Year of the Rat: Undercover in the British Far Right by Harry Shukman won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award in 2025. A former journalist and researcher for the campaigning group HOPE not hate, Shukman went undercover as “Chris” for a year, infiltrating nine extreme far-right groups, starting with lesser-known networks like the Basketweavers whose lonely members meet in dingy pubs to discuss conspiracy theories. Shukman used his connections from those groups to infiltrate others, including canvassing with Britain First and attending neo-Nazi conferences and eugenicist circles. Shukman paints portraits of the activists, their motivations and the pathetic power struggles within the mostly disorganised groups which provide some unexpected light relief amidst the alarming political and social implications of the extreme ideologies they promote. The stress of working undercover clearly took its toll on Shukman but the resulting book he has produced is tense, bold and brave.
Shortlisted for the Booker Prize last year and longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction this year, Audition by Katie Kitamura is a slippery literary novel about an unnamed middle-aged actress and the different roles she plays in her life. In the first half of the novel, she meets a younger man, Xavier, for dinner in Manhattan and he unexpectedly announces that he believes he is her son which she believes isn’t possible. However, the second half completely upends and contradicts the events of the first half, and implies that Xavier has always been part of the narrator’s life. Audition is probably one of the most ambiguous novels I have ever read, both clever and infuriating at the same time in the endless interpretations it presents around the themes of parenting and performance. If it had been double the length, I probably would have skipped it, but its brevity makes it more accessible and worth giving a try. Many thanks to Vintage Books for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.
The Secret Painter by Joe Tucker is a portrait of the life of the author’s uncle, Eric, who was dubbed “the secret Lowry” following the discovery of hundreds of his paintings hidden all over his house after his death in 2018. Eric lived with his mother and then alone in Warrington in north-west England and worked as a labourer. While his close relatives knew that he did some painting in his spare time, they did not know about the full extent of his work until after his death. Tucker sensitively explores his uncle’s unconventional eccentricities and low self-esteem, as well as his working-class background at odds with the elitist and pretentious art world who failed to recognise his talent while he was still alive. Eric himself was full of contradictions and his nephew explores his unique character objectively while also being an engaging champion of his work. The author’s efforts to stage a posthumous exhibition of his uncle’s work are touching, and The Secret Painter is a charmingly written tribute.
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