You’ve got male
Tom Lubbock enjoys James Hall's diverting look at art, Michelangelo and the Reinvention of the Human Body.
Life begins at 50
Walter Sickert is remembered as a friend of more famous folk. Jad Adams wonders if he is worthy of Matthew Sturgis's extended biography.
The Full Indian Rope Trick by Colette Bryce review – a great escape
Colette Bryce is always looking for a way out. Charles Bainbridge untangles The Full Indian Rope Trick.
Wistful memories of war
Nicholas Lezard finds an elegiac wistfulness in Jim Bailey's meditation on the battle of Britain, The Sky Suspended.
Out of control
Nicola Morgan is moved by Kevin Brooks' shocking and powerful tale of drug abuse and prostitution, Candy.
Our story begins …
John Irving never believed his novel A Widow for One Year, which spans 37 years and three generations, would make a coherent film. It took an unknown director with a radical plan to change his mind.
Invasion of the pregnant dads
Books on fatherhood used to be few and far between - but not any more. Nicholas Lezard takes a look at the good, the bad, and the downright mawkish.
Elusive quarry of Hyde and seek
Claire Harman's life of Robert Louis Stevenson is long on facts but short on real insight, says Jane Stevenson.
Curiouser and furiouser
Can anger be healthy? Aristotle thought so, while Robert Thurman, a modern professor of Buddhism, lays the blame for it on our past lives.
Flying blind
Three volumes of autobiography make a perfect introduction to the extraordinary New Yorker writer Ved Mehta, says Anna Lynskey.
Ideologues at war
Robert Peston's compelling analysis of the Blair-Brown rift, Brown's Britain, moves beyond personalities to the real issues, says Roy Hattersley.
Their lives in her hands
Hermione Lee examines how to get the balance right between an author's life and work in her collection of essays, Body Parts.
Never ask a Viking for advice
Jared Diamond's compelling study, Collapse, asks why throughout history, whole societies suddenly disappear - and what it means for us today.
Bad boy grows up
Sean Penn has been well served by Richard T Kelly's smart biography, says Kevin Macdonald.
The Creole with the teacup
The lady with the lamp's rival, Mary Seacole, is beginning to receive proper recognition. If only Jane Robinson had delved a little deeper, says Kathryn Hughes.