Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio
By Chris Laoutaris,
William Collins

The First Folio of 1623, a collection of thirty-six of Shakespeare’s plays in a single volume, initiated the succeeding celebrations of the Bard’s genius.

Smoke and Ashes: A Writer’s Journey Through Opium’s Hidden Histories
By Amitav Ghosh,
Fourth Estate

Vintage Style Watercolor Illustration of Red Poppies Getty images

Smoke and Ashes combines history, fiction, memoir and travel writing in completely unexpected ways.

Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Everyday People
By Julia Boyd,
Elliott & Thompson

How did people in Germany view the rise of Hitler? Does their passivity make them complicit in the depravity called Nazism? Julia Boyd ponders such difficult, but important, questions.

The Philosophy of Modern Song
By Bob Dylan,
Simon & Schuster
A book to be looked at (given its beautiful illustrations); a book to be listened to (it comprises inspiring songs); and, of course, a book to be read because it teaches you how to listen.

The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human
By Siddhartha Mukherjee,
Allen Lane
The fascinating history of the life sciences is told through theorists, experimenters, clinicians, patients, poets, dreamers and even cranks.

The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom
By P. Sainath,
Viking
While resurrecting heroes and heroines of the nation’s freedom struggle marginalised in/by historiography, P. Sainath questions the motives behind the public amnesia.

Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World
By Irene Vallejo (Translated by Charlotte Whittle),
Hodder & Stoughton
The magical, melancholy city of books conjured by Papyrus is an endeavour to rediscover lost, twilight worlds.

Cinema Speculation
By Quentin Tarantino,
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Racy, opinionated and ruminative, the book does not hesitate to reveal Hollywood’s pockmarks even as it acknowledges its creative capital.

A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré
Edited by Tim Cornwell,
Viking
A testament to the warmth, brilliance and intimacy of the remarkable life of John le Carré.

Putin’s Wars: From Chechnya to Ukraine
By Mark Galeotti,
Osprey

Vladimir Putin File image

As Russia wages war on Ukraine, Mark Galeotti charts the arc of Moscow’s wars under Vladimir Putin and studies the evolution of the Russian war machine.

The Language of Trees: How Trees Make Our World, Change Our Minds and Rewild our Lives
Compiled by Katie Holten,
Elliott & Thompson
Eclectic essays, an imaginative design and an enchanting theme will draw readers to
this volume.

Banned & Censored: What the British Raj Did Not Want Us to Read
Selected and introduced by Devika Sethi,
Roli
Devika Sethi delves into the trappings of ‘preventive’ and ‘punitive’ erasure, charting the history of censorship since the turn of the 20th century.

The Truth Pill: The Myth of Drug Regulation in India
By Dinesh S. Thakur and Prashant Reddy T.,
Simon & Schuster
The authors democratise public health and medicinal drug regulation with data and lucid analysis.

Courting India: England, Mughal India and the Origins of Empire
By Nandini Das,
Bloomsbury
Scholarship and sparkling prose make the retelling of Sir Thomas Roe’s visit to the court of Emperor Jahangir compelling.

Where the Madness Lies: Citizen Accounts of Identity and Nationalism
By Kishalay Bhattacharjee,
Orient BlackSwan
An important investigation into the criss-crossed notions of identity and citizenship at a time when the Indian government is being criticised for attempting to re-engineer the idea of belonging.

Witchcraft: A History in thirteen Trials
By Marion Gibson,
Simon & Schuster
A riveting exploration of 13 seminal witch trials spanning centuries and continents.

Women in the Wild: Stories of India’s Most Brilliant Women Wildlife Biologists
By Anita Mani,
Juggernaut

Painting of a witch Sourced by The Telegraph

Women in the Wild would inspire the young conservationist despite revealing gender asymmetries in conservation.

The World: A Family History
By Simon Sebag Montefiore,
Hachette
Shunning Eurocentrism, The World focuses on the family to ‘democratise’ global history.

The Anarchist Cookbook: A Toolkit to Protest and Peaceful Resistance
By Aakar Patel,
HarperCollins
The virtues of a citizenry engaged with the nation and interested in affecting positive change cannot be overstated: Patel’s book underscores this very point forcefully.