Esme Choonara

Thousands of workers in the streets, soldiers in mutiny, police stations burned, the prisons opened. These were the incredible events of February 1917 that sparked the Russian Revolution.

The author and journalist Arthur Ransome wrote of these events, “Revolution turns the slow river of political development into a rapid in which the slightest action has an immediate effect.”

“A good doctor controls their emotions in order to make a correct diagnosis.” This is the advice that young medic Jenny Davin tries to impress upon her intern Julien in the opening scenes of The Unknown Girl. Yet it is her barely suppressed emotions that drive Jenny into the obsessive mission at the heart of this captivating film.

Sherpa is the fascinating story of an inspiring labour dispute, set against the breathtaking scenery of the world’s highest mountain.

Film-maker Jennifer Peedom and her team were on Everest in 2014 to document the climbing season from the point of view of the Sherpas — a term used interchangeably for a Nepalese ethnic group and for all those employed to assist Western climbers.

Submission is an irredeemably joyless novel steeped in misogyny and lazy stereotypes of Islam. Reviews on the cover promise that it will be “extraordinary” (Le Monde), “electrifying” (Spectator) and like “a tropical storm” (Observer). It is not.

The novel follows the melancholic musings of 40-something French academic Francois, a disenchanted intellectual whose main interests are having sex with his students and the work of 19th century novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans.

Four years ago McDonald's attempted, unsuccessfully, to have the term "McJobs" removed from dictionaries. They were annoyed that McJobs were seen by so many as epitomising the main sort of work on offer, especially for young people: low-paid, low-skilled service sector work, often short term and with very little prospects.

Many now feel that the economic landscape is now dominated by McJobs and growing job insecurity. The growth of agency work, outsourcing and privatisation, coupled with growing job losses, has also added to a feeling that there are no decent permanent jobs left.

Photo: Geoff Dexter

The old maxim that we get the leaders we deserve was dramatically disproved during the magnificent 50,000 strong student protest in London on 10 November.

Why did you write a book about identity?

It's an issue people talk about a lot and that has become increasingly central to our politics. But we don't often talk about it in the most informed ways.

"Ernesto 'Che' Guevara was not a saint, a superman or an infallible leader," the authors assert at the beginning of this engaging book. In this spirit they show how Che's ideas evolved throughout his short life.

As well as playing a key role in leading the guerrillas to power in the 1959 Cuban Revolution, Che was centrally involved in the debates about what to do in power - how to take the revolution forward and what sort of society should replace the toppled dictatorship.

Trotsky was central to leading two revolutions in Russia - the 1905 Revolution, which was crushed by Russia's brutal Tsar, and the victorious 1917 Revolution which ushered in for a brief time the most liberated and radical society we have yet seen. He was the key organiser of the insurrection through which the revolution took power in October 1917. He also defended the fledgling new society leading the revolutionary Red Army to victory against more than a dozen invading armies.

Set in 1914 in St Petersburg, Russia, the novel conjures up a city rife with plots, double-crossing and revolutionary ferment. In the background is the looming threat of the First World War. The Tsar's secret police are everywhere and anti-Semitism is rife - with Jewish people uniformly regarded by the state as potential terrorists.

When a suspected activist is found dead with a card in his pocket from psychotherapist Dr Spethmann, the doctor's quiet life is drastically disrupted as his daughter and a number of his clients are implicated in events surrounding the death.