MUSTREADS Out now in paperback
UNIVERSAL MAN
By Richard Davenport-Hines (William Collins £9.99) JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES is best remembered as an economist, but even he found economics ‘a technical and complicated subject’.
Luckily, this brilliant biography does not linger on Keynesian theories, but on the seven lives of the man behind them as altruist, boy prodigy, official, public man, lover, connoisseur and envoy.
In one role he went on artbuying sprees, once to Paris to buy Impressionist paintings for the National Gallery.
He came back with several works for himself — drawings by Degas, two by Delacroix, and a Cezanne in his suitcase.
‘It was too heavy for me to carry,’ he announced. ‘So I’ve left it in the ditch, behind the gate.’
Whether he is recounting tales of Keynes’s art splurges, revealing his membership of the secretive discussion group — the Apostles — while at Cambridge, or simply noting how much he detested nail biting, Davenport-Hines does an excellent job of bringing Keynes’s unfailing spirit and dynamism to life on the page.
SEVERED
By Frances Larson
(Granta £9.99) DO YOU l augh your head off? Or perhaps you have trouble keeping it screwed on? You may have even offered to put your own head on the block so that someone else’s won’t roll.
Either way, such common phrases are now a long way from the horror of beheading.
In this sparkling, though at times inevitably grim, book, Larson looks at severed heads throughout history.
First off is Oliver Cromwell’s, impaled on a 20 ft pole and planted on top of Westminster Hall for all to see, before a storm blew it down.
Some 160 years later and by now privately owned, the relic — yellowy-brown, with thinning hair and missing an ear and several teeth — was taken to breakfast parties to be ogled at by curious diners.
At a time when beheadings by extremists are beamed around the world online, Larson offers a ti mely discussion about the shift from criminals being decapitated for their crimes to criminals decapitating civilians — and the spectators who still wish to watch.
THE VILLAGE EFFECT
By Susan Pinker
(Atlantic £9.99) IF, LIKE JeanPaul Sartre, you think ‘ hell is other people’, the thesis of this book may not be for you.
But for those who enjoy strong relationships, the future looks bright and long.
After visiting remote villagers in mountain communities in Sardinia, where more people live to be over 100 years old than anywhere, Susan Pinker discovers their secret to extraordinary long lives: reciprocal altruism.
Here, people treat their neighbours like friends and family, with the expectation that they will be treated the same way in return.
Developmental psychologist Pinker’s theory is that strong social bonds can prolong our lives, and in this stimulating book she explains how even playing cards or meeting friends for a coffee every week adds as many years to our lives as taking beta-blockers or quitting a pack-a-day smoking habit.
JULIA RICHARDSON