Wall of silence
Mick Brown's Tearing Down the Wall of Sound profiles a pop recluse, says Catherine Sevigny.
Man without a shadow
No other leader has given more thought to his public image, and had so much written about him while in office. Yet what makes Tony Blair tick, and what he stands for, have eluded all his biographers. Will the prime minister, who rose without a trace, now leave none behind him, asks Peter Wilby.
Working titles
One day, Harland Miller picked up a Penguin, and an idea was born. The artist and novelist talks to Jarvis Cocker about his fake paperbacks, northern nostalgia and Hemingway's ego, while Gordon Burn explains the strange charm of his work.
Leni: fully exposed
The lies spun by Leni Riefenstahl are forensically destroyed in Steven Bach's biography, says Taylor Downing.
Don’t stop till you get enough
Darwin Porter's biography Jacko isn't easy to put down, says Chloe Todd Fordham.
A gentle journey from death to death
Mark Rowson's memoir, Stuff, is a subtle and captivating meander through the past, says William Leith.
Voices of today and tomorrow
Critical eye: Susan Sontag's essays, Graham Swift's Tomorrow, and problems with Shakespeare's First Folio.
Souls of the sea
Ellen Gallagher's fantastical, mythological paintings take us to the deepest ocean bed. Her strange marine creatures, half human, half fish, evoke the lives of the unnamed black slaves who drowned. Jackie Kay is swept away.
On death row
Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh was the inspiration for Edmund White's new play. But exploring the prisoner's psyche led him to wrestle with his own identity and that of the country he left many years before.
Growing pains
Imran Ahmed's memoir, Unimagined, recounts a compelling quest for belonging, writes Anita Sethi.
‘The Buddha had lousy kung fu’
The martial arts memoirs Bruce Lee and Me and American Shaolin are the stuff of glorious fantasy, writes Steven Poole.
Paperback righteous
If only we had more movies based on the religious right's hate list. John Patterson finds rebellious motivation down at the library.
Read the signs
Joanna Hines, Elena Seymenliyska and Alfred Hickling on The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil | My Father's Notebook | The Amnesia Clinic | The Pale Blue Eye | Inside
The pariah countries
For his latest book, Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler set out to travel along the 'axis of evil'. Rory MacLean applauds his journey.
Shakespeare plc: still gilt edged
All lovers of England's greatest writer will be repaid handsomely by investing in a new complete works and a forensic biography, says Robert McCrum.