JOHN SIMPSON has covered many of the biggest stories of recent times, including the conflict in Bosnia, the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 and the invasion of Iraq. In his new book, Not Quite World's End: A Traveller's Tales, he explores some of the world's troubles that have happened during his long career as a foreign correspondent and now as the BBC's World Affairs Editor. He talks about the many wars and people he has come across, from emperors to movie stars to the Bushmen of the Kalahari. He also argues that, with luck, the world of the future will be, on balance, a more peaceful place. Not Quite World's End: A Traveller's Tales is published by Macmillan.

In March 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, thousands of people were killed in a chemical attack on Halabja, a remote town in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq. Both sides accused each other. JOOST R HILTERMANN, Deputy Program Director for the Middle East and North Africa for the International Crisis Group and author of A Poisonous Affair, discusses the Iraqi government's use of chemical weapons against the Iraqi Kurds and the Iranians during the Eighties, as well as the Reagan administration's reluctance to publicly condemn it. As he says, this has had very specific, highly deleterious consequences which continue to haunt us today. A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja is published by Cambridge University Press.

Translated into over two thousand languages, the Bible has few rivals in terms of history and influence. KAREN ARMSTRONG, a former nun and author of numerous books on the world's religions, discusses her new book The Bible: The Biography. She talks about the origins and compilation of this collection of 'books' and how we should read scripture today. She argues that an interpretation based on a compassionate desire to understand is a spiritual discipline which is badly needed in our torn and fragmented world. The Bible: The Biography is published by Atlantic Books.

The writer and historian MAX HASTINGS describes his latest book, Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45, as "brutally revisionist". In it he examines the war in the Far East across China, Burma, India and the Philippines, together with a vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the deaths of more than twenty million people. He describes the actions of the Japanese as unparalleled in barbarity. In particular, he highlights the terrible suffering of the Chinese, saying that at least three times as many people perished in China during the war as Hitler killed in his death camps. Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 is published by Harper Press. Show less