Our Choice
Explorers of the Nile by Tim Jeal
Faber £10.99/ebook £10.99, ST Bookshop price £9.89
We may think we know the stories of Burton, Speke, Livingstone, Stanley and their quest for the sources of the Nile, but Jeal’s masterly book sheds new light on their characters and actions. Crucially, it’s also a thoroughly ripping yarn.
Jeal emphasises the courage of his explorers in the face of relentless injury, fever and disease. On Henry Morton Stanley’s famous 1871 expedition to “find” the missionary David Livingstone, both Stanley’s white companions died. Livingstone himself succumbed to fever, and had a clot the size of a fist in his lower intestine — the result of being carried through endless, leech-ridden swamps.
What made such suffering bearable was the glory of answering a geographical problem. It was left to Stanley to settle the question definitively, which he did between 1874 and 1877 in the most outrageously comprehensive style. Despite losing his three companions to smallpox, drowning and malaria, and despite tropical storms, attacks from hostile tribes and incessant rains, he traced the Tanganyika outflow for more than 1,300 miles, not to the Nile but to the Congo — and on to the Atlantic. Jeal knows how to tell a fabulous story, and he lets old-fashioned epic adventure sit at the heart of his fine book. James McConnachie
The 9/11 Wars by Jason Burke
Penguin £12.99/ebook £12.99, ST Bookshop price £11.69
In this “account of the violent conflicts that have erupted since September 11, 2001”, Burke offers a series of potent pen-pictures of the war on the front line, from Bagram to the Paris banlieues. It is journalism of a high order. Like all good reporters, Burke is something of a scholar, drawing meticulously on interview notes years old, and on extensive background reading. He excels, too, in describing the experiences of ordinary Muslims; such insights make this book essential for understanding the past decade. Sherard Cowper-Coles
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The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq
Vintage £7.99/ebook £7.99, ST Bookshop price £7.59
Houellebecq’s fifth novel concerns a young French artist, Jed Martin. As a way of gaining publicity for his new exhibition, Jed’s gallerist has the idea of asking writer Michel Houellebecq to pen the introduction to the catalogue. Houellebecq then ups the ante by having himself brutally murdered halfway through his novel. As ever with him, there are fascinating, often very funny observations of the banality of contemporary life. With his bleak depictions of the 21st century, he is French literature’s JG Ballard. There can be no higher praise. William Boyd
A Walk-on Part: Diaries 1994-1999 by Chris Mullin
Profile £9.99/ebook £9.99, ST Bookshop price £9.49
The first volume of Mullin’s diaries, charting his career as a junior minister under Tony Blair, made him more famous than his political achievements ever had. Now he has brought out the prequel, starting with John Smith’s death in May 1994, and running up to the moment five years later when Mullin is finally given the government post he craves. It starts slowly, but comes alive in 1997 — for political obsessives, Mullin’s insights are still unrivalled. Jenni Russell
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The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad
Penguin £8.99/ebook £5.49, ST Bookshop price £8.54
The remarkable stories in this book by Ahmad, a retired Pakistani civil servant, are set in the remote tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan where he spent most of his career. What emerges is a starkly compassionate portrait of the conditions of life in an inhospitable landscape, where emotions such as love somehow survive intact. Uncovering a largely neglected world, their cumulative effect is deeply moving. Edmund Gordon
The Impossible Life of Mary Benton by Rodney Bolt
Atlantic £8.99/ebook £6.99, ST Bookshop price £8.54
Wife to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mary Benton was described by Gladstone as “the cleverest woman in Europe”. But as Bolt’s entertaining biography makes plain, Mary’s outward respectability concealed a surprising truth: this paragon of Victorian womanhood spent most of her married life having passionate relationships with women. This fascinating book brilliantly reveals just how permissive Victorian society actually was. Daisy Goodwin