Celebration of the most collectable of calendars

1:14pm Friday 25th January 2008

LAVISH and lovingly compiled, The lavish Complete Pirelli Calendars presents every issue of the prestigious annual since its inception in 1964 (by Edmondo Berselli, Francesco Negri Arnoldi, Italo Zannier, published in hardback by Thames & Hudson, priced £45).

Femmes fatale and witches – stereotypes of womanhood

1:16pm Friday 18th January 2008

BEHIND the embarrassingly raunchy cover, The Secrets of Married Women, by Carol Mason, is a fairly mild story about three women and their various relationship problems (paperback published by Hodder, priced £6.99).

Portraits of America’s most glamorous first family

12:55pm Friday 11th January 2008

ON THE face of it, Richard Avedon: The Kennedys: Portrait of a Family could be mistaken for a black and white Hello magazine.

Novel retells an age-old romance in modern terms

2:10pm Friday 4th January 2008

AMONG the latest paperbacks is one by Janet Carroll, of Brompton, near Northallerton, who has tapped into Tennyson's famous poem The Lady of Shallot to produce a highly readable modernday version.

Escapist tale and a real-life drama under fire in Basra

1:31pm Friday 21st December 2007

AMONG new releases is Sepulchre by Kate Mosse (published in hardback by Orion, £18.99), another historical thriller to rival her Richard and Judy Book Club winner, Labyrinth.

The human drama of the Atlantic trade in slaves

12:24pm Friday 14th December 2007

TWO hundred years after the end of the Atlantic slave trade's "golden age", the world has seemingly still failed to come to terms with an industry which stretched across oceans and through four centuries. Time has understandably not healed the wounds for many - not least for those of African descent.

Author shortlisted for book prize

2:12pm Friday 7th December 2007

CHILDREN'S author Anne Fine has been shortlisted for a prize for her latest book.

Historian casts light on tales about a clergyman

2:13pm Friday 7th December 2007

ALOCAL historian has written a book about a rural vicar who helped his parishioners through a cholera epidemic in 1832.

Short stories by Irish writer merely skim the surface

12:03pm Friday 30th November 2007

HIS fans know Irish writer Roddy Doyle from books including The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van, but the novelist has now turned his hand to a series of short stories exploring the issue of immigration in his home country.

Lure of Teesdale over three centuries

12:34pm Friday 23rd November 2007

BOOK ILLUSTRATIONS: an engraving of High Force made in 1814 and, below, market day at Middleton in Teesdale photographed at the turn of the 20th century MANY people must have marvelled at the scenery of Teesdale when they read a vivid account of it in a novel by Thomas Amory, The Life of John Buncle, published in 1756.

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