Donald Rayfield

The Past Imprisoned

David Pryce-Jones

The Prime of Miss Camberg

Muriel Spark: The Biography

By Martin Stannard

Paul Johnson

The Frozen Deep

Charles Dickens: A Life Defined by Writing

By Michael Slater

Freya Johnston

What The Doctor Ordered

Samuel Johnson: A Life

By David Nokes

Raleigh Trevelyan

The Man & the Beard

William Golding: The Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies

By John Carey

Diana Athill

‘An Absolute Duck’

The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham

By Selina Hastings

Jeremy Lewis

‘What is the Point of these Lees-Milnes?’

James Lees-Milne: The Life

By Michael Bloch

Leanda de Lisle

In My Ladies’ Chambers

Elizabeth’s Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen

By Tracy Borman

Stephen Brumwell

A Real Cliffhanger

Death or Victory: The Battle of Quebec and the Birth of Empire

By Dan Snow

David Cesarani

Man of Many Faces

Hindenburg: Power, Myth, and the Rise of the Nazis

By Anna von der Goltz

Archie Brown

Comrades in Arms

The Red Flag: Communism and the Making of the Modern World

By David Priestland

Dominic Sandbrook

When the Lights Went Out

Strange Days Indeed: The Golden Age of Paranoia

By Francis Wheen

James Holland

Giant Among Men

Finest Years: Churchill as Warlord 1940–45

By Max Hastings

Jonathan Derbyshire

The Questioning Life

History Man: The Life of R G Collingwood

By Fred Inglis

Alan Ryan

The Moral Scientist

Keynes: The Return of the Master

By Robert Skidelsky

Patrick O’Connor

The Power of Dance

Different Drummer: The Life of Kenneth MacMillan

By Jann Parry

Frank McLynn

Dollar Sign On His Heart

Joseph P Kennedy’s Hollywood Years

By Cari Beauchamp

Richard Fortey

All Things Considered

An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World

By Frances Larson

Peter Marshall

Behind The Black Legend

Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe

By Stuart Carroll

Frederic Raphael

‘The One Wanted Most’

Judas: A Biography

By Susan Gubar

Sarah Bradford

Shared Passions

John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art

By Frances Spalding

Harry Mount

Set In Stone?

The Secret Lives of Buildings: From the Parthenon to the Vegas Strip in Thirteen Stories

By Edward Hollis

Richard Davenport-Hines

The Floating World

Venice: Pure City

By Peter Ackroyd

Andrew Lycett

Bond Abroad

The Diamond Smugglers

By Ian Fleming

Thrilling Cities

By Ian Fleming

John Jolliffe

Gypsy Living

Along the Enchanted Way: A Romanian Story

By William Blacker

Jonathan Mirsky

Lampa-Lampa

I Am Justice: A Journey Out of Africa

By Paul Kenyon

Keith Lowe

Pilot’s Choice

Lancaster: The Second World War’s Greatest Bomber

By Leo McKinstry

Charles Elliott

Lifting the Flap

Eyewitness: The Rise and Fall of Dorling Kindersley

By Christopher Davis

Frances Wilson

Licence For Roving Hands

Woman as Design: Before Behind Between Above Below

By Stephen Bayley

Nick Foulkes

Sew and Tell

Bespoke: Savile Row Ripped and Smoothed

By Richard Anderson

John Sutherland

Rare Book-Dealer

Outside of a Dog: A Bibliomemoir

By Rick Gekoski

Charlie Campbell

Cards on the Table

For Richer, for Poorer: A Love Affair with Poker

By Victoria Coren

Lindy Burleigh

Everybody Under the Sun

The Daily Telegraph Book of Imperial and Commonwealth Obituaries

By David Twiston Davies (ed)

Lyndall Gordon

On Home Ground

Summertime: Scenes from Provincial Life

By J M Coetzee

Pamela Norris

Survival of the Greenest

The Year of the Flood

By Margaret Atwood

Francis King

The Agony of Alzheimer’s

The Wilderness

By Samantha Harvey

D J Taylor

Playing Devil’s Advocate

The Man in the Wooden Hat

By Jane Gardam

Kate Saunders

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie

The Bradshaw Variations

By Rachel Cusk

Jonathan Barnes

Revolutionary Road

The People’s Train

By Thomas Keneally

Michael Arditti

Man On Wire

Let the Great World Spin

By Colum McCann

David Jays

Household Gods

The Infinities

By John Banville

Tim Martin

Off the Gird

Ordinary Thunderstorms

By William Boyd

Suzi Feay

London Calling

A Week in September

By Sebastian Faulks