Shades of Greene by Jeremy Lewis - This detailed look at the lives of Graham Greene and his siblings and cousins shows what an unsavoury lot most of them were... (July 25, 2010)

Anne Frank by Francine Prose - Francine Prose’s book is a kind of user’s manual, explaining how Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl came to be put together... (July 11, 2010)

Teach Us to Sit Still by Tim Parks - Writing a book about your bladder problems takes courage. Tim Parks admits that he felt ashamed discussing his even with his wife, and made her swear not to mention them to their children... (June 23, 2010)

The Price of Altruism by Oren Harman - Unselfishness is a dangerous thing. George Price, the subject of this striking and original book, became obsessed with it and it killed him... (April 10, 2010)

Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb - Graham Robb’s new book is so richly pleasurable that you feel it might emit a warm glow if you left it in a dark room... (April 10, 2010)

The English Lakes: A History by Ian Thompson -Until around 1770, the Lake District did not have any history. It was mainly of interest to sheep, who far outnumbered the human inhabitants... (April 4, 2010)

Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? by James Shapiro - James Shapiro’s prize-winning book 1599 was a work of micro-history... (March 21, 2010)

The Woman Who Shot Mussolini by Frances Stonor Saunders - It is 10.58 am on Wednesday, April 7, 1926. Benito Mussolini, prime minister of Italy, leaves the Palazzo dei Conservatori on Rome’s Capitoline Hill and strides through an exultant crowd, their arms raised in the fascist salute, towards his waiting Lancia... (February 28, 2010)

Koestler: The Indispensable Intellectual by Michael Scammell - The most spectacular aspect of Arthur Koestler was his sex life, and the main problem it poses is how he found time for it... (February 7, 2010)

The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain Was Poisoned at Home, Work and Play by James C Whorton - There must always be a fair number of wives who feel like killing their husbands, but in Britain in the 1840s an unusually high proportion actually did it. Most of them (or most of those who were detected) were lower class, and their favourite method was poisoning with arsenic... (January 24, 2010 )

On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears by Stephen T Asma - Where do monsters come from? How did they first lurch and shamble into the human brain? Are monsters still around? Is there one near you? Stephen  T   Asma’s cultural history attacks these questions with sometimes gruesome relish.... (January 10, 2010 )