The best books of 2025 — The Times Critics’ Picks
Based on the hugely popular blog, magazine, and Instagram account of the same name, The Bible of British Taste explores the meaning of traditional British style. Rejecting the pristine and predictable in favour of the lived-in and characterful, this is an aesthetic created from art, antiques, the reused, found and hand-made and the layers of history laid down by generations of home makers.
As author Ruth Guilding puts it: ‘My personal mantra for the descriptions of people and their houses in this book roughly seems to be that old stuff is good, and perfection is boring.'
Taking her contexts from William Morris, the Bloomsbury set and today’s leading artistic makers and innovators, Guilding explores the meaning of ‘home’ and our everlasting preoccupation with domestic taste, self-presentation and decorating styles,
With hundreds of images of remarkable gardens and interiors, domestic icons and folk art narratives, and featuring renowned tastemakers– from Sir Roy Strong and Jasper Conran to Luke Edward Hall, Bridget Elworthy of the Land Gardeners and Ben Pentreath – The Bible of British Taste shines a new light on the quirky charms of unconventional British style.
With unrivalled access to some of Britain’s most extraordinary homes, this is the definitive guide to the nation’s most distinctive interiors – a book that belongs on every design lover’s shelf.
The major new book from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Handmaid's Tale
'She's taken our times and made us wise to them' ALI SMITH
'She's Margaret Atwood and she can do anything' ANN PATCHETT
'She saw it all coming' TIME
'The outstanding novelist of our age' **SUNDAY TIMES
Immerse yourself in the creative universe of Margaret Atwood for a riot of life, art and everything in between:** the greatest writer of our time tells her own story
Raised by scientifically minded parents, Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec: a vast playground for her entomologist father and independent, resourceful mother. It was an unfettered and nomadic childhood, sometimes isolated but also thrilling and beautiful.
From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking key moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape, from the cruel school year that would become Cat’s Eye to the unease of 1980s Berlin, where she began The Handmaid’s Tale. In pages alive with the natural world, reading and books, major political turning points and her lifelong love for the charismatic writer Graeme Gibson, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood stars and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.
**As she explores her past, Atwood reveals more and more about her writing, the connections between real life and art – and the workings of one of our boldest imaginations.
** THE ULTIMATE GIFT FOR ALL THE MARGARET ATWOOD FANS IN YOUR LIFE ****
*THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*
The trailblazing autobiography of England Football legend Mary Earps.
A playbook for anyone who has ever thought they don't fit in.
A blueprint for success on your own terms.
'This book is me, unfiltered. It's the truth behind the headlines, the setbacks behind the saves. I'm so proud to finally share it with the world. I hope it resonates with anyone who's ever been told they're not enough, and inspires the next generation to be unapologetically themselves.'
Told in Mary's inimitable voice, this is her inspiring story, lifting the lid on the reality of a young woman who dreamed big, an elite female athlete in a man's world, a change-maker who stood up to fight for what she knew was right... and won. This is a book about the moments that change everything and the years of hard work, courage, and finding the relentless self-belief that make them possible. This isn't just a sports memoir; it's a guide for anyone who feels they don't fit in and a story that might just change your life.
SHORTLISTED FOR WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025
GUARDIAN SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
THE TIMES SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR
'A masterful work that will challenge your views on the physical capabilities of all women' – Sue Anstiss, author
What happens when women run beyond the marathon—and refuse to stop? Ultra Women is a gripping, behind-the-scenes journey into the high-stakes world of female endurance, where athletes race across deserts, over mountains, and through the night for 50, 100, even 200 miles at a time. Blending intimate profiles with cutting-edge science, it reveals how women runners, swimmers and cyclists are smashing records, shattering stereotypes, and redefining what "strong" looks like at every age and stage of life.
Meet the mothers balancing midnight feeds with dawn training runs, the champions who learned to turn pain into data, and the late starters who discovered their prime years—post-40, post-menopause—on the trail. Along the way, you'll learn how mindset, fueling, hormones, and smart recovery converge to create the conditions for extraordinary performance.
Inside you'll discover:
- Trailblazing stories from iconic races and previously unsung heroines of the sport
- Science you can use on nutrition, pacing, heat/cold adaptation, and injury resilience
- The mental toolkit — from micro-goals to "embracing the suck" — that carries competitors past the breaking point
- Life-phase insights on training through periods, pregnancy, postpartum, peri- and post-menopause
- Practical checklists for first ultras, crew strategy, and race-day problem-solving
Whether you're a curious newcomer, a seasoned marathoner eyeing your first 50K, or a reader who loves true stories of grit, Ultra Women will leave you inspired—and equipped—to go further than you ever thought possible.
Perfect for fans of Born to Run, Good for a Girl, and Endure —and for anyone who believes the horizon is just a starting line.
Take the long way. Find your edge. Join the Ultra Women.
Reviews
A meticulous and occasionally startling study of how modern sport is still shaped by a male perspective, from media coverage to bra design to scientific research. A celebration of female bodies, female pioneers and female endurance– Jonathan Liew, Guardian Sports Book of the Year
This absorbing book, shortlisted for the 2025 William Hill sports book of the year, combines history, reportage, science and polemic. Most enjoyable of all are the mini-biographies of endurance athletes, such as the British fell-running champion Jasmin Paris, who can "push on and endure" like few others. – Jason Cowley. Sports Books of the Year, The Times
It was a joy to read from start to finish, beautifully written and incredibly engaging. A masterful work that will challenge your views on the physical capabilities of all women. The must-read sports book of 2025. – Sue Anstiss, author
A fascinating exploration of female ultra-distance sporting achievement – and a fitting tribute to those pioneers who blazed a trail for us all to follow. Jasmin Paris, ultrarunner
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO WILD SWANS, THE MULTI-MILLION COPY INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING SENSATION
A Book of the Year in The Times; Daily Telegraph; Financial Times and Waterstones
'A must-read … magnificent’ DAILY TELEGRAPH *****
'Beautiful and moving' ELIF SHAFAK, OBSERVER
Jung Chang’s Wild Swans was a book that defined a generation, an epic personal history of Jung, her mother and grandmother – ‘three daughters of China’. The book opens in 1909 with her grandmother’s birth – and foot-binding – when China was under the last emperor, moving through Mao Zedong’s rule, especially the Cultural Revolution during which Jung’s parents were subjected to horrendous ordeals because of their courage. It finishes in 1978 when Deng Xiaoping officially ended the Mao era and started the ‘reforms’. Jung, at that propitious juncture, became one of the first Chinese to leave Communist China for the West.
Nearly half a century on, China has risen from a decrepit and isolated state to a global power, the challenger to the United States’ dominant position in the world. Through those decades, Jung’s life has been intimately entwined with her native land. Her experiences dealing with the regime in those years were rich and revealing – especially so because all her books were (and are) banned.
Fly, Wild Swans is the follow-up to Wild Swans and brings the story of Jung’s family – along with that of China – up to date. The book is in many ways Jung’s love letter to her mother. It is inevitably also about her grandmother and father, both of whom died tragically in the Cultural Revolution but are often recalled in this book. In fact, the past is never far away in Jung’s subsequent life. It has shaped her, and moulded the present China, and what’s more, it promises to herald the future.
China is now at another watershed moment with the era of Chairman Xi Jinping greatly affecting the lives of Jung and her mother. Fly, Wild Swans is Jung’s heartfelt response to that experience, and a book filled with drama, love, curiosity and incredible history – both personal and global. Ultimately uplifting, told in Jung’s clear, honest and compelling voice, it is memoir writing at its best.
'Profoundly revealing as a portrait both of a family and of the deeper traumas that lie at the heart of modern China' RORY STEWART
'Another wonder book from Jung Chang…I am quite blown away by it' LADY ANTONIA FRASER
**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The unforgettable memoir by the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the woman who dared to take on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
“Make no mistake: this is a book about power, corruption, industrial-scale sex abuse and the way in which institutions sided with the perpetrator over his victims. . . . But it is also a book about how a young woman becomes a hero. . . . Important [and] courageous.” —The Guardian**
The world knows Virginia Roberts Giuffre as Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most outspoken victim: the woman whose decision to speak out helped send both serial abusers to prison, whose photograph with Prince Andrew catalyzed his fall from grace. But her story has never been told in full, in her own words—until now.
In April 2025, Giuffre took her own life. She left behind a memoir written in the years preceding her death and stated unequivocally that she wanted it published. Nobody’s Girl is the riveting and powerful story of an ordinary girl who would grow up to confront extraordinary adversity.
Here, Giuffre offers an unsparing and definitive account of her time with Epstein and Maxwell, who trafficked her and others to numerous prominent men. She also details the molestation she suffered as a child, as well as her daring escape from Epstein and Maxwell’s grasp at nineteen. Giuffre remade her life from scratch and summoned the courage to not only hold her abusers to account but also advocate for other victims. The pages of Nobody’s Girl preserve her voice—and her legacy—forever.
Nobody’s Girl is an astonishing affirmation of Giuffre’s unshakable will—first, to claw her way out of victimhood, and then to shine light on wrongdoing and fight for a safer, fairer world. Equal parts intimate and fierce, it is a remarkable narrative of fortitude in the face of depravity and despair.
From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins
**SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A searingly honest memoir from Dexys’ iconic frontman, one of the great mavericks and creative geniuses of British music.**
At home, the prayerful eight-year-old altar boy was planning to attend college to train to be a priest. Elsewhere, he was thieving, lying, swearing, fighting and rarely out of trouble.
In this astonishing memoir, Kevin takes us from the juvenile courts of his troubled teenage years to the early days of the New Romantic scene in the late ’70s. An unwavering passion for music and highly tuned sense of fashion and style ignited an unstoppable drive within him, compelling him down a path that led to his huge chart successes with Dexys Midnight Runners in the early 1980s. However, despite being celebrated as a creative genius, inner turmoil was never far away, and a terrifying series of self-sabotaging events were to follow – including a serious cocaine addiction – leaving him in the wilderness in the 1990s, bankrupt, living in a bedsit, on the dole.
Always resilient in the face of adversity, after a massive upheaval Kevin found his way back. He charts his return journey, from shocking audiences with his pioneering embrace of gender fluidity with My Beauty, right through to Dexys’ triumphant appearance at Glastonbury in 2024.
Vividly detailed, and with a truly rare degree of self-insight, this is Kevin's own, deeply personal account of an extraordinary life, raw and unvarnished. A remarkable memoir, as compelling and original as you would expect from one of the pioneering icons of music history.
Unknown authorUnknown authorEra-defining obituaries of iconic film stars
**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK
“The story of relationships built and broken, mistakes inherited and repeated, and the beauty of trying again….already one of the year’s best.” –People**
Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws’ lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can’t imagine anyone more ill-suited for the task—an airport baggage handler haunted by a tragedy from his and Charlie’s shared past. But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. And why does Garrett, after meeting Cece, begin to feel, well, human again? As a contagious stomach flu threatens to scuttle the wedding, and Charlie and Garrett’s friendship is put to the ultimate test, Cece must decide between the life she’s dreamed of and a life she’s never imagined.
The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents’ story. Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, Dream State explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past—both our own and the ones we’ve inherited.
Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the American West, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.
The Times critics have selected the most outstanding books of 2025 — a carefully curated list of novels, histories, memoirs, biographies and standout non-fiction. These titles reflect the year’s most talked-about ideas, unforgettable storytelling and exceptional writing, chosen by one of Britain’s m...
