The latest paperbacks reviewed.
Flourishing: Letters 1928-1946 Isaiah Berlin, edited by Henry Hardy, Pimlico, £17.99
Isaiah Berlin, philosopher, critic and man of the world, was one of the last of the great letter-writers, as this meticulously edited volume amply attests. The letters gathered here, to family, friends (including Elizabeth Bowen), fellow scholars and politicians, cover what were probably the most active 20 years of his life, from his storming and conquest of the heights of English academe - he was made a fellow of All Souls at the age of 20 - to his years as an influential diplomat in the British Embassy in Washington during the war. This is a marvellous correspondence - erudite, witty, and packed with gossip. The title comes from the regular one-word telegram he used to send to his parents from the US during the war; Berlin was a great flourisher. - John Banville
Isherwood. Peter Parker, Picador, £14.99
In this extensive and fascinating biography of Christopher Isherwood, Parker excels in providing a definitive account (if not the definitive account) of one of the last century's most significant writers. Using access to all of his subject's papers, private and public, Parker compiles a lengthy, gripping and ultimately sympathetic portrait of the dramatist, war reporter, travel writer, screenwriter and monk, among other things. Isherwood's sexuality is scrutinised, with his attraction to adolescent boys not escaping the biographer's lens, as well as his role in the gay liberation movement. His often difficult friendships with the likes of WH Auden, Edward Upward and publisher John Lehmann are described with honesty and wry humour. - Tom Cooney
Sweetness and Light: The Mysterious History of the Honey Bee. Hattie Ellis, Sceptre, £8.99
In an imaginative history of bees, bee-keeping and honey production that zips back and forth across the continents, Ellis unravels anecdotes, mythology and truisms from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics through to the era of mass manufacture and specialised cottage concerns. Across Alaska, the Mekong Delta, the Pyrenees, England and Greece, the narrative investigates Virgil's insight on bee-keeping, Aristotle's "authority", medical advice from Pythagoras, bee protection for the baby Zeus, DIY honeycombs and bee visitations to the crib of St Ambrose, the future patron saint of bee-keepers. There's also interesting recipes for mummification, mead distillation and honey-based concoctions that when applied to the vagina are supposed to lessen the chances of miscarriage or, when added to crocodile faeces, act as a contraceptive. Definitely not Delia. - Paul O'Doherty
White Gold. Giles Milton, Hodder & Stoughton, £7.99
The bestselling author of Nathaniel's Nutmeg and Samurai William plucks another little-known character from history to narrate this account of white slavery in North Africa. In 1715 an 11-year-old Thomas Pellow was on his maiden sea voyage en route to Genoa when he was captured by Barbary pirates and brought to Morocco to be sold into slavery. A common experience for both sailors and coastal inhabitants from the Mediterranean to Iceland - in 1631 a raid by pirates on Baltimore, Co Cork, yielded 237 men, women and children. Pellow remained in slavery for 23 years, eventually serving in the court of the tyrant Moulay Ismael, Sultan of Morocco, before finally escaping. Giles Milton's narrative is graphically illustrated in a ripping-yarn style that's all his own. - Martin Noonan
Fortune's Daughters: The Extravagant Lives of the Jerome Sisters, Jennie Churchill, Clara Frewen and Leonie Leslie. Elisabeth Kehoe, Atlantic Books, £8.99
Sizzling gossip and breathtaking snobbery radiate from this stupendously detailed account of three New York sisters who sensationally gatecrashed late Victorian society. They launched a money-meets-titles vogue that eventually reached its apogee when Mrs Simpson "stole" the king. Jennie, in the first of many love affairs, married a Lord, bore the future prime minister, enjoyed end-of-Empire Ireland during a spell at the Phoenix Park's Little Lodge, sported a snake tattoo, dazzled the Prince of Wales and seduced an Irish-American lawyer who later taught oratory to her son Winston. Clara spurned a tantalising overture to become Queen of Serbia and stood by her man - a ne'er-do-well dreamer who squandered the family's Innishannon estate, was briefly MP for West Cork and fundraised in the US for Home Rule. Leonie became chatelaine of an Anglo-Irish Gormenghast in Glaslough, Co Monaghan (now Castle Leslie). - Michael Parsons
The End of Oil. Paul Roberts, Bloomsbury, £8.99
Paul Roberts, a contributor to Harper's Magazine, looks at the future of fossil fuels and the alternatives for this planet. Forty per cent of global energy demand is currently met by oil and estimates vary as to how much remains to fuel civilization, with even optimists foreseeing a peak in oil production within 35 years. Yet oil is contributing to global warming, making alternatives essential. The author looks at possible substitutes for oil - wind, sunlight, and hydrogen gas among others - but rejects them in favour of greater fuel economy, arguing that a transition will take years that we don't have. He is scathing on President Bush's energy policy and argues that the war in Iraq is an effort to break OPEC's stranglehold on the global oil supply. A combination of reportage, interviews and analysis, this investigation of energy consumption is a highly readable introduction to a frightening future. - Eoghan Morrissey