There is plenty of irreverence, and high spirits abound, but the Radletts are loveable to their cores, even as their searches for love go catastrophically wrong. Linda remains “soft-shelled as well as soft-hearted, with an overabundance of trusting optimism and friendliness”. Perhaps this is why she remains a heroine for all ages: there is an innocence about her, even as she abandons a child and, here, dabbles in drugs. Despite the hints of darkness, and the desperately moving ending, Darling is a warm hug of a novel. In her journalism Knight has written often about the importance of cosiness, and here she has the perfect cosy autumn read. It’s a book to escape to, get lost in, and fall in love with all over again

AN Wilson’s Confessions is subtitled “A Life of Failed Promises”, which is a little harsh for one of the most consistently lively and entertaining writers and one of the kindest of men

The late Roberto Calasso may have been train-ed more for the studia humanitatis than for God’s kingdom, but the prodigious Florentine author spent a lifetime procuring marvels new and old from the treasure-house of literature

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout Viking Penguin, £14.99, 256 pages ________ The best-known and certainly the most dramatic novel about a former spouse is probably Rebecca. Not every story about an ex features murder, infidelity, madness and arson (much as we may wish it to). Nonetheless, exes engender lasting feelings, irritation, resentment and occasional bursts

Matrix by Lauren Groff  William Heinemann, £16.99, 272 pages __________ The 12th-century poet we know as Marie de France was, scholars argue, the greatest writer of short fiction before Boccaccio and Chaucer. Her lais – tantalisingly short romances written in octosyllabic couplets – are thought to rival the best that those great men had to

Jack Miles reviews Francesca Stavrakopoulou's new book 'God: An Anatomy'

David Lough reviews Geoffrey Wheatcroft's new book 'Churchill’s Shadow: An Astonishing Life and a Dangerous Legacy'

Harry Mount reviews Charlotte Higgins's new book, 'Greek Myths: A New Retelling' for the September '21 issue of the Catholic Herald