Festive Choice

HARRY MEAD

AS IT WAS by Fred Trueman (Pan, £7.99)A LATE paperback hangover from 2005 - but why not, since Fred died this year, and his name and fame will endure?

Despite its lacklustre title, this final autobiography, dressed up as 'memoirs', is the key to understanding the complete Fred, not just the cricketer.

His gritstone exterior - Ilkley Moor made flesh - concealed a sensitive soul. In his full fire-breathing pomp, young Fred gave his first county cap to his father, in whose coffin he placed this treasured trophy.

THE DANGEROUS BOOK FOR BOYS by Con and Hal Iggulden (Harper Collins, £18.99)

THE surprise publishing hit of the year - and deservedly so. Is it a spoof, or a heartfelt attempt to yank boyhood back from its health-and-safety, Playstation- dominated present to the carefree tree-climbing, bowand-arrow days of yore, brilliantly evoked in its Boy's Own style pages. Who cares?

This reviewer has found himself practising the clove hitch - "used by cowboys in westerns to hitch their horses" - consulting the tables of Kings and Queens, and even mugging up on the subjunctive in a model primer headed Understanding Grammar. (Never too late to learn, is it? )

TRAINS AND BUTTERED TOAST by John Betjeman (John Murray, £24.99); The Best of Betjeman (John Murray, pb, £7.99) ARGUABLY the pick of the shelf-full of books marking the centenary of Betjeman's birth. The first is a marvellous collection of radio talks, many given during the Second World War. Not even that could stop Betjeman from being Betjeman: "It's a relief to see the hideous tin signs of place names removed from the walls of cottages, to hear the comfortable plod of horses and rumble of ironrimmed cartwheels instead of the endless gear-changing of motors". Worth twice its price just for the script of his classic Metroland TV programme, the anthology The Best of Betjeman - prose and verse - fully lives up to its title.

UNMITIGATED ENGLAND by Peter Ashley (Adelphi, £20)

BETJEMAN would have loved this - a photographic celebration of the England that is going or has gone: everything from unspoilt pubs to the John-and-Susan Ladybird books of the 1960s, the era which, with its social revolution, rapid advance of intensive farming, and advent of big-shed shops, then named hypermarkets, began to deal the death blows to Old England.

Photographer Ashley records its scattered remnants, or sometimes re-creations: shops with bottled sweets, steam trains in Gothic country stations, churches gracing landscapes that would inspire Constable.

Tesco, motorways, and industrial parks are just a bad dream.

THOMAS HARDY: The Time-Torn Man by Claire Tomalin (Viking, £25)

ONE of our most accomplished biographers - her recent life of Samuel Pepys was hailed as a masterpiece - turns her attention to the major literary figure of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the heart of Hardy's life was a strangelyinverted love affair with his first wife, Emma, whose sudden death, after years of estrangement between them under the same roof, released in Hardy a flood of remorse - though that didn't stop him soon marrying his secretary. Tomalin deals extensively with this event, which she suggests was pivotal to Hardy the writer, transforming the great novelist into an arguably greater poet.

HALIFAX SQUADRON by Bill Norman (the author, 23A Thames Avenue, Guisborough, TS14 8AE, Tel: 01287280429; £27.50)

TWO little known facts about the Second World War. 1. The highest loss rate was sustained by bomber crews. 2. Every single one of them, from pilots to tail gunners via navigators and radio operators, was a volunteer. Author of numerous previous books on North-East wartime aviation history, Guisborough-based Bill Norman surpasses all his earlier efforts with this magnificent account of a particular bomber squadron. Bill records every mission, every name, every loss, and relates the memories of veterans. It's RAF Leconfield, but it could be any of the hundreds of bomber squadrons. The dangers, and the scale of the sacrifice are humbling.

STEVE CRAGGS

RATCATCHER by James McGee (Harper Fiction, £10)THE debut of dashing Bow Street runner Matthew Hawkwood. . . and what a debut. Only Hawkwood stands between Napoleon and a dastardly plot to destroy the Royal Navy and he lays his life on the line in the most dark and dangerous depths of Georgian London in the course of his mission, as well as one or two scented bedrooms. A hero for all occasions.

THE BLACK SUN by James Twining (Harper Fiction, £12.99)

AN up-to-the-minute Nazi conspiracy thriller that starts with an Auschwitz survivor having his arm torn off in London and ends with a shoot-out in Switzerland.

Former art thief Tom Kirk tangles with a sadistic criminal mastermind and the Russian Mafia as well as Neo-Nazi thugs in this high octane thriller.

DYING LIGHT by Stuart MacBride (Harper Fiction, £10)

YOU'D go a long way to find a tougher and more unauthodox detective than DS Logan McRae - he's Aberdeen's answer to Rebus. A prostitute's death at the docks, a family burned alive in their home and a councillor on the take are all grist to the mill for McRae.

He is grim and gritty all right, but there's a touch of humour among the gloom of the morgue.

THE LORDS OF THE NORTH by Bernard Cornwell (Harper Fiction, £17.99)

ALFRED the Great's trusted Lieutenant Uhtred has a rare talent for ravaging, pillaging and general mayhem and needs a target for his violent energies. A chance to seize the Viking-controlled Kingdom of Northumbria seems to suit all round, so Uhtred ventures north only to end up on a slave ship before destiny smiles on him again. A brutal adventure that brands itself on your soul.

SIEGE OF HEAVEN by Tom Harper Century, £10.99)

THE blood-red cross of the crusader is eclipsed by the carnage and slaughter experienced by Demetrios Askiates, spy of the Greek Emperor of Constantinople, as he accompanies the First Crusade to Jerusalem. The Holy Land becomes a slaughter house and Askiates a victim of treachery who becomes involved in a vicious battle for survival. There's glory among the gory.

SIX TO ONE AGAINST by Lyndon Stacey (Hutchinson, £10.99)

WHEN racing trainer Daniel Daniels is shot dead by an unknown marksman it sort of falls naturally to animal behaviorist Widen Blake to try to solve the crime - after all he was riding with Daniels when he was murdered and has ties to the family. There is many a twist and turn a la Dick Francis and many secrets revealed before Widen thinks he is on to the truth.

But then. . . a thriller that runs and runs.

PATHFINDERS by Felipe FernandezArmesto (Oxford University Press, £25)

THIS epic story of human exploration and discovery follows in the footsteps of those who were brave enough to go where no man had been before and who showed true enterprise in reaching their goal. Global history would have remained as dead as the dodo but for the likes of Eric the Red, Ferdinand Magellan and Marco Polo, and the term global in the eyes of FernandezArmesto also takes in non-Europeans such as the Arab traveller Ibn Batutta and the eunuch admiral of the Chinese Ming Empire. Amazing people, amazing feats.

ANZIO: The Friction of War by Lloyd Clark (Headline, £20)

THE friction of war here not only refers to the ferocious fighting the Allies faced when they landed at Anzio in early 1944, but also to the in-fighting between British and American generals which was mirrored on the German side. Back in Blighty, some labelled the troops as "D-Day Dodgers" - Clark's stark account shows they were anything but that.

THE OXFORD COMPANION TO FOOD by Alan Davidson (Oxford University Press £40)

JUST the thing for gourmets, gourmands and merry munchers alike.

Plenty of food for thought and plenty of ideas for what to put on your plate in the 2,700 entries which combine serious food history, culinary expertise and entertaining serendipity. A lot to fork out, but a heck of a lot for your money.

JENNY NEEDHAM

GORDON RAMSAY'S SUNDAY LUNCH and other recipes from The F word (Quadrille, £19.99) WHEN Gordon Ramsay challenged viewers of his television programme to send in any celebrity chef cookery books that they thought were rubbish, it would have been tempting to package up his own latest effort and send it off to him. Sadly, it's far too good and useful and full of mouthwatering recipes to dispense with. Fantastic photographs by Jill Mead (daughter of Northern Echo columnist Harry Mead), set the tastebuds tingling. Tuck in.

THE PURE LAND by Alan Spence (Canongate, £12.99)

THE year is 1858 and an 18-year-old Scottish entrepreneur is caught between the old and new worlds in Japan, between the samurai who are not averse to slicing off heads to protect the old ways, and the reformers, who want to open up their country to foreign traders. In between making and losing a fortune, and narrowly escaping with his life, Thomas Glover falls in love with a courtesan, who, unknown to him, bears him the son he has always wanted. This superb 100-year saga, based on the amazing real life story of the man who inspired Madame Butterfly, culminates in the annihilation of Nagasaki in 1945. A vivid page-turner of the very first order.

LIGHT OF EVENING by Edna O'Brien (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, £14.99)

A MOTHER is dying while her daughter, a writer, is floundering in the wake of a bad marriage. In movingly lyrical language, the grand lady of Irish fiction follows their fractured relationship down the years.

SOVEREIGN by CJ Sansom (Macmillan, £16.99)

THE third Shardlake novel follows the famous Great Progress of a bloated Henry VIII and his Tudor court to York, where the hunchback lawyer and his servant/ companion Barak find themselves entangled in the dangerous politics of the time.

Sansom has a real knack for bringing to life the sights, sounds and smells of Tudor times, precarious times when your fate could be decided on a whim.

SPIRIT WALKER by Michelle Paver (Orion £8.99, audio £13)

THE second tale in Paver's Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, set 6,000 years ago, follows Torak of the Raven Clan as he goes in search of a cure for the deadly sickness which has fallen on the encampment. The teenage orphan is told the Seal Clan have the cure but he must face many dangers before he finds out the truth. A first class story with a strong moral message which is brought to life in the audio version by the wonderful voice of Sir Ian McKellen.

If you want something to keep you and the children riveted on any long car journeys, immerse yourself in Paver's magical world.