Books for all

For the fiction fan

WE might as well start at the top, which means Booker Prize-winner The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood (Bloomsbury, £16.99). Described by our reviewer as "a remarkable book containing both deep humour and dark drama", it is a work of great ingenuity.

Zadie Smith's debut White Teeth (Hamish Hamilton, £12.99) has led her to be described as the latest "next big thing". It tells the stories of three families of different culture in the same borough of London and is an exuberant read.

In the understated Mr Phillips (Faber, £16.99), John Lanchester has written a strangely compelling story about an accountant coping with redundancy by analysing his life in statistics.

Named by a number of critics as their novel of the year, Philip Roth's The Human Stain (Jonathan Cape, £16.99) exposes modern America. The last in a trilogy, it is set against the background of the Clinton revelations.

Crime fans who haven't already read it will love Set in Darkness (Orion, £16.99). Ian Rankin's latest Rebus novel incorporates gory goings-on at the Scottish Parliament.

York author John Baker has switched his attention away from his home city to the place he grew up in, Hull, for his latest book, The Chinese Girl (Victor Gollancz, £9.99). It presents a typically seedy view of the port and reinforces his reputation as one of the most talented crime writers around.

Josephine Cox is now the must-read of the countless Catherine Cookson fans. Her latest, Looking Back (Headline, £16.99), is a saga of tragedy, passion and excitement.

And the mix of Jackie Collins and the mob in her mafia-inspired romp Lethal Seduction (Simon & Schuster, £16.99) is hard to resist.

For the biography buff

THE most-hyped biography of the year was Experience by Martin Amis (Jonathan Cape, £18). Hailed by some as Amis's best book it deals in depth with his relationship with his writer father. Even in death dad hit back as The Letters of Kingsley Amis (HarperCollins, £24.99) proved to be outrageous, acerbic and a bestseller.

More literary jottings, of a distinctly darker flavour, can be found in The Journals of Sylvia Plath (Faber, £30). This provides an intimate portrait of the poet whose life was to be tragically short.

Published this week is The Raymond Chandler Papers (Penguin, £20). This selection of letters and non-fiction promises to shed new light on the great man of crime.

Showbiz buffs will be diverted by Wendy Richard's No S: My Life Story (Simon & Schuster, £16.99), which traces her career from theatre to EastEnders, and reveals her tumultuous personal life.

She has a way to go before matching June Whitfield's career which spans 56 years from Take It From Here to Absolutely Fabulous. ...And June Whitfield (Bantam, £16.99) tells her story.

For the political animal

For the controversy they caused, two volumes stand out. Andrew Rawnsley's Servants Of The People: The Inside Story Of New Labour (Hamish Hamilton, £17.99) and Julia Langdon's Mo Mowlam biography (Little, Brown £16.99) both made the Government shudder, a recommendation on its own.

Michael Heseltine's Life In The Jungle (Hodder & Stoughton, £20) is a very self-serving volume, as you might expect, but not without insight.

A far better read than any of these is Alan Clark's Diaries Volume 2: Into Politics (Orion, £20). These reveal the late MP to be more pompous, class-obsessed and Nazi sympathising than the first volume, but they are written with such verve that you must read on.

For the historian

THE most popular history book at the moment, as our chart shows, is Simon Schama's A History of Britain (BBC Worldwide, £25). It is an ambitious, readable chronicle of the years 3000BC- AD1603.

Many critics hailed The Third Reich: A New History by Michael Burleigh (Macmillan, £25), which looks at the near-religious mania of Nazism, as a tour de force.

York military historian Charles Whiting takes a closer look at one of the Allies' great heroes, Audie Murphy, the US Army's most decorated soldier who became a film star, in his latest work. American Hero: The Life And Death Of Audie Murphy is published by Eskdale, price £17.99.

Something that will fascinate historians, musicians and scientists alike is Beethoven's Hair by Russell Martin (Bloomsbury, £14.99). It follows a lock of the composer's hair from the moment it was snipped from his corpse to 21st century America, where DNA testing shed new light on his life and death.

For the gastronaut

Out of the usual selection of TV tie-ins, I would certainly opt for Nigel Slater's Appetite (Fourth Estate, £25). His food is usually simple, sumptuous and totally fulfilling.

For the comedy lover

Talking of TV tie-ins, there are plenty on the humour shelf to choose from, including the second volume of the Only Fools And Horses' scripts The Bible of Peckham (BBC Worldwide, £15.99). Another top comedy, The Vicar Of Dibley has an accompanying book - see our competition.

Fans of the wonderfully funny cartoon series The Simpsons will enjoy Nancy Cartwright's My Life As A 10-Year-Old Boy (£12.99). As the voice of Bart, she brings an insider's insight into this hit show.

A Local Book For Local People by The League of Gentlemen (Fourth Estate, £12.99) is the most imaginative of the TV books, in the style of the Monty Python classics.

The many who know I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue to be the funniest thing on any medium will be delighted to receive the Radio 4 team's Little Book Of Mornington Crescent (Orion, £6.99).

And The Best Of Matt 2000 (Orion, £4.99), recording the highlights of the Daily Telegraph cartoonist's year, will be a popular stocking-filler.

For the scientist

POPULAR scientific books are more fashionable than ever. Lord Winston is back with another treatise on the human body. Superhuman, co-written by Lori Oliwenstein, is published by BBC Worldwide, price £18.99.

E=mc, the most famous equation of them all, is explored in entertaining detail in David Bodanis's book of the same name (£14.99).

Space exploration is the theme of The Quest For Mars (HarperCollins, £19.99). Writer Laurence Bergreen was granted unrestricted access to NASA scientists and relates their extraordinary efforts to find life on the red planet.

For the culture vulture

ANYONE interested in popular music would love to have The Beatles Anthology (Cassell, £35) on their shelf. It is an essential collection of interviews and pictures. Similarly, The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Collection (Canongate, £12.99), listing the albums that define popular culture, would go down well with musos.

For the animal lover

IN the style of Monty Roberts, and with an introduction by the famous horse whisperer, The Dog Listener by Jan Fennel (HarperCollins, £14.99) sets out to teach you the language of man's best friend. The lives of more exotic animals are the subject of Molly's Zoo by Molly Badham and Nathalie Evans (Simon & Schuster, £15.99). This tells the story of the two women who founded Twycross Zoo, in particular their bond with the chimpanzees.

For the traveller

BILL Murphy's chronicle of the decline of urban England, Home Truths (Mainstream, £7.99), is both hilarious and depressing but always revealing.

The AA always come up with some wonderful guide books, and Exploring Britain (£30) is no exception. Ideas for outdoor types range from deer spotting to land-yachting.

And if you're armchair traveller hasn't read them yet, The Complete Notes by Bill Bryson (Transworld, £9.99) brings together two of this former North Yorkshire resident's best-known books, Notes From A Small Island and Notes From A Big Country.