Ed Perkins takes a look at some newly published titles.

The Boss by Michael Crick, Simon and Schuster £17.99 (Borders price, £14.99)

After his Jeffrey Archer biography Crick sticks his neck out with this heavyweight look into the life of a Govan toolmaker. Oh and this smart Alex Ferguson fellow went on to manage some Manchester football team that used to win a few things.

The Queen's Story by Marcus Kiggell and Denys Blakeway, Headline £20

Book accompanying BBC series. Girl called Liz is born as the 1926 Miners' Strike looms. When she was eight months old her mum and dad gadded off for six months Down Under. I often wondered what happened to that poor mite?

The Other Wind by Ursula Le Guin, Orion £10.99 (£8.99)

Magical fable ties up the Earthsea series. The dead try to return by invading the dreams of a sorcerer who begs archmage Ged to save him. But the realm is at stake and they team up with old Earthsea pals Tenar and Tenahu plus a dragon that assumes a woman's shape. (Remember Peggy Mount?)

Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion by Peter Ackroyd, BBC £16.99 (£13.99)

Victorians? Respectable? The greatest British writer of his time (George Eliot apart), it seems, may have kept a secret mistress for years. The 1960s had its Ken Kesey, William Burroughs and love-ins; the Victorians had their Dickens.

PS: I bet you men thought The Other Wind was going to be about flatulence?