FIRST THOUGHTS

Newly published this week

Wish You Were Here

Graham Swift

Picador, £18.99; Kindle £9.02

Review: Lauren Turner

WHEN his long-lost brother dies fighting in Iraq, Jack, a caravan park proprietor, is summoned back to his home village by a letter from the Ministry of Defence.

But the journey to collect Tom’s remains, triggered by the letter, leads Jack to the country of his past, and the shared history he has with wife, Ellie, a farmer’s daughter.

This story demonstrates the iron-strong grip of family ties and what happens when those bonds are severed.

Graham Swift’s narrative has all the complications and simplicity of everyday life, and an organic nature that allows the story to take root in your head.

Its subtle power stays with the reader for days, as the tangled web it weaves slowly unravels.

Babysitting George

Celia Walden

Bloomsbury, £16.99; Kindle £9.04

Review: Lauren Turner

ACRES of newsprint has been devoted to the life and loves of George Best.

Strange then that Celia Walden, the journalist sent to Malta by her newspaper to protect its star columnist from tabloid hacks in the final year of his life, feels the need to add her voice so many years after his death.

She admits she knew little of the legendary footballer beforehand. Yet her exchanges with him are somehow supposed to enlighten us, as if what she gleaned in a few months engaged in a professional relationship with Best, following him from Malta to his Surrey home in her “babysitting” role, is going to tell us something we don’t know.

Babysitting George is meant to present a different side to the great footballer and shine a light on his love of crosswords, Mensa membership and his intact wit and charm to the end.

Unfortunately, all we really get is an all-too clear picture of a broken, desperately sick man in his last months, as well as his love-hate relationship with the media.

It all feels rather unnecessary and, perhaps even, slightly tawdry.

A Spectacle Of Dust: The Autobiography

Pete Postlethwaite

Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20; Kindle, £10.99

Review: David McLoughlin

WRITTEN in the shadow of his impending death from cancer, this is an open, honest and candid look at an actor’s life.

Postlethwaite writes with a real passion for his craft. But this book also highlights his other passions, for fairness and justice, and for the environment.

His description of berating Ed Miliband, then climate change minister, on stage at a screening is both very funny and a perfect illustration of this actor’s strongly-held principles, while his love for family and friends shines from the pages and is central to the whole book.

He is just as candid about many of his contemporaries, but never with a mean spirit.

The sum of him is all neatly and powerfully encapsulated in the final paragraphs, which are both eloquent and moving.

A warm read, written with openness and honesty, and therefore highly- recommended.