Buttered toast, but then you die
Jad Adams praises Bevis Hillier's life of John Betjeman - not just a poet of the English middle classes.
A head of the game
Edwin Williamson's life of Borges reveals the passionate nature of a man often misrepresented as a cold intellectual, says Adam Feinstein.
Then what happened?
Does Downing Street beckon for David Blunkett, asks Stephen Pollard. Well, now we know the answer.
The digested tract
Alan Hollinghurst is fascinated by Richard Wollheim's complex and beautiful memoir of childhood, Germs.
Belle on her toes
Margot Fonteyn's story is remarkable, but Meredith Daneman could have given it a little more lift, says Judith Mackrell.
The outsider
William J Mann's Edge of Midnight captures all the complexity and creative energy of John Schlesinger, says Gavin Lambert.
Breaking cover
Blake Morrison reads between the lines of Jennie Erdal's Ghosting and Naim Attallah's The Old Ladies of Nazareth.
Waugh on war
Truth is more striking than fiction in Irene and Alan Taylor's collection of excerpts from war diaries, The Secret Annexe.
Is there anything more to say?
Michael Heatley and Mick Wall conjure up a national treasure in their biographies of John Peel.
Cause and effect
In Stamping Butterflies, Jon Courtenay Grimwood brings admirable humanity to a complex tale of power and quantum physics, says Eric Brown.
Tory story
Lewis Baston's new biography of the unfortunate Reggie Maudling revels in scandal but fails to reflect his talent, says Roy Hattersley.
Blind passion
Michael White enjoys Stephen Pollard's honest look at the beleaguered home secretary, David Blunkett.
Viz: Sid the Sexist
Cert 18
O difficult man!
Lindsay Anderson was a brilliant man who suffered neither friends nor fools gladly. His Collected Writings may win him admirers, but his Diaries will win him few friends, says Philip French.
The multimillionaire who fell to earth
Ken Auletta fails to get to the bottom of the Ted Turner riddle in his biography of the CNN founder, Media Man, says Frank Kane.