Astronomer and Sky at Night presenter Chris Lintott selects Last and First Men, Olaf Stapledon's celebrated sci-fi novel that depicts the future history of the human race. Music journalist Neil McCormick chooses Anne Tyler's A Patchwork Planet, which follows the exploits of unlucky anti-hero Barnaby Gaitlin, while Harriett Gilbert picks out White, by Marie Darrieussecq, the romantic tale of two engineers who bond while working on an isolated European base in Antarctica
