Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend, by Jamie Doran and Piers Bezony (Bloomsbury, £7.99 in UK)

The Starman is Yuri Gagarin, who became the first spaceman when he made his voyage in a Russian rocket in 1961. This not only projected him into space, it also projected him into history, and among other honours he was made a Hero of the Soviet Union and became an idol for Russian youth. Gagarin and his family had undergone a harrowing time during the war and barely survived the German occupation. However, he proved unable to handle fame and success, had a disorderly private life and became virtually an alcoholic, dying at thirty-four. His death, in the crash of a jet plane, has suspicious elements and the twin authors of this book hint at deliberate elimination by the Soviet authorities, who were finding the former space hero an embarrassment.