BOOKS


Editor’s Choice


Previews New Titles: Non-fiction


Editor’s Choice


Editor’s Choice


Quiz & puzzle books


David Hepworth The Rock & Roll A Level Bantam Press, 17th, HB, £12.99, 9781787631403


“The book you hold in your hand is dedicated to the proposition that the things pop music touches on are every bit as interesting as the pop music itself.” The writer and music jour- nalist who thinks Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” is the best record ever made (“it’s a matter of fact”) with a music quiz book where the answers are even more interesting than the ques- tions. What I like about it is that general knowledge is as useful when answering as musical geekery, making it the ideal gift for anyone who “likes pop music because it tells them more or less all they need to know about real life”.


Natural history & pets


Richard Mabey Turning the Boat for Home... Chatto, 3rd, HB, £18.99, 9780701181086


For over five decades, Mabey has been a pioneering voice in nature writing, from rediscovering foraging in his hugely influential Food for Free in the 1970s, to his encyclopedic Flora Britannica, which explored how deeply plants are embedded in popular culture. This essential collection of his bracing, wise writings acts as a memoir of sorts, charting how his ideas about the natural world have evolved. The title refers to Mabey’s current viewpoint: “the slow-moving carapace” of a boat on the Norfolk Broads from which he ponders the migration of geese and the movements of whirligig beetles.


Language, literature & anthologies Joni Mitchell


Morning Glory on the Vine Canongate, 22nd, HB, £27, 9781786898586


As a long-time Joni Mitchell devotee (to the extent of standing up and singing “Clouds” at my 50th birthday party), this is at the top of my Christmas list. Originally handcrafted in 1971 as a gift for friends, and produced in Los Angeles in a limited edition of 100 signed and numbered copies, it’s a compendium of Mitchell’s best-loved poems, illustrations, watercolours and hand-lettered song lyrics, now made publicly available for the first time and published simultane- ously across the world, in celebration of her 75th birthday—which was last year, but who’s counting?


Editor’s Choice


Editor’s Choice


Editor’s Choice


Biography & memoirs Edward Parnell


Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country William Collins, 31st, HB, £16.99, 9780008271954


In his youth, Parnell lost both his parents to cancer within nine months. Then in 2014, as he published his first novel, his brother died of the same illness. In this enthralling explora- tion of grief and loss, he achieves a spine- tingling blend of biography, horror, memoir, travel and nature writing. Travelling across the haunted and uncanny places of the British Isles, from Lincolnshire to Scotland to Cornwall, he discovers how such landscapes inspired writers including M R James, Lucy Boston and Alan Garner. And, in writ- ing about them, Parnell exorcises some ghosts of his own.


30 12th July 2019 Biography & memoirs


Megan Phelps-Roper Unfollow: A Journey From Hatred to Hope Riverrun, 8th, HB, £14.99, 9781787478008


Remarkable memoir about the metamorphic journey of a young woman raised within the community of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, known for its use of inflammatory hate speech, especially against LGBT+ people, Jews, other Christians, the military and countless others. A moment of revelation led to Phelps- Roper leaving the church, and she has since become an advocate for equality, diversity and tolerance. Louis Theroux (who visited Westboro for “The Most Hated Family in America”), Nick Hornby and Jon Ronson are among the book’s admirers.


Biography & memoirs


Denise Riley Time Lived, Without Its Flow Picador, HB, £9.99, 9781529017106


This unflinching but beautifully consol- ing short memoir of maternal loss by the acclaimed poet considers the ways in which our sense of time alters when we lose someone. The first half comprises diary-like entries written across the three years after the sudden death of her son Jake, followed by a more philosophical postscript in which Riley reads on the work of fellow poets to help her find words for her experience. The writing is mesmerising, and there’s a beautiful introduction by Max Porter. Riley’s Selected Poems is also out this month (1529017120).


Photography: Sophie Davidson


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