NON-FICTION

THE DURRELLS OF CORFU by Michael Haag

(Profile £8.99) A BRIEF but rip- roaring biography of the multi-talented Durrell family. Lawrence (Larry) eventually wrote unreadable novels, Gerald (Gerry) wrote My Family And Other Animals and founded a zoo, and the whole lot provided stories galore for ITV’s recent series The Durrells.

Michael Haag picks up on the essentially frivolous and happy tone of their adventures, first in India, then in england and finally — and most memorably — in Corfu. His problem is that the Durrells were ‘ masters of fabrication’. What was true and what was made up?

Haag delves beneath the surface as much as he can, and reveals that the Durrells’ lives weren’t as uniformly jolly as they often insisted they were. His book sheds new light on old stories and uncovers fascinating tales, which may or may not be true.

There are also heaps of pictures, and lots from Gerald’s unpublished memoirs: ‘ My family has always shown symptoms of flamboyant idiocy as far back as I can remember, so Corfu was the ideal greenhouse to bring this all to fruition.’

THE GREEDY QUEEN by Annie Gray (Profile £16.99)

THERE have been more than 500 books published about Queen Victoria, so it can’t be easy coming up with a new variation. Hats off to Annie Gray, then, who has written a 400-page book on what Victoria liked to eat.

As a child, she lived on milk and bread as it was thought unbecoming for a future queen to eat anything too interesting.

When she attained the throne aged 18, she made up for lost time. At her first official dinner, there was a choice of soups (chicken and rice or vegetable), fish (red trout, dory, whitings, soles), meat (beef steaks, braised capon, roast lamb, baby chickens with tongue) and entrees (lamb cutlets, fillets of sole, four chicken dishes, sweetbreads).

Then there were roast quails, German sausage and souffle omelette. That took you about halfway through the meal. No wonder she put on weight. If that list of dishes makes your mouth water, this is the book for you.

THE THINGS YOU CAN SEE ONLY WHEN YOU SLOW DOWN by Haemin Sunim (Penguin £9.99)

ONE of the most crowded sections of your local bookshop is the New-Age-cum- Self- Help section, wherein men with beards tell you how to live your life with lots of pithy sayings.

My general habit with such books has been to throw them across a room and stamp on them until they are dead. But this one is a rare and blessed exception.

Haemin Sunim is a South Korean monk whose odd little sayings appeared on social media a few years ago and gained fans in their millions.

This book collects his wisdoms, and although one or two are a little too cutesy for my taste, there’s a lot of common sense within the pages. You read a few, find one that applies to you and then stare out of the window for half an hour, thinking about it.

‘The world moves fast,’ says Sunim, ‘but that doesn’t mean we have to.’ I slowed up almost to the point of catatonia while thumbing through these pages. Apparently it has sold three million copies, and I can’t say I’m entirely surprised.

DADLAND by Keggie Carew (Vintage £8.99)

YOU know the saying that everyone has a book in them? Well, unless your book is as good as this, I’d give up right now.

Keggie Carew, who is 60ish, has spent most of her life in contemporary art, but the decline of her impossibly charismatic father pushed her into a writing career.

It’s a story of war and derringdo, as Keggie’s dad was an SOE secret agent dropped behind enemy lines in and around D-Day. Then he went to Burma and pretty much won the war there single-handed. Afterwards, he said nothing and stored all documentation in boxes in the loft.

Sixty years later, as he succumbs to dementia, Keggie starts playing detective. The result is this gripping book, written with real verve and a narrative expertise that wouldn’t shame a veteran.

At the centre of it all, mischievous, forever contrary, lies the mysterious Tom.

‘Beautiful and fierce and brave,’ said Helen Macdonald, author of H Is For Hawk — she’s spot on.

THE AMAZING STORY OF THE MAN WHO CYCLED FROM INDIA TO EUROPE FOR LOVE by Per J Andersson (Oneworld £12.99)

ANOTHER true story, this time translated from Swedish. PK was an ‘untouchable’, the lowest level of the Indian caste system. If anyone touched him, they washed their hands afterwards.

His teacher didn’t even cane him because the cane would be sullied by contact with his skin. Instead, he threw stones at him.

But PK was clever and had artistic talent. And there had been a prophecy at his birth that he would meet a girl from far, far away who would come for him.

So it came to pass. PK was sketching tourists in a New Delhi square when he saw Lotte, a beautiful Swedish girl. They fell in love, but she had to return to Sweden, so PK decided to follow her there on his bicycle.

There were a few problems: he mixed up Sweden and Switzerland, for example. But the story ends happily, as you know it will.

Andersson tells this palpably ridiculous tale with great energy and humour. And 40 years on, PK and Lotte are still together . . .