The astonishing feats of Sir Jack Hobbs continue to resonate more than a century after he first played Test cricket. During his long career that stretched from the age of W.G. Grace to the era of Don Bradman, he scored more first-class runs and centuries than any player.

Even today, he remains England’s greatest run-maker in Ashes Tests. He changed the art of batting with his elegant style, and transformed the status of professional cricketers through the strength of his quiet, dignified personality. Despite his significance in the game, there has never been a comprehensive biography of Hobbs.

Now Leo McKinstry, the acclaimed author of a best-selling life of “Geoff Boycott”, has remedied that. Based on a wealth of new material, including interviews with the Hobbs family, the book provides fresh insights into every aspect of his story, from his poverty-stricken upbringing in Cambridge to his central role in some of Test cricket’s most explosive series. It is a tale full of controversy, such as the previously unknown row over his actions in the First World War, when he was accused of “scandalous behaviour” by the cricket establishment.

Other dramatic episodes include a bitter dispute over the England captaincy in the 1920s, as well as and two occasions when he came close to death. With its colourful detail, historical context and readable style, this ground-breaking book is an important addition to sports literature.

In modern Britain, the working class has become an object of fear and ridicule. From Little Britain’s Vicky Pollard to the demonization of Jade Goody, media and politicians alike dismiss as feckless, criminalized and ignorant a vast, underprivileged swathe of society whose members have become stereotyped by one, hate-filled word: chavs. In this acclaimed investigation, Owen Jones explores how the working class has gone from “salt of the earth” to “scum of the earth.” Exposing the ignorance and prejudice at the heart of the chav caricature, he portrays a far more complex reality.

The chav stereotype, he argues, is used by governments as a convenient figleaf to avoid genuine engagement with social and economic problems and to justify widening inequality. Based on a wealth of original research, Chavs is a damning indictment of the media and political establishment and an illuminating, disturbing portrait of inequality and class hatred in modern Britain. This updated edition includes a new chapter exploring the causes and consequences of the UK riots in the summer of 2010.

As Marc Morris shows, there is more to castles than drawbridges and battlements, portcullises and arrow-loops. Be it ever so grand or ever so humble, a castle is first and foremost a home. It may look tough and defensible on the outside, but on the inside, a castle is all about luxury and creature comforts.

To understand castles–who built them, who lived in them, and why–is to understand the forces that shaped medieval Britain.

After her soldier husband is seriously injured and her marriage begins to fall apart, Meredith Cordingley returns to teach at Letchford, the grand Cotswold private school run by her father, who outwardly appears to be a typically English headmaster. The setting provides Meredith with a tranquil refuge from her own heartache until one September afternoon, when a shocking discovery is made in the history room. The police are called, but all is not what it seems.

Meredith is determined to discover the culprit and becomes convinced that a manipulative member of staff is controlling the sinister goings-on at her beloved Letchford, and exerting a calculating influence on a vulnerable and troubled young student, but on her journey to untangle the truth Meredith risks her father’s reputation, as well as her own. As the mystery unravels Meredith comes to discover that there is more than one person at Letchford School hiding a past filled with complicated secrets. What follows is a gripping mystery, a tale of war, grief, love and second

This is the one book on the Olympics you really do need. The Olympics is the world’s biggest sporting event – and it moves centre stage for London 2012. Yet the sports the world is familiar with – football, cricket, rugby, baseball, motor sports – are either missing or have a token presence.

In their place are games that most of us have not a clue how to play or to watch. Which is where this witty, insightful book comes into play, offering the back story behind each Olympics sport and, by means of fiendishly clever diagrams and prose, explaining the rules and finer points. Once you’ve read David Goldblatt and Johnny Acton’s accounts, you’ll be on tenterhooks to see whether the Danish or the Koreans triumph at handball, just what the Italian fencers are up to, and if Greco-Roman wrestling really is like a game of chess.