Z:
A Novel Of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler (Two Roads, £7.99)
Surprisingly not widely reviewed in the UK when it first came out, Fowler's convincing interpretation of Zelda Fitzgerald and her marriage to the darling of the Jazz Era, F Scott Fitzgerald, is a hypnotic read. Better with the early days of her life than the later years spent in mental institutions, it prefers headiness to pain.
Kate: The Future Queen by Katie Nicholl (Weinstein Books, £12.99)
The Daily Mail's royal correspondent, Katie Nicholl, leaves no mundane stone unturned (we even hear from those in the same village as Kate what the weather was like on the morning she was born) as she focuses on the supposed "normality" of Kate Middleton's upbringing, devoid of grandeur and palaces. Soap opera style from the start.
The Graves Are Walking: The History Of The Great Irish Famine by John Kelly (Faber, £9.99)
More than one million people died during the Irish famine, when blighted potato crops hit the land at the worst economic time possible. Kelly tells the dreadful story from the viewpoints of both imperial power and those suffering on the land, showing fears of the blight spreading through Europe (The Herald warned of the same for Scotland in 1846).
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier (HarperCollins, £7.99)
Chevalier's historical romance bears many traits of the 19th-century novel; a lone young woman setting out into hostile terrain; a cold but respectable guardian; a reckless, dangerous hero. Honor Bright is a Quaker who sets out with her sister Grace for the New World, with a quilt crafted for Grace's wedding. Predictable, perhaps, but engaging enough.
Lesley McDowell
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