There’s a good story – probably apocryphal, as all good stories are – about an Oxford professor who reached retirement. At his send-off party, he was asked how he planned to spend his retirement. He replied, ‘Read all the books I’ve reviewed.’ I’ve been engaged in the task of reviewing a fair few books recently, but unlike our professor I did read them all, which means I’ve had less time for other bibliophilic delights. However, I thought that now might be a good time to provide a sort of whistle-stop tour of some of the stand-out books from the crop I’ve read this year, complete with a brief review of each book and my reasons for recommending it. I’ll roughly treat this by subject –biographies, science, drama, and so on – just to give the thing at least a show of order.
