A guide to the latest releases.
George Stubbs and the Wide Creation by Robin Blake Pimlico, £14.99
This engaging narrative is meticulous, exhaustively detailed, colourful and honourable. Although attempting to track down the mystery mother of the pioneering artist's four children, Blake the detective never overpowers Blake the gentleman art critic and social historian. Relatively little is known about Stubbs. He emerges as singular by virtue of his artistic genius which was rooted in anatomical investigation and a near scientific methodology applied to the painting of horses. This study triumphs as informed social history, exploring the political, artistic and cultural nuances that shaped Stubbs's Georgian world, and, ultimately, his life. An impressively readable, good-natured and intelligent work. Eileen Battersby
Anna of all the Russias: The Life of Anna Akhmatova by Elaine Feinstein Phoenix, £9.99
"He spoke of Summer, and said the idea/ of a woman as a poet was ridiculous" - Anna Akhmatova, one of Russia's greatest poets, speaks in a poetic voice loaded with irony. The "ridiculous" in this statement, however, refers not to the "woman as a poet", but rather the "he" that speaks it, the subject of the verse itself. The powerful literary legacy left by Akhmatova testifies to this, as her work compounds the creative possibilities of a woman poet whose voice becomes a source of comfort to a nation ravaged by violent dictatorship. Elaine Feinstein's excellent biography brings the reader effortlessly into Akhmatova's world, and we bear witness to the very worst of Stalin's regime through her personal sufferings. Feinstein gives space and time to the poetry also, with an extensive selection of the extraordinary work for which Akhmatova is so well-renowned. Claire Bracken
Paris: Biography of a City by Colin Jones Penguin, £10.99
The recent protests in Paris over youth job contracts were just following a long tradition of social and political unrest in the city, as can be seen from Colin Jones's award-winning tour through the history of the French capital. Jones's vibrant and intimately-
detailed text traces the political, cultural and infrastructural development of the city in roughly chronological fashion. The author takes us from Paris's origins as a Roman capital right through to the election of Chirac, before ending with his thoughts on the future of the city. The narrative is interspersed with sidebars that home in on selected figures, places and phenomena from the city's 2,000-year heritage. Jones consistently draws our attention to the emergence of ideas, movements and customs we associate with the City of Light, weaving them into the history of both France and the wider world, upon which Paris had a profound and lasting influence. Declan Cashin
Moses, Citizen & Me Delia by Jarrett-Macauley Granta, £7.99
One of the most shocking elements of the wars and civil unrest in Africa is the use of child soldiers. Delia Jarrett-Macauley's moving - at times devastating - novel presents a fictional account of a young boy snared into traumatic violence and destruction. London resident Julia flies to Sierra Leone to aid her uncle Moses as he tries to come to terms with what his grandson Citizen (interestingly symbolic name) has perpetrated as a member of a battalion of young soldiers. Forced into service via unspeakable violence and terror, they in turn commit incomprehensible acts of brutality, one of which has splintered the foundations of Moses and Citizen's family. In descriptive, sensual language, the novel charts an odyssey of destruction and horror, but also of eventual redemption, and illustrates what can be accomplished by people who have the necessary courage, love and hope. Christine Madden
Don't Know A Good Thing by Lynne Truss, Helen Simpson, et al. Ed. Kate Pullinger Bloomsbury, £7.99
Don't Know A Good Thing is an impressive and masterfully edited collection of short stories. The project has been lent gravitas by the inclusion of established authors like Marina Warner and Lynne Truss, but the real excitement for the reader lies in the discovery of stories by 12 previously unpublished writers. All shortlisted for the Asham Award, they deserve every ounce of recognition that this excellent publication brings them. The award, named for the house in which Virginia Woolf completed her first novel, is Britain's only prize for short stories by women. Among those shortlisted in 2005 are a postgraduate student, several late vocations to writing, the winner of the inaugural Orange short story prize and an anthropologist. Like a top- notch issue of Granta, this collection is imbued with the edgy zeal and conviction that makes new writers worth reading. Nora Mahony
The Picture She Took by Fiona Shaw Virago, £7.99
Another war novel - but this work by Fiona Shaw (not the actor), unlike many, presents insights of great profundity and has a strong relevance for Irish readers. When Daniel, a crippled war veteran, sees a photograph taken in a hospital during the first World War, he travels to visit Jude, the nurse and amateur photographer who took it. In the throes of an emotional breakdown, he runs away to Cork , where he served as a Black and Tan officer. Jude follows him, and they unearth a knotted secret embedded in the history of the violence and terror of the Troubles. Shaw's skill as a storyteller, her excellent research and poetic voice make this an exceptional work. As one character notes: "There are things that will not be laid to rest . . . in this generation, but if they can be lived with and not died for, then perhaps we have done something". Christine Madden