Remainders of the Day
Shaun Bythell
Profile, £16.99, pp377
The latest instalment of the diaries of misanthropic but witty Wigtown bookseller Shaun Bythell does not deviate too far from the template established by earlier entries. Bythell’s bookshop still struggles to remain profitable, his customers bewilder him with their extraordinarily strange requests and behaviour while the shop’s staff may be the most eccentric of all. Yet what comes through strongly is his obvious love of books and affection for those who spend their lives reading them, buying them – or giving him material for his next volume.
A Street Shaken By Light
James Buchan
Mountain Leopard Press, £16.99, pp271
Writers who create a six-book historical series revolving around a fictionalised historical character can seldom be accused of lacking ambition. Judging by this thrilling first instalment in the William Neilson chronicles, Buchan is equal to such a commitment, as he follows a young adventurer who swashbuckles, romances and intrigues his way through 18th-century Paris, India and Scotland. Buchan has not only created a thoroughly engaging protagonist, but has complete control over the milieu that he depicts. The next instalment is eagerly awaited.
The Prime Ministers We Never Had
Steve Richards
Atlantic, £9.99, 314pp (paperback)
What would Britain be like today if we’d had Michael Portillo, Barbara Castle or Jeremy Corbyn as our prime ministers? Over the course of political journalist Steve Richards’s fascinating and, at times, revelatory series of potted biographies of some of the most prominent politicians who never made it to No 10, he considers afresh the leaders who could have been transformative – and those who may just have been disastrous. Whatever your political stance, Richards’s thorough and admirably even-handed account will make you think again about the might-have-beens of contemporary politics.
• To order Remainders of the Day, A Street Shaken By Light or The Prime Ministers We Never Had go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
