Boats 2 sounds like Pincher Martin by William Golding.
Trains 2 is from Chesil Beach by MacEwan. Can't recall character's name but will find it. The male protagonist's mother as I recall.
Picture 1 JG Ballard
Picture 2 Norman Lewis
Picture 6 Ferdinand Mount
Trains 5 Mabel Warren (Stamboul Train)
Boats 5 Carl Hiaasen book?
Prisons 1 Barnaby Rudge
Prisons 2 Michaelis (The Secret Agent)
Prisons 3 Jeanie Deans (The Heart of Midlothian)
Criminals 3 Guido Franceschini (The Ring and the Book)Aeroplanes 4 Jamie Graham (The Empire of the Sun)
Madhouses 3 Susan Trinder (Fingersmith)
Madhouses 4 Marquis de Sade
Battles 4 ? (Vanity Fair)
Battles 5 The War Between the Tates (Alison Lurie)
Battles 3. I think this could be King Arthur, in which case the answer would be Malory (Morte d'Arthur) or Tennyson (Morte d'Arthur or Idylls of the King). Can anyone confirm?
I cannot find reference to the shortest day, goodfriday. Other thoughts I had were Harold and his eye or Rufus in the New Forest. However, I do not know if these are recorded in fiction. Anyone help?
I agree with you wholeheartedly, Good Friday.
"That day when the great light of heaven/Burned at his lowest in the rolling year" has to be the shortest day. Top marks!