A murder of crows
Andrew Self's The Birds of London is a thorough and entertaining history, but far too sympathetic to predators and bureaucrats
The leader of the band
Jazz Me Blues is a memoir of a remarkable life by a man far too nice to do it justice
Fifty years of crime-writing
Ruth Rendell's The Girl Next Door is another quirky, satisfying mystery. But her fans have something else to celebrate
Title Stories: Winnie The Pooh by A.A. Milne
Got something to add? Join the discussion and comment below.
One Afternoon
In Aljezur we took a walk And paused above the river where, Among the rushes, swifts and fish, We saw…
Into the badlands
A review of Siberia: A History of the People, by Janet M. Hartley. The region's past is harrowing, but its potential is staggering
Comical-tragical-historical
A review of Wounded Tiger: A History of Cricket in Pakistan, by Peter Oborne. Not even civil war stops play
The net closes in
Painting Death, the latest of Tim Parks's Maurice Duckworth novels, draws profitably on A Season with Verona
Remembering what it’s like to forget
In The Answer to the Riddle is Me, David Stuart MacLean rediscovers who he is – and doesn't entirely like what he finds
Roll out the barrel
A review of Beer: A Global History. Reading about it is second in pleasure only to drinking it
Festival picks
Lloyd Evans recommends Julie Burchill: Absolute Cult, Phone Whore and Andrew O'Neill's History of Heavy Metal
The inspirational and the sublime
Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting, at the National Museum Wales, is a revealing look at an artist who inspired Turner and Constable
Great expectations
Alas, Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev have proved that bravery and bravura do not always go together
Work in progress
They founded it, after all: these productions of Charlotte Salomon and Der Rosenkavalier are no way to repay them
In bed with the jihadis
A new television insurgent has provided the most compelling coverage of Isis so far
Six appeal
The BBC's vital classical service has fallen behind 6 Music in the ratings, and we need to know when its new boss will arrive
Space invaders
Don't be fooled by the bear on the poster – this survey of modern figurative sculpture features rotting corpses, animal guts and live bees
