The Poet's Tale by Paul Strohm; The Fall of the Ottomans by Eugene Rogan; All Day Long by Joanna Biggs, paperback reviews

Paul Strohm reveals how Geoffrey Chaucer began the masterpiece that brought him fame, while Joanna Biggs draws "a portrait of Britain at work"

The Poet's Tale by Paul Strohm (Profile, £9.99)

Until 1386, all was beer and skittles for Geoffrey Chaucer: rent-free apartment in Aldgate; comfortable income from collecting duty on wool; well-connected, if estranged wife. Then it all unravelled when his close associate Nicholas Brembre, mayor of London, was executed. "Headstrong and factionally injudicious", Brembre fell victim to the power politics that enmeshed Richard II. Chaucer withdrew from "home and job and city" and began the masterpiece that brought him fame beyond mayors or kings; though, as Strohm notes in this transporting book, "he would never make a penny from his verse".

The Fall of the Ottomans by Eugene Rogan (Penguin, £10.99)

The torrent of centenary books on 1914-18 focused on the Western Front but Rogan insists that "more than any other event, the Ottoman entry into the war turned Europe's conflict into a world war". The resulting catastrophes were truly epic. Of the 800,000 men who fought in Gallipoli, more than half a million of them were wounded, taken prisoner or killed. The crushing of the Armenian uprising by the Young Turks of Istanbul was "the first modern genocide" with a death toll estimated to be between 600,000 and 1.5 million. Even today, repercussions continue from the war in the Middle East.

All Day Long by Joanna Biggs (Serpent's Tail, £8.99)

With empathy and energy, Joanna Biggs draws "a portrait of Britain at work" through interviews with 30-odd subjects: rabbi, dancer, crofter... We learn that baristas at Pret A Manger are liable to lose the tip that is automatically part of their salary if they fail to smile at customers. A genial sex worker from Bulgaria also manages to "smile all the time" but with better reason (£400 a day). The "professor" is Marina Warner, who reveals that the £60,000 she earns at Birkbeck is twice her top income as a freelance journalist though she has "never felt entirely at home".