Raging against the dying light

Richard Cork marvels at the artist's determination and creativity in the face of crippling illness in Goya's Last Works by Jonathan Brown and Susan Grace Galassi.

Unravelling Mr Beckett

James and Elizabeth Knowlson examine the development of a giant of 20th-century literature in Beckett Remembering/ Remembering Beckett. Adam Mars-Jones celebrates his enduring legacy.

Mummies dearest

Jeremy Harding prefers reticence to revelation in his fine memoir of his search for his real parents, Mother Country, says Rachel Cooke.

An ear in Provence

Martin Gayford's The Yellow House is a vivid account of the nine turbulent weeks Gauguin spent living with Van Gogh, says Peter Conrad.

This one has strings attached

Phil Hogan on Will Hodgkinson's enthusiastic account of the six months he spent mastering the six string, Guitar Man.

Brushes with genius

Richard Cork on the strange friendship of Van Gogh and Gauguin as revealed in Martin Gayford's The Yellow House.

Shakespeare for blokes

Fiona Shaw explores Dominic Dromgoole's account of a life lived in the shoes of Shakespeare in Will and Me.

High jinks and horrors

In Too Close to the Sun, Sara Wheeler unveils an infuriating charmer who helped create modern Kenya, says Peter Longworth.

The neocon prophet burns Bush

Francis Fukuyama disavows the Bush administration and all its works in a blistering attack, After the Neocons, says Rafael Behr.

At home with the empress

Virginia Rounding avoids much politics or culture in her intimate history of Catherine the Great, says Catriona Kelly.