The 10 Best new biographies
From Banksy and Putin to two men who ran across America
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Your support makes all the difference.1. Night Thoughts by Robert Fraser
£30, oup.com
Colourful biography of the English surrealist poet David Gascoyne. Fabulous.
2. The Baroness by Hannah Rothschild
£20, virago.co.uk
The author's free-spirited great aunt left her life of fusty balls, Bentleys and stately homes for the 1950s New York Jazz scene.
3. Simon Cowell by Tom Bower
£18.99, faber.co.uk
From failed music exec to global pop behemoth. Not high art, but juicy as a pear and interesting.
4. Banksy: Man Behind The Wall by Will Ellsworth-Jones
£20, aurumpress.co.uk
Charting the move from spray-can-wielding teen tagging his youth club, to global art star.
5. Hitler: A Short Biography by AN Wilson
£14.99, harpercollins.co.uk
Despite some controversy stoked by a Cambridge Hitler expert, this is highly readable.
6. Putin: The Man Without A Face by Masha Gessen
£20, grantabooks.com
A brave book documenting Putin's corruption, and goes some way to explaining Russia's liberal turn.
7. Diamond Queen by Andrew Marr
£25, panmacmillan.com
Worth a read, even if just for the amusing anecdotes, which bring out the inner nosy parker in us all.
8. Wilkie Collins by Peter Ackroyd
£12.99, randomhouse.co.uk
Victorian author of sensational fiction and detective stories and a bosom buddy of Charles Dickens.
9. Running For Their Lives by Mark Whitaker
£17.99, randomhouse.co.uk
In 1928 two men ran across America in 80 days. An extraordinary tale.
10. A Card From Angela Carter by Susannah Clapp
£10, bloomsbury.com
A luminous picture of her friend and correspondent, this is an intimate, funny, ribald book.
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