Crane tells the forgotten story of how one man's vision lead to the buidling of the first world war cemeteries. Fabian Ware joined the Red Cross in 1914, working on the frontline in France, where he was horrified by the casual disposal of bodies. His determination to record the identity and position of the dead led to the establishement of a Graves Registration Commission, and inspired a flood of public support from many of the leading figures of the day Photograph: PR
'It is a history of the British invasion of Afghanistan in 1839, one of those passages of history the close examination of which requires a strong stomach – and which therefore also require the most thorough investigation. The seductive artistry of Dalrymple's narrative gift draws the reader into events that are sometimes almost unbearable, but his account is so perceptive and so warmly humane that one is never tempted to break away' – Diana Athill, the Guardian
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'Ketchup. Nothing better illustrates the mess we've made of managing the environment on which our survival depends. When you next plop it over your chips, as Dave Goulson points out in his enlightening account of a life studying bumblebees, consider that it was probably made in the Netherlands from tomatoes grown in Spain, pollinated by Turkish bumblebees reared in a factory in Slovakia' – Patrick Barkham, the Guardian
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'When Liane de Pougy, one of the most celebrated Parisian courtesans, visited Florence, a famous admirer sent a carriage filled with roses to collect her. As she descended the steps, his servants threw more roses at her. "There before me was a frightful gnome with red-rimmed eyes and no eyelashes, no hair, greenish teeth, bad breath, the manners of a mountebank and the reputation, nevertheless, for being a ladies' man." This was Gabriele D'Annunzio, the poet and lothario who seduced Italy to wartime slaughter with his rhetoric, scandalised Europe with his writing and set up his own city state in a forerunner of fascism' – Ian Birrell, the Observer
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'This mesmerising book records the author's travels in search of the elusive remains that dot what was once ancient Rome's northernmost territory. Like all quests after traces of the past, it is also an allegory, speaking of the modern world too: how the past has been remembered (and forgotten) by generations of antiquarians, poets, painters, archaeologists and their families and lovers' – Tim Whitmarsh, the Guardian
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'This biography will not radically transform anyone's fundamental view of Margaret Thatcher, but it immensely adds to our knowledge and understanding of the longest-reigning prime minister of the democratic age' – Andrew Rawnsley, the Observer
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