PREVIEWER’S PERSPECTIVE SEASON HIGHLIGHTS Previewer’s perspective


Viewpoints on our ever-turbulent world feature strongly this spring


With the arrival of spring comes a slew of AI-defying, all-human non-fiction titles that take in the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Ukraine’s ongoing conflict with Russia, and much more


Caroline Sanderson Associate editor


P


ublishing loves an anniversary to muster around and there is a major one this spring with the 80th anniversary of the various denouements that


marked the end of the Second World War. Victory in Europe is commemorated by several titles, perhaps the most eye-catching of which is Victory ’45 by James Holland and Al Murray. And marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz in early 1945 is Anne Sebba’s fascinating The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz. If only devastating conflict were a thing of the past… but alas, that is very far from the case. A striking thread running through the first half of 2025 connects books that bear witness to wars still raging. From Looking at Women, Looking at War by Ukrainian novelist, poet and activist Victoria Amelina (killed in a Russian missile atack in June 2023) to The Eyes of Gaza by Plestia Alaqad, they show us writers at their most necessary. In his devastating book, One Day, We Will All Have Been Against This, Omar El Akkad asks of himself and his fellow writers: “What is this work we do? What are we good for?”


Omar El Akkad


asks of himself and his fellow


writers: ‘What is this work we do? What are we good for?’


OMAR EL AKKAD


have to wait a few years for the next work by our favourite authors to land, that is all part of what makes our business so special and exciting.


Besides bearing witness, here is something else writers and their publishers are good for: producing meticulously researched, deeply considered, inspiringly writen, carefully edited non-fiction books. As AI marches on, and disruptive new kids on the publishing block promise books writen and spat out to market in double-quick time, it has never been more apposite to remind ourselves that things speedily produced—fashion, food and, especially, books—oſten don’t do us any good at all. While we might


With new non-fiction on the way this spring from an array of marvellous, tried-and-tested, all-human writers that includes Robert Macfarlane, Barbara Demick, Lucy Easthope, Jason Allen-Paisant, Philippe Sands, Rob Cowen, Philip Hoare, Cordelia Fine, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Richard Holmes, it is time to celebrate slow publishing with some brisk new season selling.


Have your say


You can find Caroline on Blue Sky and Instagram (@carosanderson.bsky.social and @carosandersonwriter), or make contact via email (caroline.sanderson@thebookseller.com)


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The Bookseller Buyer’s Guide Non-Fiction


© Kateshia Pendergrass


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