... A Bill Bryson "down on the farm"

Absorbing and authoritative... this book's trove of anecdotes is a treat

Williams is clear and authoritative... he expertly unravels the myths from the facts

An engrossing read from start to finish - heartily recommended

[Greenberg] capitalises on his unrivalled access to may of the key players, including those poster boys, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange.

Greenberg's focus ranges from the unforgettable, such as Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg; to the barely recognisable, such as WikiLeaks associate Jacob Appelbaum, as well as obvious candidates such as Julian Assange and Bradley Manning... will be lapped up by anyone with even a passing interest in the area.

Some secrets are meant to be kept; some are destined to be exposed. Andy Greenberg’s book is the story of a revolution in societal transparency. It’s an expose of the characters who have put secrets in peril. For those that seek transparency, it’s a riveting tale. For those that must keep secrets, be warned: This book holds up a mirror to your worst fears

Andy Greenberg’s compelling account points to a future in which few corporate and government secrets are safe. This is the book you must read to understand the WikiLeaks phenomenon and the growing struggle over the most sensitive institutional secrets

Andy Greenberg tells a vivid story that weaves together compelling characters and powerful technology that could change politics more profoundly than any technology since the printing press. By the time I was finished, I was both inspired and terrified

The Brother Gardeners were a group of men involved in the 18th-century quest for new plants, at a fascinating period in garden history. Andrea Wulf brings their personalities vividly to life in her thoroughly researched and lively account.

A totally engrossing read

Immaculately written and researched, this book brings to life the dramas and dangers of eighteenth-century plant collecting

[An] engrossing history of botanical obsession in England in the 18th century ... The author has a good eye for interesting detail and a fine sense of literary economy

A 'biography' of the quintessential English garden, taking in Captain Cook, Carl Linnaeus, and the simultaneous rise of the British Empire and flower arranging - a delightful look at horticultural history

As Wulf triumphantly shows, plants and gardens reveal a wider view of the forces that shape society ... An antidote to dry garden history; rarely has the story of English plants been told with such vigour, and such fun

The best book this year is The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession

Andrea Wulf has written a wonderful book, using a clutch of fascinating men to remind us the British Empire was once as much about white pine and Camellia japonica as it was about guns and steel ... enthralling story ... brilliantly readable book

James Rebanks's unsentimental, sharply detailed memoir about his life as a shepherd gripped me from the first page

A timely and important book, with flashes of beauty in its spare and honest prose

In James Rebanks we hear a new voice from the fells. The toil and the beauty in The Shepherd's Life are utterly compelling

A vivid, honest, unforgettably written account not just of one shepherd's year, but of an ancient way of life

The Shepherd's Life is a reader's delight. No tourist wandering the iconic Lake District is Rebanks; coming from centuries of farmers he is as 'hefted' to the fells as the Herdwick sheep he keeps. He lives, breathes and works his landscape - which gives him an inside edge as sharp as shears over most of the flock of current countryside-writers. Rebanks has written a marvellous autobiography - of himself, his family, and the hills themselves. For they are indivisible

What came through was the stolid humility, gentle stubbornness and genuine care you need to live this life. Many books are written about a thing but this book is of a thing and is valuable for it

The Shepherd's Life is that rare thing, a well-written book about the life of the land by a man who gets his living from the land. It's a paean for a peopled landscape, and a powerful counterblast to the doleful environmentalism that would empty our land of its people

Beautifully written

Irreverent, honest, achingly beautiful and totally authentic. Rebanks challenges us to understand what would be lost if no one remembers the seasons of a shepherd's life or the culture of sheep farming. His joy is as contagious as his writing

Truly extraordinary... written with a mastery of vivid, concrete detail that makes you gasp

A wonderful book which will surely become a Lake District classic. Powerfully written and unflinchingly honest, it provides a vivid insight into the realities of hill farming life

A gorgeous book, unsentimental but exultant, vivid and profound, and a fierce defense of small-scale farming

A beautifully told tale suffused by a profound sense of belonging and a clear-eyed love of the land and its people.

His prose is earthed and conversational; it feels as if you're leaning over a gate, listening to his ruminations. The book exudes tough passion, and a sense of belonging and love that holds you rapt to the very last line

What a great idea this is...a masterpiece of time, distance, palm trees, frosty mornings, lofty ambition and self-effacing charm

A fascinating book that ought to put flight in a new light for many people

Masterly, beautifully written book

Alive with the joy of everything from takeoff…to the dream-like quality of flight itself

Marvelously literate… If [Vanhoenacker’s] book had been around in the mid-‘80s, I suspect I wouldn’t have been afraid to fly in the first place

In the pages of his book…you will find yourself agreeing that “The ordinary things we thought we knew…becomes more beautiful”

Commendably, the technical aspects are outlined in a straightforward, accessible manner, while overall the book demonstrates that aviation has lost none of its appeal

A lovely memoir

For anyone who wishes to get a pilot’s insight into what it’s really like to notch up thousands of miles and hours… – you won’t find a much more passionate account than this one

[Vanhoenacker] invites readers with him on to the flight deck, describing the minutiae of flight with a degree of detail that would be nerdy were it not for the poetry of his writing

As you battle with the cramped legroom in economy class, [Vanhoenacker’s] view of aviation may just transport you

[An] elegant meditation on being an airline pilot

[Vanhoenacker] wants us to fall in love with flying again

A highly readable account, as moving as it is unexpected, of what flying means, by an airline pilot with a gift for words. Antoine de Saint-Exupery lives again

[This] airborne odyssey of a book is enthralling, from the physics of lift and the vicissitudes of flight paths to the aura borealis and the pristine sunsets. Read it and you’ll request a window seat every time you fly

This mesmerising book will make you view the world differently

Few people have captured the fascination of flying as well as U.S. journalist and pilot Mark Vanhoenacker.

Delves deeply into the magic and beauty of flight. An elegant writer with a sharp eye and a literary mind, Vanhoenacker… Writes about flight on an emotional and spiritual level, how it makes him feel to soar above the Earth while watching the landscape pass below.

He spins a curious and articulate exploration of flying.

Vanhoenacker’s calm and scrupulously composed prose style is soothing… Vanhoenacker manages to make flying seem exciting again.

A beautiful, contemplative book… What Skyfaring gives is something we need: elevation; another perspective… Normally when I find a volume where prose style and subject matter fuse so pleasingly, I tear through it in a day. Here, I found myself pausing on almost every page, as I absorbed its detail or phrasing.

Here is the simple wonder that remains at the heart of an experience which modern travellers all too easily take for granted.

A writer of exquisite prose, fascinated both by the technical and mystical aspects of flight... In every line of this lovely book, there is something beautiful and strange.

This is the best book I've ever read on the subject... It's one of the best travel books I've ever read... Superb.

An unexpectedly lyrical memoir on a fascinating subject… Skyfaring will give you a delightfully fresh perspective on the wonder that is air travel.

It’s calm, poetic and riveting… Fascinating.

He writes beautifully about the strange, alien world of high-altitude passenger flights… Vanhoenacker loves flying and communicates beautifully its marvels and mysteries.

I loved this fabulous insight into the secret world of the sky.

A brilliant, chunky, study of genes.

This book captures the progression from that intuitive sense of genetics to its birth as a veritable science and, for better or for worse, its evolution into a powerful tool… The book ends not with a conclusion, but with a feeling of anticipation… In many ways, The Gene is a call for caution and for a thoughtful consideration of the possibilities that progress may bring… When genes become tools, what will those tools be used for? As we try to answer that question, Mukherjee’s book asks us to carefully look back before we continue to move forward

A comprehensive – and gripping – history of the gene