Winkle
Paul Beaver
Little Brown, £25, pp516
The subtitle for this biography of Eric “Winkle” Brown describes him as “Britain’s greatest pilot”. Winkle may not be a household name, but he was a versatile and brave airman who flew more kinds of aircraft than any other pilot in history, and won so many accolades that King George VI once groaned “What, you again?” as he presented him with another. Beaver recounts the story of a man he regarded as a mentor in unshowy but fascinating detail, and restores a British hero to his rightful place.
The Winding Stair
Jesse Norman
Biteback, £20, pp464
As befits a man who is both a Conservative MP and biographer of the political philosophers Adam Smith and Edmund Burke, Norman understands the interplay of power and influence innately. His debut novel channels the style and approach of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, depicting the bitter struggle for preferment and position between the scholar Francis Bacon and the lawyer Edward Coke in the Elizabethan court. Similarities to the murkiness of contemporary politics are surely coincidental.
Act of Oblivion
Robert Harris
Penguin, £9.99, pp576 (paperback)
Harris’s exciting and suspenseful novel takes its cue from a little-known historical development. In 1660, when King Charles II was restored to the throne, he passed the Indemnity and Oblivion Act, forgiving his enemies save those who had been complicit in his father’s execution, who were duly hunted down and (in most cases) killed. Harris follows two, equally compelling, narratives: that of the regicides Edward Whalley and William Goffe, fleeing across the world, and the vengeful royalist Richard Nayler, intent on pursuing them. If only all historical thrillers could be this entertaining.
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