"a biography that manages to be both plodding and salacious at the same time...."

"Jackley is a contradictory figure... This splendid book – less true crime than biography – does full justice to his complexity..."

"a heartwarming collection in which older-and-wiser poet and child converge – in sun and shade...."

"(a) powerful, unflinching account of her war-torn childhood... part hymn to nature, part Troubles memoir..."

" a personal and professional account of a life spent working in forensic anthropolog..."

"(A) bracing, mountain-fresh repositioning of the country star’s story..."

"Having and Being Had dwells on Biss’s unease about her participation in a system whose values she does not embrace, even as she savours its rewards..."

"Erpenbeck’s writing is at its best precisely when she is able to provide us with this structure. ..."

"a captivating triumph..."

"A new biography suggests Joe Biden has picked a VP who will not shrink from tackling the toxic legacy of Trump..."

"At once gritty and escapist, it offers timely lessons not just in perseverance, but in nurturing optimism..."

"An experimental biography tries to domesticate the great novelist, who was scarcely able to tie his own shoelaces without disaster..."

"He is the missing link between Pam Ayres and the Sex Pistols, between Baudelaire and the Beano...."

"a paean to making friendships across boundaries, to being kind even when the cost is nearly unbearable..."

"Despite biographical gaps, the intellectual seriousness and extraordinary resilience of the 18th-century philosopher shines through..."

"In an eye-popping memoir, the singer describes going to bed with Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Roman Polanski, Michael Caine and Sean Connery while still in her teens..."

"An indelible portrait of the CIA’s institutional derangement..."

"an invaluably original view of one man in his garden..."

"short but inspiring..."

"A writer with a stutter offers a thought-provoking defence of disfluency and takes a sideswipe at Freud..."

"seeks to tap into the creative inner life of the country, weaving a rich pattern of stories and poems through the chapters..."

"a delightful sporting memoir..."

"a fascinating sort-of seminar, but not without its drawbacks..."

"A rebellious woman’s memoir about her life under the Taliban is moving and gripping..."

"The great writer’s passion and resilience resonate anew in Eddie S Glaude Jr’s timely, powerful study..."

"The Norwegian literary superstar takes pot shots at his critics and cancel culture, and doesn’t care who he offends..."

"Thomas Otte asks whether our then-Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, was culpable for failing to avert war..."

"offers up some memorable insights but it is mostly a reliable and business-like account of a life in sport..."