The end of the affair

Margaret Reynolds finds Carol Ann Duffy's Rapture unashamedly lyrical - and brilliant for it.

Fine and dandy

The first English celebrity, Beau Brummell, is vividly evoked in Ian Kelly's immensely entertaining biography, says Jane Stevenson.

The real DC confidential

Mythology is more than a biography of Alex Ross and more than a comic book, says David Thomson. It is a reminder of our capacity to wonder.

What’s it all about?

Michael Collins enjoys Christopher Bray's biography of a south London lad made good, Michael Caine.

Heart and soul

Peter Guralnick's Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke is an overdue and fitting monument to a great gospel and R&B singer, says Mike Marqusee.

Sassoon unplugged

Max Egremont struggles with the suffocating gloominess of the poet's postwar life in his skilful biography of Siegfried Sassoon, says Andrew Motion.

The real Peel

Ajax Scott finds shyness and insecurity to go with John Peel's passion for music in his autobiography, Margrave of the Marshes.

Flight entertainment

For Angela Carter, to write was to perform. She saw herself as a highwire artiste, filling her novels with the vivid colours of the circus and the energy of carnivals. Now one of her stories is being staged - and not before time, says Lisa Appignanesi

Pet cemetery

Sam Leith takes a sideways look at the dark side of our strange relationship with furry animals in Dead Pets, says Jonathan Beckman.

To kill a king

Geoffrey Robertson impresses Michael Moorcock with his biography of the lawyer who prosecuted Charles I, The Tyrannicide Brief.

Sir Henry by gaslight

Jeffrey Richards tells how a great Victorian actor made the theatre respectable in his life of Sir Henry Irving. Simon Callow laments what has been lost.