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Julia Brannen, professor of the sociology of the family, Thomas Coram Research Unit, UCL Institute of Education, is reading David Clark¡¯s Victor Grayson: The Man and the Mystery (Quartet, 2016). ¡°Everyone loves a mystery. Political thrillers are no exception. Victor Grayson was a charismatic Labour MP of working-class origins. A brilliant speaker but flawed politician, he disappeared in 1920 and was never heard of again. David Clark, a former Labour MP, has followed the trail of clues to intriguing effect, including honours scandals and cover-ups ¨C matters of relevance today.¡±

Carina Buckley, instructional design manager, Southampton Solent University, is reading Deborah Levy¡¯s Things I Don¡¯t Want to Know (Penguin, 2014). ¡°In recounting four tales from her life, Levy dissects and examines who she is, where she comes from and how she got to be where she is. As a response to Orwell¡¯s essay Why I Write, this is an intimate yet politicised analysis of society, of women, and of writing, ultimately answering her own question of why she writes.¡±

Tony Mann, director of the Maths Centre, University of Greenwich, is reading Frank Key¡¯s Mr Key¡¯s Shorter Potted Brief, Brief Lives (Constable, 2015) and By Aerostat to Hooting Yard: A Frank Key Reader (Dabbler, 2014, Kindle edition). ¡°Thanks to a reading at the excellent Greenwich Book Festival I have discovered the work of Frank Key, whose humour is reminiscent of both Wodehouse and Beckett. His stories of his imagined world, with evocative place-names and regularly recurring characters like the out-of-print pamphleteer Dobson and the ¡®fictional athlete¡¯ Bobnit Tivol, are unsettling, vaguely sinister and very funny.¡±

Uwe Sch¨¹tte, reader in German, Aston University, is reading Clemens Marschall¡¯s Avant-Garde from Below: Transgressive Performance (Rokko¡¯s Adventures, 2016). ¡°Who says pop music has to be pleasing and inoffensive? The radical punks examined in this fascinating volume pushed stage performance to new extremes. Through in-depth interviews and short essays, Marschall traces a transgressive aesthetic ¡®from below¡¯, focusing on Iggy Pop and other confrontational musicians. How low can you go, and still be able to consider it art?¡±

Sharon Wheeler, visiting lecturer in media studies, Birmingham City University, is reading Dominique Manotti¡¯s Kop (Rivages, 2001). ¡°I got fed up with waiting for Kop, the third book in the Daquin series, to be translated into English, so it was back to the original. Manotti¡¯s gritty tale of Paris cops and corruption zips along with its unconventional tough-guy gay hero ¨C and I knew my ability to curse and to discuss rugby in French would come in useful eventually!¡±