Sunday 3 September 2023

Academy Award for Best Picture

Wings (1928) The Broadway Melody (1929) All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Cimarron (1931) Grand Hotel (1932) Cavalcade (1933) It Happened One Night (1934) Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) The Great Ziegfeld (1936) The Life of Emile Zola (1937) You Can't Take It with You (1938) Gone with the Wind (1939) Rebecca (1940) How Green Was My Valley (1941) Mrs. Miniver (1942) Casablanca (1943) Going My Way (1944) The Lost Weekend (1945) The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Gentleman's Agreement (1947) Hamlet (1948) All the Kings Men (1949) All About Eve (1950) An American in Paris (1951) The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) From Here to Eternity (1953) On the Waterfront (1954) Marty (1955) Around the World in 80 Days (1956) The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Gigi (1958) Ben-Hur (1959) The Apartment (1960) West Side Story (1961) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Tom Jones (1963) My Fair Lady (1964) The Sound of Music (1965) A Man for All Seasons (1966) In the Heat of the Night (1967) Oliver (1968) Midnight Cowboy (1969) Patton (1970) The French Connection (1971) The Godfather (1972) The Sting (1973) The Godfather Part II (1974) One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Rocky (1976) Annie Hall (1977) The Deer Hunter (1978) Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) Ordinary People (1980) Chariots of Fire (1981) Gandhi (1982) Terms of Endearment (1983) Amadeus (1984) Out of Africa (1985) Platoon (1986) The Last Emperor (1987) Rain Man (1988) Driving Miss Daisy (1989) Dances with Wolves (1990) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Unforgiven (1992) Schindler's List (1993) Forrest Gump (1994) Braveheart (1995) The English Patient (1996) Titanic (1997) Shakespeare in Love (1998) American Beauty (1999) Gladiator (2000) A Beautiful Mind (2001) Chicago (2002) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Million Dollar Baby (2004) Crash (2005) The Departed (2006) No Country for Old Men (2007) Slumdog Millionaire (2008) The Hurt Locker (2009) The Kings Speech (2010) The Artist (2011) Argo (2012) 12 Years a Slave (2013) Birdman (2014) Spotlight (2015) Moonlight (2016) The Shape of Water (2017) Green Book (2018) Parasite (2019) Nomadland (2020) CODA (2021) Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) Oppenheimer (2023)      

Monday 24 January 2022

Guardian Top 100 Books since 2000

  1. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

  2. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

  3. Second Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich

  4. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

  5. Austerlitz by WG Sebald

  6. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

  7. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

  8. Autumn by Ali Smith

  9. Cloud Atlas David Mitchel

  10. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  11. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

  12. The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

  13. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

  14. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

  15. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert

  16. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen

  17. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

  18. The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

  19. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night‑Time by Mark Haddon

  20. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

  21. Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

  22. Tenth of December by George Saunders

  23. The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

  24. A Visit from The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

  25. Normal People by Sally Rooney

  26. Capital in the Twenty First Century by Thomas Piketty

  27. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro

  28. Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy

  29. A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgaard

  30. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

  31. The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

  32. The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

  33. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

  34. Outline by Rachel Cusk

  35. The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal

  36. Experience by Martin Amis

  37. The Green Road by Anne Enright

  38. The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

  39. White Teeth by Zadie Smith

  40. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

  41. Atonement by Ian McEwan

  42. Moneyball by Michael Lewis

  43. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

  44. Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit

  45. Levels of Life by Julian Barnes

  46. Human Chain by Seamus Heaney

  47. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

  48. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

  49. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

  50. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

  51. Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín

  52. Small Island by Andrea Levy

  53. True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey

  54. Women & Power by Mary Beard

  55. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

  56. Underland by Robert Macfarlane

  57. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

  58. Postwar by Tony Judt

  59. The Beauty of the Husband by Anne Carson

  60. Dart by Alice Oswald

  61. This House of Grief by Helen Garner

  62. Mother’s Milk by Edward St Aubyn

  63. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

  64. On Writing by Stephen King

  65. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

  66. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

  67. The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

  68. The Constant Gardener by John le Carré

  69. The Infatuations by Javier Marías

  70. Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller

  71. Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware

  72. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by Shoshana Zuboff

  73. Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

  74. Days Without End by Sebastian Barry

  75. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

  76. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

  77. Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera

  78. The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

  79. The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Picket

  80. Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

  81. Harvest by Jim Crace

  82. Coraline by Neil Gaiman

  83. Tell Me How It Ends by Valeria Luiselli

  84. The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy

  85. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

  86. Adults in the Room by Yanis Varoufakis

  87. Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

  88. Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman

  89. Bad Blood by Lorna Sage

  90. Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck

  91. Light by M John Harrison

  92. The Siege by Helen Dunmore

  93. Darkmans by Nicola Barker

  94. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

  95. Chronicles: Volume One by Bob Dylan

  96. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

  97. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling

  98. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

  99. Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou

  100. I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

Saturday 4 December 2021

BBC Top 200 Books of All Time

 1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien

2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling

6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne

8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis

10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller

12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks

14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres

20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy

21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone

23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets

24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban

25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien

26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

27. Middlemarch, George Eliot

28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving

29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck

30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson

32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel Márquez

33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett

34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl

36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson

37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute

38. Persuasion, Jane Austen

39. Dune, Frank Herbert

40. Emma, Jane Austen

41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery

42. Watership Down, Richard Adams

43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald

44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

46. Animal Farm, George Orwell

47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy

49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian

50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher

51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck

53. The Stand, Stephen King

54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth

56. The BFG, Roald Dahl

57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome

58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell

59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman

62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden

63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough

65. Mort, Terry Pratchett

66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton

67. The Magus, John Fowles

68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett

70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding

71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind

72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell

73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett

74. Matilda, Roald Dahl

75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding

76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt

77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins

78. Ulysses, James Joyce

79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens

80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson

81. The Twits, Roald Dahl

82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith

83. Holes, Louis Sachar

84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake

85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson

87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons

89. Magician, Raymond E Feist

90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac

91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo

92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel

93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett

94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

95. Katherine, Anya Seton

96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer

97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel Márquez

98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson

99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot

100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

101. Three Men In A Boat, Jerome K. Jerome

102. Small Gods, Terry Pratchett

103. The Beach, Alex Garland

104. Dracula, Bram Stoker

105. Point Blanc, Anthony Horowitz

106. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens

107. Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz

108. The Wasp Factory, Iain Banks

109. The Day Of The Jackal, Frederick Forsyth

110. The Illustrated Mum, Jacqueline Wilson

111. Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy

112. The Secret Diary Of Adrian Mole, Sue Townsend

113. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monsarrat

114. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo

115. The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy

116. The Dare Game, Jacqueline Wilson

117. Bad Girls, Jacqueline Wilson

118. The Picture Of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde

119. Shogun, James Clavell

120. The Day Of The Triffids, John Wyndham

121. Lola Rose, Jacqueline Wilson

122. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

123. The Forsyte Saga, John Galsworthy

124. House Of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

125. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

126. Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

127. Angus, Thongs And Snogging, Louise Rennison

128. The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Arthur C Doyle

129. Possession, A. S. Byatt

130. The Master And Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov

131. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood

132. Danny The Champion Of The World, Roald Dahl

133. East Of Eden, John Steinbeck

134. George's Marvellous Medicine, Roald Dahl

135. Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

136. The Color Purple, Alice Walker

137. Hogfather, Terry Pratchett

138. The Thirty-Nine Steps, John Buchan

139. Girls In Tears, Jacqueline Wilson

140. Sleepovers, Jacqueline Wilson

141. All Quiet On The Western Front, Erich Remarque

142. Behind The Scenes At The Museum, Kate Atkinson

143. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby

144. It, Stephen King

145. James And The Giant Peach, Roald Dahl

146. The Green Mile, Stephen King

147. Papillon, Henri Charriere

148. Men At Arms, Terry Pratchett

149. Master And Commander, Patrick O'Brian

150. Skeleton Key, Anthony Horowitz

151. Soul Music, Terry Pratchett

152. Thief Of Time, Terry Pratchett

153. The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett

154. Atonement, Ian McEwan

155. Secrets, Jacqueline Wilson

156. The Silver Sword, Ian Serraillier

157. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey

158. Heart Of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

159. Kim, Rudyard Kipling

160. Cross Stitch, Diana Gabaldon

161. Moby Dick, Herman Melville

162. River God, Wilbur Smith

163. Sunset Song, Lewis Grassic Gibbon

164. The Shipping News, Annie Proulx

165. The World According To Garp, John Irving

166. Lorna Doone, R. D. Blackmore

167. Girls Out Late, Jacqueline Wilson

168. The Far Pavilions, M. M. Kaye

169. The Witches, Roald Dahl

170. Charlotte's Web, E. B. White

171. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley

172. They Used To Play On Grass, Terry Venables

173. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway

174. The Name Of The Rose, Umberto Eco

175. Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder

176. Dustbin Baby, Jacqueline Wilson

177. Fantastic Mr Fox, Roald Dahl

178. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

179. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, Richard Bach

180. The Little Prince, Antoine De Saint-Exupery

181. The Suitcase Kid, Jacqueline Wilson

182. Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens

183. The Power Of One, Bryce Courtenay

184. Silas Marner, George Eliot

185. American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis

186. The Diary Of A Nobody, George Grossmith

187. Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh

188. Goosebumps, R. L. Stine

189. Heidi, Johanna Spyri

190. Sons And Lovers, D. H. Lawrence

191. The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera

192. Man And Boy, Tony Parsons

193. The Truth, Terry Pratchett

194. The War Of The Worlds, H. G. Wells

195. The Horse Whisperer, Nicholas Evans

196. A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry

197. Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett

198. The Once And Future King, T. H. White

199. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

200. Flowers In The Attic, Virginia Andrews