A roundup of this week's paperbacks

Afterlife

Sean O’Brien

Picador, £7.99

If summer's the time for thrillers and literary festivals, then the poet, critic, broadcaster and editor Sean O'Brien's first novel might be the perfect read. Martin Stone, a middle-aged academic, runs the local poetry festival in Divott. This year the committee plans to capitalise on the town's connection to the poet Jane Jarmain, who died some 30 years ago, since when she has had a cult following. Martin knows quiet a bit about young Jane; the novel's flashbacks reveal that in the summer heatwave of 1976 Martin, Jane and her lover Alex shared a country cottage. In a sharply detailed account of a drug-fuelled party, including some Americans and a visit from Hell's Angels, we learn of Jane's untimely death. Now, with Alex acting as the executor of Jane's literary estate, Martin is set to air some skeletons. A brilliant description of jealously and success, this page-turner is a great literary summer read . Emily Firetog

The Lady in the Tower: The Fall of Anne Boleyn

Alison Weir

Vintage, 8.99

Oh, I hear you groan. Hasn't Anne Boleyn been done to death? Actually, no. Much of what we "know" about her is a mishmash of scandal, spin and sexual innuendo. Her fate was so closely linked with that of the burgeoning Protestant Reformation that she has become an ideological emblem, with iconography to match, "honest heroine" or "shameless strumpet", depending on who you talk to. Alison Weir begins on May Day 1536. Halfway through the traditional spring jousting at Greenwich, Henry VIII abruptly got up and left. He never spoke to Anne again; within three weeks she was dead. Patiently, carefully, Weir unpicks the case against the queen – and as she is not only a consummate historical researcher but also a graceful and engaging writer, it makes for compelling reading. She presents, for instance, numerous reports of Anne's famous speech from the scaffold, and looks at how (and why) they differ. It brings the reader much closer to the history-making process than most popular histories – and it's a page-turner. Arminta Wallace

Making an Elephant: Writing from Within

Graham Swift

Picador £8.99

Graham Swift, winner of the Booker Prize in 1996 for his novel Last Orders, offers a glimpse into a life in writing in this collection of essays, portraits and reflections. Beginning with a visit to Santa Claus at the age of six, the book examines ideas of reality and fiction, the difficulty in getting down to write and the successes Swift has had as an author. In Buying a Guitar with Ish he describes his friendship with Kazuo Ishiguro. In the Bamboo Club with Caz is about Caryl Phillips, and Fishing with Ted tells of an outing with the poet Ted Hughes. The final essay, about his father, is a touching piece, but there are a few works of lesser strength, like the article on Prague or the selection of poetry. Overall, this collection makes for a loose, sometimes cosy portrait of Swift and his literary friends, with some fascinating insights into the challenges of being an author. Sorcha Hamilton

In the Falling Snow

Caryl Phillips,

Vintage Books, £8.99

A London social worker stuck in a midlife quagmire is the subject of Phillips's ninth novel; Keith, the son of West Indian immigrants, is living alone after cheating on his wife. When he discards a younger colleague and she makes their affair public, Keith is put on leave. Though he plans to use the free time to write a book, he mostly spends it arguing with his ex-wife, worrying about his troubled son and creepily pursuing a young Polish woman. While the novel ostensibly has much to say about race and Englishness, it can't quite articulate it. The occasional well-aimed insights are lost in scattered subplots and Keith's grumpy blandness, which dominates the book. He is profoundly unself-aware, using "middle class" as an insult and then complaining about the "crass vulgarity" of thongs and "overpowering" Chardonnay. Nevertheless, there are some moving passages, notably his father's arresting deathbed monologue about the racism and brutality he endured in an unfairly hard life. Daniel Bolger

The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham

Selina Hastings

John Murray, £10.99

This life of Somerset Maugham by the biographer of Nancy Mitford, Rosamond Lehmann and Evelyn Waugh is as full of wit, vitality and brilliance as Maugham himself. Scholarly yet accessible, Hastings's fascinating account takes us from Maugham's childhood in France through to becoming a British spy in both world wars. Losing his mother as a child provided the template for the rest of his life, the pain and isolation making him adept at disguise, always trying to recapture that intensity of unconditional love. This played out in his contradictory "secret lives": the dazzling writer and doctor, the predominantly gay man who was married with a child; spiteful yet compassionate, the toast of fashionable society, yet plagued by crippling shyness. Hastings radiantly uncovers the man who was alone with everybody, happiest when alone writing, "the most enthralling of human activities" and the one place where the writer "can tell his secret yet not betray it", which makes this a most fitting biography. Siobhán Kane