Jeremy Catto: A Portrait of the Quintessential Oxford Don

David Vaiani
Unicorn, £25, pp208

Jeremy Catto, who died in 2018, was an Oxford don of the old school, the kind who Anthony Powell or Tom Sharpe might have created. In this affectionate and well-researched biography, a former student of his evokes not only a life of high table gossip and well-connected friendships that included everyone from Bryan Ferry to Princess Margaret, but depicts Catto as the last of a vanished breed. This academic was no snob, and his love of learning for its own sake remains inspirational.

Haunted Tales: Ghostly Stories for the Darkest Nights

Adam Macqueen
Swift, £12.99, pp208

Halloween is the traditional time for spooky stories, and Adam Macqueen’s new collection is a suitably atmospheric addition to the canon. The nine tales here are gently chilling rather than spine-chillingly terrifying, but Macqueen has a knack for conveying atmosphere and wry humour, as everything from a deceased son’s Facebook account to a battered old hawthorn tree can become the repository of otherworldly forces that the unwitting protagonists find themselves fatally entrapped by.

A Ballet of Lepers: A Novel and Stories

Leonard Cohen
Canongate, £10.99, pp272 (paperback)

Eight years after his death, the much-missed Leonard Cohen is still primarily regarded as a musician, but before he ever sang a note, he was a prose writer of considerable distinction. This collection of stories, along with a novella, is rich in the dark humour and lyricism that he brought to his records, shot through with a warped romanticism that he would perfect over the coming decades.

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