Saint-Exupery: A Biography, by Stacy Schiff (Pimlico, £12.50 in UK)

This is the second biography of "Saint-Ex" inside a few years, and in certain respects it differs widely from its predecessor - particularly in its account of the writer pilot's last hours over France late in the war. Starting with a charmed childhood in a family estate, he was often star crossed in later life and his relationships with women (including his wife, Consuelo) were rarely happy. Flying gave him not only physical and emotional release, it threw him into that male world of comradeship spiced by danger which he loved, and which nourished him as a writer. His death, or disappearance, appears to have surprised few who knew him well; it seems that for months beforehand, St Exupery had been taking leave both of his friends and of life.