OxTravels: Meetings with Remarkable Travel Writers (Profile, £9.99) This is a collection of contributions from well-known writers, all very different, who were asked to write about a “significant encounter” from their travels — an unforgettable meeting that enriched the writer. One of the best stories — the first, in fact — comes from Oxford biographer Nicholas Shakespeare, who travels to Dahomey in Africa to research the life of Bruce Chatwin, whose second book, The Viceroy of Ouidah, was about a white slaver from Brazil called da Silva. The poignancy comes from the fact that Shakespeare is accompanied by his sister and her partner, a Brazilian musician whose name is also da Silva, who has joined the trip in search of his roots.

The Red Queen Philippa Gregory (Simon & Schuster, £7.99) The second book in The Cousins War trilogy tells the story of Margaret Beaufort, child-bride of Edmund Tudor, who, although widowed in her early teens, secures a place on the throne for her only son, Henry Tudor, in place of Richard III. Gregory is at home in the twists and turns of the era’s politics, and vividly evokes Margaret’s collaboration with the dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville, as they agree a power-building betrothal between Henry and Elizabeth’s daughter.