David Gilmour
The most enjoyable book I have read this year is Vic Gatrell's City of Laughter (Atlantic Books, £35), a work which is as boisterous as its subject — sex and satire in 18th-century London. The author has a wonderful sense both of place and of atmosphere.
Adam Tooze's The Wages of Destruction (Allen Lane, £30) is a hugely impressive narrative of the making and breaking of the Nazi economy. The drama and recklessness with which the Germans managed their economic policy are powerfully conveyed.
Italy was in need of a comprehensive modern history to rank with Denis Mack Smith's masterpiece of 50 years ago. Christopher Duggan has now provided it with The Force of Destiny (Allen Lane, £30), a brilliant work dealing equally with the successes of the national movement in the building of Italy and the long series of political failures that followed.
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