books

MEMOIR THINGS I LEARNED FROM FALLING    by Claire Nelson (Octopus £12.99, 272 pp) Dehydration is a God-awful business,’ says Claire Nelson. ‘Over time, your tongue becomes increasingly dry and scratchy, thickening like a wool mitten. My lips stuck to my gums like Velcro. ‘From there, you feel it in your head; a slowly increasing pressure … Read more

German historian Volker Ullrich, gives a new account of Hitler’s life in a gripping sequel to his mammoth biography of the Fuhrer.

MISCELLANY UNCOMMON KNOWLEDGE   by Tom Standage (Economist £8.99, 272 pp)  This is what Tom Standage, deputy editor of The Economist, calls ‘a compendium of explanations’. It’s uncommon knowledge in two senses of the word: in the normal sense of ‘rare or infrequently encountered’, and also as in the meaning ‘exceptional and extraordinary’. In short, it’s … Read more

BOOK OF THE WEEK  DIARY OF A MODERN COUNTRY GARDENER  by Tamsin Westhorpe (Orphans £20, 248 pp)   When it comes to gardens, no one does it better than us Brits. From Sissinghurst and Kew in the South to Harlow Carr and Chatsworth in the North, we have some of the world’s most dazzling gardens. A … Read more

Two ears are better than one mouth! Author reveals how improving your ‘active listening’ skills can help to reconnect with those closest to us Kate Murphy shares advice for improving your listening skills in a new book American author says we’re encouraged to listen to our guts but rarely to others Research shows an epidemic … Read more

THE ARTS  QUESTORS, JESTERS AND RENEGADES  by Michael Coveney (Bloomsbury £25, 216pp)  Michael Coveney says, in a statistic that stretches credulity, that there are 2,500 amateur dramatic societies in Britain, putting on 35,000 productions a year in disused cinemas, chapels, barns and converted Nissen huts. The most spectacular venue is the Minack in Cornwall, carved … Read more

Richard Layard, an economist, has written a study into how society can be happier. He has long promoted happiness as a better measure of society’s progress than GDP.

BOOK OF THE WEEK WHEN TIME STOPPED: A MEMOIR OF MY FATHER’S WAR  by Ariana Neumann (Scribner £16.99, 368pp) In the opening pages of this beautifully written, heart-wrenching memoir of love and family and war is a detailed family tree of the author’s Czech heritage. It seems dauntingly complex as family trees often do, littered … Read more

MEMOIR MY PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY  by Zeba Talkhani (Sceptre £9.99, 200pp)   Zeba Talkhani’s mother was preparing for one of her many extravagant dinner parties when her daughter heard a scream. ‘Mama’ had caught her hand in the blender. Blood spattered everywhere. She was taken to bed, where her body began to convulse. Zeba … Read more

HISTORY THE STONEMASON  by Andrew Ziminski (John Murray £20, 336pp) West Kennet Long Barrow has been standing amid the downs of North Wiltshire since around 3650 BC — a thousand years before the first Egyptian pyramid was so much as a gleam in a Pharaoh’s eye. And you can still crawl inside it. This is … Read more