Toikel’s last testament

Paperback of the week: Touch and Go by Studs TerkelTerkel's greatest service to literature was giving voice to 'ordinary people', says Ed Vulliamy

Bears: A Brief History

Review: Bears: A Brief History by Bernd BrunnerIt is dense with information that even arctophiles may have missed, writes Vera Rule

A Quixote who tells it like it is

Review: Gabriel García Márquez - A Life by Gerald MartinForget magical realism - an exhaustive life of Gabriel García Márquez reveals him as a much worldlier writer than that, argues Stephen Smith

At Large and At Small

Review: At Large and At Small by Anne FadimanFadiman sees herself as at once reviving and feminising the "familiar essay", says John Dugdale

All the world

Review: Apprenticeship by Peter GillA playwright's rigorous reflections on a life in the theatre impress David Hare

The Family Reunion

Donmar, LondonTS Eliot's spirited, stark poetry rescues this awkward curio says Maddy Costa

How to look fabulous and save the world

Review: The Thrift Book by India KnightIndia Knight's guide to living well and saving money on everything from eyebrows to undies is highly persuasive, if a touch optimistic, writes Fay Weldon

Wild Orchids

Review: Black Orchids by Gillian SlovoStupid and snooty? They must be English, says Simon Baker

Choke

For all its flaws and fumbles there is a certain guilty pleasure in this bawdy, scattershot satire

Hymn to land and freedom

Review: Notes From Walnut Tree Farm Roger DeakinThe diaries of naturalist Roger Deakin convey the joyful liberation he found in life in rural Suffolk, writes Olivia Laing

The maiden who mastered Montaigne

Review: Apology for the Woman Writing by Jenny Diski This is a a complex fable about a fatal encounter between ruthless mediocrity and equally egotistical genius, writes Patricia Duncker