From Merlin Sheldrake’s quirky book to English Pastoral by James Rebanks and a moving memoir by Alan Davies, the best non-fiction of the year
Entangled Life
Merlin Sheldrake Bodley Head £20
A quirky, thought-provoking, beautifully written and illustrated book about the many ways in which fungi are fascinating. It’s a beguiling blend of science and reportage about a little-understood life form.
Merlin is just the man to convince you that mushrooms really are magic.
The Lives Of Lucian Freud: Fame
William Feaver Bloomsbury £35
Freud was a wonderful painter – a genius – but a frequently awful human being. His endless feuds and fights, his numerous sexual partners, his extraordinary work and his eccentricities are all vividly chronicled in this, the second volume of Feaver’s monumental biography.
Dark, Salt, Clear
Lamorna Ash Bloomsbury £16.99
Wonderful debut from a Londoner with Cornish roots who spent months living in the small coastal town of Newlyn in order to write about its community and the embattled fishing industry.
The guts of the book is an unsentimental account of life on a trawler that feels particularly timely with fishing rights rarely out of the news.
The Fall Of The House Of Byron
Emily Brand John Murray £25
The name of Lord Byron is synonymous with bad behaviour and scandal, but the escapades of his outrageous ancestors make some of the poet’s antics look positively pedestrian.
One was known as ‘the wicked lord’ and another, ‘Foul-Weather Jack’, ate his dog when shipwrecked. Great Aunt Isabella, meanwhile, was quite the amorous adventurer.
Brand knits together all the naughtiest Byrons of the Georgian period into a glittering family tapestry.
Pandora’s Jar
Natalie Haynes Picador £20
Classicist and broadcaster Haynes wittily shows how the stories of the women of Greek myth such as Pandora, Medea and Medusa have been interpreted and misinterpreted over the centuries.
She explains why these ancient archetypes are relevant today and why we can still hear echoes of them in popular culture, from Beyoncé to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Wonder Woman.
The Artful Dickens
John Mullan Bloomsbury £16.99
It’s no accident that we’ve all heard of Mr Micawber, Bill Sikes and Miss Havisham. John Mullan, a professor of English literature, explores the innovative ways in which Charles Dickens grabs and keeps our attention in his novels.
Prisoners Of History
Keith Lowe William Collins £20
Statues have been in the news this year, finding themselves at the bottom of rivers or boarded up for their own safety. Keith Lowe takes us on a fascinating tour of monuments erected in different countries after the Second World War, looking at what they mean to people and how those meanings change over time.
English Pastoral
James Rebanks Allen Lane £20
The follow-up to the Cumbrian shepherd’s hugely successful The Shepherd’s Life is about the way we farm and how we need to change the way we do things. It is a warning and a heartfelt plea for us to look after the land.
Every politician should read it.
Just Ignore Him
Alan Davies Little, Brown £18.99
A brilliantly written, moving memoir about his difficult childhood from the star of QI and Jonathan Creek. Davies was 51 before he felt able to report to police the abuse he had endured from the age of eight to 13.