Claire Tomalin: A Life of My Own review - the biographer on herself

★★★★★ CLAIRE TOMALIN: A LIFE OF MY OWN A life in literature, literature in life - a story of blessings as well as sadness

A life in literature, literature in life - a story of blessings as well as sadness

The title says it all, or at least quite a lot. Luminously intelligent, an exceptionally hard worker, bilingual in French, a gifted biographer, Claire Tomalin has been at the heart of the literati glitterati all her working life.

Extract: Peter Brook - Tip of the Tongue: Reflections on Language and Meaning

EXTRACT: PETER BROOK - TIP OF THE TONGUE The wisdom of a great theatre-maker: on Shakespeare and the 'empty space', and thinking between English and French

The wisdom of a great theatre-maker: on Shakespeare and the 'empty space', and thinking between English and French

A long time ago when I was very young, a voice hidden deep within me whispered, "Don’t take anything for granted. Go and see for yourself." This little nagging murmur has led me to so many journeys, so many explorations, trying to live together multiple lives, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Always the need has been to stay in the concrete, the practical, the everyday, so as to find hints of the invisible through the visible.

Sigrid Rausing: Mayhem review - you want it darker?

★★★★ SIGRID RAUSING: MAYHEM A good story-teller, but prone to take the reader on some wild rides

A good story-teller, but prone to take the reader on some wild rides

There is fictional Nordic noir. And then there is this, the real thing. Subject matter really couldn’t be much darker than that of Mayhem: A Memoir in which publisher, philanthropist and heiress Sigrid Rausing gives her perspective on her younger brother Hans Kristian’s long-term drug addiction.

Chris Patten: First Confession - A Sort of Memoir review - remembrances of government and power

★★★ CHRIS PATTEN: FIRST CONFESSION Reflections of a Tory grandee

Reflections of a Tory grandee

It’s 25 years since Chris Patten lost his seat as Conservative MP for Bath. The 1992 election was called by an embattled prime minister, bruised by the Maastricht Treaty (remember “the bastards”?). Neil Kinnock had been expected to win, Labour ahead in the polls until the last. Party chairman Patten orchestrated the campaign so perhaps the exigencies of the role left little time to attend to his own constituency.

Elif Batuman: The Idiot review - memories of student life and travels meander

★★★ ELIF BATUMAN: THE IDIOT First novel from author of 'The Possessed' centres on university experience

Dostoevsky follow-up: first novel from author of 'The Possessed' centres on university experience

University, anyone? Student days? If you were ever an undergraduate, who does not remember the simultaneous sense of dislocation and excitement, the feeling of the familiar combined with a heady awareness that we might fall off a cliff, metaphorically speaking, at any moment?

Evgeny Kissin: Memoirs and Reflections review - Russian education, European conviction, Jewish heritage

EVGENY KISSIN: MEMOIRS AND REFLECTIONS The one-time prodigy is now the wisest and most generous of great pianists

The one-time prodigy is now the wisest and most generous of great pianists

"Generally speaking," writes Evgeny Kissin in one of the many generous tributes to those whose artistry he most admires, "the mastery of [Carlo Maria] Giulini is exactly what is dearest of all to me in art: simplicity, depth and spirituality". The same is true of the personality revealed in this slim but by no means undernourishing volume from one of our time's most fascinating pianists.

Bella Bathurst: Sound, review - an illuminating book on deafness

BELLA BATHURST: SOUND A remarkable journey into the world of deafness

A remarkable journey into the world of Deaf bears comparison with Oliver Sacks

Shelve with Oliver Sacks. In Sound: Stories of Hearing Lost and Found Bella Bathurst has written a fascinating and illuminating book on deafness. Of what it’s like to lose your hearing – and in her case regain it after a 12 long years. On the world of the deaf and the deafened. On loss – not just of the sense of hearing but of much to which it is allied, such as spacial awareness, and which we take for granted. On isolation, the feeling of being “stupid”, and of being consigned to the invisible world of the old.

Sunday Book: Henry Marsh - Admissions: A Life in Brain Surgery

★★★★★ SUNDAY BOOK: HENRY MARSH – ADMISSIONS: A LIFE IN BRAIN SURGERY Highly personal, hugely relevant second memoir from the 'Do No Harm' neurosurgeon

Highly personal, hugely relevant second memoir from the 'Do No Harm' neurosurgeon

Is it true that the blob of jelly resembling convoluted grey matter that we carry around in our skulls is really what we are? And how we are, and why? This is the profound question that is obliquely omnipresent in Henry Marsh’s second book on his life as a neurosurgeon as he describes his encounters with this physical part of us that seems to be, well, us. As he pithily puts it in his last pages, he does not believe in an afterlife: “I am a neurosurgeon.

Sunday Book: Nicholas Hytner - Balancing Acts

 NICK HYTNER – BALANCING ACTS The National Theatre's former boss is wonderfully insightful about everything but himself

The National Theatre's former boss is wonderfully insightful about everything but himself

After the first preview of Mike Leigh’s play Two Thousand Years at the National Theatre, a young Guardian reporter accosted an audience member for his view of the play. The audience member gave his name as Nigel Shapps, his age as 42, his background as Jewish, and his opinion that it was one of the most brilliant things he’d ever seen. Much to Leigh’s delight, he was quoted in the paper the next day.

Sunday Book: Min Kym - Gone: A Girl, a Violin, a Life Unstrung

★★★★ BOOK: MIN KYM – GONE: A GIRL, A VIOLIN, A LIFE UNSTRUNG A tragic musical love affair

A tragic musical love affair

“What’s it like to be a child prodigy?” is a question asked by violinist Min Kym several times in the course of this fascinating, agonising memoir. There’s no simple answer, but this description rings true: “There’s that peculiar sensation of feeling completely normal within yourself, but acutely aware that you are different.”