And the princess lived unhappily ever after …
Tim Heald's biography of Princess Margaret should dispel all fairy-tale fantasies, says Vanessa Thorpe.
Small is beautiful
Children in portraits were first depicted only as tiny adults, little devils, or props to their parents' ambition. Antonia Fraser charts the evolution from brats to innocents as art reflected changing attitudes to childhood throughout Europe.
Tales of the city
Chris Petit on two vivid, contrasting memoirs by Michèle Roberts and Keith Allen that converge in one London street.
You’ll believe a man can fly!
Richard Holmes enjoys Being Shelley, Ann Wroe's risky but exhilarating portrait of the romantic icon.
A royal nobody
Sarah Bradford finds it difficult to warm to the Queen's younger sister as portrayed in Tim Heald's Princess Margaret.
Many shrunken heads (and one bighead)
Kathryn Hughes on Sylvia, Queen of the Headhunters: An Outrageous Englishwoman and Her Lost Kingdom by Philip Eade.
A tragedy without villains
Shaw's play Saint Joan has much to say about war, show trials and varieties of fanaticism. No wonder, Michael Holroyd writes, that it resonates so powerfully today.
Not such a lovely bloke
Alastair Campbell's diaries are gappy, scrappy - and utterly compelling, says David Hare.
Gordon the saint – meet Brown the sinner
Michael White has fun reading two rather different biographies of the prime minister.
Crystals in the blood
There are plenty of lessons to learn from Georgina Ferry's biography of brilliant molecular biologist Max Perutz, says Giles Foden.
Macbeth
Peter Bradshaw: A deeply pointless adaptation of Macbeth.
An imperfect German tale
Germans may strive for 'absolute perfection' but this journey to discover their culture is far from flawless, says Rory MacLean. Ben Donald's main failing is in forgetting to write from the heart.
Captured: a laddish, thuggish, snapshot of power
Filleted it may be but Alastair Campbell's diary will become a reference point for the Blair years. says Julian Glover.
Pip Pip
Olivia Laing finds Dickens taking root in a war-torn jungle in Lloyd Jones's Mister Pip.
The original bobby
John Grieve warms to Douglas Hurd's life of the man who was midwife to modern-day policing, Robert Peel.