Nick Hornby has a lot to answer for with his novels encouraging us to create lists of favourite things. Paul Linford in his blog Paul Linford's Top 10 Political Books succumbed to the temptation recently by publishing two lists: best political books and best political speeches. To show my craven imitative tendencies I'm doing one myself: top ten political novels. I realise the category is a bit vague- when is a novel a 'political' one? Very subjective I know but my following list makes it clear, I hope, why each book is in it.