THE BEST PAPERBACKS

NON-FICTION Rex V Edith Thompson Laura Thompson Head of Zeus €13.99

The Thompson-Bywaters case was one of the most lurid murder trials of the Twenties. Edith Thompson and her young lover Freddy Bywaters were hanged for the murder of Edith’s husband, but Laura Thompson argues passionately that she was the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

NON-FICTION Darling Pol Edited by Patrick Marnham Vintage €12.24

When Mary Wesley unexpectedly became a successful writer in her 70s, most famously with The Camomile Lawn, she was able to draw on a lifetime of experience. But she never wrote about the most important part of her life – her 32-year marriage to Eric Siepmann. These revealing letters chart both their relationship and Wesley’s development as a writer.

NON-FICTION Rome, A History In Seven Sackings Matthew Kneale Atlantic €14.85

Rome has been a great world city for more than 2,000 years and for most of that time it has been a magnet for waves of would-be conquerors. Matthew Kneale guides the reader expertly through a succession of violent invasions, with a cast ranging from Gauls to Nazis.

FICTION Winter Ali Smith Penguin €12.15

The second of Smith’s ‘seasonal’ novels, following on from the excellent Autumn, centres on a dysfunctional family reuniting for Christmas in an oversized English house. It’s as haunting as its predecessor, and has the same combination of lighter-than-air writing and sharply concrete political observation, but there’s an intriguingly ethereal element as well.