A new history of swimming sprinkles its pages with characters as diverse as Plato, Lord Byron and Ursula Andress

For Dara McAnulty, a passionate conservationist, the natural world provides the meaning and emotion that can sometimes be missing in human relationships

A new book rigorously examines the core beliefs of both the left and the right

It was Catherine the Great who first saw the potential for Russia to become an influential musical nation while also establishing the country as a great and often brutal European power

Tom Oliver’s provocative new book dismantles the flawed logic of seeing ourselves as sovereign individuals by highlighting our interconnectedness

Non-fiction: In this well-argued book, Kate Murphy urges readers to reconnect with others through the lost skill of listening

Swiss author Rolf Dobelli hopes to convince more and more people to switch off the news and turn their attentions to more enjoyable pursuits

Rachel Clarke’s medical memoir is at its strongest when it deals with her work in a hospice

Ten common assumptions about the Irish are put under the microscope

Non-fiction

Sociology

A fascinating celebration of the human body - and a warning about its abuse

A clear-eyed portrait of a cold-blooded tyrant

I Will Never See the World Again is both a haunting account of journalist and author Ahmet Altan’s trial and imprisonment and an invigorating testament to the consolations of the mind

Mixing memoir and psychology with a dash of self-help, Catherine Gray's new book positions itself as a manifesto for recalibrating how we think about singlehood

Fire On All Sides is Rhodes's diary of his five-month European concert tour in 2016

Catherine Blyth’s On Time is a pithy attempt to understand time, why it always feels like it’s speeding up, and how we might try to reclaim it