Make more room on the bookshelves
 | | Grayson Perry |
Marina McIntyre gives a sneak preview of some of the books to look forward to in the first three months of 2006.
January
January's most high profile book is likely to be David Blastland's Joe: The Only Boy in the World, an account of bringing up an autistic son, which looks set to be as popular as The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and George and Sam.
Also coming up are:
The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding
The first of a children's trilogy set in 1790s London, telling the story of orphan Cat Royal who lives at the back of the Drury Lane Theatre. This is a big year for Golding, with another novel, The Secret of the Sirens, the first of a fantasy quartet, out in March from OUP (Egmont Ltd, hardback, £6.99).
Grayson Perry: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl, by Wendy Jones
Autobiography of the Islington-based transvestite potter who won the Turner Prize in 2003, written by a close friend in Perry's voice (Chatto, hardback, £12.99).
Those Who Trespass Against Us: One Woman's War against the Nazis, by Countess Karolina Lanckoronska
A Polish aristocrat's memoir of resistance to the Nazis in Poland, followed by a stint in the Ravensbruck women's concentration camp where she narrowly escaped death several times. She died in 2002 aged 104 (Pimlico, paperback, £12.99).
Poems on the Underground, by Gerard Benson (editor)
Eighty-one poems from the popular group based in Hampstead. This collection is a reissue on CD of the cassettes first published 10 years ago (Orion, audiobook, £5.99).
Beware of God, by Shalom Auslander
A collection of comic and poignant short stories about the Orthodox Jewish community of New York State (Picador, hardback, £10.99).
Joe: The Only Boy in the World, by David Blastland
The author's portrait of his autistic son, tackling profound questions about the nature of humanity and disability. Extracts were broadcast on Radio 4, earning a huge response (Profile, hardback, £12.99).
Brown's Britain, by Robert Peston
Exploration of Gordon Brown and his relationship with Tony Blair, by the Sunday Telegraph's business editor, looking at the sort of prime minister he might make (Short Books, paperback, £9.99).
February
February sees the publication of many books with a World War II theme, from the heartbreaking letters from a couple who died in the Holocaust to their children, to the quirkier tale of Hitler's piano player who switched sides to work for Roosevelt. On the home front, Sarah Waters sets her latest novel in London during the Blitz.
The Lost Life of Eva Braun, by Angela Lambert
Biography of Hitler's mistress, with unseen family papers and an interview with her surviving cousin (Century, hardback, £20).
McCartney, by Christopher Sandford
Biography of the St John's Wood-based Beatle, to coincide with his 2006 tour. Contains new material such as his FBI file and interviews with friends and family (Century, hardback, £17.99).
The Nuremberg Interviews, by Leon Goldensohn
The disturbing interviews with Nazi leaders that American psychiatrist Goldensohn conducted before the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1945 (Pimlico, hardback, £17.99.
Making Terrorism History, by Scilla Elworthy and Gabrielle Rifkind
This collaboration between Elworthy and Hampstead author Rifkind contains practical steps we can take to end terrorism, based on what has worked in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland (Rider & Co, paperback, £3.99).
Harold Nicolson, by Norman Rose
Biography of the diplomat and author husband of Vita Sackville-West, by the Hampstead author (Pimlico, paperback, £9.99).
A Thousand Kisses, by Frieda and Georg Lindemeyer
Letters of a Jewish couple in Nazi Germany to their children, whom they had sent to safety in England. The last letter was sent on the day in 1941 when the Lindemeyers were sent to a concentration camp in Minsk, where they later died (Bloomsbury, hardback, £15.99).
The Night Watch, by Sarah Waters
Another historical lesbian love story from the author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, this time set during the Blitz (Virago, hardback, £16.99).
The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust, by Heather Pringle
The story of the scientists and archaeologists Himmler set to work finding evidence of a prehistoric Aryan race (4th Estate, hardback, £20).
Hitler's Piano Player, by Peter Conradi
Biography of Harvard graduate Ernst Hanfstaengl, who was pianist and foreign press chief to Hitler. He fell out of favour before the war and fled, even-tually providing information on Hitler's diet and sex life to the Americans as part of a programme of anti-Nazi propaganda (Duckworth, paperback, £8.99).
Once, by Morris Gleitzman
A young Jewish boy escapes from an orphanage in Nazi-occupied Poland, convinced his parents are still alive. Aimed at children aged nine or older (Puffin, paperback, £5.99).
March
North-west London features heavily this month, with Diana Evans' Orange Prize-winning 26a, set in Neasden, out in paperback, while Naomi Alderman looks set to stir up the Orthodox Jewish community in Hendon with her new novel Disobedience. The latest Hannibal Lecter novel, a prequel to Silence of the Lambs, also appears.
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky (translated by Sandra Smith)
A novel about France under German occupation, written before the author was sent to Auschwitz, where she died. Nemirovsky wrote the novel in notebooks, which her daughters kept for decades without reading them (Chatto, hardback, £14.99).
Behind the Mask by Thomas Harris
Prequel to the Hannibal Lecter books, going back to the cannibal's early life in the Ukraine. Already being made into a film starring Gong Li (Arrow Books, hardback, £17.99).
Disobedience, by Naomi Alderman
Potentially controversial novel about lesbians in the Orthodox Jewish community in Hendon. Ronit, a New Yorker, returns to Hendon when her Rabbi father dies, to find that her former (female) lover has married her father's likely successor (Viking, hardback, £12.99).
26a, by Diana Evans
Story of an Anglo-Nigerian family in Neasden, exploring the intense inner world of the identical twins who are its central characters. Won the Orange Prize for New Writers (Vintage, paperback, £6.99).
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
Disturbing story from the Golders Green author about cloned children who will eventually be required as organ donors. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005 (Faber, paperback, £7.99).
A Jealous Ghost, by AN Wilson
A woman writing a PhD on Henry James's ghost story The Turn of the Screw finds her own life starting to mirror the novella when she takes a job as a nanny (Arrow, paperback, £6.99).
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka
Feuding grown-up sisters put aside their differences to save their widowed father from a gold-digging new Ukrainian bride. Long-listed for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Orange Prize in 2005 (Penguin, paperback, £7.99).
The Way We Wore, by Robert Elms
A Fever Pitch for high fashion, about Camden Town resident Elms' obsession with looking cool over several decades (Picador, paperback, £6.99).
The Dream of Rome, by Boris Johnson
MP Johnson compares the success of the Roman Empire with what he sees as the failures of the modern EU. Accompanies a TV series in which the Islington resident and politician travels to the corners of what was the empire (4th Estate, hardback, £18.99).
The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah, by Karen Armstrong
Exploration of the connections between the great thinkers who emerged between 800 and 300 BC, from the ex-nun and leading religious historian (Atlantic Books, hardback, £19.99).
Bollocks to Alton Towers: Uncommonly British Days Out by Jason Hazely, Robin Halstead, Joel Morris and Alex Morris
Unusual, off-the-beaten-track attractions in the UK (Penguin, paperback, £7.99).
Kristallnacht: Prelude to Disaster, by Martin Gilbert
The Hampstead historian and biographer of Churchill turns his attention to the night in 1938 when Jewish people across Germany were killed and synagogues and Jewish-owned shops raided (4th Estate, hardback, £12.99).
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