Two disturbing books that explore the pathways to moral bankruptcy are reminders of how even liberal societies can lose their way

Richard Bassett’s memoir of Trieste, Vienna and Prague recalls the charms of a lost world

An exemplary biography of one of America’s most unusual writers grounds the novel in his own literary awakening

New biography Mr Five Per Cent by Jonathan Conlin explores the many lives of one of the world’s richest men

The first major biography casts new light on the man whose art wasn’t valued highly until he was in his seventies

A German soldier-writer’s spellbinding war diary reminds us no one is just a camera

The joys and agonies that fed Kenneth Grahame’s classic are finely told in a biography

Human frailties are to the fore in a biography of the rock star guitarist

Saul Bellow’s ‘second act’ — successes and failures alike — is magnificently captured in the final volume of a stupendous biography

Two biographies draw on letters and diaries to deliver a comprehensive picture of Winston Churchill and his wartime allies

Elizabeth Kleinhenz’s biography Germaine attempts to unpack the legacy of the opinion-shaper and fallen icon

A gloriously indiscreet royal biography is the funniest book of the year

The former First Lady’s book Becoming delivers private revelations — and a message of hope

A war reporter’s ‘musical memoir’ seeks a better world amid scenes of horror

Ramachandra Guha’s deeply affecting biography ‘Gandhi’ brings us closer than ever to a complex 20th-century hero

An erudite memoir reveals the secrets behind the discovery of Old Master paintings

A delightful memoir by the fashion photographer about his troublesome, flamboyant boyhood — and a later passion for hats

A New York store owner’s memoir tells wider truths about business in America

A new biography, I Am Dynamite!, beautifully captures the life’s work of the philosopher

A highly original and powerful graphic novel on German history that works on many levels

A journey across the former Ottoman Empire turns into exile for a journalist barred from Turkey

A volume of personal essays that bravely revisit parental alcoholism, underage sex and infertility