Annie Jacobsen’s Biological War: A Scenario is “a better briefing on the problem than the one we received in Downing Street,” a former UK government adviser said.

Bill Buford’s study of British hooliganism, Among the Thugs, bears “ambivalent witness to an era that was finally fading.”

The Booker-longlisted Black Bag, by novelist Luke Kennard, is “a very funny take on work, friendship, masculinity and other modern confusions.”

Charly Wegelius’ memoir Domestique, chronicling his unglorious career as a professional cyclist, is a “must-read.”

Albert Sabin, Karen Torghele’s biography of the polio vaccine developer, “does full justice to one of medicine’s forgotten giants.”