It is an annual tradition for us to share our highlights of the year, and things we’re looking forward to next year. Enjoy, and seasons greetings from all of us at Blake Friedmann.
LIZZY ATTREE
Book: THE OLD DRIFT by Namwali Serpell
THE OLD DRIFT replaces the white man’s creation of Zambia with a vivid, Virgilian symphony that sings the songs of mothers, grandmothers and daughters of Africa; and their dual role in the powerfully mixed creation of sons and fathers and grandfathers. Dubbed “the Great Zambian novel you didn’t know you were waiting for”, Serpell’s debut novel contains epic writing reminiscent of Marquez’s 100 YEARS OF SOLITUDE. The “Zt. Zzt.” buzzing chorus of malevolent, wise, stoic mosquitoes between sections is inspired. A tale of three families weaves in malaria, madness, HIV, afronauts, and the love of a woman with fast-growing facial hair. Linking mosquitoes and viruses of the internet and the singularity, the novel (dedicated to her Mama and beginning with the ZZZzzzs, not the As) is an astonishingly articulated masterpiece.
Theatre: ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA at the National Theatre with Sophie Okonedo and Ralph Fiennes
I loved the play. Okonedo as Cleopatra was very funny and the delivery of the language in a fairly modern setting and the staging was brilliant. Three hours of captivating, heart-stopping Shakespeare at its best.
Art: Olafur Eliasson at Tate Modern
If only for the 45-metre sugar-steam tunnel (titled ‘Your Blind Passenger’), which I went through twice at the request of my children. A completely disorienting white-out removes all reliance on senses other than your feet on the floor, and (if you cheat), your hand on the nearest wall. Children disconcertingly disappear at one metre away, only reappearing as the fog changes colour from blinding white to orange and then blue. Brilliant, interactive art for the whole family.
Looking forward to 2020
I’m expecting an intriguing shortlist for the Short Story Day Africa project I help adjudicate. The theme was ‘Disruption’, especially but not limited to climate and environ[mental] disruption. Previous years have been so successful, and last year’s HOTEL AFRICA short story collection contains some real gems.
KATE BURKE
Book: WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING by Delia Owens
I read this with high hopes as it has been such a huge bestseller in the US but it exceeded all expectations. Beautifully written and crafted, poignant and also gripping, this is a gem of a book and the best thing I read this year. Set in 1960s North Carolina, it’s the story of a very isolated young woman, living in the swamplands who becomes a suspect in a murder case. But it’s not a thriller - more an exquisite portrait of loneliness. Absolutely unforgettable – a instant classic.
TV series: SUCCESSION (series 2)
For me, the first series of Succession was a slow burn – I hated everyone in it and yet couldn’t stop watching, then felt oddly guilty for rooting for such an unlikeable family – but, by the end of it, I was hooked. Series Two was even better – a masterclass in over-the-top and subtle acting, crackling and often very funny dialogue and great fun to be back with this bunch of shamelessly ruthless entrepreneurs. Kendall’s rap, specifically, is my TV highlight of the year!
Podcast: HIT PARADE
Always nice to discover a podcast late in the day when there are lots of episodes to burn through! This one takes a look at US music chart history, exploring themes, trends, decades, pop singers and groups, with interesting facts and figures about their chart success. It covers everything from the Beatles to Lizzo, looks at music icons’ influence on culture in general, and is very well-researched and presented. A must for any music-lover, whatever you’re into.
ISOBEL DIXON
Book/Poetry: THE PERSEVERANCE by Raymond Antrobus
I heard Raymond Antrobus read last year from his pamphlet TO SWEETEN BITTER and was deeply struck – not just the insights and rhythms of the wise, tender sometimes fierce work, but the quality of engagement, the energy in the delivery and the attentiveness between poet and listeners. And one becomes extra-attentive to one’s own listening, in every sense, when confronted with the poems of his first full collection THE PERSEVERANCE, exploring the d/Deaf experience, masculinity, race, family, power, loss. Linguistically rich and lyrically transformed lived experience, forceful yet unforced, and beautifully published by Penned in the Margins, this is a collection I recommend to everyone.
Exhibition: WALT WHITMAN, AMERICA’S POET at New York Public Library
On a hot, bright day I had the chance to explore a fascinating, cool cave of Walt Whitman texts and artefacts at the New York Public Library. Though Walt Whitman: America’s Poet seemed a narrow descriptor for a writer so widely loved. A poet of evergreen astonishment to me, since I first stumbled across Leaves of Grass as a young girl in South Africa. The annotated books, manuscripts and ephemera (including a letter firing Whitman from his clerking job!) in the NYPL’s display cases added further depth and resonance to the life, and also sent me tracking Whitman’s multitudinous influences in the work of many other writers I love.
Book/Fiction: GOLDEN HILL by Francis Spufford
New York also gave me the ultimate impetus to read Francis Spufford’s glorious GOLDEN HILL at last – having owned and gifted a couple of copies without finding the right moment to embark on my own reading, it was the American paperback edition I began on the flight back to London that finally got me going in earnest, and once I started I couldn’t stop. What a rollicking, frolicsome roller-coaster joy of a novel! But with a serious and moving heart.
2020 prospects – my bookshelves…
Having ploughed through both office move and house renovations last year, with much packing and unpacking of boxes, and only semi-restoring my books to my beautiful new shelves since, in 2020 I look forward to browsing, reminiscing and exploring my way through my own library – including masses of D.H. Lawrence reading for my Birds, Beasts & Flowers collaboration, and some recent additions from a foray to Clarke’s Books in Cape Town, like Sol T. Plaatje’s Mafeking Diary. Starting in the charmed quiet either side of the New Year with my first Elizabeth Strout, and with novels by Ann Patchett and Elizabeth McCracken to follow.
SIAN ELLIS-MARTIN
Book: HIS DARK MATERIALS by Philip Pullman
I’m almost glad I missed the boat on this series when I was younger as it allowed me to relish in the joy of newly immersing myself in the series as an adult. Completely absorbing, I couldn’t put the books down. Luckily, I still have the Books of Dust to get stuck into.
Event: Spice Girls at Wembley Stadium
I knew when I booked my tickets that seeing the Spice Girls would be great, but I underestimated just how good it was going to be. It surpassed all expectations. I didn’t get the chance to see them when I was younger, so this was a childhood dream come true.
TV series: GOOD GIRLS
For about a year, a friend kept telling me to watch Good Girls. I didn’t think it sounded up my street at all, but I gave it a go eventually and couldn’t stop watching. Christina Hendricks, Retta and Mae Whitman are incredible throughout. Funny and dark at the same time, it was one of the only things I ended up binge watching this year.
JULIAN FRIEDMANN
Book: FLORA: INSIDE THE SECRET WORLD OF PLANTS
This is possibly the best ever book I have found on plants and flowers. Apart from the sumptuous illustrations it is filled with useful and entertaining information. Guaranteed to make you want to go straight out into the garden whatever the weather. But if it is raining you just go there in your mind....
Book: SALT FAT ACID HEAT: MASTERING THE ELEMENTS OF GOOD COOKING by Samin Nosrat
A wonderful and odd cookery book that goes into the physics and chemistry of how these four elements affect your food and taste buds. Now you know why things taste the way they do.
Book: THE FILM MAKERS' LEGAL GUIDE by Tony Morris.
Brilliant guide (especially to agents) of every legal aspect of film and TV contracts and law. Wish I'd had it many years ago. Never leaves my side (well, it's in my phone).
SAMUEL HODDER
Place: Matera, Italy
A unique, unforgettable city, which seems to exist outside of time. Believed to have been occupied for 10,000 years, thousands of its citizens lived in the Sassi - cave homes built into the soft rock, clustered around a communal courtyard. The city prospered in medieval times, but by the 20th century had fallen into extreme poverty and was labelled the 'Shame of Italy'. In response, the national government forcibly evicted the Sassi's 15,000 inhabitants in the 1950s. In 1993 the city was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site and this year Matera was a European Capital of Culture, and what was a cause of shame is now a source of national pride.
Book: ADELE by Leila Slimani
I found this even more compulsively readable than LULLABY. In lesser hands this story of sexual compulsion might have felt tawdry, but ADELE is devastating as Slimani portrays the gaping emptiness experienced by her eponymous protagonist. Written in taut, lucid prose, without an unnecessary line, it’s a fine addition to the libertine tradition in French literature.
TV series: CHERNOBYL
This was breathtaking television: often terrifying, but also deeply haunting. It’s an unsparing look at a man-made ecological disaster, but also at the dysfunction – fuelled by fear – of the political state that lay behind it. Brilliantly written, impeccably acted and cinematic in scope. A new classic.
In 2020: THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT by Hillary Mantel
We’ve been waiting so long! But I also know the wait will be entirely worth it.
LOUISA MINGHELLA
Film: BOOKSMART (Olivia Wilde)
Coming of age films are some of my favourite things in the world. Booksmart is the story of two high-school seniors (played by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Deaver – great names) who decide to throw caution to the wind and go to a party for once in their lives. Of course, just getting to the party is a challenge, and the pair get into all sorts of antics. It’s funny and fresh and sincere, following characters of varied races, sexualities, and body types without making it all ‘about’ being inclusive. The twist is genuinely unexpected, and the finale is stand-up-and-cheer-worthy.
Theatre: FALSETTOS (William Finn)
I found Falsettos when I was shamelessly googling Christian Borle’s name and a recording of the 2016 Broadway production popped up – let’s not speak of the latest London iteration. This is a deeply emotional and poignant operetta with a phenomenally constructed score. The songs are consistently interlinked and full of character and flavor, leaving the whole thing steeped in imagery, comedy, and the universal theme is desperately clear. As much as it’s about family, sexuality, illness, and Judaism, it’s about growing up, getting older, living on a lover’s shoulder. Learning love is not a crime. It’s about time.
TV: DEAD TO ME (Liz Feldman, Netflix)
I love Netflix’s heightened reality trend. I also love Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini. When Dead To Me came out I was straight on it. It’s the story of a Jen (Applegate), full of vengeance after her husband was killed in a hit and run, and her unlikely friend Judy (Cardellini) who has grief of her own, but they are more connected than they think. Gloriously binge-able with intrigue that just keeps giving. Each episode drags you back into more mysteries. The setup? Fantastic. The ongoing intrigue? Fantastic. The end? Satisfying and fantastic. 10/10.
HANA MURRELL
TV Series: GIRI/HAJI, BBC
I’m currently watching this brilliant Japanese/British crime drama, and loving the stylish production, high tension and nuanced portrayal of cultural differences. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a character on screen reflect my anglo-Japanese identity (minus the hard drug taking, of course!).
Book: AMERICANAH by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This has been sitting on my shelf for a long time, and discovering Chimamanda’s illuminating, absorbing writing has been such a joy.
Travel: Ferrocarril de Sóller, Mallorca
Travelling on this electric train dating from 1911 was possibly the highlight of my Mallorca holiday in June, and I haven’t previously been a trainspotter. It winds through the mountains between Palma and Sóller, and you can cling to the little balcony at the back of the train, feel like you’re in an old Western movie and watch the beautiful scenery sweep past.
RESHAM NAQVI
Film: JOKER
Joaquin Phoenix’s heart-breaking portrayal of the Joker throws you in at the deep end from the beginning. Arthur Fleck’s tragic descent into darkness and eventual transformation into the Joker is viewed against the mean, gritty streets of Gotham in an unforgiving, corrupt society where civil unrest is bubbling under the surface. Joker takes you on a dark psychological journey, and though uneasy at times, has you hooked. Perceptive and moving, Phoenix’s performance pierces your very being – miss it at your own peril.
Art: Ólafur Eliasson – In Real Life
An immersive Exhibition at the Tate Modern until 5th January 2020. With Danish-Icelandic artist Ólafur Eliasson’s iconic artwork, the luminous orange sun (which was displayed in the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall back in 2003) in mind, I was keen to visit his latest exhibition at the Tate Modern. In Real Life is an immersive, career retrospective and it doesn’t disappoint. Catch it while you can before it disappears!
Play: SWEAT by Lynn Nottage – Gielgud Theatre (June 2019)
Set against the backdrop of President Bush’s election in 2000 in small town America, this gripping drama explored how bonds of love and female friendship were tested by austerity, immigration, race and a fear of loss. A powerful play which, in the current political and economic climate, seems to be timeless.
In 2020: Leonard da Vinci exhibition at the Louvre, Paris (October 24, 2019 - February 24, 2020)
2019 marks the 500 year anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci in France, and the Louvre is exhibiting as many of his paintings as possible: The Virgin of the Rocks, La Belle Ferronnière, the Mona Lisa, the Saint John the Baptist and the Saint Anne. I’m looking forward to it!
JULIET PICKERING
Book: Elizabeth Strout’s OLIVE, AGAIN, was the best of hers yet. Nuanced, deeply moving, exploring the end of an inimitable life.
Film: CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? was a brilliant two-hander that Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant excelled in, and a sensitive portrayal of a literary career gone criminal.
Person: My third pick is a whole person as an inspiring cultural event: Greta Thunberg. For a young woman of 15/16 to have inspired a worldwide movement to protest climate change, is completely awe-inspiring. She's woken many of us up to how urgent this situation is, and ensured that world leaders take notice. What a woman!
In 2020: I'm most looking forward to reading Ann Patchett's THE DUTCH HOUSE, over the Christmas break.
JAMES PUSEY
Film: Ari Aster’s folk horror MIDSOMMAR was the most memorable film I saw this year. Equal parts frightening, terrifying and unnerving. Bad things happen in the Swedish countryside.
Art: Harald Sohlberg
Painting Norway at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Like a Nordic Peter Doig, Sohlberg infused his paintings with an eerie wonder.
Sport: ICC Cricket World Cup final, 14 July.
England beat New Zealand in the most life-enhancing one-day match ever played. It was a close-run thing, finally decided in a Super Over. Nobody understood the rules, but that’s part of the fun.
JAMES SYKES
TV series: DARK SHADOWS
Gothic horror soap opera from the 1960s which I became addicted to this year. A young woman is mysteriously offered the job of governess at a creepy old house in Collinsport, Maine. Cue vampires, werewolves, time travel, parallel universes, and plenty of melodrama. There are 1,225 episodes, so I’ve got a way to go yet.
Theatre: COME FROM AWAY
A musical set during 9/11 doesn't sound like it would be the most heart-warming thing you could possibly see on stage, but it is. COME FROM AWAY tells the true story of what happened when 38 planes were suddenly ordered to land in the small town of Gander during the terrorist attack.
Music: THANKS FOR THE DANCE by Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen died in 2016, having just released an album, but he had already recorded many vocals intended for his next one. His son and a team of other musicians added music and produced this stunning farewell record. Cohen’s voice is more haunting than ever – hearing new material but knowing he is gone is a weird experience – and his lyrics are predictably brilliant.
DAISY WAY
Book: QUEENIE by Candice Carty-Williams
There have been so many great books to choose from this year, but I don’t think any character’s voice has stuck with me quite like Queenie’s. A heart-wrenching, dark and twisted storyline, very much at odds with its bright pink cover, I read this compulsively.
City: Copenhagen, Denmark
A mid-summer trip to Copenhagen this year, made it easy to see why Denmark is one of the world’s happiest countries. You can’t escape the beautiful architecture, incredible food options and countless green spaces. From the somewhat gaudy Tivoli Gardens to the chic Glypotetek art gallery, there is something for everyone. My personal highlight was the Cisterns: once the city’s water reservoir, it now exists as an underground exhibition space, showing incredible art installations… rubber boots recommended!
Musical: & JULIET at The Shaftesbury Theatre, London
A fun, slightly ridiculous, feminist musical, giving Juliet Capulet another chance at life after Romeo. With an amazing and energetic cast, and filled with an impressive array of some of the cheesiest pop songs from the last couple of decades – including Backstreet Boys and Britney no less – it’s impossible to leave the theatre without a smile on your face.
CONRAD WILLIAMS
Place: WALES by Jan Morris
Having just moved there, I was looking for a book that could articulate my love for the landscape, the people, the essence of Cymreictod.
This is a marvellous verbal rendering of landscape, history, and all that makes Wales so different. I come in from long walks and crack it open by the wood-burner, a nip of Penderyn at my side.
Book: FELIX HOLT by George Eliot
It’s always salutary for literary agents to reach down one of the 19th century greats and get a shock at just how brilliant they are. Eliot really is the Boss. Ravishingly intelligent and entertaining. I’m still in a spin.
Music: Boris Berezovsky piano recital in Oxford Town Hall
Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Godowsky-Chopin…This repertoire is now so firmly under the Russian maestro’s fingers that you never know whether to expect more of the same, or something new. The problem is that after a great piano recital you can never remake the experience in your mind. It is like a conjuring, an enveloping spell, as constituted by musicality, technique, story-telling, acoustics as by the X-factor, which this artist has in spades: a whopping metaphysical energy. Thus, listeners encounter the epic and the elemental, and it goes so far beyond what you can learn in a conservatoire masterclass as to be dizzying.
TOM WITCOMB
TV: DARK
‘Netflix Original’ can usually be taken to mean ‘promising, but ultimately very disappointing’, but emo-noir time-travel thriller DARK (dir. Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese) was a nice surprise, especially in the wake of an unwatchable third series of STRANGER THINGS. There are some great sci-fi moments, and manages to avoid many of the regular pitfalls of ‘time-slip’ TV. Great casting, decent script, moody atmos, and a second season that doubles down on the wtf-ery. Shout out to Chernobyl as well, but that left me so bereft I can’t call it a highlight yet.
Book: HIS DARK MATERIALS by Philip Pullman
Not wanting to go on about it but my wife and I had a baby this year. He’s the best baby ever born, DM for pics. It’s advised that for the baby to connect with the non-pregnant parent, that person could read aloud to get baby used to their voice. Not wanting to fill his head with nonsense about young wizards growing up to be policemen and state representatives, we wanted to give Ziggy a firm grounding in physics, philosophy & theology whilst championing free thought and the challenging of authority. Hopefully that won’t prove too disastrous in his teens... Categorically the best books written for young people (and adults, whilst we’re at it). It’s a shame the BBC adaptation is soulless (daemon-less?).
Music: Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats
Whilst I worry that their 2018 release, Wasteland, signals their ‘acceptable to the Guardian’ decline, the gig we went to in January contained a satisfying heavy dose of their hazy pscychedelic technicolor weirdness and they hooked our ghoulish hearts from the get-go.