When Buddha came to suburbia

Jeffrey Paine's tale of how Western idealists fell for Tibetan Buddhism, Re-Enchantment, is vibrant and colourful, says Ed Halliwell

Magnus opus

Sally Magnusson takes her place in the hot seat with a chatty memoir of a trip with her father, Dreaming of Iceland

The aftermath of brotherly love

Alison Smith describes fluently and painfully how the living respond to the random cruelty of life in her memoir, Name All the Animals

Up the garden path

Frances Hodgson Burnett tried to 'write more happiness into the world'. Gretchen Gerzina, not wishing to cause upset, doesn't delve too deeply in her life of the author of The Secret Garden

Brandt awareness

Paul Delany's new biography gives full exposure to the secretive and wilfully elusive master photographer Bill Brandt, says Peter Conrad

Ripple effects

Tim Jeal's account of his father's life, Swimming with My Father, turns out to be full of surprises

The President’s nemesis

Despite his slightly smug tone, Richard Clarke offers a devastating critique of George W Bush in Against All Enemies, says John Kampfner

I’ll get there, even if it kills…

Jamie Andrews's climbing memoir, Life and Limb, joins a growing mountain of endurance literature which maps out 21st-century ethics, says Jonathan Heawood

Great actor, great nose

Denis Quilley's memoir, Happiness Indeed, is a warm tribute to the acting profession. And blackcurrant jam

Jewels from the high table

Despite a weakness for Oxford trivia, Isaiah Berlin's letters, collected in Flourishing, show him to be a witty, sometimes savage correspondent

The crook was in his counting house

David McKie paints an irresistible portrait of Jabez Spencer Balfour MP, whose frauds cost Victorian savers everything, says Michael Holland

A robot to DIY for

Dylan Evans on a novel approach to scientific investigation in Steve Grand's Growing Up with Lucy

The day my music died

Novelist Tim Lott was in love with records; they were his addiction. Then the relationship turned sour and he binned them. He tells how he got his life - and collection - back together.

A flicker of genius

Gaudier-Brzeska, the Frenchman who brought modernity to sculpture, was only 23 when he died in battle. Paul O'Keeffe struggles to recount so short a career at such length, says Deyan Sudjic