BOOKS


the stories of determined women (including Helen Sutherland, Margaret Gardiner, Myfanwy Piper and others) who helped change the course of British art from the 1940s to the 1960s.


John-Paul Stonard Creation: Art Since the Beginning Bloomsbury, 14th, HB, £30, 9781408879689 Celebrating the remark- able endurance of human- kind’s creative impulse, and lavishly illustrated throughout, a panoramic and truly global history of art, from ancient Anatolian standing stones to post-independence Congolese painting.


Leyla Uluhanli & Judy Lauder Synagogues: Marvels of Judaism Rizzoli, 5th, HB, £55, 9780847866502 Billed as the most signifi- cant volume to date on synagogue architecture and design, this lavishly illustrated book features more than 60 such build- ings in Europe, the Middle East, North America and Russia.


Biography & memoirs


Eileen Atkins Will She Do? Act One of a Life on Stage Virago, 14th, HB, £20, 9780349014661 This absorbing first memoir by the renowned actress and theatrical dame tells the story of how a girl from a council estate in Tottenham, born in 1934 to an electric meter reader and a


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seamstress, became a leading light on stage and screen. Atkins takes us from her awkward performances in working men’s clubs at six years of age, to her roles in “The Killing of Sister George”, “Upstairs Downstairs” and “The Crown”.


Paul Auster Burning Boy: Notes on Stephen Crane Faber, 7th, HB, £20, 9780571353354 American writer Crane, best known for The Red Badge of Courage, died in 1900 at the age of 28. This biography is Auster’s reassessment of Crane’s talent, written with the intention of restoring him to the pantheon of Modernist 20th-century authors, alongside the likes of Joseph Conrad.


the potential of nano- technology. This is science writer Bhattacharya’s “stunning, intellectual” biography; a “perfect gift for the nerd in your life”.


Elaine Brown A Taste of Power Penguin Classics, 28th, PB, £9.99, 9780241537343 This gripping memoir of Brown, the first female leader of the Black Panthers, takes us from her impoverished child- hood in Philadelphia through a political awak- ening during a bohemian adolescence, to her time as a foot soldier for the Panthers and her ascent into its upper echelons. “A seminal exploration of power, prejudice and the struggle for justice.”


James Cahill David Hockney Laurence King, 21st, HB, £12.99, 9781913947422 Concise biography of Hockney’s “truly individual life”.


Ananyo Bhattacharya The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann Allen Lane, 7th, HB, £20, 9780241398852 Born in Budapest at the turn of the century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived; instru- mental in the Manhattan Project and helping formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory. He also created the first programmable digital computer and prophesied


Current affairs & politics


John Barnes The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism Headline, 14th, HB, £20, 9781472291042


Timothée Chalamet A Beautiful Boy Plexus, 28th, PB, £9.99, 9780859655651 Visual biography of the heartthrob (to my daugh- ter, anyway) US actor, and the youngest Best Actor Oscar nominee for 80 years.


Protest and Belonging. Chelsea Green, 7th, HB, £20, 9781645021162 This first book by award- winning nature writer Chester is an engrossing memoir of a life shaped by landscape, from her childhood roaming the countryside close to Greenham Common, to motherhood and raising a rural working-class family on a managed farm estate. It’s also the story of how she came to writ- ing as a means of protest.


Julian Clary The Lick of Love: How Dogs Changed My Life Quercus, 14th, HB, £20, 9781529412505 From Fanny the Wonder Dog, who came into his owner’s life when he was somewhat adrift, to naughty but nice Gigi, an unpredictable fur bullet of a dog, Clary’s second memoir is a “wonderfully funny, sharp and touch- ing” paean to the bond between man and dog, “an autobidography, if you will”.


Brian Cox Putting the


Nicola Chester On Gallows Down: Place,


Rabbit in the Hat Quercus, 28th, HB, £20, 9781529416497 This memoir by the film and theatre actor, and star of “Succession”, is described as a rags-to- riches story like no other, as Cox charts his life from his poverty-stricken childhood in Dundee to stage and screen. “Rich in emotion and meaning”, Quercus is comparing it with The Moon’s a Balloon by David Niven and What’s It All About? by Michael Caine.


Michael Crick One Party After Another: The Unruly Life of Nigel Farage Simon & Schuster, 28th, HB, £20, 9781471192296 Crick’s latest penetrating biography takes the reader into the heart of Farage’s political story, assessing his methods, uncovering remarkable hidden details and building an “unmissable portrait of a larger-than- life character who has transformed the nation”. Hmmm.


Alan Cumming Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life Canongate, 28th, HB, £18.99, 9781838856632 “No one ever fully recovers from their past. There is no cure for it. You just have to learn to manage and prioritise it.” I was a huge admirer of Cumming’s first memoir, Not My Father’s Son, which demonstrated that he is a gifted writer as well as an actor. So bring on this second volume, much of which chronicles his life in Hollywood, as well as his two marriages, his encounters with the famous, and how he has become who he is today, “a happy, flawed, vulner- able, fearless middle- aged man with a lot of baggage”.


Jamie Foxx Act Like You


One to Watch


Barnes spent the first dozen years of his life in Jamaica, before moving to the UK with his family in 1975. He became a professional footballer for Watford, Liverpool and England, and is now an articulate commentator on a broad range of topics. In this “powerful and moving” book, he tackles racial


prejudice head-on, vividly evoking his own experiences, and holding a mirror to the UK’s past, present and future. In so doing, he aims to help to inform and advance the conversation around society’s ongoing battle with racism.


Personal development & self-help


Bimini Bon Boulash A Drag Queen’s Guide to Life Viking, 28th, HB, £16.99, 9780241543573


Got Some Sense Constable, 19th, HB, £20, 9781408716168 The Academy Award- winning actor, singer and comedian takes a “hilari- ously candid” look at the joys and pitfalls of being the father of two daugh- ters, whose “motherfuck- ing nerves he gets on”. “Hilarious, poignant and always brutally honest, [it’s] Jamie Foxx as we’ve never seen him before, dealing with problems he never imagined he’d have”.


Paris Fury Love and Fury:


The Magic and Mayhem of Life with Tyson Hodder, 14th, HB, £20, 9781529346190 With “warmth and humour and honesty”, the wife of heavyweight boxing world champion Tyson Fury (“Gypsy Queen to the Gypsy King”) reveals the “magical highs and epic lows” of their life together with their five children, as well as what keeps them strong through good times and bad. She has her own strong following on social media.


Anthony Holden Based On a True Story Simon & Schuster, 28th, HB, £18.99, 9781471154683 The award-winning journalist, biographer, poker player and author


One to Watch


Bimini was the star of “RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 2” and now has a devoted following of almost 900,000 on Instagram and 250,000 on Twitter. This is her queer self-help manifesto, which features the 10 subversive lessons she


has learned from drag. Together they convey a message of radical self-love and acceptance, as well as crediting how her non-conformist icons (includ- ing Katie Price and Kate Moss) inspired her. The book is illustrated with pen and ink illustrations of Bimini and her heroines by Jules Scheele.


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