McCourt and Adams? They should get a life…
Roy Foster pulls no punches in his collection of interlinked essays, The Irish Story
The soldier’s soldier who outfoxed the Desert Fox
Nigel Hamilton promises new insights into general Monty's sexuality in The Full Monty. But what matters is his military genius, says Philip Hensher
His trouble and strife
Ruthless and vain, TS Eliot upstages his wife Vivienne in Carole Seymour-Jones's biography, Painted Shadow - as he did in life
Eternal city
Vera Rule on how Jan Morris conjures up a particular nowhere-in-particular rather than a fabulous somewhere in her final book, Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere
Candid camera
In Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters, David Hockney reveals how artists caught nature with lenses and mirrors. It took a painter to show us, says Peter Robb
A way through the labyrinth
Nicholas Lezard puts his ass on the line when he makes a sacrifice in homage to Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology by Jenny March
Weapons of mass hysteria
Army advisor Simon Wessely reads Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War and says that we should forget germs and gas - the most deadly infection is terror
‘These democratic works reach a mass, non-gallery audience’
Your reactions to last week's article about video art
All fired up
Is there more to pottery than pretty glazes and teapots that pour? Continuing our series on 'difficult' art forms, Giles Foden unearths the secrets of ceramics and discovers what turns a simple clay cup into a museum piece.
Carey wins Booker for second time
Tale of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly beats off McEwan's challenge, to surprise and delight of bookmakers.
Growing up with Gormenghast
Fabian Peake on a childhood coloured by the creative genius of his father Mervyn.
The roots of conflict
Is western culture better than any other? Umberto Eco argues that what is important is not superiority but pluralism and toleration.