BBC reading list judge defends snubbing JK Rowling because Harry Potter is a children’s book

The BBC’s Big Jubilee Read has been compiled following a five-month search that has involved librarians from towns and villages across the UK – along with readers in 54 countries.

It is a celebration of 70 books, one for each year the Queen has reigned, written by Commonwealth authors during her time as monarch. 

1952-1961

The Palm-Wine Drinkard – Amos Tutuola (1952, Nigeria)

The Hills Were Joyful Together – Roger Mais (1953, Jamaica)

In the Castle of My Skin – George Lamming (1953, Barbados)

My Bones and My Flute – Edgar Mittelholzer (1955, Guyana)

The Lonely Londoners – Sam Selvon (1956, Trinidad and Tobago/England)

The Guide – R. K. Narayan (1958, India)

To Sir, With Love – E. R. Braithwaite (1959, Guyana)

One Moonlit Night – Caradog Prichard (1961, Wales)

A House for Mr Biswas – VS Naipaul (1961, Trinidad and Tobago/England)

Sunlight on a Broken Column – Attia Hosain (1961, India)

1962-1971

A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (1962, England)

The Interrogation – J.M.G. Le Clézio (1963, France/Mauritius)

The Girls of Slender Means – Muriel Spark (1963, Scotland)

Arrow of God – Chinua Achebe (1964, Nigeria)

Death of a Naturalist – Seamus Heaney (1966, Northern Ireland)

Wide Sargasso Sea – Jean Rhys (1966, Dominica/Wales)

A Grain of Wheat – Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1967, Kenya)

Picnic at Hanging Rock – Joan Lindsay (1967, Australia)

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born – Ayi Kwei Armah (1968, Ghana)

When Rain Clouds Gather – Bessie Head (1968, Botswana/South Africa)

1972-1981

The Nowhere Man – Kamala Markandaya (1972, India)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Le Carré (1974, England)

The Thorn Birds – Colleen McCullough (1977, Australia)

The Crow Eaters – Bapsi Sidhwa (1978, Pakistan)

The Sea, The Sea – Iris Murdoch (1978, England)

Who Do You think You Are? – Alice Munro (1978, Canada)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (1979, England)

Tsotsi – Athol Fugard (1980, South Africa)

Clear Light of Day – Anita Desai (1980, India)

Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie (1981, England/India)

1982-1991

Schindler’s Ark – Thomas Keneally (1982, Australia)

Beka Lamb – Zee Edgell (1982, Belize)

The Bone People – Keri Hulme (1984, New Zealand)

The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (1985, Canada)

Summer Lightning – Olive Senior (1986, Jamaica)

The Whale Rider – Witi Ihimaera (1987, New Zealand)

The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro (1989, England)

Omeros – Derek Walcott (1990, Saint Lucia)

The Adoption Papers – Jackie Kay (1991, Scotland)

Cloudstreet – Tim Winton (1991, Australia)

1992-2001

The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje (1992, Canada/Sri Lanka)

The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields (1993, Canada)

Paradise – Abdulrazak Gurnah (1994, Tanzania/England)

A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry (1995, India/Canada)

Salt – Earl Lovelace (1996, Trinidad and Tobago)

The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy (1997, India)

The Blue Bedspread – Raj Kamal Jha (1999, India)

Disgrace – J.M. Coetzee (1999, South Africa/Australia)

White Teeth – Zadie Smith (2000, England)

Life of Pi – Yann Martel (2001, Canada)

2002-2011

Small Island – Andrea Levy (2004, England)

The Secret River – Kate Grenville (2005, Australia)

The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (2005, Australia)

Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006, Nigeria)

A Golden Age – Tahmima Anam (2007, Bangladesh)

The Boat – Nam Le (2008, Australia)

Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel (2009, England)

The Book of Night Women – Marlon James (2009, Jamaica)

The Memory of Love – Aminatta Forna (2010, Sierra Leone/Scotland)

Chinaman – Shehan Karunatilaka (2010, Sri Lanka)

2012-2021

Our Lady of the Nile – Scholastique Mukasonga (2012, Rwanda)

The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton (2013, New Zealand)

Behold the Dreamers – Imbolo Mbue (2016, Cameroon)

The Bone Readers – Jacob Ross (2016, Grenada)

How We Disappeared – Jing-Jing Lee (2019, Singapore)

Girl, Woman, Other – Bernardine Evaristo (2019, England)

The Night Tiger – Yangsze Choo (2019, Malaysia)

Shuggie Bain – Douglas Stuart (2020, Scotland)

A Passage North – Anuk Arudpragasam (2021, Sri Lanka)

The Promise – Damon Galgut (2021, South Africa) 

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