November global nonfiction: Start a new month with these recent books, including Orhan Pamuk’s

Memories of Distant Mountains: Illustrated Notebooks, 2009-2022, Orhan Pamuk, translated from the Turkish by Ekin Oklap

Every day for over a decade, Orhan Pamuk has written and drawn in his notebooks. Translated into English for the first time, these stunning snapshots of his life and creative process are a wonderful accompaniment to his bestselling works of fiction.

They include daily events and reflections, dialogues with his imagined characters, notes on his works-in-progress, his experience of writer’s block and the unfolding of his difficulties with the current Turkish government. Each entry is illustrated in the author’s uniquely idiosyncratic and charming style.

The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham, Lucky Hughes-Hallett

As King James I’s favourite, Buckingham was also his confidant, gatekeeper, advisor and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best friend and mentor. A dazzling figure on horseback and a skilful player of the political game, Buckingham rapidly transformed the influence his beauty gave him into immense wealth and power. He became one of the most flamboyant and enigmatic Englishmen at the heart of seventeenth-century royal and political life.

The book transports the reader into a courtly world of masques and dancing, exquisite clothes, the art of Rubens...

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