FICTION

Angel Gurria-Quintana

MOTHER’S MILK by Edward St Aubyn

Picador ₤12.99, 288 pages

There was an abundance of maternally themed fiction in 2006, but this sequel to St Aubyn’s Some Hope trilogy was the pick of the bunch. A clear-eyed and deliciously crafted summation of the bitterness sown by motherly love.

MOTHERS AND SONS by Colm Toibin

Picador ₤12.99, 320 pages

Art thieves, folk musicians, predatory priests and drug-fuelled ravers feature in an exquisite collection of short stories by one of Ireland’s finest writers. As in his novels, Toibin exposes the deep emotions that lurk beneath life’s apparent ordinariness.

EVERYMAN by Philip Roth

Jonathan Cape ₤10, 192 pages

An unnamed protagonist rages against the dying of the light in this furious rant about the ravages of old age by one of the literary totems of the US.

THE LAY OF THE LAND by Richard Ford

Bloomsbury ₤17.99, 352 pages

The travails of bemused family man and sportswriter-turned-realtor Frank Bascombe are examined in this acutely lucid conclusion to Ford’s magnificent triptych of modern American life.

THE VIEW FROM CASTLE ROCK by Alice Munro

Chatto & Windus ₤15.99, 368 pages

The acknowledged mistress of the short story transforms the raw material of her family history into a treasure-trove of pieces tracing her ancestors’ passage from Scotland to Canada.

MORAL DISORDER by Margaret Atwood

Bloomsbury ₤15.99, 272 pages

Mercurial Atwood’s latest offering spins autobiography into vividly narrated snapshots that document family life from the 1930s to the present day.

THE MARCH by E.L. Doctorow

Little, Brown ₤11.99, 384 pages

The American civil war is the setting for this multiple-narrator novel that chronicles the devastation wreaked by General Sherman’s 60,000-strong column after the burning of Atlanta.

TERRORIST by John Updike

Hamish Hamilton ₤17.99, 320 pages

Updike may be more naturally attuned to the anxieties of his waspish, middle-class anti-hero Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom than to the worries of a mixed-ethnicity teenager embracing radical Islam. Yet he deserves praise for the audacity of imagining himself into another life across such a yawning cultural breach.

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH by Bernard McLaverty

Jonathan Cape ₤14.99, 240 pages

Identity and memory are central to this poignant new collection of stories by the Belfast-born, Glasgow-based writer.

AGAINST THE DAY by Thomas Pynchon

Jonathan Cape ₤20, 1104 pages

If some writers are miniaturists, Pynchon is a muralist whose latest door-stopping, continent-spanning, carnivalesque romp is set in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the world stumbles towards its first global war.

HOUSE OF MEETINGS by Martin Amis

Jonathan Cape ₤15.99, 208 pages

Amis set out to write a novel about one of the 9/11 suicide pilots but was deterred by the horror he glimpsed. Instead, he sought inspiration in another dreadful historical episode - the Soviet gulag - and produced a slim but scintillating novella about love and betrayal.

KALOOKI NIGHTS by Howard Jacobson

Jonathan Cape ₤17.99, 480 pages

Jacobson’s opening riffs about Jewishness are as funny as Woody Allen’s early stand-up routines. Gradually, however, this moving novel leads to grimmer reflections on the holocaust and the role of remembrance.

THE COMPLETE WESTERN STORIES by Elmore Leonard

Weidenfeld & Nicolson ₤16.99, 544 pages

He is most often associated with fast-paced, glitzy crime novels, but Leonard cut his teeth penning stories about the wild west for genre magazines. They are collected in this volume, one of 2006’s most satisfying page-turners.

THE MISSION SONG by John le Carre

Hodder & Stoughton ₤17.99, 352 pages

With the cold war now a distant memory, le Carre seems to be concentrating on Africa as the stage for his plots of international skulduggery. His 20th novel is a tale of dodgy diplomacy and corporate greed set in the Congo.

IMPERIUM by Robert Harris

Hutchinson ₤17.99, 416 pages

One of the year’s blockbusters takes readers to the first century BC and the life of Rome’s greatest orator, Cicero, as told by his secretary - which provides the perfect vehicle for a muscular dissection of power in the Roman Republic. Any similarities to modern politics are deliberate.

A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS by Yiyun Li

Harper Perennial ₤14.99, 352 pages

Li is well known in the US, where she has won many prizes for her delicate short stories. This collection sheds a surprising light on the life of modern Chinese people, both within China and abroad.

THE DREAM LIFE OF SUKHANOV by Olga Grushin

Viking ₤14.99, 304 pages

Joining the ranks of foreign-born authors currently writing in English, Grushin tells the story of Anatoly Pavlovich Sukhanov, a Soviet apparatchik whose world is collapsing around him.

THE PEOPLE OF PAPER by Salvador Plascencia

Bloomsbury ₤14.99, 256 pages

A soothsaying baby, a woman made of paper, migrant flower-pickers waging war against a vengeful planet - the characters in this playful first novel by Mexican-American Plascencia are as extraordinary as the story he tells.

LONDONSTANI by Gautam Malkani

Fourth Estate ₤12.99, 352 pages

A raw representation of ethnic clashes and youth culture in today’s London. Malkani, who writes for the FT, proves that England’s multicultural capital can seem as daunting and foreign as some of the world’s more far-flung, conflict-ridden corners.

THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS by Kiran Desai

Hamish Hamilton ₤16.99, 336 pages

Kiran Desai, daughter of Anita, walked away with this year’s Man Booker prize for her accomplished second novel set in a Himalayan village against a backdrop of Nepalese insurgency.

SACRED GAMES by Vikram Chandra

Faber ₤12.99, 912 pages

Epic, sprawling depiction of Bombay’s seedy underworld by one of India’s master storytellers. Its protagonist, inspector Sartaj Singh, has earned a place among the world’s outstanding fictional detectives. One of the most exhilarating reads of 2006.

THE SUCCESSOR by Ismail Kadare, translated by David Bellos

Canongate ₤9.99, 224 pages

This Kafkaesque thriller, by the Albanian winner of the 2005 International Man Booker, revolves around the (true) mysterious death of the country’s hand-picked successor to Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha.

SUITE FRANCAISE by Irene Nemirovsky

translated by Sandra Smith

Chatto & Windus ₤16.99, 416 pages

Born into a Jewish family that fled to France at the time of the October revolution, the author was killed at Auschwitz in 1942. Her manuscript, which describes the daily dilemmas facing ordinary French citizens under the German occupation, was only discovered and published six decades later.

THE WOMAN WHO WAITED by Andrei Makine, translated by Geoffrey Strachan

Sceptre ₤12.99, 192 pages

A subtle meditation on loyalty and solitude from the wintry depths of the Siberian landscape.

BLIND WILLOW, SLEEPING WOMAN by Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin

Harvill Secker ₤16.99, 352 pages

Murakami fans will have rejoiced at the publication of this new collection of stories featuring some of the Japanese author’s earliest writing.

THE MOLDAVIAN PIMP by Edgardo Cozarinksy, translated by Nick Caistor

Harvill Secker ₤12.99, 144 pages

From Argentina, a moving elegy for the country’s wilfully forgotten Yiddish history.

POETRY

Harry Eyres

DISTRICT AND CIRCLE by Seamus Heaney

Faber ₤12.99, 96 pages

In this latest collection Heaney goes over old ground (poems about anvils and turnip-snedders), and also, as in the title poem, delves deeper - into the underground of a terror-struck modern inferno. But affection for old friends and places wins out over contemporary anxieties.

AFTER by Jane Hirshfield

Bloodaxe ₤8.95, 104 pages

Many of these free-verse meditations take the form of what Hirshfield calls “assays” - probing philosophical analyses which seem to surprise the poet as much as the reader. She achieves both a biblical weight and a new-minted freshness.

THE BLOOD CHOIR by Tim Liardet

Seren ₤7.99, 72 pages

One of the year’s most impressive collections, an extended and carefully crafted reflection by a poet who spent a year teaching in a jail on the way prison dehumanises, but also releases strange kinds of ingenuity. In Goya-esque imagery Liardet shows prisoners wasting talent and time shackled into a single organism.

SWITHERING by Robin Robertson

Picador ₤8.99, 96 pages

One test of a poet is how well he or she writes about the sea. Robertson passes with flying colours, delivering exquisite marine impressions. Another test concerns the treatment of love: here Robertson is not always so sure of touch, but he possesses a lyrical grace and power matched by few.

COLLECTED POEMS by C.K. Williams

Bloodaxe ₤20, 704 pages

No one is better than Williams at teasing out the moral, emotional and sensual complexities of individual moments of experience.

DANTE’S INFERNO: A Free Verse Translation by Sean O’Brien

Picador ₤15, 160 pages

O’Brien offers a plain-speaking and highly readable blank verse translation without the hubris which leads other poets to present translations without mentioning the name of the original author.

QUICKSAND BEACH by Kate Bingham

Seren ₤7.99, 64 pages

There’s something profoundly English about these intelligent, technically accomplished poems: understated, almost self-deprecating, but subtly rewarding.

HORSE LATITUDES by Paul Muldoon

Faber ₤14.99, 107 pages

The 10th collection from the former Oxford professor of poetry, now a Princeton don, looks at things sacrificed or lost to the momentum of life - from soldiers and lovers to Bob Dylan’s original cool. A beautiful collection.

REDGROVE’S WIFE by Penelope Shuttle

Bloodaxe ₤8.95, 96 pages

A brave collection in which feminist and Hermetic Shuttle laments the decline and passing of her husband and fellow poet Peter Redgrove. Grief brings a new directness to her work, but this is also a joyful inventory of what remains.

ART

Jackie Wullschlager

PICASSO LA CALIFORNIE

introduction by Marilyn McCully

Helly Nahmad, 96 pages

Contact gallery on 020 7494 3200 for price details

My art book of the year. This extravagantly luxurious boxed volume in the style of the modernist livres d’artiste immerses you in Picasso’s life at Villa La Californie in Cannes in the 1950s. Large colour plates of unrivalled quality, scores of photographs and illuminating text record his great oriental decorative period, and the ascent of his last muse, Jacqueline Roque.

CEZANNE IN PROVENCE

edited by Philip Conisbee and Denis Coutagne

Yale ₤35, 312 pages

A landmark work, published on the centenary of the painter’s death, which celebrates and re-evaluates the scope of Cezanne’s achievement as father of modern art, and tells the story of his response to his native Provence with intellectual rigour and emotional sensitivity.

VITAMIN PH: New Perspectives in Photography by T.J. Demos

Phaidon ₤39.95, 352 pages

Does for photography what Phaidon’s Vitamin P did for painting and Vitamin D for drawing. A stylish, original presentation of the latest trends: a mixture of deft analysis and hype, but of sustaining interest to anyone concerned with how new and emerging artists use the camera.

LUCKNOW: City of Illusion

edited by Ebrahim Alkazi and Rosie Llewellyn-Jones

Prestel ₤50, 208 pages

In few places has eastern met western architecture with more splendid, beguiling and eccentric results than in Lucknow. The history of the nawabi capital, home to India’s wealthiest court from the 1770s until its destruction in the 1857 revolt, is unravelled through about 200 early photographs from the Alkazi collection: a visual and scholarly rarity.

REMBRANDT’S UNIVERSE: His Art His Life His World by Gary Schwartz

Thames & Hudson ₤40, 384 pages

The text is average, though informative, but the generous top-quality reproductions - bigger, better and more Rembrandt paintings and drawings than in any other collection - make this a must-have.

BARCELONA AND MODERNITY: Picasso, Gaudi, Miro, Dali by William H. Robinson and Jordi Falgas

Yale ₤40, 352 pages

Cultural history as it should be - glamorous, inventive, far-reaching, and reclaiming for the visual image its role in the history of ideas. Great art is usually local art: this is a rich account of Spain’s distinctive contribution to European modernism.

THE HORSE: 30,000 Years of the Horse in Art by Tamsin Pickeral

Merrell ₤29.95, 288 pages

From Lascaux cave paintings to Elisabeth Frink via ancient Egypt, 13th-century China, Uccello, Velazquez, Rubens and Stubbs: it is energetic and surprising, and has afforded hours of drooling for the teenage girls in our house.

JOHN SINGER SARGENT: Figures and Landscapes 1874-1882 by Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray

Yale ₤50, 420 pages

The fourth volume in the lavish, erudite catalogue raisonne explores the early years of this still underrated, hugely enjoyable painter. Sections on Paris, Morocco and Venice are a particular delight.

AFTERMATH by Joel Meyerowitz

Phaidon ₤45, 304 pages

The only existing photographic record of Ground Zero in the year following September 11 2001, this is a classic American story of survival, resilience and renewal against the odds, told through 400 of Meyerowitz’s monumental colour images.

VISIONS OF NATURE: The Art and Science of Ernst Haeckel by Olaf Breidbach

Prestel ₤55, 320 pages

How a 19th-century marine biologist’s discovery of nature’s intrinsic patterns shaped 20th-century art and design.

A pioneering account of Haeckel’s pioneering life as ecologist, explorer and draughtsman, packed with stunning illustrations and of tremendous resonance today.

HOWARD HODGKIN: The Complete Paintings by Marla Price

Thames & Hudson ₤60, 420 pages

The model catalogue raisonne: authoritative, intelligent, conveying Hodgkin’s full range and development, and exquisitely produced to capture on the page the fine, tremulous nuances of colour and brushstroke which are the essence of his intimiste style.

WRITERS ON HOWARD HODGKIN

edited by Enrique Juncosa

Tate ₤14.99, 208 pages

The accompanying stocking-filler. Hodgkin came, says his friend Bruce Chatwin, from a family of “well-ordered minds and well-furnished houses”. The showcase of superb art-writing here - Julian Barnes, Susan Sontag, Alan Hollinghurst - explores mind, body, class, travel, paint and history in Hodgkin’s work.

BUILDINGS FOR TOMORROW: Architecture That Changed Our World by Paul Cattermole

Thames & Hudson ₤19.95, 192 pages

“Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real,” said Jules Verne. This sleek, slick, condensed account of 40 iconic contemporary buildings shows how.

A YEAR IN ART: A Painting a Day

Prestel ₤24.99, 736 pages

What’s not to like? Here is the Classic FM of art publishing - not the expected cliche but an entertaining diary in brick-like chunky book format, alternating blank pages with 365 reproductions of familiar and less familiar greats, matched with pertinent literary quotations.

THE YELLOW HOUSE: Van Gogh, Gauguin and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Arles by Martin Gayford

Fig Tree ₤18.99, 368 pages

Art history’s most famous cohabitation is recounted with perception, a light touch and a vivid sense of being inside the turbulent house where “Sunflowers” hung in the guest room as the future of modern painting was thrashed out.

THE STORY OF ART - POCKET EDITION by E.H. Gombrich

Phaidon ₤12.95, 1,064 pages

The finest, best-loved introduction to art ever written. This format is tactile as well as intellectual heaven - silky lightweight paper, ribbon markers and a separate, glossy colour plate section. Every stocking should have one to match the standard-size edition.

POLITICS

Donald Morrison

STATE OF DENIAL: Bush at War, Part III by Bob Woodward

Simon & Schuster ₤18.99, 576 pages

After two admiring books about the White House’s conduct of the Iraq war, Watergate reporter Woodward depicts the President’s team as clueless, disfunctional bumblers. A bit late, but Woodward’s account of inter-office warfare is riveting.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS: My Time Governing in Iraq by Rory Stewart

Picador ₤17.99, 320 pages

A former British infantry officer and diplomat, Stewart was put in charge of two Iraq territories after the US-led invasion. His often hilarious memoir of getting fractious locals to co-operate is an antidote to western dreams of exporting democracy.

AFTER THE NEOCONS: America at the Crossroads by Francis Fukuyama

Profile ₤12.99, 192 pages

A former neo-conservative himself, the influential US theorist skewers his ex-cohorts for abandoning the true faith and fomenting an ill-advised preventive war. He calls for a more multilateral, development-focused foreign policy.

WHAT TERRORISTS WANT: Understanding the Terrorist Threat by Louise Richardson

John Murray ₤12.99, 288 pages

Waging global war against terrorists gives them the status and the allies they crave, warns Harvard’s Richardson. Instead, try isolating terrorists from their supporters by honouring western principles of civility.

IN THE LINE OF FIRE by Pervez Musharraf

Simon & Schuster ₤18.99, 368 pages

Neither retired nor retiring, Pakistan’s President offers this widely discussed, hotly disputed memoir of his military exploits, seizure of political power in a 1999 coup and transition from Taliban supporter to US ally.

ENEMY COMBATANT: A British Muslim’s Journey to Guantanamo and Back by Moazzam Begg with Victoria Brittain

The Free Press ₤18.99, 416 pages

Arrested in Afghanistan after 9/11 and shipped to Guantanamo, Birmingham-raised Begg was shackled, beaten and held without charge for three years. He recounts the ordeal with surprising equanimity.

KILLING MR LEBANON: The Assassination of Rafik Hariri and Its Impact on the Middle East by Nicholas Blanford

I.B. Taurus ₤17.99, 240 pages

How the 2005 death of a former prime minister sparked a popular uprising, forced Syria to end its 30-year occupation of Lebanon, and upset power balances throughout the region.

MURDER IN AMSTERDAM: The Death of Theo Van Gogh and the Limits of Tolerance by Ian Buruma

Penguin ₤18.99, 320 pages

Dutch-born Buruma returns home to unravel the 2004 killing of Van Gogh, an anti-Muslim filmmaker, by an Islamic fundamentalist. Sex, self-righteousness and xenophobia saturate this penetrating look at a once-tolerant nation in crisis.

THE BLUNKETT TAPES: My Life in the Bear Pit by David Blunkett

Bloomsbury ₤25, 896 pages

Blunkett dishes little dirt on still-active politicians in his transcribed-from-tapes diary, and the silence about his own famous indiscretions is irritating. But the twice-sacked former cabinet minister is shamlessly self-justifying and delightfully perceptive.

THE WHITE MAN’S BURDEN: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly

Oxford ₤16.99, 392 pages

The problem, says economist Easterly, is too many big, top-down plans and not enough local, small-scale, manageable initiatives.

THATCHER & SONS: A Revolution in Three Acts by Simon Jenkins

Allen Lane ₤20, 384 pages

Thatcherism’s true heirs, argues columnist Jenkins, are John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who continued the Iron Lady’s crusade to centralise power and ushered in the era of “big, intrusive and incompetent government”.

TWENTY PRIME MINISTERS OF THE 20TH CENTURY

series edited by Francis Beckett

Haus ₤175, 3,520 pages

Beckett, a writer and son of fascist leader John Beckett, recruited leading academics (David Howell on Atlee), journalists (Peter Wilby on Eden) and ex-politicians (Roy Hattersley on Campbell-Bannerman) to sum up the past 20 British premiers in a boxed set of 40,000-word volumes.

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It by Al Gore

Bloomsbury ₤14.99, 336 pages

It’s later than you think, warns the former US vice-president in this impassioned, best-selling call for action against climate change.

THE BEST INTENTIONS: Kofi Annan and the UN in an Era of American World Power by James Traub

Bloomsbury ₤20, 448 pages

As Annan limps towards retirement, Traub assesses the career of a secretary-general whose quiet accomplishments, often amid US opposition, outweighed his well-publicised failures.

CONVERSATIONS ON RUSSIA: Reform from Yeltsin to Putin by Padma Desai

Oxford ₤25, 398 pages

Russia specialist Desai talked to just about every major figure in the country’s transition from communism to managed capitalism. What she heard is revealing, disturbing and ultimately encouraging.

IN SPITE OF THE GODS: The Strange Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce

Little, Brown ₤20, 400 pages

Whether you’re concerned with economics, nuclear power, global power play or outsourcing, India matters. The FT’s former South Asia correspondent looks at the forces at play in this complex country as it strives towards modernity.

THE MAN WHO INVENTED FIDEL: Castro, Cuba and Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times by Anthony DePalma

Public Affairs ₤15.99 320 pages

With Cuba’s leader fading after 47 years on the world stage, here is a look at the journalist who put him there. Matthews made the little-known Castro a romantic hero, to the ruin of his own career.

FOOD & TRAVEL

David Baker

SHADOW OF THE SILK ROAD by Colin Thubron

Chatto & Windus ₤20, 384 pages

Haunting, elegiac, melancholy, magical, Thubron’s account of a 7,000-mile journey from China through central Asia to the Mediterranean is an eloquent exploration of an ancient world finding its place in 21st-century realpolitik.

COOL CAMPING: England by Jonathan Knight

Punk Publishing ₤16.95, 256 pages

Forget soggy sleeping bags and uncomfortable nights on uneven ground, camping just grew up. This guide to 40 of the best places in England to pitch your tent will have you longing for the open air.

ALISTAIR COOKE’S AMERICAN JOURNEY: Life on the Home Front in the Second World War by Alistair Cooke

Penguin ₤20, 352 pages

Cooke’s first book, unpublished until the manuscript was rediscovered a few weeks before his death in 2004, is an account of the thousands of miles he travelled through the US in 1942 after the country had entered the second world war. His trademark style is already evident but what shines through is his utter respect for the people he meets.

NOT IN THE GUIDE BOOK: The Wackiest Sights on Google Earth by Alex and James Turnbull

Constable & Robinson ₤7.99,144 pages

Google Earth, the interactive internet atlas of satellite images of the world, gave us all the chance to travel without leaving our computer screens. Now you can set off again with this round-up of some of the stranger places out there from a Mediterranean fish farm to the remains of the Soviet Union’s short-lived space shuttle project.

THE OXFORD COMPANION TO WINE

edited by Jancis Robinson with Julia Harding

Oxford ₤40, 840 pages

Completely revised for its third edition, this is the essential reference book by the FT’s wine expert, Jancis Robinson. There are almost 400 new entries, including topics on globalisation, the politics of wine, precision viticulture and co-fermentation.

MADE IN ITALY: Food & Stories by Giorgio Locatelli

Fourth Estate ₤27.99, 624 pages

Recipes, ingredients and snippets of autobiography punctuate this celebration of Italian food by one of its most loving practitioners. Wonderful photos, inspiring dishes and amiable glimpses into the genuine Italian kitchen.

BREAD MATTERS: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Making Your Own by Andrew Whitley

Harper Collins ₤20, 384 pages

The best food book of the year. Part counterblast against the shocking state of British baking, part manifesto for us all to get our hands floury and do something about it. Essential reading for anyone who cares about their daily loaf.

REVOLUTIONARY CHINESE COOKBOOK: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop

Ebury Press ₤25, 304 pages

Delightful, if sometimes challenging, recipes from the hearty repertoire of Hunan. Dunlop, an FT contributor, accompanies the food with anecdotes and observations about a country she knows intimately. A Claudia Roden for Chinese cuisine.

SPORT

David Owen

THE MEANING OF SPORT by Simon Barnes

Short Books ₤14.99, 368 pages

Barnes uses exploits witnessed during two years of professional spectating to explore how a thing as superficially trivial as sport can mean so much to so many. Gems on every page: Australian batsmen chew gum “as if it were the flesh of an enemy”. Splendid stuff.

GAME OF SHADOWS: Barry Bonds, Balco, and the Steriods Scandal That Rocked Professional Sport by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams

Gotham Books $26, 332 pages

Outstanding investigative probe into the Balco drugs scandal that reverberated around world sport. A sobering read, but still most topical given the number of high-profile doping cases.

UNFORGIVABLE BLACKNESS: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson by Geoffrey C. Ward

Pimlico ₤8.99, 512 pages

This year’s William Hill sports book of the year. The story of how the first son of two former slaves became heavyweight boxing champion of the world - and, hence, the most celebrated black man on earth - is, in its way, more remarkable even than Muhammad Ali’s.

BERLIN GAMES: How Hitler Stole the Olympic Dream by Guy Walters

John Murray ₤20, 384 pages

If you ever wondered what possessed the International Olympic Committee to allow its showpiece event to be staged in Nazi Germany, many of the answers are here. A diligent researcher, Walters also has a journalist’s eye for a story. Jesse Owens rubs shoulders with lesser-known heroes such as Werner Seelenbinder, a German wrestler who didn’t even win a medal.

BEHIND THE CURTAIN: Football in Eastern Europe by Jonathan Wilson

Orion Books ₤16.99, 352 pages

Sure-footed guide to a surreal world by the FT’s football correspondent. What Wilson doesn’t know about east European football isn’t worth knowing.

AMIR KHAN: My Story by Amir Khan

Bloomsbury ₤16.99, 224 pages

Rooney, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Lampard, Ashley Cole - yes, the big-name autobiographies thundered out in 2006. This book by the young boxer is the only one I opened. Trouble is, once he wins his Olympic medal in chapter two, there is little left to say - a chapter about being a well-known British Muslim in the wake of the London bombings apart.

WISDEN CRICKETERS’ ALMANACK 2006

edited by Matthew Engel

John Wisden ₤38, 1,600 pages

If there is one year when you really should secure your copy of the cricketers’ bible, this is it. “Journalists still tended to write that we had witnessed... Probably The Greatest Series,” writes Engel in his editor’s notes. “There is no need for the nervous adverb... The 2005 Ashes surpassed every previous series in cricket history on just about any indicator you choose.” Quite.

HISTORY

Christian Tyler

THE WAR OF THE WORLD: The Story of History’s

Age of Hatred by Niall Ferguson

Allen Lane ₤25, 500 pages

Why were big advances in prosperity, knowledge and public health celebrated with genocidal warfare? Technology and economics - even military tactics - do not sufficiently explain. A panoptic analysis of the carnage of the 20th century, probably the best yet.

CIVILIZATION: A New History of the Western World by Roger Osborne

Jonathan Cape ₤20, 544 pages

Although this critique of our civilising mission and uncivilised behaviour is not entirely convincing, it gives an impressive overview of how western culture developed. Recommended for students on narrow-focus courses.

EMPIRES OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830 by J.H. Elliott

Yale University Press ₤25, 560 pages

A handsome and fascinating study of the two colonisations, so different in their scope, duration and outcome. The contrasts in administration, treatment of the natives and economic viability are intriguing.

COMMONWEALTH OF THIEVES: The Founding of Australia by Thomas Keneally

Chatto & Windus ₤20, 528 pages

From the author of Schindler’s Ark, a blow-by-blow account of the first transports to Sydney Bay, remarkable for the surreal but amicable early encounters of English and Aborigines.

TWELVE DAYS: Revolution 1956 - How the Hungarians Tried to Topple Their Soviet Masters by Victor Sebestyen

Weidenfeld ₤20, 320 pages

The uprising that disillusioned so many Communists in the west was a “heroic failure”, ignored by the US, although it foreshadowed the USSR’s own failure. Based on new material and personal reminiscences.

THE BATTLE FOR SPAIN: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 by Antony Beevor

Weidenfeld ₤25, 544 pages

Updated version of a book written 25 years ago, and acclaimed in Spain as an even-handed history. Beevor gives a nuanced account of the complex of ideology, fear and hatred that tore Spain apart.

LIBERTY: The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France by Lucy Moore

HarperPress ₤20, 464 pages

Seen through the eyes of women, of high society and low, the French Revolution was a heady opportunity. It promised them much, but gave them nothing in the end. Mesdames de Stael and Recamier star.

THE LONG MARCH by Sun Shuyun

HarperPress ₤20, 320 pages

The myth of the Chinese Communist revolution is scrutinised by an Oxford-educated Chinese woman who retraced the route of the march and interviewed 40 survivors. Though “astonished, moved and inspired”, she discovered realities that the myth never mentions.

I WANT TO LIVE: The Diary of a Young Girl in Stalin’s Russia by Nina Lugovskaya

Doubleday ₤16.99, 267 pages

Found in the KGB archives, this wonderful diary, complete with police underlinings, has inevitably been compared with Anne Frank’s. This time, the author, although sent to a labour camp, outlived the regime.

WHITE HEAT: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixties 1964-1970 by Dominic Sandbrook

Little, Brown ₤22.50, 896 pages

Humorously written exposition of the creative and optimistic society that emerged after the second world war but which could not find the economic answer to post-imperial decline.

HAVING IT SO GOOD: Britain in the Fifties by Peter Hennessy

Allen Lane ₤25, 750 pages

For those too young for the Blitz and too old for the 1960s, Suez was the end of innocence. The story of a country loosening its social stays, but still trying to punch above its weight.

SCOURGE AND FIRE: Savonarola and Renaissance Italy by Lauro Martines

Jonathan Cape ₤20, 368 pages

Rescuing the controversial friar from other modern scholars, Martines seeks to understand Savonarola in terms of his age, a charismatic militant Christian and influential democrat who anticipated Luther and was burned for it.

THE MYTH OF HITLER’S POPE: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis by David G. Dalin

Regnery ₤13.99, 256 pages

An American rabbi’s rebuttal of the “slander” against Eugenio Pacelli that, he says, began as Communist agitprop, and is now employed by “lapsed or angry liberal Catholics” and left-wingers to chastise traditional religion.

THE BLACK HOLE

Money, Myth and Indian Empire by Jan Dalley

Penguin ₤12.99, 224 pages

The story of the Black Hole of Calcutta was taught in every English school. But how true was it? This excavation of a minor incident of 1756 - possibly even a mistake - reveals its symbolic role in the creation of the Raj.

WHY ALFRED BURNED THE CAKES: 1,100 Years of Myth and History by David Horspool

Profile ₤15.99, 256 pages

Another schoolroom story given the full treatment, restoring Alfred’s claim to the title “great” after his eclipse by the legendary King Arthur. A grown-up stocking-filler.

GOD’S TERRORISTS: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad by Charles Allen

Little, Brown ₤20, 384 pages

An examination of Wahhabism cult, the fanatic form of Islam that emerged in Saudi Arabia and was exported to Afghanistan and India, provides background to the zealotry of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

SEA OF FAITH: Islam and Christianity in the Medieval Mediterranean World by Stephen O’Shea

Profile ₤20, 448 pages

More useful background for the current debate, an eloquent survey not only of battles but also of the peaceful co-existence of the two religions.

SCIENCE & RELIGION

Alan Cane

THE REVENGE OF GAIA by James Lovelock

Allen Lane ₤16.99, 177 pages

The scientist who first put forward the idea of the planet as a self-regulating entity considers seven-mile-wide sunshades floating in space, giant airships riding the trade winds and nuclear power as potential remedies for global warming.

AFTER DOLLY: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning by Ian Wilmut and Roger Highfield

Little, Brown ₤12.99, 320 pages

The birth of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, marked the start of an acrimonious debate that is still raging over the moral issues surrounding a spectacular scientific breakthrough.

THE HUMAN TOUCH: Our Part in the Creation of a Universe by Michael Frayn

Faber ₤20, 505 pages

One of the UK’s foremost humourists makes a semi-philosophical stab at explaining the relationship between human consciousness and the universe. The result is funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha.

NATURE’S ENGRAVER: A Life of Thomas Bewick by Jenny Uglow

Faber ₤20, 458 pages

A masterly account of the life and times of a master craftsman, rich in detail and liberally illustrated with exquisite examples of his draughtsmanship.

THE GOD DELUSION by Richard Dawkins

Bantam Press ₤20, 406 pages

Champion of Darwin and scourge of the godly, Dawkins slashes through the undergrowth of superstition, mysticism, cant and hypocrisy as he sets out to explain the illogicality of humanity’s “lust for Gods”. The book comes complete with a list of organisations friendly to those “needing support in escaping from religion”.

RICHARD DAWKINS: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think edited by Alan Grafen and Mark Ridley

Oxford University Press ₤12.99, 283 pages

There’s no getting away from Dawkins this year. This is a collection of essays from luminaries including Steven Pinker and Philip Pullman that shines new light on many of the hares the brilliant Oxford zoologist has set running.

SEED TO SEED: The Secret Life of Plants by Nicholas Harberd

Bloomsbury ₤16.99, 312 pages

Written as a monthly journal over a single year, this delightful volume is an enthralling introduction to matters botanical, from cell genetics to whole plant ecology.

NOT EVEN WRONG: The Failure of String Theory and the Continuing Challenge to Unify the Laws of Physics by Peter Woit

Jonathan Cape ₤18.99, 290 pages

A leading physicist says current thinking on the nature of matter may have no basis in reality. An antidote to all those volumes explaining the Big Bang, the universe and everything in between.

THE MEDICAL DETECTIVE: John Snow and the Mystery of Cholera by Sandra Hempel

Granta Books ₤18.99, 306 pages

Snow was the unsung hero of the 1820s cholera outbreak, a doctor who used logic to deduce that the disease was caused by contaminated drinking water, and was ignored by the medical establishment. Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map (Allen Lane, ₤16.99) also covers this subject.

THE MEANING OF THE 21st CENTURY: A Vital Blueprint for Ensuring Our Future by James Martin

Eden Project Books ₤20, 430 pages

A wealthy technologist and futurologist, Martin has already endowed an Oxford research institute to study the challenges facing humanity. This book summarises his concerns and possible remedies.

LEONARDO’S LOST ROBOTS by Mark Elling Rosheim

Springer ₤23, 188 pages

Leonardo da Vinci was fascinated by automata and sketches of robotic mechanisms are spread through his notebooks. Rosheim, in this beautifully illustrated volume, explores their feasibility and traces da Vinci’s legacy among modern robot makers.

THE MANY FACES OF GOD: Science’s 400-Year Quest for Images of the Divine by Jeremy Campbell

W.W. Norton ₤17.99, 384 pages

Not much science but a lot of intriguing religious history and philosophy in this scholarly examination of religions’ fear that science will finally explain God away.

IN SEARCH OF MEMORY: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind by Eric R. Kandel

W.W.Norton ₤19.99, 352 pages

This is both an enthralling biography and a popular account of the latest research into the mechanism of the brain written, by a Nobel prize-winning scientist.

THE CREATIONISTS: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design by Ronald L. Numbers

Harvard University Press ₤14.95 577 pages

A classic text, now updated and expanded to take into account the latest trends among anti-evolutionists, Numbers’ carefully researched history is required reading to understand the current controversy.

EUROPE’S PHYSICIAN: The Various Life of Sir Theodore de Mayerne by Hugh Trevor-Roper

Yale University Press ₤25, 438 pages

The struggle for supremacy between Catholics and Protestants in 17th-century Europe forms the background for the story of a remarkable Huguenot - doctor, secret agent, entrepreneur and alchemist.

US AND THEM: Understanding Your Tribal Mind by David Berreby

Hutchison ₤20, 370 pages

Science writer Berreby explores the reasons humans convince themselves that they belong to different categories such as race, religion, street gangs and political factions in this easily read narrative. It won’t stop the war - any war - but it will help to understand it.

BREAKING THE SPELL: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett

Allen Lane ₤25, 464 pages

Dennett, one of America’s best-known philosophers and atheists, calls for a sustained investigation of religion through biology, psychology and neuroscience.

BUSINESS BOOKS

Stefan Stern

THE WORLD’S NEWEST PROFESSION: Management Consulting in the 20th Century by Chris McKenna

CUPress ₤17.99, 392 pages

A highly readable account of the rise of the management-consultancy phenomenon. McKenna is admirably balanced: not starry-eyed about the serious men in suits, but neither is he sneeringly cynical. Explains a lot about how businesses are run today.

HOW TO GET RICH by Felix Dennis

Ebury ₤16.99, 304 pages

The entrepreneur and poet - more successful as the former than the latter - reveals the secrets of his success. Guess what? You need hard work, talent, an appetite for risk and no fear of failure.

CHINA SHAKES THE WORLD: The Rise of a Hungry Nation by James Kynge

Weidenfeld & Nicolson/Penguin ₤18.99, 304 pages

Essential, thorough and up-to-date account of the new towering presence in the world economy by a former FT writer. Won this year’s Goldman Sachs/FT book of the year award.

THE NEW CAPITALISTS: How Citizen Investors are Reshaping the Corporate Agenda by Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik and David Pitt-Watson

Harvard Business School Press ₤18.99, 320 pages

An optimistic vision of a sustainable, healthy future for global capitalism. Well written and well argued. Pessimists may not be completely convinced, however.

SMALL GIANTS: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham

Penguin/Portfolio ₤12.99, 288 pages

Bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better. Here is a persuasive account of why some companies do best by staying small.

THE LONG TAIL: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand by Chris Anderson

Random House Business ₤17.99, 256 pages

There are only so many blockbusters in this life, Anderson argues.

A fortune can be made selling the “long tail” of other products.

MAVERICKS AT WORK: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win by William C Taylor and Polly G. LaBarre

William Morrow ₤14.15, 336 pages

A fun and energetic look at the “weirdos” who may be about to make you millions.

A refreshing, counter-intuitive blast, which will probably not figure on many business-school reading lists - a recommendation in itself.

THE BOX: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger by Marc Levinson

Princeton University Press ₤15.95, 392 pages

Ingenious analysis of the phenomenon of containerisation. Stifle that yawn: this is the process that changed the face of business for ever and made globalisation possible.

THE LEADER ON THE COUCH: A Clinical Approach to Changing People and Organisations by Manfred Kets de Vries

John Wiley ₤19.99, 436 pages

Fascinating Freudian look at chief executives and their occasionally rather damaged psychologies. Read this and you will never look at your boss in the same way again.

THE REAL DEAL: My Life in Business and Philanthropy by Sandy Weill and Judah Kraushaar

Warner Business $32, 528 pages

The former Citigroup chairman’s personal (and highly partial) account of his time at the firm. Has set the record straight as far as he is concerned. Critics and former colleagues accuse Weill of having a “selective memory”.

MYSELF AND OTHER MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS by Charles Handy

Heinemann ₤18.99, 224 pages

Charming and inspiring memoir from the UK’s only home-grown world-class management guru. The gentle narrative conveys a lot in a short space. Won the MCA’s management book of the year award.

FAST COMPANY’S GREATEST HITS: 10 Years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business edited by David Lidksy and Mark Vamos

Portfolio ₤15.99, 304 pages

A remarkable package of recent journalistic history. Fast Company invented a new genre of business writing that still has many imitators. This book is a treat. Senator John McCain’s essay on courage is particularly interesting - a ready-made stump speech for 2008?

THE WAL-MART EFFECT: How an Out-of-Town Superstore Became a Superpower by Charles Fishman

Allen Lane ₤12.99, 304 pages

A brave attempt to provide a balanced account of the retail giant. Depending on your view, this book is either too kind or too harsh.

TREASURE HUNT: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer by Michael J Silverstein with John Butman

Portfolio ₤16.99, 304 pages

A smart and insightful look at the new, more savvy consumer. We are all on a treasure hunt these days, ready to get down and dirty in the discount stores if it means being able to afford new luxuries as well.

HOW WE COMPETE: What Companies Are Doing Around the World to Make It in Today’s Global Economy by Suzanne Berger

Currency $27.50, 320 pages

This is a necessary, myth-busting description of the realities of global business, based on an exhaustive research programme at MIT. Berger offers a few possible survival routes and shows why not absolutely everything is going to be made in China from now on.

CHASING DAYLIGHT: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life by Eugene O’Kelly

McGraw-Hill ₤11.99, 160 pages

Challenging and thought-provoking narrative of a chief executive’s final 100 days of life. And no, O’Kelly did not die wishing he had spent more time in the office. A moving and serious book.

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Jill Slotover

THE LOST EARS by Phillida Gili

Boxer ₤10.99, 32 pages

A warm and satisfying story for the very youngest, tenderly illustrated, in which tiny teddy Harry, who lives in Oliver’s pocket, finds his small world turned (literally) upside down. (3-6)

WHALE by David Lucas

Andersen ₤10.99, 32 pages

When a whale becomes stranded in a seaside town, Joe, Grandma May and all the townsfolk climb on the back of the polite and apologetic whale. With the help of the sun, moon and stars, near catastrophe turns into celebration. An engaging story with wonderfully quirky illustrations. (3-7)

LIBRARY LION by Michelle Knudsen

illustrated by Kevin Hawkes

Walker ₤10.99, 48 pages

Rules are rules, but the fact that common sense and humanity must sometimes prevail is the worthwhile theme of this gentle and nostalgic picture book, in which a cuddly lion decides to make his home in the local library. (3-7)

THAT RABBIT BELONGS TO EMILY BROWN by Cressida Cowell

illustrated by Neal Layton

Orchard ₤10.99, 32 pages

One day Queen Gloriana the Third takes a fancy to Emily Brown’s old grey rabbit, Stanley. Emily firmly says: “This rabbit is not for sale” -but the young queen is not easily put off. Charming, funny and gets my vote for the best picture book of the year. (3-7)

THE LOST HAPPY ENDINGS by Carol Ann Duffy

illustrated by Jane Ray

Bloomsbury ₤12.99, 40 pages

A marriage made in picture book heaven - Duffy’s lyrical prose matched with Jane Ray’s rich, magical illustrations. Little Jub is the keeper of Happy Endings - until they are stolen away by a wicked witch. (5-8)

THE ORCHARD BOOK OF GOBLINS, GHOULS AND GHOSTS AND OTHER MAGICAL STORIES by Martin Waddell

illustrated by Tony Ross

Orchard ₤12.99, 128 pages

A satisfying collection of 14 traditional spooky stories, perfect for reading aloud, retold by one of our most gifted storytellers, with Ross’s sparky illustrations. (5+)

THE SILVER DONKEY by Sonia Hartnett

illustrated by Laura Carlin

Walker ₤7.99, 224 pages

How two little girls help a blinded British soldier get back to England from wartime France makes a riveting read. In payment for their assistance, the soldier tells them stories about his lucky mascot, the silver donkey. (5+)

THE SECRET HISTORY OF TOM TRUEHEART, BOY ADVENTURER by Ian Beck

OUP ₤7.99, 320 pages

Having six famous older brothers - all of them story heroes called Jack - is by no means easy for the gentle, not-so-brave Tom. When his brothers disappear on their quests, Tom gets his chance to prove himself. An enchanting story set in a well-drawn fantasy world. (7+)

LUCY WILLOW by Sally Gardner

illustrated by Peter Bailey

Orion ₤8.99, 224 pages

Eight-year-old Lucy Willow lives in a railway carriage and has the gift of magic green fingers. Can she rescue the local nursery, the wedding of the year, and give the evil Mr and Mrs Sparks their comeuppance? An exuberant Dahl-esque escapade. (7+)

PETER PAN IN SCARLET by Geraldine McCaughrean

OUP ₤12.99, 288 pages

In this stunning sequel, McCaughrean brilliantly continues Barrie’s classic. It is 20 years later. Wendy, John and the Lost Boys revert to childhood in order to return to Neverland, where - alarmingly - eternal summer has become autumn and Captain Hook is not quite so dead after all. (8+)

CADDY EVER AFTER by Hilary McKay

Hodder & Stoughton ₤10.99, 224 pages

Casson family life is unpredictable, chaotic and delightful. In this jaunty story, each of Caddy’s younger siblings tells their version of events leading up to her unsuitable wedding. The youngest, Rose, has a dramatic last-minute solution. Warm and witty. (9+)

HIVE: Higher Institute of Villainous Education by Mark Walden

Bloomsbury ₤12.99, 304 pages

Orphaned 13-year-old Otto Malpense finds himself selected to attend the top secret HIVE, which exists to help evil geniuses develop their ghastly skills. His attempt to escape makes this a hugely enjoyable read - James Bond meets Harry Potter. (9-11)

EXCHANGE by Paul Magrs

Simon and Schuster ₤9.99, 304 pages

A moving and sensitive novel about a teenage boy coming to terms with the loss of his parents, showing how books can provide comfort and escape. Simon and his grandmother Ada discover the Great Book Exchange, which is far more than just a second-hand bookshop. (12+)

A SWIFT PURE CRY by Siobhan Dowd

David Fickling ₤12.99, 256 pages

Fifteen-year-old Shell cares for her little brother and sister in 1980s Ireland, while her feckless father spends what little money they have. She struggles with growing up, local prejudice and an unwanted pregnancy. A poignant and thought-provoking first novel. (12+)

JUST IN CASE by Meg Rosoff

Puffin ₤1.99, 240 pages

A highly original and gripping coming-of-age tale by the author of the prize-winning How I Live Now. Fifteen-year-old David Case, suffering from adolescent insecurities and a major identity crisis, becomes obsessed with trying to outwit fate. (12+)

GO!

Dorling Kindersley ₤19.99, 240 pages

A spectacular and stylish book for transport nuts. Packed with photographs and fold-out pages illustrating everything from the components of a Morgan Roadster and the flight deck of an Airbus A330 to everyday life at Grand Central station. (8+)

GIFT BOOKS

James Urquhart

WHERE’S BIN LADEN? by Daniel Lalic and Xavier Waterkeyn

New Holland ₤7.99, 32 pages

An update of Martin Handford’s Where’s Wally? puzzles, which hid the elusive Wally in densely congested pictures. Here, Daniel Lalic’s cartoons secrete Osama, plus terrorist accoutrements, a turbaned posse and the suicidal “Bin Ladketeers” trio in a dozen international locations.

LOST IN TRANSLATION: Misadventures in English Abroad by Charlie Croker

Michael O’Mara ₤9.99, 176 pages

An anthology of mistranslations into English - from travel brochures, instruction manuals and signs from around the globe.

THE AFFECTED PROVINCIAL’S COMPANION by Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy

Bloomsbury ₤9.99, 176 pages

This miscellany of foppish ephemera is a bizarre satire worthy of McSweeney’s oddball publications. The robustly “affected” author chooses snippets on penis girth and eccentric self-publicity in this spurious, camp pillow book of dandyish distractions.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU GROW: Life, Land and the Pursuit of Happiness by Antonia Swinson

Luath Press ₤9.99, 176 pages

Swinson expands her regular newspaper column about her Edinburgh allotment into a full calendar of seasonal meditations. Horticultural tips give way to notes on blogging, charity, grassroots democracy and rubbish TV in this diverting commentary.

RUDE WORLD edited by Rob Bailey and Ed Hurst

Boxtree ₤10.00, 147 pages

Revelling in its own puerility, Rude World is entirely upfront about its content: snapshots of the 100 rudest place names in the world.

I WANT THOSE SHOES by Paola Jacobbi

Bloomsbury ₤9.99, 160 pages

Jacobbi makes an aesthetic case for the shoe as an affordable art form and a woman’s best friend. Citing examples from Cinderella to Sex and the City, her gossipy survey exalts both the predatory and the comforting dynamics of classy footwear.

POSTSECRET: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives by Frank Warren

Orion ₤16.99, 288 pages

“When I’m mad at my husband, I put boogers in his soup” is one of the many grubby confessions elicited when Frank Warren asked strangers to write anonymous secrets on postcards for a community art project. PostSecret displays the curious results in a surreal juxtaposition of private snipes, regrets and suppressed aspirations.

THE COMPLETE BOOK OF AUNTS by Rupert Christiansen

Faber ₤12.99, 272 pages

Memoirs, literary surveys, stories and the odd poem illustrate this short history of the aunt. All aunts are here, from heroic to eccentric, fairy-tale to X-rated.

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GUILTY PLEASURES edited by Michael Moran et al

John Murray ₤12.99, 352 pages

Classic toilet material: its half-page alphabetical entries are eclectic, opinionated tilts at icons and ephemera, and just the right length for short or long sittings.

LANDALE’S 21st-CENTURY CAUTIONARY TALES by James Landale

Canongate ₤7.99, 250 pages

“Gloria, who made the wrong call” and “Julia, who shopped until she was dropped” join 16 other hapless characters in this amusing verse collection, updating Hilaire Belloc’s cautionary tales,

FISH WHO ANSWER THE TELEPHONE edited by Russell Ash and Brian Lake

John Murray ₤9.99, 224 pages

Appealing to list-lovers, this compendium contains a few gems of suggestive or plain strange book titles. The Fangs of Suet Pudding is actually a Nazi-spy potboiler. I Was a Kamikaze might suggest a ghost writer, but The Romance of the Beaver gives free rein to the imagination.

JANE AUSTEN’S GUIDE TO GOOD MANNERS: Compliments, Charades and Horrible Blunders by Josephine Ross

Bloomsbury ₤9.99, 144 pages

Written as though for a Regency audience, Ross covers conversation, decorum and appearance in her charming guide to period etiquette and social niceties.

AUDIO BOOKS

Vidar Hjardeng

A PICTURE OF BRITAIN by David Dimbleby

Orion ₤16.99

Read by the author and fellow contributors - David Blayney Brown, Richard Humphreys and Christine Riding - this is a wonderful book for lovers of our artistic heritage.

CATCHING LIFE BY THE THROAT: How to Read Poetry and Why by Josephine Hart

Time Warner ₤15.99

For all ages, this compilation features eight of the best-known modern poets, including Auden, Larkin and Emily Dickinson. Josephine Hart introduces the poets themselves, and their work is enhanced by some of our greatest actors, notably Edward Fox, Roger Moore and, the doyenne of spoken-word material, Juliet Stevenson.

SHORT STORIES: The Thoroughly Modern Collection

CSA Word ₤13.61

Short stories often fail to get the appreciation they deserve, so this collection of 23 unabridged titles, by writers such as Fay Weldon, Douglas Hurd and Joanna Trollope, is to be welcomed.

DIGGING TO AMERICA by Anne Tyler

Random House ₤16.99

A charming story of two Korean infants delivered to Baltimore to be adopted by two families, who, until the girls’ arrival, had nothing in common. The many characters are skilfully portrayed by American actress Lorelei King.

BLEAK HOUSE by Charles Dickens

Naxos ₤84

If you find reading Dickens a challenge, listening to Sean Barrett and Teresa Gallagher’s splendid narration of this unabridged classic makes the book infinitely more enjoyable.