Bringing it all back home
...well not quite 'all', since much mystery remains. Yet the first volume of Bob Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles, provides thrilling insights none of his myriad biographers can match, says Robert McCrum.
They make things happen
Old-fashioned hero-worship is barely tenable in our egalitarian age, says Colin Burrow, but we still do our best to keep it up. Lucy Hughes-Hallett suggests why in Heroes.
Stephen, Will and Gary too
Do we really need a new biography of Shakespeare? We do if Stephen Greenblatt writes it. Gary Taylor salutes Will in the World.
A burnt-out case
The years spent writing The Life of Graham Greene wore Norman Sherry down. It shows all too clearly, says Miranda France.
Those Tory boys
William Hague's selling point in his biography of Pitt is to enlighten this well-documented history through "the eyes of a politician". But, says Tristram Hunt, what is conspicuously lacking is a discussion of Tory thinking.
More Sherry trifles
The third volume of Norman Sherry's biography is a lamentable way to celebrate the centenary of Graham Greene's birth, says Ian Thomson.
A scream we can’t ignore
Nearly 70 years on, the military men are still censoring Guernica. Gijs van Hensbergen tells the story of the Picasso that became an icon.
Strangely strange, but oddly normal
Jane Stevenson finds there's something missing in Susanna Clarke's historical fantasy, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell.
Vain, waspish… and a consummate artist
Michael Coveney on John Coldstream's even-handed biography Dirk Bogarde.
Amazon jungle
Catherine Taylor enjoys James Marcus's account of the web bookseller's early days, Amazonia.
Girdling the world
Arnold Wesker follows Gareth Armstrong and his one-man show based on Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice on a trip around the world in A Case for Shylock.
The Führer’s friend
Ian Kershaw shows how the seventh Marquess of Londonderry had a knack for always backing the wrong horse in his biography of Churchill's 'half-wit' cousin, Making Friends with Hitler.
The wizard from Oz
Simon Callow enjoys a fascinating dissection of British theatre in Michael Blakemore's autobiography Arguments with England.
One angry man
Creative genius, bitter critic, misogynist... Whatever you think of Philip Roth there's no doubt he's one of the world's most brilliant writers and that age has not mellowed him. His new novel is his most political - and personal - yet.
Old wives’ tales
Readers expecting revelations will be disappointed by The Goldfish Bowl, an insider's guide to Number 10 by Cherie Booth and Cate Haste.