Rahim's Letter 021: The Best of 2025

I’ve read a lot of brilliant books this year - I had a nice stream of 5 star books over spring, which was very welcome. Here’s the best three:

This is fantastic - it’s about two sisters in France in 1940, and then the Nazis invade and a German officer moves into their house with them. What ensues is a beautiful terrible story of wartime courage and heartbreak. I couldn’t recommend it more strongly, and it’s quite possibly one of the best books I’ve ever read. 

This was actually recommended to me by Nick’s wife, and is the tale of a boy who discovers a book that someone has tried to wipe off the face of the earth. Naturally, he then tries to find out what happened, and the complexity and parallels and beautifully written in an incredible satisfying way. 

Tom recommended this and it really is a modern Le Carre (although I have only ever read The Spy Who Came In From The Cold). It’s an incredibly gripping story about CIA operations in Assad’s Syria - I read it in three days and then quickly followed up with the two sequels. It’s a great series and you won’t regret it.    

I’ve started going to the cinema a lot more recently, and have seen some blinders. I’ve also seen some horror shows, but the less said about them the better. 

I only saw this a few days ago and so there’s definitely some recency bias here, but this film sets you up to expect a certain kind of film, and when you get there it takes you along a thrilling journey that has you gripped. It won’t win any Oscars, but it’s told incredibly well (if not perfectly), and I really enjoyed it. 

It’s no secret that as time goes on, people get more detached from the horrors of the war. Nuremberg does a brilliant job of showing the realities of the trial for a 21st century audience and at a pretty prescient time for global politics. Very powerful film, and Russell Crowe does a great job showing that these weren’t inherently evil people.

I really enjoyed this. Her husband is a film-maker and this is a behind-the-scenes documentary on being Kiwi PM during the Christchurch shootings and Covid. I quite like her as a politician anyway, but it was very interesting to see the other side of it. Worth the watch. 

I have to caveat this one by saying that I don’t watch eons and eons of tv, and where I do, it’s often not stuff that’s come out this year. So, below are the three best things I’ve seen this year, and they may very well have not come out this year. 

It’s not often that a tv show captures the British or even Global viewing public in this modern age of streaming, but Adolescence certainly did. It was shocking, but entirely believable and had a bonkers political impact on public discourse - Musk and Trump both claimed it was anti-white propaganda, and Parliament made a lot of noise about it. It actually set the scene quite well for the rollout of the Online Safety Bill a few months later, and in a world where the Aussies have banned social media for under-16s, I think it touched on a very important topic for the world at a very prescient time. This is the power of television at its finest. 

I can’t believe I hadn’t seen this before. It’s a brilliant television show about the relationship between the UK and the US at the very highest level. I watched Season 1 and 2 over the space of a week and have only just stared Season 3 (which does seem to have slightly worse reviews). It’s one of those shows that you’re glad isn’t real, but probably isn’t too many steps away. 

This has been on my list of things to watch for quite while, and I’ve just got round to what is hilariously brilliant television. Apparently Maggie Thatcher’s favourite tv show, and I personally quite like the the government’s new AI tool to help Civil Service has been named Humphrey after one of the characters. 

This is not just my Spotify Wrapped top three songs, but rather the ones that I look back at and think “yeah that was definitely a 2025 song”, even if it was released before this year.

This isn’t a new song, and it’s one you’ve probably all heard quite a lot. This is one of those songs I kept going back to this year, and I think I had it on repeat quite a lot, even if my Spotify Wrapped disagrees. It’s a very sad song, and I added it to my Spotify Liked Songs on the day of my uncle’s funeral in January. We’ve had a lot of family die this year. This song helped. 

This is a newer song. It’s very upbeat and a good song to wake yourself up - I had it on repeat a lot through November and is one of those songs that you can sing along to and it generally makes you feel a bit better about things. Good song that puts you in a good mood. 

This did come out last year, but I really enjoyed it this year. It’s a bit meaningless and you can put it on in the background and sing along to it whilst doing something else that requires brain capacity. It’s been a very good song for that and the chorus is ridiculously fun to sing. 

I’ve been here more than any other fast food establishment in the world this year. They’re brilliant burgers, the best in London, and pretty good chips. I’ve really enjoyed going here this year and it wouldn’t be right to give Restaurant of the Year to anywhere else. 

I’m biased by there being one directly below my office here, but Temper has reliably given me some fantastic meals this year. Their £15 steak and chips lunch deal has brought plenty of happiness to my life, and their evening menu is also fantastic if you’re going with a bigger budget. 

Brilliant, no-frills Japanese food. I’ve tried to hold more of my social arrangements over dinner rather than over drinks this year, and Marugame has been the epitome of an affordable place where you’ll definitely get a seat for some pretty solid food. It’s a great choice, especially for last-minute plans. 

Believe it or not, but I actually really like coffee. In fact, I’d probably go so far as to say that 2025 has been the year where I’ve really began to enjoy coffee - a long shot from ordering a mocha when I first began my job, much to Jody’s amusement. 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise if we’ve talked about coffee this year. Rosslyn do a simple thing incredibly well and reliably. I’ve only had one coffee that wasn’t perfect from here this year, out of dozens, and I think that’s a testament to their quality and process. Good coffee. Go visit on the weekend if you’re not a City regular. 

Roasting Party do a fantastic job of serving a very good cup of coffee, if you like a slightly milker coffee. Now, I quite like milk, so this works for me on occasion, but I would generally default to getting my coffees from Rosslyn, where the coffee taste is slightly stronger and comes through better. Good shout if you’re not in the City. 

This is a very specific set of circumstances, but I think there’s something to be said for getting a coffee here when it’s a bit dark and miserable outside, you’ve been on the Heath, and want to warm up somewhere cosy. It’s a respectable coffee, but the atmosphere makes it. Go visit in the depths of winter.

Thanks for reading, I hope you all have a wonderful New Year’s Eve if it’s yet to hit you, and that your start to 2026 has been full of laughter, happiness and enjoyment for those of you in New Zealand and already in the New Year. 

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