The blurb

Within days of his release from prison in November 1703, following the publication of his seditious pamphlet, The Shortest Way with Dissenters, Daniel Defoe was witness to the worst weather Britain has ever experienced.

On the night of November 26, a storm swept across southern England and Wales with such ferocity it killed more than 8000 people, sank hundreds of ships - a fifth of the royal fleet drowned; felled thousands of trees - 2000 alone on diarist John Evelyn's land; and brought almost every barn and rickety chimney to the ground.

Chastened by his recent experiences with satire, Defoe set out to create a strictly factual record of this storm, using verbatim eye-witness accounts (or so he assures us) as the backbone of this fascinating history.

The Storm marked a turning point in the writer's literary career, says Richard Hamblyn in his excellent introduction: ''It was as if Defoe had suddenly discovered, amid the trials and losses of his storm-struck neighbours, the two great themes - collective suffering and individual survival - which he would go on to develop as his own.''

Striving for realism rather than sensationalism, which was the tone that later distinguished Robinson Crusoe, The Storm is a vivid catalogue of disasters, offered by a chorus of voices: of cows thrown into trees, tornadoes stalking the fields, and windmills set alight by the frantic whirling of their arms. Despite the repetition of fright and shock, it is an astonishing work which not only charts this devastating natural disaster, but gives an insight into the mind of that time. For most there was no doubt that this tempest was an act of God, a punishment - in Defoe's opinion at least - for the High Church's sinful behaviour. Many that night came to regret - and renounce - their atheism, just as today even wholly rational beings can't help wondering, when bad weather strikes, if there might be some more personal force behind it than mere laws of physics.

A Guide to Elegance

Genevieve Antoine Dariaux

HarperCollins, (pounds) 10

First published in 1964, this sartorial blueprint by French arbiter of style, Dariaux, was revivified recently when it was woven into a novel by Katherine Tessaro. Although Dariaux has lightly updated her bible to include references to such arrivals on the fashion scene as lycra and the memory of Princess Diana, the joy of this book is its old-fashioned mood and the glimpse it offers of an era when the pursuit of elegance could reasonably be a full-time occupation.

Aiming to coax rather than browbeat women into streamlining their appearance, Dariaux's voice is gentle. She also offers a few words of comfort: ''elegance can only be acquired at the price of numerous mistakes''. (Oh, we know, we know.)

Covering skirt lengths and decolletage, dinner parties and children's clothes, this is a delightful fossil whose basic precepts, even in an age of rampant tattoos, still hold as true as the principles of the periodic table.

Drive On! A Social History of the Motor Car

LJK Setright, Granta, (pounds) 25

Setright is the A J P Taylor of the motor car, a brilliantly individual, opinionated historian whose canvas is as wide as his prejudices are deep. In this hugely engaging synthesis of car history, from early days (eighteenth century) to modern times, he offers a memorably insightful, spirited romp across the social, economic and political impact of the horseless carriage.

There's not a platitude in sight, nor any macho Top Gear nonsense. By its conclusion, you appreciate the almost tragic extent to which the design, function, and role of cars have been moulded by the needs of those who don't have a clue, and couldn't care less, what lies under the hood. Most of us, in other words.

Rosemary Goring