Sarah Aspinall’s glorious memoir charts her relationship with her glamorous mother Audrey who always felt she was destined for glitzier things, even though she was born into poverty in 1930s Liverpool.
Diamon ds At The Lost And Found: A Memoir In Search Of My Mother (Fourth Estate, £9.99) moves from the fading seaside glamour of Southport to New York and Hollywood, sweeping us up in Audrey’s endearing quest for true love and happiness.
Inge’s War: A Story Of Family, Secrets And Survival Under Hitler (Ebury, £9.99) is a gripping family memoir in which Svenja O’Donnell delves into the shadowy past of her aloof German grandmother Inge.
She captures Inge’s childhood in East Prussia, how she found love in the jazz bars of Hitler’s Berlin, and recounts her flight from the horrors of the Red Army.
Read any good books lately? Let us know in the comment section
Svenja offers a new perspective on the lives of ordinary Germans during the Second World War.
On a very different note, when Pete Paphides’ parents moved from Cyprus to Birmingham in the 1960s in search of a better life, they had no money and only a little English. There, they opened the chippie that provides the fragrant backdrop to Broken Greek: A Story Of Chip Shops And Pop Songs (Quercus, £9.99), a delicious, music-mad coming-of-age memoir set in the 1970s and 80s.
For a fascinating read, full of pithy parenting wisdom too, try House Of Music: Raising The Kanneh-Masons by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason (Oneworld, £9.99).
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The mother of seven musically talented siblings – including cellist Sheku who performed at Prince Harry’s wedding – reflects on the years of joy, penny-pinching and crazy routines that went into raising her brilliant family.
Joyous and revealing, Let’s Do It: The Authorised Biography Of Victoria Wood by Jasper Rees (Trapeze, £9.99) draws on exclusive access to the late comedian’s extensive archive and interviews with her family and closest friends including Julie Walters, Dawn French, Celia Imrie and many others. It’s a fitting tribute to a pioneering entertainer and her exacting comic genius.
Believing that most people are pretty decent deep down is not only a radical new way to think, it’s also a way to achieve true change in our society, argues Rutger Bregman in Human Kind: A Hopeful History (Bloomsbury, £9.99). This cheering and perspective-shattering book draws on a wide range of illuminating examples from the Blitz to Hurricane Katrina.
In the award-winning One Two Three Four (Fourth Estate, £9.99), Craig Brown explores The Beatles phenomenon from 150 original angles.
Amid stories about how the band formed, the madness of Beatlemania, their friendships, romances, and families, the Fab Four also get high with Bob Dylan, spar with the Stones, and discover LSD after their dentist spiked their coffee.
You needn’t be a Beatles fan to love this rich, wide-ranging and often surprising read.
By CAROLINE SANDERSON and CHARLOTTE HEATHCOTE
Also this week - the best new non-fiction for younger readers…
Rob Biddulph returns with Draw With Rob (HarperCollins, £6.99), helping children to write and draw their very own picture book.
He guides them through the process, from choosing characters to planning twists and turns. The step-by-step draw-along characters include a superhero bear, a robot and unicorn. So much fun, grown-ups will want to join in (ages 4-10).
The beautifully illustrated My Big Book Of Outdoors by Tim Hopgood (Walker, £16) takes younger children through the seasons with a series of inventive challenges.
Make chocolate nests in spring, identify butterflies in summer, make a leaf mobile in autumn, or collect pine cones in winter (ages 7-9).
The Queen’s Wardrobe by Julia Golding and Kate Hindley (Two Hoots, £14.99) tells the story of Elizabeth II’s life through the prism of her wardrobe, from her christening gown to the beaded dress she wore in her James Bond 2012 Olympics parachute stunt. With charming illustrations, it’s full of stories and surprising facts about our long-serving monarch (ages 7-11).
In Wild Child (Macmillan Children’s, £14.99), naturalist Dara McAnulty helps children explore local habitats, identifying animals and plants. It’s a treasure trove of facts and projects such as making a bird feeder or terrarium (aged 7-11).
Children can become a #2minutesuperhero by taking up the challenges in Kids Fight Climate Change by Martin Dorey, illustrated by Tim Wesson (Walker, £7.99). It’s a colourful guide to saving the planet, with changes to make in everyday life, from eating less meat and dairy to turning down the heating and wearing a jumper (ages 7-12).
Kate Pankhurst turns eight stellar lives into engaging tales in Fantastically Great Women Scientists And Their Stories (Bloomsbury, £6.99). From astronaut Mae Jemison to chemist Tu Youyou, who developed a cure for malaria, learn about the hurdles these gifted women overcame to help transform the world (ages 7+).
Readers of all ages will be fascinated by the facts in Listified! (Britannica Books, £18.99). Its 300 lists range from 13 theories about why dinosaurs became extinct to nine surprising things that have fallen out of the sky (ages 8+).
The inspirational Marcus Rashford urges children to work hard and dream big in You Are A Champion (Pan Macmillan, £9.99). He helps readers work out where they want to be, and how they might get there.
It’s down to earth, practical, and written with his trademark warmth and empathy. As he says: “When you believe in yourself, incredible things can happen.” Every young person should read this book (10+).
Michelle Obama’s bestselling memoir Becoming (Puffin, £14.99) has been adapted for younger readers. She tells her life story from humble beginnings to eight years in the White House via Princeton – oh and she married someone called Barack (10+).
By CHARLOTTE HEATHCOTE
Join the Mirror Book Club
Join us in reading our book of the month Three Women by Lisa Taddeo.
For nearly a decade, Taddeo embedded herself with three ordinary women to write this account of their erotic lives and longings.
We meet Lina, whose husband wouldn’t touch her; Sloane, whose husband likes to watch her have sex with other men and women; and Maggie whose relationship with her teacher ended in court and made her a social pariah.
Read along with us at facebook.com/groups/mirrorbookclub and let us know what you think.
