A manifesto for life
Geraldine Bedell tells how she built her own home in The Handmade House. You need never compromise again, says Stephen Bayley.
Confessions of a bohemian
The letters of Lytton Strachey vividly capture the gossipy, saucy lives of the Bloomsbury group, says David Jays.
Psycho analysis
Charlotte Chandler stiches a web of quotes together in her revealing biography of Alfred Hitchcock, It's Only a Movie, says Lindsay Pfeffer.
Bring me sunshine
Hilary Spurling's biography of Henri Matisse is as dazzling as its subject, says Peter Conrad.
Niebelung kebab
John Man's biography of Attila the Hun leaves Ranjit Bolt feeling faint.
Brave new worlds
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala fled Cologne with her family in 1939 and lived through the London Blitz. After university she moved to Delhi, her home for 24 years. She began to write fiction, exploring east-west encounters, and won the Booker prize. Now based in New York, she is best known for her Oscar-winning screenplays. Her latest book of stories deals with fragmented destinies.
When Amy met Stanley
Adèle Geras is impressed by Ros Asquith's upbeat, optimistic novel about teenage pregnancy, Love, Fifteen.
Art before heart
John Elderfield salutes the scholarship of Hilary Spurling's new biography, Matisse the Master, but misses the magic of the studio.
The invisible man
The actors David Nicholls admired most were the kind who'd be standing behind Steve McQueen in The Great Escape. It didn't seem an impossible target to set himself, but after eight years as Third Peasant and understudy who never took centre stage, he began to realise what he was doing wrong.
A boy like Dan
Danny Mardell's world was turned upside down when his first son was born with Down's syndrome. But, as his ghost writer Sally Weale records in Danny's Challenge, published tomorrow, the shock and shame of those first few months gradually gave way to acceptance - and love.
What promised lands?
Caroline Moorehead exposes the West's malign view of asylum seekers in Human Cargo. How can the world carry on like this, asks Lisa O'Kelly.
E.T. and sympathy
Bryan Appleyard tries to keep an open mind on the existence of aliens. Adam Mars-Jones isn't convinced.
Papal power
Pope John Paul II demonstrates his determination to continue guiding his flock in Memory and Identity, says Jamie Doward.
Children of the New Forest
Philip Hoare presents a mesmeric portrait of a Victorian Messiah in England's Lost Eden.
Stage coach
Allistair Owen explores the career of the writer of Les Liasons Dangereuses in his series of interviews, Hampton on Hampton.