Point to Point Navigation, By Gore Vidal

Abacus £8.99

The incomparable ironist recalls a life lived mostly among legends – and what memories they are, knife-sharp and deliciously naughty. They include Princess Margaret boasting of her "uncommonly talented" sister: "She can put on a very heavy tiara while running down the stairs with no mirror." And the report of a visitor who paid a visit to the toilet in Vidal's Italian home after the famously androgynous Garbo: "And, yes, the toilet seat had been left up." At the heart of the book is a touching account of the decline of his partner. "As I left his room, he said, 'Kiss me.' I did. On the lips, something we'd not done for 50 years."