OVERVIEW: 2025 summary

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I'll be writing about the books I read or reread, any films or TV shows that I posted about, and tennis.

I read 55 books (I think), which is up on last year. As usual, the vast majority were by women and new to me. I didn’t review many Girls Own books, because I didn’t read many. One by one of the big four, Shocks for the Chalet School by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer (St Briavel era, Emerence Hope’s first term), The School on the Cliff by Winifred Darch, one of the better writers of day school stories, which is part of an omnibus of books by her that I bought, and a couple of others, but I did read lots of books for older children and Young Adult books, as well as books for adults.

The Secret Country by Pamela Dean is the first volume of a trilogy, where a family of cousins step into the real version of a game they’ve been playing for years that was somewhat influenced by Shakespeare and fantasy. Although the protagonists are children – well, the oldest cousins are in their mid teens – finding themselves in a world with real consequences, it’s written for an older audience, offering more texture than if it were a children’s book.

All Fall Down starts off the Embassy Row series – the street where most of the embassies in made-up country Adria are. Heroine Grace is very traumatised, and I wasn’t entirely comfortable with how her mental ill health was written. It’s by Ally Carter, whose Heist Society series I followed with more enthusiasm than her Gallagher Girls series.

The much better The Enigma Game was Elizabeth Wein’s latest book in the Code Name Verity cycle, world war 2 young adult thrillers, with Jamie and Ellen recurring, joined by mixed-race teenager Louisa, who’d got a job as companion to an unusual older lady, helping the war effort with their different talents. It was a real page turner, with depth as various characters carried grief and loss. It takes place before other books in the cycle.

I was glad to continue reading the next installment of the Murder Most Unladylike series with A Spoonful of Murder, where Daisy got to be the foreigner in Hazel’s native Hong Kong, and a mystery raised all sorts of questions for Hazel about her family. Annette Dancy continued to love dance in The Little Dancer, even though she had a chance to be a movie star, but the story was also about Sheena Macdonald and Jaimie Gordon, among others who we’ve met before. With Gaal the Conqueror, I came to the end of the Archives of Anthropos books that I own – I found out that there were a couple more (and you do realise, upon reading this, that John, at least, will have to return to Anthropos.) They aren’t easily or cheaply available, and I’m not too bothered about that.

The last three were definitely children’s books, but Henrietta Sees It Through was the second part of Joyce Dennys’s semi-autobiographical series of letters about life on the home front, covering 1942-45 from the perspective of a middle aged wife and mother, trying to entertain a soldier friend. You get the foibles of human nature, although the war and doing one’s duty take their toll. It ends on a note of qualified hope.

Clouds Among the Stars by Victoria Clayton is a historical romantic comedy of manners, featuring a young, somewhat naïve heroine set in the 1970s, but with a murder mystery in the background. Their father’s arrest changes the life of Harriet and her siblings, and the throughline is Harriet growing up.

A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity by Kathleen Gilles White looks at female friendship, social status from the perspective of a well-off mother, sorry, 'mom', Lydia, who was never one of the popular girls, but has to face the fact that her daughter may well be. I found it a compelling read.

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn follows the Seagrave family from the first world war to the aftermath of the second world war, mainly focusing on Cristabel, her half-sister Florence, and her cousin Digby, who are somewhat let by down by the adults who should be rearing them. They build the titular Whalebone Theatre, and grow up to face the demands of the second world war.

The last three books had definite heroines, but Homestead by Rosanna Lippi was a collection of stories about various women living in Rosenau, in the Austrian alps, from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s. We followed mothers, then their daughters, a couple of pairs of sisters at various points in their lives, as war, griefs, age and illness touched them.

I read my first book by Vivian Vande Velde, Companions of the Night, where teenager Kerry’s normal life is changed by an encounter with violence and people talking about vampires. When her father and brother are kidnapped, she realises that she can’t walk away and there really are vampires, and turns to the attractive older stranger Ethan. This is both grounded and thoughtful about its vampire lore, and I’ll be hunting (sorry) for more books by this author.

I’ve found myself continuing to reread my Nevil Shute books. This year, it was The Far Country about post-war migration to Australia. I also reread The Dragonfly Pool, which looks like it’ll be the last of my Eva Ibbotson rereads. There’s possibly a little too much going on as Tally joins a progressive school, which ends up in the Ruritanian country of Bergania on the eve of world war 2. Another reread was The Four Graces by D.E. Stevenson, about a vicarage family (a widowed vicar, three of his four adult daughters) set and written during WW2, but trying to be a light read. How people writing during WW2 approached it is interesting compared with authors who are writing from much later, especially the ones who couldn’t remember it.

I don’t know that I have any reading resolutions for 2026, beyond reading the other two stories in that Winifred Darch omnibus that I bought.

Having read The Thursday Murder Club last year, I went to see the well-made and entertaining film adaptation in the cinema. It was made by Netflix, and so could afford stars like Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan and Ben Kingsley, joined by Celia Imrie as Joyce, the club’s newest member.

I wrote about watching the eleventh series of The Great British Sewing Bee. In summary, Sara Pascoe returned to present the main series, and there was a wide variety of contestants, as ever. It took a while for their names to sink in. Kit and Caz were strong in the first few episodes. I wondered if they recycled the challenges in Reduce, Reuse and Recycle week. In the children’s wear week, they gave out an adaptive pattern, bringing in a guest judge (as they’d done for Korean week.) There were tears in the quarter finals, and a surprise as to who the judges had to decide would leave in the semi-finals. As ever, it came down to the made-to-measure round in the final, with the theme being ‘trompe l’oeil’, and I was happy with the winner. The Christmas special featured celebrities, and the one who had the most sewing experience (which wasn’t much) won. Sophie Willan presented this, with Patrick and Esme turning up to judge (and name drop) in both shows.

As for tennis, which was all I posted about some months, on the women’s side, there were four different winners in the slams, with Madison Keys finally making it, and doing so by beating the top two players, Swiatek and Sabalenka, in Australia. Sabalenka kept on playing well, while Swiatek did not play as well as she usually does on clay, her strongest surface, while it started to look as though it was going to be Gauff’s stronger surface. In the French Open final, it was Sabalenka who was surely the favourite, especially as she was up one set, versus Gauff and the wind. But Gauff was the one who coped with the wind and circumstances best, to win her second Grand Slam (despite her issues with her serve and her forehand.)

Sabalenka ought to be the favourite for Wimbledon, though, everyone thought. I watched her come through the challenge of a revitalised Raducanu and British crowd under the roof, Siegmund’s unique style of play, but then Anisimova was able to outhit her in the semi. On the other side of the draw, young Andreeva faltered, while Swiatek suddenly figured out how to play on grass in the second week. She came to the final to play, her opponent froze, Swiatek never let up. It was excruciating to watch, but take nothing away from Swiatek.
To her credit, Anisimova came back in north America, beating Swiatek in their next match, and making her way to the final of the US Open, where she’d face Sabalenka, still no. 1 seed, still the favourite, but under enormous pressure. At least it was a match, but Anisimova was not allowed to use the weapons that can match Sabalenka’s, or rather, the older player has more, not least the mental fortitude to put aside the previous slams.

It should be noted that Italy were victorious again at the BJK cup, although the Americans had higher ranked players. By the WTA finals, Anisimova was backing up her last two slam results and looking like she belonged in the top 4, but Rybakina looked like her best self as a player, and that’s good enough to win a slam. Gauff is working on her weaknesses, Swiatek ought to do better on clay in 2026, but Sabalenka was clearly the no. 1. It’s less clearcut than what’s going on in the men’s side (it would be fabulous if Swiatek and Sabalenka faced each other in a grand slam final, but it’s quite likely not to happen.)

Men’s tennis in 2025 was really about The Rivalry. Alcaraz faltered in Australia, Sinner did not, but then he got a three-month ban for the doping incident of '24, meaning he was out until Rome. Alcaraz improved in the spring, beat Sinner when they faced each other in the final at Rome, but when the two best players met in the French Open, the first time they’d met in a grand slam final, it lived up to expectations, and was easily the match of the year. Sinner had a lead, and then Alcaraz found another gear. It went to a fifth set championship tiebreak, and then Alcaraz played out of his mind, and the quality of the tennis was outstanding for a five-hour-plus match.

Alcaraz could have gone out to the heat and Fognini in the first round of Wimbledon, and had Dimitrov not been injured in their match, Sinner would have been out to his devastating slice. But instead, the double defending champion met the top seed in the final, and as time went on, a more attacking Sinner smothered Alcaraz, winning Wimbledon for the first time, getting revenge for the French Open and adding another chapter to The Rivalry. When they met again on the north American courts, Sinner was sick, and so retired in the final, so you couldn’t say much based on that.

But at the US Open, they were both headed for the final, and here, Alcaraz had learned the lessons of Wimbledon, got a clearer gameplan, and attacked like nobody else could to outplay Sinner, who was already thinking about what he had to do differently by the press conference. Alcaraz ended the year as world no. 1, although Sinner is the master indoors. It is THE rivalry, with both drawing excellence out of each other. Alcaraz is the only player who can consistently beat Sinner currently, but Alcaraz has been more prone to low points. Though this year has switched some of the givens about court surface about, with Sinner improving on grass, Alcaraz improving indoors, Alcaraz maybe maturing when it comes to shot selection, and Sinner recognising he needs to bring more variety.

The next best player (in grand slams) has consistently been Djokovic. Who is both Novak Djokovic (reel off his record) and 38, so he’s good enough to beat everybody else, but no longer Alcaraz and Sinner in five sets. As for the rest of the pack? Zverev and Fritz didn’t quite threaten enough, and injury affected Shelton, Draper and Rune in different ways. We’ll see where young guns like Fonseca, Tien and Mensik end up, but look, even with his new coaching situation, Australia is the only slam Alcaraz hasn’t won, (ditto for Swiatek), Sinner wants to add to his tally (and get back to no. 1, but that’s probably for the rest of spring.) There will be more chapters in their rivalry. (Djokovic still wants to add another one, or he’d have retired…)

I am seriously considering getting access to Sky, maybe after the Australian Open, so that I can watch more tennis.