Off-mint

Like his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle enjoyed applying his mind to unsolved crimes, and the murder in 1860 of wealthy widow Mary Emsley was one such case. This book tackles the problem afresh, picking apart the evidence against the man who was hanged for the crime and, unlike Conan Doyle, reaching a conclusion as to the identity of the real killer.Off-mint

The adventure starts at IKEA: dwarfed by the 4x4s in the car park, will the Mini meet the challenge of the flat-packs? For anyone who gets misty-eyed remembering the holes in the floor and the weird starter button, this is the tale of Issigonis’ magical little car.

The rock journalist Ronin Ro chronicles the life and music of Prince Rogers Nelson (1958–2016), from teenage obscurity to his international fame, with huge hits such as Little Red Corvette and Purple Rain, and his creative contribution to the music industry. Slightly off-mint.

Including 4-4-2 and the eponymous total football, this history of the beautiful game’s tactics shows how the systems used on the field have defined the mindset, aesthetic quality and results of the greatest teams. Using infographics to explain each style, the book focuses on key matches and influential clubs to show how tactics have evolved from the defensive catenaccio to the short passes of tiki taka and from Cruyff to Guardiola.

In 50 world maps that ‘distil innumerable terabytes of data’ and ‘millions of hours of expertise’, this atlas describes natural phenomena – asteroid strikes, solar energy or ants – and human artefacts and activities as varied as undersea cables, guns and Twitter relationships. Whether showing bird diversity or happiness, these innovative maps illuminate the interconnectedness of nature and society: in Bonnett’s own example, the Ocean Rubbish map portrays the seas’ natural circulatory systems as well as our throwaway culture.

Using letters and diaries, some previously unpublished, this biography uncovers the relationships that sustained four of the world’s greatest women writers: Jane Austen’s bond with the family servant and amateur playwright Anne Sharp; Charlotte Brontë’s admiration for her unconventional schoolfriend Mary Taylor; the decade-long transatlantic correspondence between George Eliot and Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin; and the highly charged friendship of Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield.

Not marked on any official map, new islands are emerging from the ocean, villages are disappearing beneath it, sea-forts declare independence and utopian communities are founded. This book explores 39 such extraordinary places, among them the elusive Minkies in the English Channel, map-makers’ trap streets and the new Arctic being revealed as a result of global warming.

The explosion of independent breweries is the latest twist in the resurgence of the British beer industry. The popular bloggers Jessica Boak and Ray Bailey tell its story, from the reaction against industrialization and standardization in the 1950s and 1960s to modern craft beers. Slightly off-mint.

Bletchley Park may be famous for the exploits of Alan Turing and the team operating his first 'computer', but at the peak of its operations Station X employed as many as 12,000 people, two-thirds of whom were women. From language students to society debutantes and even a former ballerina, this book explores the extraordinary secret life of these women during the Second World War and the significant contribution they made to the Allied victory. Slightly off-mint.

‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends’... The redoubtable readers and letter-writers of the Daily Telegraph confront the era of Trump, Twitter and Brexit in this ninth compilation of wit, opinion and getting the facts right: from Forston in Dorset, a reader asks, ‘How can I distinguish fake reports about fake news from real reports about fake news? Slightly off-mint.

From the case of the killer worms to budgies with itchy beaks, Pete Wedderburn documents some of the most memorable mysteries from his many years in veterinary practice and as vet-in-residence answering readers’ questions at the Telegraph. Among his patients are a ginger cat with a bad cough, a Newfoundland who wouldn’t budge, and a parrot who refused to talk; and after each case of veterinary detection, there are owners’ questions and answers about similar problems.

Having mined the archives of readers’ letters ‘like a chaffinch in search of the juiciest worms’, Iain Hollingshead presents a hugely entertaining selection that illustrates the British love and respect for animals, whether tame or wild, mammal, bird or amphibian, and the occasional stick insect. Violent dislike is reserved for flying insects, and the Scottish midge in particular. Slightly off-mint.

Like his fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle enjoyed applying his mind to unsolved crimes, and the murder in 1860 of wealthy widow Mary Emsley was one such case. This book tackles the problem afresh, picking apart the evidence against the man who was hanged for the crime and, unlike Conan Doyle, reaching a conclusion as to the identity of the real killer. Off-mint

Organized by seasons, this anthology mines the Telegraph’s archive to present over 100 years of food writing, from ‘Cooks Compared: French v. English’ in 1899 to profiles of today’s famous chefs. There are articles and recipes from cookery writers including Elizabeth David, Clement Freud and Bon Viveur (aka Fanny and Johnnie Cradock), occasional pieces by writers, such as Germaine Greer’s lament on the death of True Parsley, readers’ letters, and even a survey of biscuits for dunking.

At the end of the Second World War, many of the Bletchley Park codebreakers were moved on to the newly formed GCHQ to keep tabs on Britain's new foe, the Soviet Union. This book explores their work in the early period of the Cold War as Western and Eastern blocs were established and cryptanalysts attempted to uncover the secrets behind flashpoints such as the Berlin Blockade, the Cambridge spy ring and the revolution in China.

‘Sir, It has all been a terrible mistake. We thought we were voting to leave Eurovision.’ In a year dominated by the EU Referendum, the Telegraph’s letter-writers were in full spate – and not just on the momentous vote. Here, in sections such a ‘The Use and Abuse of Language’, ‘Box Gogglers’ and ‘Royal Blushes’ are readers’ opinions – frankly stated – on everything from family life to ‘Benito Trump’.

As Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, the Queen is seen by many as a calm, reassuring presence in an era of restless change. This book looks at the institute she represents, explaining the machinery that sustains the monarchy: its constitutional role, its leadership of the Church of England and its finances, and speculates on its future, and the pressures that will face an heir to the throne. Slightly off-mint.

Famous for its record-breaking express service on the LNER in the 1920s and 1930s, then as a globe-trotting preserved locomotive after 1963, the Flying Scotsman is now a national icon. This history of the engine, from Nigel Gresley’s drawing board to the National Railway Museum in 2016, is illustrated with over 130 photographs and reproductions, from a rare shot of the newly constructed locomotive at the Doncaster shed in 1923, to a stunning picture of the train on an evening test run, 2016.

Beginning with the dramatic events of 10 May 1940 and the beginning of the coalition government with Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, Roger Hermiston provides a meticulously researched account of the men and women of Churchill’s war ministry, among them Clement Attlee, Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison, Anthony Eden, Lord Beaverbrook and Ellen Wilkinson: ‘the government that would win the war’.

Ever since the annual two-minute silence was first observed in 1919, the Last Post has been a powerful symbol of remembrance. In his exploration of this simple bugle call’s history, Turner tracks down its earliest known use (as ‘Setting the Watch’) in the 18th century, examines the role of buglers during the First World War and shows how the Last Post has kept its significance despite early controversy over the nature of the Cenotaph ceremony and the changing meaning of Remembrance today.

The Battle of Britain may have been won by 'the Few' but resistance to German aerial attack in the early part of the Second World War also relied on a well-organized network of support staff. Based on interviews with members of this formidable team, the book pays tribute to the men and women who enabled the Spitfires and Hurricanes to prevail, from radar engineers and coastal spotters to Wrens in the control rooms and pilots in the air.

In 1980, when Britain had no 24-hour television news, internet, Twitter or demands for ‘transparency’, the cogs of government turned most mysteriously. Public enlightenment came with an intelligent, well-informed and hilarious TV series: Yes Minister and its sequel, Yes Prime Minister, which revealed and mercilessly lampooned what went on in Whitehall and Westminster. Graham McCann tells the story of the series and seeks out the real political fiascos that inspired it. Slightly off-mint.

Arranged alphabetically from Jonathan Aitken to Oscar Wilde, this entertaining selection of miscreants from the pages of the Telegraph since the 1850s covers the whole spectrum of scandal, including adultery, espionage, fraud, cheating at the Olympics and selling sex for luncheon vouchers. The book reprints articles on 78 high-profile cases and encompasses a great diversity of swindlers, low-lifes, sleazy politicians and spies, but also two kings, a duchess and a US president.

A vintage year for readers' letters, 2015 offered up Poldark on TV (an excess of chest hair), Fifty Shades of Grey, Nicola Sturgeon vs the English, a royal birth and, to cap it all, a general election starring Labour's pink bus and David Cameron with his shirt sleeves rolled up – but not much gets past a Telegraph reader: '... the fact he has no breast pocket shows that he is truly a toff.'

Bletchley Park may be famous for the exploits of Alan Turing and the team operating his first 'computer', but at the peak of its operations Station X employed as many as 12,000 people, two-thirds of whom were women. From language students to society debutantes and even a former ballerina, this book explores the extraordinary secret life of these women during the Second World War and the significant contribution they made to the Allied victory.

While books about prisoners-of-war usually focus on daring escapes, this one is about the men who not only survived incarceration, but turned the experience to their advantage. It describes how, as well as setting up universities to study subjects ranging from French and German to pig-farming, prisoners kept busy and stayed optimistic through performing as actors or musicians, playing sports and becoming makeshift doctors, cooks, birdwatchers or gardeners.

SN Pike's legendary hand-drawn route maps are a guide to Britain's major railways on the eve of nationalization, with notes on the view from the train as well as trackside data for railway enthusiasts. The 1947 routes of the LNER, Southern Railway and LMSR are reproduced here; plus a new route, drawn in Pike's style, for the GWR. With new introductions by Peter Herring.

Still evoked as proof of a nation's innate resilience and ability to come together in a crisis, the evacuation of more than 338,000 troops from Dunkirk by a ragtag fleet that included car ferries, lifeboats and pleasure cruisers seems as unlikely as it was miraculous. This book draws on the first-hand accounts of veterans, both soldiers and civilians, to recount how the army came to be stranded, how the unlikely extraction was achieved and how the subsequent myth was established.

The building of the railways made seaside holidays a possibility for workers in Britain's industrial cities and transformed a host of small coastal towns into glamorous entertainment centres. Using archive photographs and ephemera and the memories of people who worked and holidayed in places such as Margate, Scarborough and Blackpool, this nostalgic history recalls the culture of donkey rides, lidos and variety shows that was the pleasure of millions until air travel drew people away from the traditional resorts.

Using the same cartographic method as SN Pike in his legendary Mile by Mile on Britain's Railways, this book logs every mile on the historic Golden Arrow (Fleche d'Or) and modern Eurostar lines: gradients, stations, the sights to be seen from the train, the history along the route, and how both railways were built. The old and new lines are mapped on facing pages, interspersed with illustrated articles on topics such as the terminals, ferries and the Channel Tunnel.

During the course of the Second World War, the Entertainments National Services Association put on countless productions for the troops across the world, offering everything from music hall turns to Laurence Olivier. The enormous number of shows meant that the talent was spread thinly and performances were often delivered in difficult circumstances and inhospitable climes. Drawing on interviews with surviving ENSA performers, this book tells the colourful story of this most unusual and complex theatrical enterprise.

The 1951 Festival of Britain brought both excitement and optimism to the drab post-war years of rationing and austerity. This book explores the intentions of its creators, recounts the effect of its satellite festivals all over Britain, and records how it transformed London's South Bank with buildings such as the Royal Festival Hall and the futuristic Skylon, spawned the Miss World contest, introduced Britons to Scandinavian design and even offered them their first experience of soft lavatory paper.

The Daily Telegraph has long been popular reading among gardeners, and its pages have featured some of the nation's finest horticultural writers. Compiled by the newspaper's gardening columnist, this lively and varied anthology includes articles by Fred Whitsey, Rosemary Verey and Bunny Guinness, along with the more esoteric musings of Bill Deedes, Germaine Greer and Roy Strong. The subjects range from Vita Sackville-West's garden at Sissinghurst to how to grow prize-winning pumpkins. Book club edition.

In the world of Google Earth, it is easy to believe that every inch of the planet has been mapped. Happily, this is not true. This book ranges the globe to celebrate the anomalies that still frustrate the cartographer: islands that never existed; abandoned settlements; a secret military town in Russia; and renamed cities whose old identities cling like ghosts.

Launched in 1855, the Telegraph quickly became Britain's most popular, trusted source of news, whether county cricket scores or distant war. This selection of articles offers contemporary perspectives on events ranging from the Treaty of Paris in 1856 to the FIFA corruption scandal of 2015, and including the Relief of Mafeking, Britain's Declaration of War in 1939, the Kennedy assassination and the 9/11 attacks – all in the words of reporters 'in the right place at the right time'.

A letters page may seem antiquated in an era of texting and tweeting, yet the Telegraph's letter writers – often bemused, sometimes furious, always erudite – are a breed apart. Here are their wise, waggish and unpublished opinions on everything from gay marriage ('Sir – Gays should be able to marry so they can suffer like the rest of us') to royal babies ('Sir – Maybe the hospital could release pink or blue smoke when the baby is born').