With this intriguing book, Bell completes an autobiographical trilogy. A veteran of 11 wars, and with 30 years on the road as a correspondent, Bell covers what has happened in his life since he stopped being an MP and became a special representative for Unicef, the United Nations’ children’s organisation. His Unicef work allows him to revisit many of the places from which he has reported, and provides some of the book’s most moving passages. He reflects on the nature of war, and its coverage. He is sharply critical of the conflict in Iraq in which, he says, Tony Blair was “towed into the war by America like a dinghy behind a battleship”.
(Phoenix £7.99) SB
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CALIGULA
by Allan Massie
The latest book in Massie’s Imperial sequence of historical novels centres on Caligula, the Roman emperor who made his horse a consul. According to the narrator, Caligula’s apparent madness is merely a reaction to the hell that Rome has become. The suspicion that he might actually be sane makes his casual violence all the more chilling. In their capriciousness and ruthlessness, their obsession with succession and family, and in the jockeying for favour that surrounds them, the Imperial clan resembles nothing so much as that later Italian organisation, the mafia. Massie’s ability to turn historical fact into fiction makes this novel compelling.
(Sceptre £7.99) IC
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BROKEN MUSIC
by Sting
Sting’s story starts on the eve of a concert in 1987 in Rio, when, hoping for a life-changing experience, he participates in a ritual involving ayahuasca, a herbal potion. From there, his memoir goes back to his working-class Newcastle childhood, his brief career as a teacher and early years in the music business, and ends on the brink of success with the Police. In spite of a tendency towards the flowery, it’s an honest account from which he emerges as a likeable and rather ordinary young man. The book may be bought only by his fans, but you don’t need to know a lot about his music to find it enjoyable.
(Pocket Books £6.99) PB
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THURSBITCH
by Alan Garner
Thursbitch is a valley in the Pennines, where, in the mid-18th century, Jack Turner dies alone in the snow, the footprint of a woman’s shoe by his side. His psychic imprint and his cry of anguish resonate down the centuries to reach Sal, a pompous geologist with a degenerative disease (it helps to know this early on). Garner is an original and gifted writer, capable of breathing warmth into the lives of Jack and the rest of his 18th-century characters, but reading his enigmatic novel is something of a challenge. People are “slutched”, beasts get “bangled” and there are “powsels” and “tragwallets” — it’s all very colourful but more than a little confusing.
(Vintage £6.99) PB
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THE TASTE OF DREAMS: An Obsession with Russia and Caviar
by Vanora Bennett
Azart is a Russian word meaning an acute compulsion, a reckless love of danger. Bennett believes it is part of the Russian psyche, but there seems to be an element of it in her own character — which could be what engendered her fascination with all things Russian. She first visited the country as a student in the 1980s, when she tasted real caviar (“edible azart”) for the first time; she then returned as a journalist after the Soviet Union collapsed. Her book conveys vividly the almost surreal world of post-communist corruption, hedonism and downright criminality she encountered, before life settled down at a more bourgeois level. It is entertaining, well informed and imbued with her affection for the country and its people.
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(Headline £7.99) PB
ROUGH TRADE
by Dominique Manotti
Set in the rag-trade area of Paris, this fast-moving and atmospheric crime novel describes what happens when a 14-year-old Thai prostitute is found dead in one of the local workshops. The police investigation uncovers drug dealing, a scam involving illegal immigrants, and a sex club with some influential members. But be warned: this isn’t Maigret’s Paris — and Manotti’s police routinely assault and even rape suspects and witnesses. This vivid portrait, with a clever twist, shows a side of Paris that a tourist will rarely see.
(Arcadia £7.99) SB