Folly by Alan Titchmarsh
Hodder & Stoughton, £18.99 Buy the book

The gardener Alan Titchmarsh has morphed into an author with stunning and mysterious success. His latest bears the cover line “Their love story began before they were born ...” and is excitingly packaged as a multigenerational saga. A group of Oxford friends are split when two boys love the same girl who carry their romantic rivalry into the world of fine art. Years later, their grandchildren - aware of the longstanding feud - are falling in love. The story is just about OK, and the truly dreadful writing probably won't matter to AT's many admirers.

Smile as They Bow by Nu Nu Yi, translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Nu Nu Yi
Hyperion, £13.99 Buy the book

Here is a sliver of something truly exotic and intriguing. Nu Nu Yi is one of Burma's most celebrated writers, and with this novel she became the first person in Burma to be nominated for an international literary award, the Man Asian Literary Prize. We follow several characters as they attend the Taungbyon Festival, in honour of the important spirits known as “nats”. Daisy Bond is a middle-aged gay transvestite medium who has fallen in love with his young assistant, Min Min. But a lovely beggar girl threatens to steal Min Min's heart. It's a wild week absolutely dripping with atmosphere - the details are unforgettably vivid.

Love All by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Pan Macmillan, £16.99 Buy the book

Howard's first novel, The Beautiful Visit, appeared in 1950. More than half a century later, Love All is classic Howard: a tangle of emotions around a group of earnest and rather sexy people in the 1960s. A young girl has been dumped by her married lover. Between jobs, she accompanies her eccentric gardening aunt, Floy, to the West Country. Jack Curtis, a millionaire, has employed Floy to restore his gardens. Down the road live the Musgrove siblings whose parents once owned Curtis's mansion. The writing - fragrant with poetry, spiked with wit - is divine.

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