell the pupil to go and start reading all three to see which they want to read, and what's more, I tell them, they have the right to come back and say 'No,' to all of them and choose again.

Reading for pleasure needs a free choice of books, easily accessible, a​nd knowing how to select a book to enjoy is made easier if there has been a​ background of having seen people enjoying reading (parents, teachers, friends), ideally having grown up enjoying the pleasure of hearing books read aloud​. When making their selection the reader can respond, yes or no, to recommendations from family, friends, teachers, book groups and reviews, or simply opt for something totally new. Excitement, thrills, empathy, understanding and learning about the wider world can all be experienced between the pages of a book.

See the 10-point manifesto, illustrated by Quentin Blake, the Rights of the Reader. The Rights of the Reader were penned by French writer Daniel Pennac.
The Reader's Bill of Rights
1. The right to not read
2. The right to skip pages
3. The right to not finish
4. The right to reread
5. The right to read anything
6. The right to escapism
7. The right to read anywhere
8. The right to browse
9. The right to read out loud
10. The right to not defend your tastes.

Book launch

Oxford-based children's authors M.G. Harris and Sally Nicholls launched their latest books at Blackwells bookshop this evening.
Gemini Force I: Black Horizon is the first of three books, based on an idea by Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson, written by M.G. Harris - exciting tales of adventure and action for the 21st century.
In Sally Nicholl's An Island of Our Own, three children search for family jewellery left to them. A contemporary adventure story with themes of family and friendship, where the 19-year-old older brother is guardian of his younger siblings.

A great treat to hear both authors read extracts from their own books, plus meet a host of other authors present, name dropping Korky Paul, Carnegie shortlisted author Frances Hardinge, OLA's own Jo Cotterill, Susie Day, Dennis Hamley ...


... and oh yes, there was cake too!

Joint Schools' Carnegie Tea

It's not about the cake, but it helps! One hundred children from the six secondary schools in Abingdon came together for the launch of our local Abingdon Carnegie Forum. After a brief interactive talk about what makes a good book review, the shadowers from the schools got to know each other by giving their first reactions to the covers, blurbs and opening paragraph of the shortlisted titles.

Group votes:
Most popular title: More Than This
Most popular cover: More Than This
Most popular blurb: Cuckoo Song

Individual votes for the 'Book I would Most like to Read' went jointly to More Than This and Cuckoo Son.

The current shortlist.

Let the reading commence!

OLA shadowers rushed to the Ratcliffe Library to find out which books had made the shortlist for the prestigious Carnegie Medal. As they settled down to read what I can only describe as a 'delicious silence' descended; that quiet which comes from an absorbing activity, which every reader experiences at some time. Are we reading a future classic, a title which will become as well known as The Borrowers or Watership Down? Challenging themes including war, sickness and adversity run through the shortlist. But to quote part of the criteria, "The book that wins the Carnegie Medal should be a book of outstanding literary quality. The whole work should provide pleasure, not merely from the surface enjoyment of a good read, but also the deeper subconscious satisfaction of having gone through a vicarious, but at the time of reading, a real experience that is retained afterwards."

Shadowing the Carnegie Medal

On Tuesday 17 March come to the Library and find out which books are on the shortlist for this prestigious book award.

What does Shadowing the Carnegie Medal involve?

• Reading Books. Past Carnegie Medal winners have become classics. These include The Borrowers, Watership Down, Skellig, Flour Babies, and Northern Lights. You will be reading future classics!

• Meetings. There will be ‘shadowing’ meetings in the Library on Mondays, at 4.05, where you can come to change your books, chat about the books you have read, write reviews and persuade others why your favourite should win the Medal.

• Writing Reviews. You post your review on a special shadowing website, where other ‘shadowers’ around the country are doing the same.

• Meeting Carnegie Shadowers from other schools and the Carnegie Forum. The six secondary schools in Abingdon have worked together over the Carnegie Medal for over 10 years. We have three joint meetings: a launch 'tea' to introduce the books, a quiz a few weeks into the shadowing, and a joint Abingdon Carnegie Forum in the Guildhall, where 100 students from local schools discuss and vote for their Abingdon winner.

Caroline Lawrence at the Abingdon Joint Author event 2015

Year 7 pupils picked up some powerful writing tips from best-selling author Caroline Lawrence, best known for her Roman Mystery series. An avid film fan, and former classics teacher, Caroline set out her seven screenwriting ‘beats’ for moving along a story, afterwards using the example of her first book The Thieves of Ostia. This was a richly illustrated interactive talk with images from film and books demonstrating archetypal characters, as well as telling us about her research, favourite places of the classic world and her books.
Her current series is set in the Wild West of Virginia City in 1862, with a 12-year-old Private Investigator, P.K. Pinkerton. Her next series, out next year, will be set in Roman Britain in 94 AD. 'Seekers' will be about five children investigating mysteries.
The Joint Author visit is an annual event co-organised by OLA, Abingdon and St Helen & St Katharine school librarians, inviting other local schools. Over 600 school children attended her two talks.

The sponge on a stick caused great hilarity, but was in regular use by Ancient Romans.
More about the author
Inspiring tips here