It's one of the most anticipated movies ever, and now you can see for yourself how the magic of Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece was created on screen in The Lord of the Rings: Official Movie Guide. Brian Sibley's straightforward approach takes the reader from the initial conception of the film, as it was developed and passed around studios (it initially started life as a two-hour condensed version of the three novels), to the months of complicated special effects works necessary to do justice to Tolkien's extraordinary imagination. There are interviews with the key cast and production members and all the proceedings are liberally decorated with full colour photographs from the film itself. Sibley manages to perfectly document the painstaking attention to detail by the filmmakers, much of which will be missed by many movie-goers, but he also captures a sense of camaraderie from all involved in their efforts to make the best movie possible. If it's facts and background trivia you're after then this is the best place to be and is the perfect starting point to those new to Tolkien or eager to find out more about how epic films are put together. Dedicated fans who have been following the filmmaking process via the internet won't find anything here they didn't already know, but this is still a very good companion. —Jonathan Weir

This hilarious story of one man's lifelong obsession with cricket takes readers from the early awkward days as a fat boy growing up in a Brighton sweet shop to his years running a team of dysfunctional inadequates still chasing the sweet spot. In this story, cricket offers a shelter from life's irksome realities and a place in which to quietly dream. That place is a peculiarly English arcadia of occasional wondrous beauty, forests of comforting statistics, and the endless life-affirming rituals of defeat, humiliation, and disappointment—the perfect net practice for life.

All Provenced out? Then head further south, to the breathtaking mountainous climes of Andalucia. Just don't be squeamish about driving over lemons. Chris Stewart, skilled sheep-shearer and sometime Genesis drummer, took one look at the Alpujarrás, the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and decided that's where he wanted to be. This is the story of his adventures coming to terms with the terrain, the lifestyle and, of course, the locals, who possess all the rugged, homespun charm you'd expect. Stewart soon discovers all the hidden foibles of his bargain purchase, and spends the following year (rendered here in detail) installing the little luxuries of life like, say, water.

However, just when you're worrying that all this might degenerate into a rose-tinted Englishman-finds-nature idyll, Chris's wife enters the fray. Nonsense-free, straight-talking and relentlessly unsentimental, Ada should be a required resource for all travel writers. Ada gets bored with the fake machismo of pig-killing, Ada sees through the selfless "help" of the natives, Ada calls a peasant a peasant. With her on board, Stewart has the perfect counterbalance to his declared optimism, and Driving over Lemons becomes a loving but clear-sighted encomium, economically and wittily written, to a wonderful part of the world. —Alan Stewart