the times | Saturday January 1 2022 saturday review 13
Constable: A Portrait by James
Hamilton Weidenfeld & Nicolson
The lively art historian James
Hamilton reveals the “complex,
troubled man” in this biography of the
landscape painter John Constable.March
Butler to the World: How Britain
Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax
Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals
by Oliver Bullough Profile
In this polemic, the Moneyland author
shows how Britain became a plaything
for the global super-rich and what we
can do about it.Sins of My Father: A Daughter, a Cult,
a Wild Unravelling by Lily Dunn
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
A daughter attempts to understand her
father, a compulsive liar, sex addict and
problem boozer who dumped his family
to join the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s
cult. They eff you up.Liberalism and Its Discontents
by Francis Fukuyama Profile
Liberalism is “no obsolete doctrine”,
Francis Fukuyama says. The “End of
History” political theorist defends the
liberal virtues of tolerance and respect
for the rule of law from enemies on the
left and right.Not Far from Brideshead: Oxford
Between the Wars by Daisy Dunn
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Daisy Dunn chronicles the Oxford that
we recognise in Evelyn Waugh’s
Brideshead Revisited. TS Eliot, Virginia
Woolf, WH Auden, CS Lewis, Edith
Sitwell: all have walk-on roles.A Life of Picasso Volume IV:
The Minotaur Years:
1933-43 by John
Richardson Jonathan Cape
A book from beyond the grave: the
fourth volume of biography by the art
historian and friend of Picasso. John
Richardson died in 2019, leaving
behind this manuscript.The Greatest Raid: St
Nazaire, 1942: The Heroic
Story of Operation Chariot by Giles
Whittell Viking
A tale of derring-do about “The Greatest
Raid of All”, 80 years on. Five Victoria
Crosses were awarded to the
commandos who undertook Operation
Chariot, a suicide mission on the dry
dock of Nazi-occupied St Nazaire.Mother’s Boy by Howard Jacobson
Jonathan Cape
“The Jewish Jane Austen” reflects on his
Manchester childhood and his journey
to becoming a writer. Howard Jacobson
turns 80 this year.Legacy of Violence: A History of the
British Empire by Caroline Elkins
Bodley Head
A thumping great study by a
heavyweight academic historian, which
shows how violence underpinned and
was central to British imperialism. Let’s
file this under “controversial”.Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Drama
by Bob Odenkirk Hodder Studio
The Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul actor
and comedy writer Bob Odenkirk
reflects on his life in showbusiness.
“Hilarious” and “heartfelt” is how the
publisher describes this memoir. We
live in hope.Burning Questions: Essays and
Occasional Pieces 2004-2021
by Margaret Atwood Chatto & Windus
How can we live on our planet? What is
true? And what is fair? What do zombies
have to do with authoritarianism? In
more than 50 non-fiction pieces from
the past 17 years, the mighty Margaret
Atwood writes about everything from
granola to Trump.April
The Age of the Strongman: How
the Cult of the Leader Threatens
Democracy Around the World
by Gideon Rachman Bodley Head
From Trump and Putin to Erdogan and
Xi, the Financial Times columnist Gideon
Rachman examines the rise of the
strongman. He has seen some of them
up close, so he should bring more than a
dash of insight.The Palace Papers: Inside the House of
Windsor — the Truth and the Turmoil
by Tina Brown Century
The former editor of Tatler and The New
Yorker tells the story of the royal family
since Diana’s death. It should be a higher
class of gossip.May
An Accidental Icon: How I Dodged a
Bullet, Spoke Truth to Power and Lived
to Tell the Tale by Norman Scott
Hodder & Stoughton
Norman Scott, male model and owner
of the poor old mutt Rinka, gives his
account in his own words of that very
English scandal, the fall of Jeremy
Thorpe.The Siege of Loyalty House:
A Civil War Story by Jessie Childs
Bodley Head
The stories of the participants in the
siege of Basing House, a bastion of
royalism during the English Civil War.
Its owner refused all terms of surrender
and for more than two years those inside
were battered, bombarded, starved and
gassed by Roundheads.Good Pop, Bad Pop by Jarvis Cocker
Jonathan Cape
Forget life stories, what you want is
this — a “loft story”. The gangly,
bespectacled popster Jarvis Cocker uses
objects he found in his attic to look back
on his crooning career.June
The Last Days of Roger Federer:
And Other Endings by Geoff Dyer
Canongate
Quirky, clever writer Geoff Dyer takes
the last days of Roger Federer’s tennis
career to examine late style and last
works, from JMW Turner and Jean Rhys
to Bob Dylan and John Coltrane.Chums: How a Tiny Group of Oxford
Tories Took Over Britain by Simon
Kuper Profile
Don’t like Oxford University and Tory
politicos? Well, this is the book for you.
It shows how a group of Oxford grads —
Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, David
Cameron, George Osborne, Dominic
Cummings, Jacob Rees-Mogg — have
taken over the country.PS And one worth mentioning in
September. The Times columnist Ben
Macintyre tells the story of the
“inescapable” Nazi prison camp in
Colditz (Viking).Hebdo terror attack, of yin and yang,
life and death, featuring the author
Emmanuel Carrère. His previous
non-fiction novels Limonov and The
Adversary were top-notch, so this ought
to be at the very least intriguing.NON-FICTION
January
Accidental Gods: On Men Unwittingly
Turned Divine by Anna Della Subin
Granta
A fascinating slice of history that looks
at men who have been worshipped as
gods, from Spanish conquistadors who
awed conquered tribes in South America
to the “cargo cults” of the Pacific who
took their enthusiasm for Prince Philip
a little too far.February
One Party After Another: The
Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage
by Michael Crick Simon & Schuster
It’s hard to believe that Nigel Farage
managed to shape Britain’s politics so
effectively without once being elected to
parliament. The veteran TV reporter
Michael Crick gives his attention to
“arguably one of the most influential
politicians of the 21st century”.The Gift of a Radio: My Childhood
and Other Trainwrecks by Justin Webb
Doubleday
BBC broadcaster Justin Webb
always seems a cheerful chap,
surprisingly so once you’ve
read his memoir of childhood:
his homelife was dysfunctional
— his mother had undiagnosed
psychological problems — and time
away at boarding school was no better.This Mortal Coil: A History
of Death by Andrew Doig Bloomsbury
It’s such a universal experience, you’d
think there would be more histories of
death. The biochemist Andrew Doig sets
out to show how causes of death have
changed over time — and will be
profoundly different in the future.colonisers. For 40 years the Horse clung
on to power, protected by his violent
pack of Defenders and his ambitious
donkey wife, Marvellous. Then one day...
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
Corsair
A tech entrepreneur creates an app,
Own Your Unconscious, that allows you
access to every memory you have ever
had, and to share every memory in
exchange for access to the memories of
others. Well, I can’t see how this might
go wrong... Jennifer “A Visit from the
Goon Squad” Egan plays around with
how technology is changing us.
May
Here Goes Nothing by Steve Toltz
Sceptre
The Aussie-in-LA writer Steve Toltz is
touched with comic genius. His last
novel, Quicksand, a funny work of
existential angst, was about the
unluckiest man to ever live. In this
one, Angus Mooney is murdered by
an admirer of his girlfriend. The
afterlife, he soon discovers, is not all
it’s cracked up to be. Worse, a global
pandemic is making overstretched
Heaven ever so crowded.
The Sanctuary by Andrew Hunter
Murray Hutchinson Heinemann
A dystopian thriller from one of the
QI “Elves”. Britain is a disintegrating,
lawless place. Cara is living on a remote
island, Sanctuary Rock, home of a
millionaire philanthropist, when she
breaks off her engagement with painter
Ben. Ben sets off to win her back, but
a terrible shock awaits.
Bad Relations by Cressida Connolly
Viking
A family drama about three generations.
In the 1850s, on a Crimean battlefield,
William Gale cradles his brother’s body;
in the 1970s William’s bohemian
descendants invite a distant cousin to
stay in their Cornish house — there is a
dramatic fall from grace. Five decades on
there is an awful reckoning.
June
Murder Before Evensong by Richard
Coles Weidenfeld & Nicolson
The heavy-footed vicar of Finedon and
BBC broadcaster Richard Coles makes
his first foray into fiction. Someone is
found dead at the back of a sleepy parish
church, stabbed in the neck with a pair
of secateurs. Canon Daniel Clement,
helped by his dachshunds, investigates in
the first of a cosy comic series.
Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
Jonathan Cape
The publisher promises “a rollercoaster
ride of depravity and perversion”.
Fingers crossed. In this satire of the
fairytale genre, the quirky, subversive
American writer tells the story of
Lapvona, a land of murder, cannibalism
and incest.
Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby
Century
Gill Hornby’s previous novel, Miss
Austen, took us inside the family of the
novelist. This gives us another glimpse of
the great woman and her world through
the story of a young governess looking
after one of the Austen children.
Yo g a by Emmanuel Carrère
Jonathan Cape
A story about yoga and the Charlie
edible prose Margaret
Atwood has collected
her essays. Below: Roger
Federer’s last days as
a tennis player are
explored by Geoff Dyer;
Norman Scott tells his
side of the Jeremy
Thorpe scandal