Recommended Books
Further Country Matters by Duff Hart-Davis, Swan Hill, pounds 16.95. Matchless bundle of columns from this paper on bees, guns, prize rams, perfect claret and dawn mist. Not reviewed here, but adored everywhere else.
Mating by Norman Rush, Cape pounds 14.99. Dazzling novel about a woman's vibrant life in the Kalahari. Interview by Natasha Walter, 5 December
John Maynard Keynes by Robert Skidelsky, Macmillan pounds 20. Second volume of an exhilarating biography, larded with telling details. Review by Ian McIntyre, 14 November.
The Gaze of the Gorgon by Tony Harrison, Bloodaxe pounds 6.95. Fiercely witty poems with a marvellous mix of high and low tones. Review by Robert Winder, 3 December.
A Time to Speak by Helen Lewis, Blackstaff Press pounds 6.95. Remarkable autobiography of a Czech ballet teacher in the eye of the Holocaust. Review by Sue Gaisford, 14 November.
Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals by Iris Murdoch, Chatto pounds 20. The audacious study of Western philosophy as a guide to life. Review by Ray Monk, 24 October.
In The Highest Degree Odious by A W Brian Simpson, Clarendon Press pounds 35. A revelatory study of the British government's use of detention during the Second World War. Review by Ian McIntyre, 2 January.
A Square of Sky by Janina David, Eland, pounds 8.99. Unputdownable 400-pager about the author's amazing survival in Nazi-occupied Poland. Review by Caroline Moorehead, 7 January.
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