We want footie, not flimflam
In My Story So Far, Wayne Rooney reveals that he loves a takeaway and Coleen likes Corrie - but where's the beef about Manchester United, Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane, asks Nick Greenslade.
Portrait of the artist as a copycat
I Was Vermeer, Edward Marriott's biography of Han van Meegeren, the most famous forger in history, is both gripping and psychologically fascinating, says Edward Marriott.
The ogre of betrayal
James Joyce wrote only one play, Exiles. It was rejected by theatres and scorned by critics, but it gives us a valuable insight into his turbulent marriage.
Gallic grandeur
Frederick Brown tries to encompass Flaubert's massive, contradictory nature in a huge biography of literature's most obsessional stylist, says Adam Thorpe.
What the butler saw
Ian Sansom welcomes two more additions to the vast mountain of Proustiana: the memoirs of his valet Ernest A Forssgren and Proust in Love by William C Carter.
Turning tricks
Louise Welsh's latest novel, The Bullet Trick, features a down-at-heel magician, a corrupt Soho club-owner and a troupe of burlesque strippers. Paul Hamilos talks to Welsh about what attracts her to the shadowy world of the demimonde.
In Istanbul, a writer awaits her day in court
Bestselling novelist Elif Shafak is the latest writer to face trial for "insulting Turkishness". She tells Richard Lea about her work, the charges that have been brought against her, and how the Turkish language has become a battleground.
What’s the story? Reflected glory
There is only one problem with Rodney Bolt's biography of Mozart's librettist, Lorenzo da Ponte, says Ranjit Bolt (no relation) - he simply isn't a very likeable figure.
The priest who took on the evils of apartheid
Anne Yates and Lewis Chester's biography of the tireless human rights campaigner Michael Scott, The Troublemaker, is a compelling insight into the life and work of a man once described as a 'British admixture of Jesus and Gandhi, with more than a trace of Marx', writes Stephen Pritchard.
Smooth operator
Stanley Wells's fascinating look at Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Shakespeare & Co, reveals the bard as very much of his age, says Robert McCrum.
You know what I mean …
Adam Phillips's dazzling new work, Side Effects, offers an intriguing discussion of coherence as a defence mechanism. Not to mention the importance of asides, says Kate Kellaway.
Guerilla in the midst
Journalist Greg Palast is still a thorn in the side of the neocons, as his latest collection of dispatches, Armed Madhouse, proves, says Jamie Doward.
Islam and the porno devils
Can the clash between scantily clad secularism and conservative religious ideology produce a third way in the Arab world? Some wish according to Allegra Stratton's fascinating exploration of this question, Muhajababes, writes Rachel Aspden.
Tales from a good listener
And They All Sang, A lifetime of interviews by veteran 94-year-old writer and broadcaster Studs Terkel, brings out the essence of his favourite musicians, says Sean O'Hagan.
Multiple organism
Matt Madden's graphic novel, 99 Ways to Tell a Story, balances postmodern irony with genuine invention and amusement, says David Thompson.