11th April 2025


Art, photography & design


Lydia Rachel Figes Survival Notes Life Lessons from Contemporary Artists


Thames & Hudson, 31st, HB, £14.95, 9780500297919


Drawing on interviews with many leading contemporary artists, including Tracey Emin, Jesse Darling and Anish Kapoor, Figes explores the practical realities of the art world, aiming to demystify the route to processional success via their reflections, anecdotes and advice.


David Gentlemen Lessons for Young Artists Particular, 3rd, HB, £20, 9780241692813


“You learn something instantly every time you pick up a pencil.” The distinguished painter and printmaker, who has just turned 95, has written a “generous, gentle” book of artistic advice, derived from his first-hand experience of making art. The title takes the form of a sequence of unconventional prompts and reflections, designed to deepen your relationship with art and with the world.


Douglas Hofstadter Ambigrammia: Between Creation and Discovery


Yale, 22nd, HB, £30, 9780300275438


Displaying dozens of examples, this is a rich account of the history and creation of ambigrams in the 1960s and 1970s. It explores the process by which ordinary words and phrases can be given double readings and visual beauty by distorting the letters composing them.


Anne Kelly Abstract Textiles: Colour, Shape and Pattern in Textile Art


Batsford, 3rd, HB, £25, 9781849949415


From Amish quilts through to contemporary makers, this exploration


of abstract textile art includes practical tips on how to progress your own designs from the realistic to the abstract.


Josef Koudelka Gypsies Thames & Hudson, 3rd, HB, £50, 9780500029251


Fifty years after its first publication, this new photobook edition provides an intimate glimpse into the daily lives of the Roma community in the 1960s and 1970s, across the then Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, France and Spain.


Dorothy Mahon, Abbie Vandivere, Ige Verslype Closer to Vermeer


Thames & Hudson, HB, £60, 9780500030660


Drawing on analysis of the artist’s work conducted during and after the blockbuster 2023 Rijksmuseum exhibition, this title provides new insights into Vermeer’s creative processes, materials and painting techniques, exploring the meaning of his works and his evolving fame.


Biography & memoir


Sonita Alizada Sonita HQ, 8th, HB, £20, 9780008752835


Aged 10, Afghan rapper Sonita was nearly sold into marriage, and then at 16 her price was set at $9,000. She escaped her destiny and transformed her struggle into music, including her viral video, Daughters for Sale, which ignited a movement against child marriage. This is her inspiring story: “A love letter to dreamers and a battle cry for justice.”


Tahmina Begum Womanhood: Lessons in Loving, Giving and Being Too Much


Trapeze, 3rd, HB, £22, 9781398718340


In the Three Women vein, three South Asian Muslim women from different generations tell their stories of love, marriage and more as they explore what it means to be a complex, ordinary, modern women in today’s world.


Bobby Bolton Truck It!: The Drive Around the World That Saved My Life


Macmillan, 24th, HB, £22, 9781035074471


After a bad break-up and the failure of his business, Bolton reached rock bottom. Then he hatched a plan to drive a truck from his hometown of Wigan to Australia, accompanied by his dog Red. His journey is described as an “epic, escapist adventure with heart”.


Shirley Cooklin Blame Not the Wind HarperElement, 17th, HB, £22, 9780008767662


Now 94, actor and writer Cooklin, best known for her role in Doctor Who during the 1960s, tells the story of her fight for justice for her son, Ben, who tragically drowned during the Tall Ships Race in 1984.


Jenny Evans Don’t Let It Break You, Honey: A Memoir About Saving Yourself


Robinson, 3rd, HB, £22, 9781472148995


Cast in a feature film at the age of 18, Evans’ world was full of promise. But then she was assaulted by a high-profile figure, referred to in the book as “The Famous Man”. When she reported his crime to the police, details of her allegations appeared in the tabloids. This book charts her resilient fight back against the systems that caused her immense harm; she is now training to be a lawyer.


Bella Jackson Fragile Minds Doubleday, 3rd, HB, £20, 9781529939774


Jackson has worked as a mental health nurse for more than a decade. Here, she charts her experiences working on an NHS mental health ward, profiling the patients our system is leaving behind, due to shortcomings both “philosophical and systemic”.


Ed Jackson From the Mountain’s Edge


HQ, 31st, HB, £16.99, 9780008735364


1 14


After a life-changing neck injury, former professional


rugby player Jackson defied the odds, learning to walk again. He then set out to climb Himalayan peak, Himlung Himal. As he relates in this memoir, what began as a daring expedition quickly became a test of survival.


Anthony Kavanagh Pop Scars Blink, 17th, HB, £22, 9781785123122


This “shocking, tell-all” memoir by the ‘90s popstar formerly known as Kavana details how he tried to keep his sexuality a secret, while spiralling into addiction, hitting rock-bottom – and then discovering that rock- bottom has a basement.


Lauren McQuistin No Lost Causes Club Fourth Estate, 17th, HB, £16.99, 9780008685164


When told her life expectancy could be as low as 25 if she didn’t stop drinking, musician and writer McQuistin did not believe it. Six years later, this debut book provides her view of what living a full life looks like after you get sober, combining memoir with elements of self-help.


Fiona Phillips ( 1) Remember When: My Life With Alzheimer’s


Macmillan, 3rd, HB, £22, 9781035074877


Former GMTV frontwoman Phillips was 60 when she discovered she had early onset dementia, and having cared for her parents, who both suffered from the disease, she had no illusions about what it meant. This chronicles her experience of the condition to date, in the hope that it might help others.


Abby Rosmarin The Year of Dating Myself: How My Solo Tour Healed More Than Just My Heartbreak


Viva Editions, 8th, PB, £17.99, 9781632280992


Pitched at fans of Eat Pray Love, this uplifting memoir charts the author’s year of giving herself the care and attention she once gave to romantic partners, treating herself the way she wished a partner would.


Evie Sage Me, You, Them Michael Joseph, 24th, HB, £20, 9780241730188


“Her story could be your story.” This memoir of female desire, love and identity is told through the experiences of one woman and her open


marriage, exploring polyamory and the fluidity of desire, as well as love, commitment and trust.


Caroline Sanderson Listen With Father: How I Learned to Love Classical Music


Unbound, 3rd, PB, £12.99, 9781789652055


How do we remember those we have loved and lost? This memoir of Sanderson’s late father is told through the music of the composers he cherished. From Mozart and Stravinsky to Clara Schumann and Sibelius, it’s about finding a path to remembrance by listening with great care and attention to the music he listened to and loved, and trying to appreciate it as he did.


Sean Smith Sophie: Saving the Royal Family


Sphere, 17th, HB, £25, 9781408724200


Drawing on access to “inside sources”, this “definitive” biography of Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, by the prolific royal and celebrity biographer reveals the many ways in which she is “saving the Royal Family”.


Gamal Turawa Unravelling Trapeze, 17th, HB, £22, 9781398720572


Turawa was the UK’s first openly gay Black police officer, and his story was made into BAFTA Award- winning documentary, The Black Cop. This is his “bold, shocking and uplifting” story, a coming-of-age memoir about his journey to discovering his true identity as a Black boy brought up by a white family.


Stephen Weiner, Dan Mazur (illus) Will Eisner: A Comics Biography


NBM, 15th, HB, £26.99, 9781681123578


From his immigrant roots and childhood in New York to starting his own comics studio and inventing the term “graphic novel”, this is a biography of the influential comics artist, told through the highly appropriate medium of graphic non-fiction.


Business & economics


Kiran Bhatti, Thomas Roulet Wellbeing Intelligence: Building Better Mental Health at Work: An Economist Edge Book


Economist Books, 17th, PB, £11.99, 9781800819733


Books New Titles: Non-Fiction


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