Victorian cross-dressers, therapeutic hiking, a smart pop memoir and a graphic view of jealousy – Rachel Cooke's pick of nonfiction this spring
If, like me, you are a fan of the idiosyncratic, sideways-look biography, then 2013 is set to be an excellent year. I am mightily looking forward to *The Love-Charm of Bombs*![ext]()
(Bloomsbury, Jan) by Lara Feigel, which explores the effect of the second world war on Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Henry Green, Rose Macaulay and Hilde Spiel; to *Fanny and Stella*![ext]()
(Faber, Feb) by Neil McKenna, about the lives of two cross-dressing young men in Victorian England; and to *Mad Girl's Love Song*![ext]()
(Simon & Schuster, Jan), in which Andrew Wilson, biographer of Patricia Highsmith and Harold Robbins, looks at Sylvia Plath's febrile and complicated life in the years before she met Ted Hughes. The prize for most tempting title, meanwhile, goes to Lucy Hughes-Hallett for the excellently named *The Pike*![ext]()
(Fourth Estate, Jan), a new biography of Gabriele d'Annunzio (I gather that people likened the Italian poet, seducer and preacher of war to this lurking, carnivorous fish with good reason).
Some good memoirs are also on their way. I can't wait to read *Bedsit Disco Queen*![ext]()
(Virago, Feb) by Tracey Thorn, which sounds as though it might be that rare thing: a clever and funny book about what it's really like to be a pop star (Thorn is best known for being half of Everything But the Girl). *Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked*![ext]()
(Cape, Feb) tells the story of the novelist James Lasdun's ordeal at the hands of an obsessive former student, and I expect it to be as brilliantly written as it is chilling (Lasdun is a wonderful stylist). Richard Benson's *The Valley*![ext]()
(Bloomsbury, May) is part memoir and part social history – at its heart are four generations of his mother's family, all of whom worked in the pits of South Yorkshire – and if it's even half as good as his bestselling The Farm![ext]()
, I'll be very happy indeed. A friend whose taste I trust has recommended *Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found*![ext]()
* *(Atlantic, Jan) by Cheryl Strayed, in which the author, her marriage over and her mother having suddenly died from cancer, decides to walk all 1,100 miles of the west coast of America.
Small, quirky books, so long as they're done well, never go amiss. In *Turned Out Nice Again*![ext]()
(Profile, March), the world's greatest nature writer, Richard Mabey![ext]()
, will burrow into our obsession with the weather, from fog-mirages to moonbows, from storm migraines to SAD; and in *Was She Pretty?* (Particular, May), Canadian artist and graphic novelist Leanne Shapton![ext]()
, a woman who makes the most beautiful books money can buy, will beadily pick over the subject of jealousy and all its destructive effects, using her own line drawings.
Finally, a satisfyingly fat book. *Modernity Britain: Opening the Box 1957-1959*![ext]()
(Bloomsbury, June) is the long-awaited final volume of David Kynaston's exhaustive history of the 50s. From high-rise flats to the Carry On films, here are the never-had-it-so-good years brought vividly to life by a historian whose extraordinary appetite for research seems to know no bounds.
Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.
If, like me, you are a fan of the idiosyncratic, sideways-look biography, then 2013 is set to be an excellent year. I am mightily looking forward to *The Love-Charm of Bombs*
(Bloomsbury, Jan) by Lara Feigel, which explores the effect of the second world war on Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, Henry Green, Rose Macaulay and Hilde Spiel; to *Fanny and Stella* (Faber, Feb) by Neil McKenna, about the lives of two cross-dressing young men in Victorian England; and to *Mad Girl's Love Song* (Simon & Schuster, Jan), in which Andrew Wilson, biographer of Patricia Highsmith and Harold Robbins, looks at Sylvia Plath's febrile and complicated life in the years before she met Ted Hughes. The prize for most tempting title, meanwhile, goes to Lucy Hughes-Hallett for the excellently named *The Pike* (Fourth Estate, Jan), a new biography of Gabriele d'Annunzio (I gather that people likened the Italian poet, seducer and preacher of war to this lurking, carnivorous fish with good reason).Some good memoirs are also on their way. I can't wait to read *Bedsit Disco Queen*
(Virago, Feb) by Tracey Thorn, which sounds as though it might be that rare thing: a clever and funny book about what it's really like to be a pop star (Thorn is best known for being half of Everything But the Girl). *Give Me Everything You Have: On Being Stalked* (Cape, Feb) tells the story of the novelist James Lasdun's ordeal at the hands of an obsessive former student, and I expect it to be as brilliantly written as it is chilling (Lasdun is a wonderful stylist). Richard Benson's *The Valley* (Bloomsbury, May) is part memoir and part social history – at its heart are four generations of his mother's family, all of whom worked in the pits of South Yorkshire – and if it's even half as good as his bestselling The Farm, I'll be very happy indeed. A friend whose taste I trust has recommended *Wild: A Journey from Lost to Found** *(Atlantic, Jan) by Cheryl Strayed, in which the author, her marriage over and her mother having suddenly died from cancer, decides to walk all 1,100 miles of the west coast of America.Small, quirky books, so long as they're done well, never go amiss. In *Turned Out Nice Again*
(Profile, March), the world's greatest nature writer, Richard Mabey, will burrow into our obsession with the weather, from fog-mirages to moonbows, from storm migraines to SAD; and in *Was She Pretty?* (Particular, May), Canadian artist and graphic novelist Leanne Shapton, a woman who makes the most beautiful books money can buy, will beadily pick over the subject of jealousy and all its destructive effects, using her own line drawings.Finally, a satisfyingly fat book. *Modernity Britain: Opening the Box 1957-1959*
(Bloomsbury, June) is the long-awaited final volume of David Kynaston's exhaustive history of the 50s. From high-rise flats to the Carry On films, here are the never-had-it-so-good years brought vividly to life by a historian whose extraordinary appetite for research seems to know no bounds.
Reported by guardian.co.uk 3 days ago.