ALT A hardback copy of Jump! by Simon May, propped on a table with a display of bookshelves in the background. The cover shows the bottom half of a person preparing to jump from a diving board, against the backdrop of a blue sky with bold yellow text.

ALT A hardback copy of Summer of Fire and Blood by Lyndal Roper, propped on a table with a display of bookshelves in the background. The cover shows an illustration of a bright red figure carrying a flag and wielding a sword, against a backdrop of an illustrated battle scene.

ALT John Banville The most intellectually stimulating book I read this year was Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People by Emily Herring (Basic Books). It is hard to believe now, but in the early 20th century Bergson was one of the most famous people in the world, as famous as Albert Einstein, with whom he differed in a public confrontation in Paris in 1922. His philosophy of time was founded on two key concepts, durée, his word for the undulating temporal flow, and élan vital, the ongoing accumulation of experience over time. Bergsonism is definitely due a revival.