Jeremy Black recommends three history books that have been neglected by literary reviewers

Minoo Dinshaw fills in the gaps in an official guide to Scottish history

Frederic Raphael reveals how Paul Cartledge makes the case for a central historical role for Oedipus’s home town

Tom Chesshyre on the joy and rattle of Spain’s local lines

There is a lesson here for those who prefer to sharpen their knives on the whetstone of grievance

Michael Prodger tracks the story of a lost masterpiece

Christopher Silvester reveals how this biography of Robert Maxwell is a skilfully constructed page-turner

Norman Lebrecht says an affair with Coco Chanel did Stravinsky’s PR, and hers, no harm at all

W. Sydney Robinson, the historian’s latest biographer, discovered that his subject was without scruple in matters of the heart

Bullfighting was a lifelong fascination for Francis Bacon and played an increasingly important role in his work, his high-risk approach matching that of the matador