Where to start with Beryl Bainbridge

British novelist, 1932–2010. Won the Costa Novel Award in 1977 and 1996.

Best Beryl Bainbridge book to start with: Every Man for Himself (1996), on 2 of the 21 lists it could have made.

Every Man for Himself is a good first Bainbridge. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1996 and won the Costa Novel Award the same year. It is set on the Titanic and told by a young passenger, and Bainbridge keeps it short and close.

All her books are brief, so you can sample several in a week. The Bottle Factory Outing, shortlisted for the Booker in 1974, is the funniest: two women who work in a wine bottling factory in London go on a company outing. Injury Time won the Costa in 1977 and takes place around a dinner party that goes badly wrong. The Dressmaker, shortlisted in 1973, is set in wartime Liverpool and is the darker of the earlier books.

An Awfully Big Adventure and Master Georgie were shortlisted for the Booker in 1990 and 1998, and they make most sense once you have the measure of her humour, which is dry and sometimes cruel. If Every Man for Himself leaves you wanting more of that, The Bottle Factory Outing is the best second book.