Blake’s big toe
Marsha Keith Schuchard examines William Blake's unorthodox sex life in Why Mrs Blake Cried, says Jad Adams.
The stubble diaries
Norah Vincent's account of 18 months spent pretending to be male, Self-made Man, is intelligent, articulate and perceptive, says Lionel Shriver.
The boy who made everything luminous
Michael Blastland's explanation of his son's autism, Joe, the Only Boy in the World, touches Simon Baron-Cohen.
Springtime for Tolkien and Mordor
Theatre: Premiering in Canada before it opens in London next spring, the world's most expensive stage production conjures up dancing hobbits, a lot of dry ice and flashes of Brechtian brilliance, says Gaby Wood.
Get lost. It’s the only way to find yourself
Rebecca Solnit explores the pleasures and the pitfalls of the unknown in A Field Guide to Getting Lost, says Stephanie Merritt.
Schooled for scandal
Andrew Hosken deserves praise indeed for exposing the shabby and shoddy regime of Shirley Porter in Nothing Like a Dame, says Jay Rayner.
Vile days in Vichy
Carmen Callil uncovers an extraordinary story of collaboration and neglect in her biography of Louis Darquier, Bad Faith, says Peter Conrad.
A traitor to the sisterhood
Maureen Dowd's Are Men Necessary? is a collection of pop psychology, pseudoscientific studies and chat masquerading as a serious political polemic, says Carole Cadwalladr.
Samurai stories
Anthony Thwaite enjoys Christopher Ross's obsessively nerdish pursuit of a legendary samurai novelist, Mishima's Sword.
Beckett on the couch
James and Elizabeth Knowlson's collection of interviews, Beckett Remembering, Remembering Beckett, gives a fascinating insight into the inner workings of the great dramatist, says John Banville.
Crows in the fold
Horatio Clare's thoughtful memoir, Running for the Hills, is a cautionary tale for wannabe downshifters, says Daniel Butler.
The wife of Brian
She's married to Brian Grazer, the man behind A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13 and now The Da Vinci Code. The perfect excuse, then, to become an Ivy-lunching, diamonddusted, perfectly coiffured LA wife. But instead she's turned her insider knowledge into a series of scathing satires on Tinseltown. Gaby Wood talks yoga, intimate waxing and celebrity baiting with novelist Gigi Levangie.
Is it all piety in the sky?
As fundamentalism increasingly affects us all, Lewis Wolpert and Daniel Dennett address the very nature of religion. Robin McKie on Six Impossible Things and Breaking the Spell.
Suits you, sir
Norah Vincent passed herself off as a man for 18 months - with surprising results. Viv Groskop on Self-Made Man.
From a parallel world
Moazzam Begg tells the story of his three-year detention without trial in Enemy Combatant. Our only response should be outrage, says David Rose.