From a family road trip in outer space to Professor Snape’s secret diaries, what was new in 2022

THE ESCAPE ARTIST Jonathan Freedland John Murray £20

The extraordinary story of an extraordinary man. On April 10, 1944, Walter Rosenberg (aka Rudolf Vrba) managed to escape from Auschwitz, but that was only the start of his mission. He was determined that the world should know the truth about the Nazis’ death factory. The responses of some of those in power to his report are among the most shocking parts of a compelling book filled with horrific detail.

TOURISTS Lucy Lethbridge Bloomsbury £20

Travel broadens the mind, they say, but not always in a good way. In the summer of 1815, it was all the rage to head for the battlefield of Waterloo in search of a souvenir – ideally a bone or a tooth. A mid-19th Century guide to Naples suggested attending a pauper’s funeral. In 1919, tourists travelled to Ypres in the hope of experiencing something of the ‘thrill’ of the First World War. What fun!

This hugely entertaining and often very amusing history of British tourism focuses on sightseers from the

1820s to the 1970s and their frequently peculiar whims and wants.

THE SIEGE OF LOYALTY HOUSE Jessie Childs Bodley Head £25

Basing House – or Loyalty House, as it became known – in Hampshire was one of the largest strongholds held for the King and his allies against the armies of Parliament during the English Civil War. Actors, astrologers, writers and musicians who had served the court fled to it. Childs draws on unpublished manuscripts and the voices of dozens of men, women and children to tell this thrilling tale of war.

QUEEN OF OUR TIMES Robert Hardman Macmillan £20

Hardman has 30 years’ experience of interviewing members of the Royal Family. His brilliant biography of Elizabeth II was published in March, before her death, but has now been updated to cover the end of her life. Packed full of rich detail and revealing anecdotes, it is the result of having years of extraordinary Royal access.

ABYSS Max Hastings William Collins £30

The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was, says Hastings, the most perilous event in history, a period when, for a few terrifying days, nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union appeared almost inevitable. This chronicle of the world teetering on the brink of apocalypse grips from the outset, and is a timely read in an era when a new confrontation between nuclear superpowers seems increasingly likely.

THE WRATH TO COME Sarah Churchwell Apollo £27.99

Churchwell examines the history and legacy of

Gone With The Wind, both Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 bestseller and the hit

1939 film based on it. She believes that unravelling the DNA of the story, which romanticises the old American South, can help us understand American political and cultural life today. Racial and gender politics, controversies over Confederate statues, the popularity of Donald Trump and the Make America Great Again movement, it’s all here. Fascinating and thought-provoking.

THE SONG OF THE CELL Siddhartha Mukherjee Bodley Head £25

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Mukherjee tells the story of cellular biology, from the 17th Century discovery of the cell – the tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units that make up every living thing – to the emerging discipline of cell therapy, which could provide incredible medical breakthroughs in the treatment of all kinds of serious illnesses.

THE NEW PURITANS Andrew Doyle Constable £20

Doyle is the brains behind the comedy woke warrior

Titania McGrath, but this is a deadly serious account of the contemporary culture wars. Doyle looks at the illiberalism of the so-called ‘social justice’ movement, which seeks to ‘cancel’ anyone who has the temerity to disagree with its rigid belief system, and argues that it is more akin to a religion than a logically thought-out political philosophy. He considers how it has risen so rapidly to capture so many political, cultural and corporate institutions.

MADLY, DEEPLY

Alan Rickman Canongate £25

BEYOND THE WAND Tom Felton Ebury Spotlight £20

Two very different books by stars of the Harry Potter films. The late Rickman’s portrayal of Professor Snape was just one role in a long career. His frequently waspish diaries, never intended for publication, provide a compelling insight into his life and work.

For Felton, his part as the awful Draco Malfoy has been his main role to date and his book is a must for

Potter fans – a candid account of working on the movies but also of their impact on his life.