hardback bestsellers

1. Come to Grief by Dick Francis (Michael Joseph, pounds 15.99)

2. Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (Doubleday, pounds 15.99)

3. Enigma by Robert Harris (Hutchinson, pounds 15.99)

4. A Test of Time: the Bible from Myth to History by David Rohl

5. Granchester Grind by Tom Sharpe (Deutsch, pounds 14.99)

6. The Moor's Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie (Cape, pounds 15.99)

7. Rose Madder by Stephen King (Hodder, pounds 16.99)

8. The One That Got Away by Chris Ryan (Century, pounds 14.99)

9. Summer Collection by Delia Smith (BBC Books, pounds 14.99)

10. Coming Home by Rosamund Pilcher (Hodder, pounds 16.99

we recommend...

Hidden Lives: A Family Memoir by Margaret Forster (Viking, pounds 16). Women's history brought to life via three generations of the author's family. Full of treasures.

The Faber Book of Science edited by John Carey (Faber, pounds 17.50). The Oxford English professor shows that scientific literature can be as creative as fiction in this stunning anthology.

The Redress of Poetry: Oxford Lectures by Seamus Heaney (Faber, pounds 15.99). The best lectures by an Oxford Professor of Poetry since WH Auden's 40 years ago.

Testaments Betrayed by Milan Kundera (Faber, pounds 16.99). Dazzling collection of thoughts on Western literature. A masterpiece.

The Virago Book of Women Gardeners edited by Deborah Kellaway (Virago, pounds 16.99). Gloriously fertile compendium full of witty, entertaining snippets.

Blake by Peter Ackroyd (Sinclair-Stevenson, pounds 20). Magisterial portrait of the poet-artist as a Cockney visionary and religious radical.