Specs For Rex By Yasmeen Ismail (Bloomsbury; €8.30).

More than a foot of rain has washed out highways around the US capital, toppled a 100-year-old elm tree on the White House lawn and caused flooding that closed major government departments and the National Archives, where the Declaration of Independence is kept.

Booker Prize-winner AS Byatt has taken a swipe at the Harry Potter books, saying they are for readers whose imaginations stretch to “soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip”.