books

NATURE  PLANTING FOR BUTTERFLIES by Jane Moore (Hardie Grant £12, 144 pp) Butterflies have poor eyesight, they can taste only with their feet and they have a lifespan of just a few weeks. Yet, during their brief existence, they provide one of the most joyful sights of summer as they feed, flutter and flirt for … Read more

CONTEMPORARY By Sara Lawrence for the Daily Mail Published: 22:55 BST, 16 July 2020 | Updated: 23:41 BST, 16 July 2020 ONE YEAR OF UGLY by Caroline Mackenzie (Borough Press £12.99, 378 pp) ONE YEAR OF UGLY by Caroline Mackenzie (Borough Press £12.99, 378 pp) Fizzing with life, this is hilarious, poignant and so sharp and … Read more

It’s 1888 and Daniel Bones, the unhappy, 14-year-old habitué of a fenland village, is co-opted as an apprentice to the maverick Captain Clarke B.

MEMOIR THE BEATLES AND BEYOND   by Don Short (Wymer £14.99, 254pp) This rollicking memoir — a veritable treasure trove of anecdote and gossip — is not so much a trip down Memory Lane as a star-strewn cavalcade down Memory Motorway. Don Short is the uncrowned king of showbusiness reporters. Anyone who grew up reading the … Read more

HISTORY THE NEXT FIFTY THINGS THAT MADE THE MODERN ECONOMY    by Tim Harford (Bridge Street £20, 352pp) Who invented canned food? Who first thought of pensions? Whose idea was it that the first row on a typewriter should read QWERTYUIOP? These are things I didn’t know I didn’t know, and didn’t know that I wanted … Read more

MUST READS By Jane Shilling for the Daily Mail Published: 22:02 BST, 2 July 2020 | Updated: 22:02 BST, 2 July 2020 SHE SAID by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (Bloomsbury £9.99, 320pp) SHE SAID by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey (Bloomsbury £9.99, 320pp) In 2017, two investigative reporters from the New York Times began … Read more

PICTURE THIS By Ciara Dossett For The Daily Mail Published: 22:02 BST, 2 July 2020 | Updated: 22:02 BST, 2 July 2020 TRIVIAL PURSUITS: THE ENGLISH AT PLAY    by Orlando Gili (Hoxton Mini Press £14.95) TRIVIAL PURSUITS: THE ENGLISH AT PLAY by Orlando Gili (Hoxton Mini Press £14.95) We Brits have a few weird and … Read more

PSYCHOS By Christena Appleyard for the Daily Mail Published: 22:01 BST, 2 July 2020 | Updated: 22:01 BST, 2 July 2020 FINDERS, KEEPERS by Sabine Durrant (Hodder £14.99, 320 pp) FINDERS, KEEPERS by Sabine Durrant (Hodder £14.99, 320 pp) Verity Baxter is a lonely lexicographer and we are treated to a new word with its … Read more