Ettie: The Intimate Life and Dauntless Spirit of Lady Desborough by Richard Davenport-Hines
Weidenfeld, £25 Buy the book

If a picture gallery (country house landscapes, swagger portraits, society photographs) of English aristocratic life from the 1870s to the 1950s is required, look no farther than this illustrative biography illuminated by the iridescent presence of one of England's great society hostess. England made Ettie Desborough, and - in some high respects - Lady Desborough made England. When she died in 1952, postwar England had just begun to develop its modern character. Davenport-Hines is a perceptive social historian who intelligently integrates great lives and great loves with great events and, too often, great tragedies.

Hound Dog Days: One Dog and His Man by Harry Pearson
Little, Brown, £14.99 Buy the book

The dog is Little Man, Manny for short, a petit basset griffon Vendeen, who can come in from a walk looking like a garden bonfire and is the successor to Ingo, a standard schnauzer who looked like a Potsdam grenadier. The man is Harry Pearson, a journalist with a sense of humour, a happy man sweetly adapted to country life in Northumberland and other dog owners. Like Manny, Harry goes fossicking around in the countryside searching out material which he happily brings back, with a waggish joy, to present to us as a gift.

Have a Nice Day: Behind the Clichés, Giving America Another Chance by Justin Webb
Short Books, £14.99 Buy the book

Justin Webb, the BBC's North America editor, is a happy apologist and cheerleader for America. He tries to be even-handed, but cheerfulness keeps breaking through: he admits that the US may have its faults, but once the “toxic Texan” has gone, he says, things can only get better. Webb makes some big assumptions and breathtaking leaps of faith and logic, but his rose-tinted regard for the gung-ho US he recommends in this affably chatty, digressive book is very sincere.

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