TEN NOT TO MISS Ten titles not to miss Highlights of the Season


lyrical and beautifully written memoir is also a story of hope, of the beauty of the natural world, and of fierce resilience.


a prolific writer of non-fiction as well as of poetry. In this landmark publication, he selects some of his most powerful prose —including book and record reviews, lectures, obituaries and speeches – for the first time. Written over many decades, it is a body of work that draws creatively and critically on his Jamaican roots to explore the politics of race that continue to inform the Black British experience.


Laura Cumming Thunderclap Chatto & Windus, 1 June, hb, £25, 9781784744526


Biography & Memoirs


“On the morning of 12 October 1654, in the Dutch city of


Delft, a sudden explosion was followed by a thunderclap that could be heard more than 70 miles away.” In her first book since the most marvellous On Chapel Sands, Cumming reveals her passion for the art of the Dutch Golden Age, and also writes of her relationship with her father, the Scottish artist James Cumming, who taught her about colour, light and the rewards of looking deeply. I cannot wait to get my hands on this kaleidoscopic-sounding memoir by a writer I revere.


Jo Cheetham Killjoy Picador, 2 March, hb, £16.99, 9781509885619


Biography & Memoirs


I adored and admired this heroic and


unexpectedly humorous account of how Cheetham, then a PhD student who had never considered herself political or even assertive, was moved to join the No More Page 3 campaign. She bonded with a group of like-minded women, and soon found herself at the head of protests around the country, appearing on TV, dancing on a West End Stage and more. Hers is a fabulously uplifting story of ordinary people doing extraordinary things, which shows that we all have the power to stand up for what we believe in, and bring about change.


Jonathan Kennedy Pathogenesis Torva, 13 April, hb, £25, 9781911709053


Sociology “Humans did not make history—we


played host.” This revelatory and frankly humbling book by a global health expert, looks down a microscope to explores the intimacy of our relationship with infectious diseases, showing how, from the Black Death to the devastating outbreak of yellow fever that led to Scotland entering the union with England in 1707, they have been responsible for some of the most seismic events of the past 50,000 years. Kennedy also reveals how the crisis of a pandemic can offer vital opportunities for change, and that viruses are not always our enemies.


Anna Funder Wifedom Viking, 13 July, hb, £20, 9780241482728


Biography & Memoirs


As she re-reads the work of her hero, George


Natasha Carthew Undercurrent Coronet, 13 April, hb, £16.99, 9781399706476


Current affairs


“The village of my childhood is the keeper of secrets: not


only does it hold the key to my past, but to the lives of all those who grew up in rural poverty.” Describing her own hard road to finding her feet as a writer and activist, Carthew’s powerful and trenchant exploration of rural poverty foregrounds the often- devastating impact of living without the means or support to build a better future. But this


Linton Kwesi Johnson Time Come Picador, 13 April, hb, £20, 9781035006328


Biography & Memoirs


One of the most renowned poets of modern


times, Kwesi Johnson—also a respected and influential political and cultural activist—is


Orwell, the author of the extraordinary, award-winning Stasiland ponders on how he created his writing self as she tries to remember her own. But it is when she uncovers his forgotten wife, that the real revelation comes. Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s literary brilliance shaped Orwell’s work and her practical nous saved his life. But why—and how—was she written out of the story? As she investigates, Funder finds herself questioning what it takes to be a writer—and what it is to be a wife.


Gurdeep Loyal Mother Tongue Fourth Estate, 2 March, hb, £26, 9780008464547


Food & Drink Winner of the Jane Grigson


Trust Award (made to a first- time writer on food and drink), this glorious début cookbook explores how Loyal, through his passion for food and cooking, came to embrace the “delicious contradictions” of his plural British Indian identity. He explores his culinary upbringing in more than 100 delectable recipes which combine “authentic” home-cooked Punjabi food with “inauthentic” curry house dishes from the Western foodie canon. The result is a palate-pleasuring collection of second-generation food that wonderfully encapsulates the colourful combined cultures of our nation.


Tania Branigan Red Memory Guardian Faber Publishing, 2 February, hb, £20, 9781783352647


General History More than half a century on,


the scar of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) still runs right through Chinese society. During her seven years as the Guardian’s China correspondent, Branigan came to realise how important a knowledge of this “savage, unrelenting and extraordinarily destructive” decade is, if we are to properly understand China today. With great truth-seeking tenacity, and drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews and written testimonies, Branigan succeeds in bringing to the fore many rarely heard stories of those who lived through this terrible period in her magnificent début book which invites comparisons with the work of Barbara Demick and Anna Funder.


Sadiq Khan Breathe Hutchinson Heinemann, 4 May, hb, £16.99, 9781529152784


Biography & Memoirs


“Asthma made me think again. This wasn’t just a


climate crisis, it was a health crisis.” For many years, London Mayor Khan wasn’t fully aware of the dangers posed by air pollution, nor by its connection with climate change. Then aged 43, he was diagnosed with asthma, brought on by decades of breathing polluted London air. This call to action identifies seven ways environmental action fails, and offers practical tools to help us get it back on track. In the process he aims to show that we can all win the


February 2023–July 2023 09


argument on climate, and create a world where we can breathe easily again.


Keggie Carew Beastly Canongate Books, 6 April, hb, £20, 9781786896902


Natural History & Pets


In a book of glorious scope and imagination, the Costa-winning author


of Dadland explores the 40,000 year story of the relationship between animals and us humans, and in the process invites us to reconnect with their wild world to discover how we might mitigate our impact on the environment. Our relationship with animals has always been paradoxical, she shows, but the greatest paradox of all may be the fact that diversity can heal ecosystems. And so it follows that animals, if we would only give them the chance, can heal us.


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