An interview with the model and I’m a Celebrity contestant Katie Price, also known as Jordan, ensured bumper sales for the 28-year-old’s second autobiography, A Whole New World.Executive producer Amanda Ross, who selects the books, has even been described as the most influential person in publishing. Her liking or disliking for a novel has created the “Richard and Judy effect” – and been compared to Oprah Winfrey’s pioneering US TV book club. Madeley said his perfect holiday read was “one with a compelling narrative but [that] also helps you unwind and not take the hazy summer days too seriously”. He said both he and his wife had read all the books on the list.Finnigan added: “Whether you are housebound or destined for sunnier shores, I’m sure you’ll find these titles to be real page-turners.”Ms Ross said: “The summer read aims to eliminate that desperate dash round the book shop in search of inspiration and bring you six easy-going titles by brand new or emerging authors so you’ll certainly get something different and enjoyable.” What’s on the list * The Highest Tide, by Jim LynchA 13-year-old boy discovers a giant squid near his American seaside home and becomes a media star.* The Righteous Men, by Sam BourneThriller set in New York about a journalist investigating a series of seemingly random murders.* The Island, by Victoria HislopA love story set on a Greek island.* My Best Friend’s Girl, by Dorothy KoomsonKamryn is devastated when her best friend Adele sleeps with her fianc?nd has a child by him – but is then faced with raising the child when Adele reveals she is dying.* The Historian, by Elizabeth KostovaA teenage girl sets out to Romania to discover the truth behind the Dracula story in this vampire chiller.* The Abortionist’s Daughter, by Elisabeth HydeWhen an abortion doctor is found murdered, the list of suspects includes her family and her enemies in the anti-abortion lobby.. A six-month-old foetus, writes Sarah Norgate, is immersed in time. Its mother’s heartbeat, the rhythms of her voice, peristaltic echoes: all offer regularities that start tuning a new human’s senses to patterns of interval and duration. And immersed in time is how we remain, until our time runs out – at 90 or so in the affluent West, if we’re lucky, but sooner in sub-Saharan Africa.

This informative first book by Norgate, a psychologist, looks at how we relate to the fourth dimension, from the millisecond precision of a tennis player returning a serve to the personal narratives we each build, which can extend over several generations. She samples time in different cultures: the main contrast here is between the clock-driven, diary-governed, synchronised lives that derive from the discipline of industrial work and more event-focused (if less eventful) agrarian regimes, and the “timeless” philosophies of Buddhism and Hinduism. She also finds time for charming variations, like the Amerindians of the Aymara, for whom the past lies in front and the future behind.
The book, short enough to suit time-poor readers, is an agreeable blend of psychology, neuroscience, sociology and anthropology. It is well supplied with interesting observations about babies, prisoners serving life, drug-users, politicians, the terminally ill, drivers judging whether to run an amber light and urbanites trying to negotiate ticket barriers. Unexpectedly, Dubliners live the fastest lives, but Switzerland does have the most accurate public clocks.This could have been a bit of a hodge-podge, but is saved by a unifying concern for inequalities in relationships with time. Our cheap clothes come at the expense of the truly time-poor, sleeping just long enough to resume their sweatshop labours.

More subtly, our shift to 24/7 services – “the colonisation of the night” – requires an expanding army of shift workers, enduring stress and ill-health.The framing of time as a political issue adds punch to the wider reflections on how we experience it. Norgate holds back from a classic Marxist analysis, though it strikes me that time would translate fairly well. But she makes a good case that the rich have more time, and more control over how to use it, even as they make most noise about how they can never find enough hours in the day.Jon Turney leads the MSc in creative non-fiction writing at Imperial College London. It’s easy to save on your energy, digital TV or home phone bills.

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Click here to launch the service now.. A “people’s power” plan to rejuvenate Britain’s dying democracy and restore voters’ trust in politicians has been drawn up by a close ally of Gordon Brown. The Labour MP Michael Wills wants a constititutional convention of “ordinary” people to produce reforms to bridge the divide between the political class and the public. It could be one of the “big ideas” Mr Brown implements if, as expected, he succeeds Tony Blair as Prime Minister.. The turmoil in the Home Office intensified last night as doubts grew over whether John Reid could deliver on his aim of releasing more information to parents about the whereabouts of paedophiles.