Matt’s entertainment!
Little Me by Matt Lucas
The comedian and actor on his life and work in, among many other shows, Shooting Stars and Little Britain. It’s a bit different to most memoirs, says Lucas, because it comes in the form of an A-Z. For instance, B is for Baldy, which is what people used to shout at him in the playground (‘not much fun’) and G is for Gay (‘because I’m an actual real-life gay!’).
Oct 3, Canongate, £20
Dive into this one
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
The first historical novel by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author tells the story of a pioneering female navy diver who carries out underwater repairs on ships, and whose union man father had links to the mob.
Oct 3, Corsair, £16.99
Little Me by Matt Lucas; Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
In Da Vinci mode
Origin by Dan Brown
The fifth in the Da Vinci Code series revolves around a secret set to shatter the foundations of major world religions. Expect dizzying new perspectives on art, architecture, science and technology. Brown’s prose style won’t win any awards but he tells a great story.
Oct 3, Bantam Press, £20
Lord of the Dance
Anthony Powell by Hilary Spurling
Award-winning Spurling provides a fascinating portrait of the socialite author of the much-loved comic masterpiece A Dance To The Music Of Time.
Oct 5, Hamish Hamilton, £25
Origin by Dan Brown; Anthony Powell by Hilary Spurling
Inside the Bell Jar
The Letters Of Sylvia Plath Volume one
The poet who took her own life in 1963 was a prolific correspondent and this collection marks the key moments of her adolescence and covers her move from America to England and meeting Ted Hughes in 1956.
Oct 17, Harper, £35
Stories in the key(board) of life
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks is mad about typewriters and each of the 17 stories in his debut collection features one in some way. Why? A typewriter, he explains, ‘you can use every day, you will never lose data, and it can never be hacked’.
Oct 17, Heinemann, £16.99
The poet who took her own life in 1963 was a prolific correspondent and this collection marks the key moments of her adolescence
The Letters Of Sylvia Plath Volume one; Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks
Wish upon a star
Ask An Astronaut by Tim Peake
Major Tim’s mission to explain new worlds continues with a book based on a selection of questions submitted to him by the public. It includes never-before-seen photos from his six months on the Space Station.
Oct 19, Century, £20
Rockin’ good tales
Sticky Fingers by Joe Hagan
Jann Wenner founded the music magazine Rolling Stone in 1967 when he was just 21. To mark its 50th anniversary, Wenner granted journalist Hagan access to all his papers, and this should be one of the music books of the year.
Oct 24, Canongate, £25
Ask An Astronaut by Tim Peake; Sticky Fingers by Joe Hagan
Future shock
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway
Harkaway’s fourth novel is set in a near-future dystopia, a ‘perfect’ society in which everyone is kept under surveillance by the System. It is a wildly ambitious blend of cryptography, paranoia, politics, alchemy and detection that is being promoted as ‘his Infinite Jest’.
Nov 2, Heinemann, £14.99
Stevie wonder
Gold Dust Woman: The Biography Of Stevie Nicks by Stephen Davis
Unauthorised biography by the author of the notorious Led Zeppelin book Hammer Of The Gods. It promises to shed new light on the Fleetwood Mac star’s addictions, affairs and turbulent times, both with the band and as a solo artist.
Nov 21, St Martin’s Press, £21.54
Gold Dust Woman: The Biography Of Stevie Nicks by Stephen Davis promises to shed new light on the Fleetwood Mac star’s addictions, affairs and turbulent times
Gnomon by Nick Harkaway; Gold Dust Woman: The Biography Of Stevie Nicks by Stephen Davis