Like a lot of autobiographies, So Me is more interesting and insightful on the period of struggle before Graham Norton became famous than on a life which has become a constant round of professional encounters with celebrities. He is funny on his unsuccessful career as an actor and rather touching on the friendships that date back to the years he spent as a waiter. Under a surface of camp glibness, he is surprisingly evocative about the London of the 1980s-certain key locations of his life such as the restaurant where he worked or the slum high-rise where he lived are entirely present here. He is honest about his flaws and moving about friends who taught him to be better-for example, a commune where he lived for a year in San Francisco gets a tribute. His later life-his cult success as a comedian and his discovery that what he really was is a chat-show host-is recorded with occasional insight. He is attractively unapologetic about his taste for smut; this is who he is and what he does, and we can take it or leave it. -Roz Kaveney.

Captain of the national side at 25, and one of the most successful top-flight opening batsmen in the game, the bare facts of Mike Atherton's career portray him as one of the golden boys of English cricket, but in Opening Up he reflects on a sporting life equally characterised by his struggle to match lofty expectations, and the off-field politicking that tested his resourcefulness to the limit. From his early days as a university-educated upstart marching into a Lancashire first-team dressing room filled with seasoned pros, to the constant wrangling behind the scenes of the English game, and a rarely harmonious relationship with the press, Atherton has found himself engaged in a constant battle to retain focus on events out in the middle. Even when there, things were far from plain sailing, and he recounts it all with admirable candour, epitomised by the story of his Test debut, where the fresh-faced youngster was given a lesson in professional reality by a senior team-mate: "You play your first [Test] for love, and the rest for money". Elsewhere, amid the analysis of his time at the helm of an often struggling England side, Atherton highlights a career-long battle with injury and pain suppression, which resulted in what would have been seen in other eras as a very early retirement. At the centre of the book is the infamous ball-tampering row in 1994. Illustrated with extracts from Atherton's diary of the time, the man at the centre of the huge media storm makes a concerted defence of what many argued was behaviour unworthy of any cricketer, let alone a national captain. There can be little debate however that Atherton, a broadsheet columnist, can write. His characterisations are deftly drawn, particularly of key figures such as Illingworth, Gooch and Boycott, and there is plenty of pithy humour, some earthy language and an eye for what makes good gossip, to counterbalance what is at heart a refreshingly serious and thoughtful book. Too often sports autobiographies leave readers wishing that a more subtle, expressive and observant author was reporting from the arena-not in this case. Atherton resists the temptation to manufacture controversy, but comments on his own, and other's achievements, with a laudable sense of perspective. [+]

Bruce Forsyth has been a regular guest in British living rooms since the dawn of the television age as we know it. As king of comedy and light entertainment, his appearances are part-ringmaster, part-showman, hugely professional, highly polished and practised to each perfect ad lib. While we are used to such a staged, two dimensional knowledge of Forsyth, it is refreshing to see him from behind the slap 'n' tickle veneer of the consummate performer. Bruce: The Autobiography is a fair-paced chronicle of a public figure now well into his 70s. As such, its remit is, to some extent, predictable; middle-class life in Edmonton, North London, then evacuation, the war years, and on to the theatre-land world of pier shows and music hall, egged on by an ambition to dance like Fred Astaire and later Gene Kelly, before variety show breaks on TV, and finally the honour of a starring role on the small screen. Forsyth's tone is triumphant; his unparalleled success over decades showing with bravado in his storytelling. Young ambition and statesmanlike expectation of his place in the grand scheme of showbiz shine through, and, as with many star biogs, first wives and kids get shorter shrift than those who replace them in later years. Still, the writing is entertaining, and although perhaps unintentional, a little vindictive streak against ex-agents and seaside landladies alike adds-perhaps unintentional-humour, as does his impatience with those with whom he does not quite see eye to eye. Forsyth's career began in the WIndmill Theatre, whose revues included many a woman wearing tassels, so he was well prepared to play alongside many a glamourous Generation Game and Play Your Cards Right hostess, and more prepared (and proud) still to marry a former Miss World. Very much traditionalist in outlook, but with plenty of sparkle in the style which made him famous, Bruce: The Autobiography should delight an older generation of fans who have grown up and older in the comfortable shadow of one of the last true variety performers. [+]

Published a mere 13 days after the death of Katharine Hepburn, Kate Remembered is best appreciated as a billet-doux of devoted friendship. It's a moving study of mutual trust and admiration between Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographer A Scott Berg and legendary Hollywood icon Hepburn, who'd established an instant rapport in 1983, beginning a 20-year conversation that blossomed into this enchanting "biographical memoir". As a casual but authoritative survey of Hepburn's career, Berg's book offers little new information to anyone who's read previous Hepburn biographies or Me: Stories of My Life, Hepburn's bestselling 1991 memoir. But the duality of Berg's title reinforces his purpose: "More than my remembrances," writes Berg in his author's note, "this book intends to convey hers. " As such, Kate Remembered offers a rare, unvarnished portrait of one of the 20th century's most influential women, achieving a personal intimacy while making the reader feel welcomed in Hepburn's private world of privilege. Although Berg (the acclaimed biographer of legendary editor Max Perkins, producer/mogul Samuel Goldwyn and aviator Charles Lindbergh) had written all but the final paragraphs by 2001, Hepburn insisted this book remain unpublished until after her death, which came, in quiet dignity at age 96, on June 29, 2003. Given the book's prepublication secrecy, it's hardly tabloid-worthy, serving instead to correct or clarify details from Hepburn's glory days-especially her long-term affair with Spencer Tracy-while offering choice bits of Hollywood gossip, Hepburn's frequently scathing assessments of other actors and amusing encounters with such luminaries as Michael Jackson and Warren Beatty (both of whom appear as mock suitors with selfish motivations). It's a brisk read but a substantial one, richly emotional and as dignified as Hepburn herself, whose faults and foibles make her even more appealing than her beloved public persona. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com Published a mere 13 days after the death of Katharine Hepburn, Kate Remembered is best appreciated as a billet-doux of devoted friendship. [+]