Hide-And-Seek With Angels: A Life of J. M. Barrie Lisa Chaney (Arrow, £9.99) oWhen James Matthew Barrie died, in 1937, his funeral was an occasion for national mourning. A succession of novels and long-running plays had brought Barrie enormous wealth, critical acclaim, a hereditary baronetcy and the Order of Merit. His public following extended to Hollywood where his work was performed by the stars of the silver screen. Such achievements did little to ameliorate the strains in Barrie's private life. Hampered by a stigmatising divorce, he was also struck by a series of tragic bereavements from which he never fully recovered, including his adopted son's death by drowning at Oxford. Former Oxford resident Lisa Chaney argues that his creation of Peter Pan touched on a universal nerve, the problem of growing up.

Bertie, May and Mrs Fish Xandra Bingley (Harper Perennial, £6.99) oBingley's account of her childhood on a Cotswold farm is set against the background of the Second World War and its aftermath. Bingley's mother, May, is left to farm the land, isolated in the landscape, while her husband is away at war. With its eccentric cast of characters, this book captures both the essence of a country childhood and the remarkable courage and resilience displayed by ordinary people during the war.

Gilbert White Richard Mabey (Profile, £8.99) oThe 18th-century naturalist Gilbert White, who lived at Selborne, just east of Winchester, was the first person to observe English nature and record it in a systematic way, providing us with the cornerstones of modern ecology. His masterpiece The Natural History of Selborne (1789) is the fourth most-published book in the English language. White has been presented as an ascetic, even a village mystic. Mabey, himself a noted naturalist, uses White's personal letters to his friend, John Mulso, to argue that White was not a pastoral recluse as is often thought, but a modern figure struggling to reconcile a love for nature with an enjoyment of the stimulation of urban life.