Non-Fiction
Kate: The Woman Who Was Katharine Hepburn
By William J Mann
Katharine Hepburn won her fourth Oscar at the age of 74, made her last movie at 87 and died, in 2003, at 96. It was not just her longevity and the durability of her talent that made her so distinctive a screen icon. As William Mann points out in his belt-and-braces biography she brought to her roles a very distinctive appeal: she was tomboyish, no classical beauty and carried with her a discernible air of disdain. Mann doesn't stint on either the films, her co-stars (most notably Spencer Tracy, who starred with her in nine movies as well as playing the leading man role in her private life), or her bisexuality.
Faber, £18.99
Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts
By Simon Jenkins
The political history of Britain for the past 30 years, reckons the patrician Simon Jenkins, is all about Margaret Thatcher. The three acts of the title are the years of her premiership, those of her heirs - including Thatcher-lite Tony Blair - and the possibility of a political future no longer in her shadow. It is not the most original of analyses but Jenkins works his way through the stages with admirable lucidity, trying along the way to answer the question: was Thatcherism at heart an economic strategy or an all-encompassing political philosophy? He is particularly strong in showing how Blair has taken the ideal of centralisation (while trumpeting the virtues of freedom) to new extremes. It needs a Thatcher to bring that off.
Allen Lane/Penguin, £20
Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years
"Yap, yap, yap, he goes, all day long" - thus John Cleese on Michael Palin. Talking clearly wasn't enough for 'Nice Python' since this volume alone runs to some 650 pages. It may cover the formation and triumph of the Pythons but that seems familiar territory now. The more interesting entries are the most personal: family life in north London, the acting and writing career that produced the underrated Ripping Yarns. One of the most interesting passages is his account of the court case in America when a TV network, pressurised by the religious right, wanted to remove many of the jokes in the Life of Brian. Bizarrely Palin also chooses to detail everything he ate and drank for a decade.
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20
Strange Blooms: The Curious Lives and Adventures of John Tradescant
By Jennifer Potter
Johns Tradescant - father and son of the same name - have no small claim to fame: they changed these islands forever. The pair were 17th-century botanists who introduced some 800 new plant species to these shores. Without them, innumerable varieties of flowers (from snake's head fritillaries to Dutch tulips) and fruit trees (from pomegranates to Spanish pears) would be missing from our gardens. Jennifer Potter's elegant joint life describes their careers, patrons and travels and shows that they were men driven (as far as America) by curiosity rather than the desire for gain. John senior's collection of oddities, for example, forms the basis of the Ashmolean Museum.
Atlantic, £19.99
Fiction
The Naming of the Dead
By Ian Rankin
Rebus and retirement make unnatural bedfellows. Ian Rankin's stroppy detective has, however, been clearing up Edinburgh's plentiful supply of murders for some 20 books and a police pension beckons. Not that there's any sign of decrepitude in either author or his creation here. Sex offenders are being found dead around the city, a government minister topples from the castle crenellations, and the G8 summit, complete with its retinue of protesters, is in full swing at Gleneagles. It's enough to interest even the most jaded police palate - Rankin even throws in a meeting with George W Bush for good measure.
Orion, £17.99
Asboville
By Danny Rhodes
This debut novel - by an English teacher - tells the story of JB, a loutish 16-year-old who wears, initially at least, his Asbo as a badge of pride. But, as another character points out: "A-S-B-O. You think that makes you special. But it doesn't. It means you were stupid enough to get caught, that's all." So is redemption possible? JB's chance comes when he is sent to live with an uncle in a caravan by the sea, where his job is to paint beach huts. He strikes up a friendship with Sal but his new-found calm is built on shaky ground. Rhodes has come up with a powerful coming-of-age story with a difference.
Maia, £8.99
Picture this
The Old Order and the New
PH Emerson made charming and breathtakingly precise photographs of the Norfolk Broads in the late nineteenth century. In doing so, he galvanised the argument that has bedevilled photography for years - as the title of this book implies. In one corner, the Old Order: photographers who, anxious to aggrandize their 'art', made contrived, painterly images. In the other, staunch naturalists like Emerson, who reeled into the late 1880s demanding: "Photograph people as they really are - do not dress them up." In the age of Photoshop, the argument lives on - as do Emerson's ravishing images, which can also be seen at the Museum of Film, Television and Photography in Bradford.
Prestel, £40
Paperbacks
Constitutional
Helen Simpson gives the short story a good name. She's witty, observant and fond of a plot twist. The events in this collection - having a door replaced, a walk around Hampstead Heath - are never as mundane as they seem.
Vintage, £6.99
Siegfried Sassoon
Max Egremont's biography elegantly delineates the war poet who struggled to recapture his poetic power in peacetime. In fact, as a touchy, half-Jewish married homosexual he struggled with life in general.
Picador, £12.99
Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453
Constantinople had stood as a beacon and a goad to the Ottoman empire for centuries. Roger Crowley, an amateur historian, tells how it finally fell to Mehmet II in 1453. It's a powerful narrative, rich in detail and bravery.
Faber, £8.99
The Year of the Jouncer
The playwright Simon Gray has followed up The Smoking Diaries with another volume of entertaining musings - on everything from Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser dancing to the dubious joys of Viagra and the death of Alan Bates.
Granta, £7.99
Books is edited by Edwin Reardon
Last week’s Big Book: Robert Hughes’s Things I Didn’t Know 
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