Paperbacks reviewed by William Leith

The Map and the Territory 2.0 by Alan Greenspan (Penguin, £9.99)

Lots of people blame Alan Greenspan, at least in part, for the financial crisis of 2008 and beyond. That’s because he was the chairman of the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, during the time leading up to the crash; he was the boss of easy money, the easy money that caused many of the problems. Here, he tells us, with what must be painful hindsight, why the financial world is not quite the same as what he calls “non-financial business”. When you’re dealing with money, it’s hard to understand risk because risk depends on “fear, euphoria, herding and culture”. A thoughtful guide to why this is true, updated for the paperback edition.

Battle of the Titans by Fred Vogelstein (William Collins, £8.99)

Before 2007 there were no smartphones. Imagine that. Then Apple invented the iPhone. Five years later, 135 million were sold. Then came the iPad. Now we live in a world of apps and online TV. The world has changed. Apple sells four times as many devices a year as all cars put together. But is Apple sitting pretty? No. Google’s Android systems are serious competition. It’s a big war. Apple has superb design. Google has the power of its search supremacy. And they’re fighting over something important — the cloud. In other words, eventually, information itself. Who will win? A very invigorating business book.

Darling Monster by Diana Cooper (Vintage, £10.99)

Here are the letters of Lady Diana Cooper to her son, John Julius Norwich. In this volume they begin in 1939, when he was 10 and she was in her late forties, and they end 13 years later, when he was in his early twenties and an expectant father. She would write the letters in bed, “always in pencil, so as not to get ink on the sheets”. Cooper was an aristocrat who had been an actress in silent films. “Don’t forget to love me,” she tells her son during a period of wartime separation. The letters are poignant and clever. She knew Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene and his mistress, whom she calls “his fine Sin personified”.