THE BEST PAPERBACKS

FICTION Commonwealth Ann Patchett Bloomsbury €18.20

A chance encounter between a young mother and a guest at her daughter’s christening party results in love at first sight, adultery, divorce and emotional disruption in two families. Then, some decades later, the appropriation of the story by a famous writer pours salt into the wounds.

NON-FICTION The Last Royal Rebel Anna Keay Bloomsbury €13

James, Duke of Monmouth, the offspring of a liaison between the future King Charles II and one of his mistresses, grew up to be a popular young man. But he was fated to die by the executioner’s axe for leading an uprising against his uncle, James II. A gripping story, well researched.

NON-FICTION We Had Some Laughs Dan Waddell Corgi €12.59

Even though I’ve never had any interest in darts, I found it impossible to turn off the TV when the commentary was by Sid Waddell. This funny, heartwarming tribute from his son captures the essence of an engaging and original man for whom the hackneyed phrase ‘larger than life’ might have been coined.

FICTION No Need For Geniuses Steve Jones Abacus €15.39

Jones is an excellent writer of popular science, but he is also able to cross over seamlessly into lucid discussions of culture and history. Here he explores the part played by scientists in the French Revolution, a time when scholars were laying the foundations of today’s physics, chemistry and biology. I didn’t know that Jean-Paul Marat, who was famously murdered in his bath (and famously portrayed dead in his bath by the neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David), was a pioneering physicist.