The Wall - The People's Story by Christopher Hilton (Sutton, hb, £19.99)

FOR 28 years the Berlin Wall succeeded in dividing East and West, separating families and friends and forever changing people's lives. Hilton, an author and journalist, has been fascinated by Berlin's unique past for three decades. On the 40th anniversary of the building of the wall he shares with us the people's story which, until now, has remained largely unheard.

From the opening paragraph the extensive research Hilton has undertaken to furnish his account with telling facts, is very much in evidence. But where he succeeds is in dissecting the complex information to give an objective account of Berlin's history from material gained in interviews with US and British military soldiers and East German border guards.

Before long the somewhat baffling logistics of the wall are stripped away and the simple narrative carries the story effectively.

The Wall deals with harrowing and, at times, inhumane revelations such as the truth behind the death of Peter Fechter.

He was the East Berlin teenager who was shot and left to bleed to death - an act which became symbolic of the wall.

Ultimately, this is the story of ordinary people living in extraordinary circumstances and it is these unique personal memories that make The Wall a breathtaking account of one of the most complex times in German history.

Patricia Allen

Seahenge: New Discoveries in Prehistoric Britain by Francis Pryor

(Harper Collins, £19.99)

SEAHENGE - the name given to a prehistoric timber circle exposed by a receding tide in Norfolk in 1998. It's makes an attention-grabbing title for this review of recent discoveries of prehistoric Britain. The North-East and Yorkshire barely figure except for a mysterious circle, identified by four arcs of post holes, at what the author describes as "the village of Street House, north of Whitby, in East Yorkshire. He believes the circle was "a family shrine, used by a relatively small number of folk".

Aeons: The Search for the Beginning of Time by Martin Gorst (4th Estate, £14.99)

HOW old is Earth and the Universe? Reviewing theories of their origin from the Bible onwards, Gorst especially examines the scientific ideas and discoveries since the time of Isaac Newton. Amazingly, radioactive dating was first developed almost a century ago, in 1905, and the concept of the Expanding Universe, only recently brought to general attention, was first put forward in 1931. As you would expect from the creator of TV documentaries, Gorst deals lucidly with the science, philosophy and religion that make up the complex story.

The Search for Free Energy by Keith Tutt (Simon and Schuster, £18.99)

ASSUMING we survive - and that is a big assumption - today's main energy sources, gas, oil, coal, nuclear power, will seem as prehistoric as the waterwheel. Scientists are looking to harness hitherto unknown chemicals, electrostatic and electromagnetic forces, and the considerable energy that exists, against all logic, within a vacuum. No radiation, no greenhouse gases, no oil pollution. Science journalist Tutt outlines the incredible, tantalising possibilities. But he warns: it will take our planet's climate 100 years to recover from the present abuse, and the planet itself will need far longer.

the white by Adrian Caesar (Macmillan, hb, £14.99)

OVERSHADOWED by Robert Scott, Bradford-born Douglas Mawson led an Antarctic expedition to the South Pole shortly after Scott's ill-fated mission in 1911-12. Following the death of two of his companions on the last lap, Mawson survived a month-long lone trek back to base camp. Using Scott's diaries and Mawson's first hand accounts, Adrian Caesar presents what he calls "an imaginative recreation'' of the final days of both expeditions - each a staggering feat of heroism. His method, thinking himself into the mind and body of Scott and Mawson, gives the events fresh vitality.