The Reluctant Billionaire

Tom Quinn

Biteback, £20, pp288

This brisk and entertainingly damning look at the undistinguished and miserable life of Gerald Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster, offers a mixture of salacious gossip and armchair psychology. Tom Quinn – who cheerily admits that “in an earlier epoch, I would have been horse-whipped for writing this book” – draws on a series of interviews he did with the duke and his disgruntled, anonymous retainers, from which he paints a picture of a man whose enormous wealth only caused him unhappiness and whose intellectual and personal limitations were only relieved by regular visits to sex workers. No wonder he described his position as “rotten bad luck”.

The Plus One

Sophia Money-Coutts

HQ, £12.99, pp384

Former Tatler journalist Sophia Money-Coutts’s debut novel is best described as Bridget Jones’s Diary as interpreted by Julian Fellowes, with more explicit sex scenes. Her account of hapless 30-year-old Polly Spencer, working at a Tatler-esque magazine called Posh! and trying to extricate herself from involvements with wildly unsuitable men called things such as Jasper, Marquess of Milton, is not going to win any awards for originality; it is obvious who she will end up with as soon as he appears. Yet Money-Coutts can certainly write and some effective one-liners (“I thought viscount was a type of biscuit”) and unexpected poignant touches make this a classy read.

The Choice

Edith Eger

Rider, £8.99, pp384

Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz when she was 16. A hugely accomplished ballerina, she attracted the attention of the notorious Josef Mengele and managed to save her life by performing for him. After barely surviving, she travelled to the US and, training as a psychologist, attempted to make sense of the horrors she had seen. This memoir has been justly acclaimed as a fresh and perceptive account of a time spent in hell, but it also manages to make the aftermath every bit as interesting, as Eger rebuilds her shattered existence with courage and humour. It will inevitably be filmed, but read the book first.

• To order The Reluctant Billionaire for £17, The Plus One for £11.04 or The Choice for £7.64 go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99