True Compass is in many ways a difficult book to review being in part a memoir and in part a well crafted political manifesto for the dawn of the Obama presidency. Released only a month after his death from a brain tumour, True Compass carries forth the issues that mattered deeply to Senator Kennedy in life such as health care reform, and is probably not that surprising from someone that has lived his life at the heart of American politics.

Delia Davin’s short biography is not by any means a definitive nor an in-depth biography of the late Chinese leader. Nor does it pretend to be. It is a quick reference or perhaps a helpful introduction for those who are new to the history of modern China and that of the man who shaped that country in the twentieth century. At a little over one hundred pages I found it a useful reminder of some of the key events that occurred during Mao’s life.

There is something about the generation that fought in World War 2 that seems so alien to more recent generations. Perhaps it was the fact that the war was so all-encompassing that made men more resourceful, more cognisant of their sense of duty, and more capable of (and prepared to conduct) acts of derring-do.  If this is something we have lost for good, we are the worse off for it. Tom Carver’s “Where the hell have you been?” is one such tale of overcoming the odds in the face of adversity, in a typically “British” fashion.

Chanel. You could say it is merely a name, but there is no doubt about it this name is renowned the world over. It is the trademark of beauty, elegance and freedom coming from the true icon that is Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. She would never have described herself as a feminist but she was so ahead of her time, she freed women from their corsets, shortened their skirts and created the classic little black dress. But aside from her huge influence on the fashion world – in her lifetime and still decades after - what do we really know about her? Gabrielle Chanel had a very carefully created image that extended to fabricating the details of her own childhood. She claimed that when her mother died her father left her with two spinster aunts and set sail for America. We discover that this was not the case…