The Little Girl Who Fought The Depression: Shirley Temple And 1930s America by John F Kasson (Norton, £9.99)
Kasson's fascinating history isn't so much a biography of the little girl who became Hollywood's biggest star but an analysis of what made her so. Her films reflected the concerns of the Depression as she sought to heal adults' woes, and if adult adoration of her makes us uncomfortable now, it was largely accepted in the 1930s.
Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury, £8.99)
It's possible that Clarke's first and, to date, only novel from 2004 is responsible for regenerating the entire fantasy genre, breathing a fresh literary legitimacy into it with this 1000-plus pages tome. A historical tale set during the Napoleonic wars, it is both expansive and detailed, which the new TV adaptation will hopefully recreate.
The Underground Girls Of Kabul: The Hidden Lives Of Afghan Girls Dressed As Boys by Jenny Nordberg (Virago, £8.99)
In a society where women have few rights, it's perhaps not surprising that some Afghan families should pretend that a daughter is a son. What is most striking about Nordberg's expose is that the families who encourage this do it for the daughter's good, not their own: they see opportunities and benefits that she would not get otherwise.
The Poets' Wives by David Park (Bloomsbury, £8.99)
Of these three poets' wives, real-life Catherine, the wife of Wiilliam Blake, and Nadezdha, the wife of Osip Mandelstam, compete for attention with a fictional third woman, the widow of an unnamed Irish poet. The first depiction probably works best, with the second feeling most like non-fiction and less emotionally convincing than the others.
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