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From Churchill to 70s Britain, there's a book for every history lover. Starting with how Victoria ruled the world... but Albert ruled the roost

'Oh! To feel I . . . am loved by such an Angel as Albert', Queen Victoria confided to her journal in October 1839. Her German cousin, who had been brought into the world by the same midwife present at her own birth, was 'perfection in every way - in beauty - in everything'. Even years after their wedding, he was still 'the purest, the greatest and the best of human beings'. Their marriage, as Wilson makes clear in this absorbing biography, was nonetheless tempestuous. Victoria was demanding and passionate. The less combative Albert was often reduced to penning letters of rebuke to his wife.

How not to star in your own disaster movie: Authors who examined deaths in films reveal the threats you see on screen are far more dangerous than in real life

Rick Edwards and Dr Michael Brook explore the science behind the deaths portrayed in cinema in a new book. The authors claim it's the adrenaline that attracts audiences to disaster movies.

How Ben stoked our fire: As it's been a vintage year for British sport - give or take the odd Rugby World Cup final - there's a rich selection of sports books to savour

He might be having a sticky time in New Zealand at the moment, but for a period this summer Ben Stokes was the most important man in the country. A national hero in every sense.

Say cheese, Gromit! Books to stir every cook's heart

Rick Stein's new book, all about rustic French cooking, is full of old favourites like croque monsieur, steak frites and apricot tart, plus some more innovative dishes.

Royals and aristos: Sometimes it's tough being a toff

'Go straight back to him. You married him.' Those were Anne Glenconner's mother's pitiless words to her daughter, when Anne ran back home after her traumatic honeymoon in 1956.

NEW FICTION

Want to keep your brain cells fit? New tome challenges readers to memorise hundreds of poems 'bit by bit' to improve your memory

Gyles Brandreth challenges readers to learn poems off by heart in fascinating new tome, Dancing By the Light Of The Moon (inset). The author hopes the effect will be better than drink, sex, or drugs, while also keeping dementia at bay. He claims children who memorize poems do better academically and sleep better.

Blooming brilliant: The best gardening reads of 2019

Can you really grow fruit and veg in a tiny garden? Alex Mitchell shows how patios, windowsills, stairwells, balconies and alleyways can produce a bountiful crop.

China in their hands: How three sisters helped changed the course of Chinese history - but a new book about their lives and loves is BANNED in their home country

Jung Chang explores the history of the three Soong sisters who influenced China during the 20th century, and are still gossiped about in China today.

Dashing British agent who freed Italy: Dick Mallaby survived brutal interrogation and escaped a firing squad to transmit vital messages between the Allies and Italians. But after the war he told no one - not even his children

Cecil Richard Dallimore-Mallaby was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1919. During the Second World War, in early 1942, he joined the Special Operations Executive.

An aristo's lot... leaks, bills and a demented father: The Earl of Sandwich's touching memoirs as he chronicles his dad's slow decline into Alzheimer's disease and death

A touching diary of John Montagu (now the 11th Earl of Sandwich), chronicling his father's slow decline into Alzheimer's disease and death over eight years.

Time really IS money - yours for $2.4million, the world's most expensive watch

Three days a week, the 'Clock Woman of London' would travel to Greenwich, synchronise her watch with the time given by the Royal Observatory.

DOMINIC LAWSON: Why chess can help new dads change a nappy

DOMINIC LAWSON: The Moves That Matter is a remarkably self-revealing work by Dr Jonathan Rowson, who attempts to use the 1,500-year-old game of 64 squares as a metaphor for life.

It saved WW1 troops from gas attacks, helped to rescue JFK from enemy soldiers and now keeps Gwynnie's teeth pearly...How the humble coconut shaped the world!

Photojournalist Robin Laurance explores the history of the humble coconut in his new book Coconut: How The Shy Fruit Shaped Our World.

Well she should know a thing or two about books! School librarian, 45, is named Daily Mail First Novel winner, scooping our £20,000 advance and a publishing deal her debut work about wartime memories and murder

Louise Morrish, 45, from Hampshire, has been selected as the winner of the Daily Mail First Novel Competition. She explained why she owes her success to her late grandmother, Betty.

How Demi was sold for sex at 15 - by her own mother: As the troubled star reveals in a soul-baring memoir of abuse, alcohol and unfaithful celebrity husbands

Demi Moore, who is best known for 1993 movie Indecent Proposal, reflects on her life in a new memoir. The 56-year-old recalls being raped by an LA nightclub owner, 48, who paid her mother $500.

WHAT BOOK would author Lucy EllMann take to a desert island?

LITERARY NEWS

WHAT BOOK would Eoin Colfer take to a desert island?

Maddened by love: Artist Celia Paul loved Lucian Freud so passionately that it made her ill. Only after a decade of his multiple affairs did she finally break free

The memoir Self-Portrait by Celia Paul (left) details how she fell in love with artist Lucian Freud at the Slade in the 1970s. She recalls her first sexual encounter with with Freud (pictured right with Celia in 2010) in 1978 when she was 18 and he was 56. Her mother cried when she saw her daughter in this state, in thrall to a powerful man more than three times her age. Her craving for him really was a sickness: one that lasted ten years, and caused her moments of ecstasy followed by bouts of deep depression.

Her husband died and Mary blossomed: Biographer reflects on the life of 18th-century artist Mary Delany, whose work flourished after tragedy

Clarissa Campbell Orr explores the life of 18th-century artist Mary Delany from Wiltshire in a new biography. Her work truly flourished in her 70s, despite the loss of her husband Patrick Delany.

Why STOLEN diamonds are a girl's best friend: Woman who used crime to fund her glamorous lifestyle reveals how she distracted shopkeepers while stealing jewels from luxurious stores

Doris Payne who funded her lavish lifestyle by stealing, documents the crimes she committed throughout the 1960s and 1970s in a memoir. She recounts growing up poor in Cleveland, Ohio.

They came suited, booted and full of hope - and we betrayed them: Fascinating history books reflect on the Commonwealth immigrants who arrived in Britain from the 1950s

Colin Grant shares accounts of the immigrants who came from the West Indies in search of a better life in Britain. Amelia Gentleman details descendants being classified illegal citizens.

Modest star who showed us all the way to Amarillo: Tony Christie reveals the challenges of his 50 YEARS in the music business

Tony Christie from Doncaster, who is best known for Comic Relief anthem (Is This The Way To) Amarillo, details his upbringing and lengthy music career in a fascinating autobiography.

The angry genius who stabs with his pen: Ysenda Maxtone Graham looks into the biography of political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe

Former Sunday Times and Evening Standard political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe has published his autobiography, revealing how he became a ruthless diminisher of power.

Ape misbehavin'! He's the celebrity who had sex in front of royalty - and as a charming new book reveals, Julius the chimp was so at home living with humans, he watched TV with the children and even slept in the family bed

An autobiography of Julius the Chimpanzee, that was reared with humans and used to share the family bed, has been published. He was reared by keepers at Kristiansand zoo in southern Norway.

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He walked into the consulate...then they cut off his fingers. A new book reveals chilling details about how a Saudi hit squad butchered the regime's brave critic, Jamal Khashoggi

The Killing In The Consulate (inset) by Channel 4 News journalist Jonathan Rugman details how Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi (left) was lured to the Istanbul consulate (right) before he was choked to death. The book describes - with chilling verbatim dialogue and sound effects - the struggle as he was jumped on, injected with a sedative and suffocated with a plastic bag.

Confessions of the man who failed to nail Jimmy Savile: Louis Theroux reflects on his encounters with the former children's TV presenter in a new memoir

Louis Theroux reflects on his career including his documentary with Jimmy Savile in a memoir. He recounts questioning the former TV presenter about being a paedophile when they met in 2000.

The 'care' system that stole me from my mother: Acclaimed poet Lemn Sissay's searing account of his traumatic childhood

Poet Lemn Sissay was born in 1967 in Wigan to his Ethiopian mother Yemarshet Sissay. She had come to Britain to study but soon found herself pregnant.

The singer who made Dickens weep . . . and was in a love triangle with the Russian novelist Turgenev - who was so obsessed with her that Tolstoy called him pitiful

Orlando Figes's remarkable new book examines the intertwined lives of Turgenev and the Viardots and their connections to the wider world of European culture in the 19th century.

War that changed women's lives for ever: A magisterial history of the Great War describes how it sparked a social revolution at home

Simon Heffer has produced his account of how the Great War shaped Britain and changed it forever. Around 705,000 men from the British Isles perished in the fighting.

Dr Who, anorexia and a tough act to follow: Christopher Eccleston reveals the drive behind his onscreen performances in fascinating memoir

Christopher Eccleston who is best known for portraying the ninth Doctor Who, has detailed his life in a memoir. He revealed that he often channels his father Ronnie Eccleston, when acting.

Forensic scientists won't eat cauliflower cheese because it smells the same as a corpse, new memoir reveals

In the mortuary, incidentally, stomach contents are removed with a soup ladle, according to a new memoir by forensic scientist Patricia Wiltshire.

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