This week's paperback reviews
Bear in Mind These Dead
Susan McKay
Faber and Faber, £9.99
This is a powerful, heartbreaking but necessary book. McKay talks to relatives of some of the victims of the Northern Ireland conflict, those left behind to mourn, rage and remember. She treats her interviewees with care and respect and really evokes their hurt and pain, still raw after 30 or 40 years in some cases. She does not judge; her tone is sympathetic but detached. Also interviewed are some of the perpetrators of the killings. There is a danger of being submerged in all the horror, grief and despair, so the book can be read only in small doses. How do you survive when a loved one is senselessly killed? You don't. Mostly, you limp on with a shattered heart or, rarely, you kill yourself. Poet Maya Angelou is quoted: "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but, if faced with courage, need not be lived again." In writing this book, Susan McKay clearly believes this sentiment. Let us hope she is right. Brian Maye
Bloomsbury Ballerina
Judith Mackrell
Phoenix, £8.99
Years before Arthur Miller married Marilyn Monroe, homosexual economist Maynard Keynes wed Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova to the outrage of the Bloomsbury set and its predictably acidic Virginia Woolf. Trained by the Tsarist Imperial Ballet School, Lopokova hit New York as a member of Diaghilev's Ballet Russes, and stayed on in the US for 15 years while ballet drifted in and out of favour and she tried acting. Despite the cloyingly determined efforts of her biographer, Lopokova emerges as a fantastically irritating egotist whose uninhibited, somewhat queasy approach to life, relationships and personal hygiene are not for the faint-hearted. Forensically researched, this unsubtle tome features a cast of 20th-century ballet, arts, literary and political personalities. Be warned, Mackrell's harsh, metallic prose and gushing tone are major obstacles to what is an incredible story Eileen Battersby
The Wisdom of Donkeys: Finding Tranquillity in a Chaotic World
By Andy Merrifield
Short Books, £7.99
The title suggests a rather naff self-help tome but in fact this is a surprisingly enjoyable meditation-meets-travel book, a thoughtful and erudite account of a walking trip the British author took with a donkey through the Auvergne. As he treks over hill and dale with his faithful companion, Gribouille, Merryfield's musings range from the beauty of the countryside to the intoxicating but ultimately alienating buzz of New York, from whence he has recently fled. And he considers donkeys – the gentlest, most stoic and, ironically, the most maligned and undervalued of all animals. Donkeys may be stubborn, but, Merryfield asserts, there is always a good reason for their intractability. He reminds us of their place in history, in myth and in literature and film and explores how they are increasingly being used in both education and therapy. Merryfield writes beautifully and the book, like the journey, is leisurely but satisfying. Cathy Dillon
Devil May Care
Sebastian Faulks (writing as Ian Fleming)
Penguin, £7.99
This book was commissioned to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Set in 1967, the plot has all the right ingredients – a super-evil villain with a monkey paw instead of a hand, multiple exotic locations from Persia to Paris, the international drug trade, the CIA in the wings, and a dastardly plot to destroy the western world which only 007, pulled off sick leave by M, can foil. There's a gorgeous woman too, Scarlett, who may or may be all she seems. For real thriller fans there are too many incredible twists and clunky plot devices to make it a really satisfying read. Even the action scenes feel sluggish. And James himself seems a shadow of himself, constantly reminding us of his various aches and pains, humourless, unable to flirt even with Miss Moneypenny, and while he's intellectually stirred by Scarlett, he turns down her advances and seems quite shaken by it. Bernice Harrison
The End of Food: The Coming Crisis in the World Food Industry
Paul Roberts
Bloomsbury, £8.99
If you have had your fill of the daily digest of economic gloom then perhaps you will want to give Paul Roberts' book a wide berth. Following on from his bestseller The End of Oil, the author tackles the global food economy and undermines the idea of a miraculous system of never-ending abundance. Roberts pulls back the curtain on an industry that is becoming increasingly vulnerable to the vagaries of expensive oil, climate change and disease. The recent bout of swine flu vindicates the belief that the system is dangerously close to the precipice. The End of Foodalso highlights the paradox of a structure that leaves more than one billion people malnourished while a similar number are obese. Roberts assertively constructs arguments from a bewildering set of facts and manages to give the global food behemoth a human face. Forewarned is, however, forearmed and this book chillingly emphasises the need for concerted action to find new ways to feed an expanding population. Rory Tevlin