Aye so, I was asked to write my cultural highlights of 2010 by my publisher Faber. They posted it in their excellent thoughtfox blog. You can read it here.

As I mention in it, the best thing on television this year by a country mile was The Trip with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. I can’t even really describe why it was good – it shouldn’t have worked, two middle aged comedians drifting around posh restaurants in the north of England, but it was utterly sublime at times, and very brave, especially from Coogan, who played up to his public image and subverted it at the same time. Here’s a clip of one of the sillier moments.

The other thing I didn’t have room to mention in the Faber thing was David Vann’s Legend of a Suicide, which came out in 2009, but I didn’t get round to reading until recently.

A quite astonishing collection of stories about the author’s father, who committed suicide when he was a kid. I can’t really describe why it’s so amazing either, mainly because there’s an event in the middle of the book so utterly shocking and transformative as to make the reader reassess everything that has gone before. And if you know about it, it’ll spoil it. Highly recommended, though.

That’s all for now. Keep warm folks.