Sons & Mothers, edited by Matthew and Victoria Glendinning (Virago, £7.99 in UK)

A collection of essays by mothers about their sons and vice versa could easily become a crashing bore, but this one - thanks, presumably, to some intelligent editing by the mother-and-son Glendinning team - offers a satisfyingly wide range of variations on the theme. Some of the pieces, like Jon Snow's affectionate tracing of his mother's progress from premature baldness to senile dementia, are of interest because of the identity of the author; others, like Kate Saunders's passionate hymn of praise to her adorable three-year-old (just wait till he hits 14, this reader mutters darkly) capture certain moments of motherhood with an almost surreal accuracy.