The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches by J Mordaunt Crook (John Murray, £25.00).

THE homes and taste of Britain's new rich (and some of them were very rich indeed) in the Victorian and Edwardian periods are described here in detail, and with great authority.

In essence, it is the story of the re-making of the British ruling class, into whose ranks came multi-millionaires who made their pile in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, aided by rates of income tax that were so minuscule by modern standards that they are almost beyond credibility.

Rothschilds, Guinnesses, Beits, Brasseys, Barings, and Tennants are among the gilded family names that feature in these pages, and we learn about the impact that their wealth made on long-established fashionable society.

The mausoleum-like palaces which the nouveaux riche plutocrats owned, and the enormous staff they employed, are enviable, if a trifle overpowering. They had mansions in Mayfair, shooting boxes in the Highlands and country houses in the home counties and the shires.

It must have been difficult for them to die and leave it all behind.

The author of this book, Joe Mordaunt Crook, is one of Britain's leading architectural historians - a former Slade professor and Waynflete lecturer at Oxford, and currently Professor of Architectural History at the University of London - and therein lies the rub.

The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches reads too much like a university thesis. It is short on human interest material about the actual people involved, and this is a pity, because it makes for heavy going by the casual reader. It will, however, provide welcome material for researchers and be of interest to the architectural cogniscenti.

THE CASE OF STEPHEN LAWRENCE by Brian Cathcart. Viking, £16.99.

The murder of Stephen Lawrence devastated his family. The inquiry into the case had huge implications for the Metropolitan Police.

But the issues thrown up by the tragedy have had enormous consequences for Britain as a whole - and the greatest impact has been on every person's attitude to race.

The author of The Case of Stephen Lawrence, Brian Cathcart, attended the public inquiry exhaustively and has researched the story in meticulous detail.

He has produced a thorough examination of the case of Stephen Lawrence, from the terrible events on the evening of April 22, 1993, when the young black teenager was stabbed to death in south London, to the announcement of the inquiry findings in the House of Commons in February 1999.

The six year struggle for justice by Neville and Doreen Lawrence is sympathetically handled, but Cathcart also takes a look at the difficulties the police were faced with in the first days after the murder, without denying the incompetence of the investigation as a whole. This book seems to be an account as untouched as possible by the distorting hand of hindsight.

Re-reading the facts of the case is a chilling process - suddenly the years of news reports become clearer and many of the behind-the-scenes events are explained.

There is no doubt that the Lawrences have suffered an enormous injustice. Brian Cathcart's examination of the case of Stephen Lawrence picks its way, in immensely readable detail, through what turned into a revealing - and shocking - glimpse at Britain in the 1990s.

EASY PEASY by Mary Contini and Pru Irvine. Ebury Press, £12.99.

There's a big, pink sticker on the cover of this colourful assault on the eyes, warning adults to stay away, because this release is aimed purely and simply at a very specific demographic - kids. Essentially, the goal of this splendidly accessible book is to bring out and nurture the potentially enormous attraction between cookery and children.

Let's face it - we've all enjoyed messing about in the kitchen as kids and mums everywhere know that one way to guarantee busy small minds is to get them elbow-deep in dough or chocolate or flour. Of course, your kitchen may never recover, but given the popularity of culinary shows on TV nowadays, you may be developing the skills of the next Nick Nairn or Ainsley Harriot.

The authors stress that they believe that eating is one of life's great pleasures: "especially eating something fab you've cooked yourself. The trouble with cooking for children is just that - adults try to disguise foods so children will eat them. We want children to cook for themselves; for their friends; for you."

Page after page is crammed with glossy pictures of little hands in advanced stages of messiness and each chapter contains lots of easy to follow recipes, written without the misleading jargon (like simmer, broil and sautee) that so often excludes kids from the process.

A marvellous addition to the kitchen cookery book collection. Think of it - no more chocolate crispies!

THE POTATO by Larry Zuckerman. Macmillan, £10.

The beloved spud really has revolutionised Western civilisation as much as the car and the railway - it has been a delicacy, a fast food and a powerful shield against famine. Revered today for being reliable and nutritious, the potato has been a crucial ingredient in the dramatic economic and social changes that swept through Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries.

For two centuries after its arrival in Europe from the New World, potatoes were regarded as being food fit only for pigs and peasants, but are now part of our staple diet. The story of that transformation is one of politics, prejudice, poverty and survival; it's a story of population explosions, the Industrial Revolution and the modern order taking shape on both sides of the Atlantic, and encompasses palaces, parliaments and the humblest of kitchens.

Drawing from personal diaries, chronicles, newspaper editorials, government records and many other original sources, Zuckerman brings this story to fascinating life, creating both vibrant individual portraits and a panorama of the times.

With the subject matter open to accusations of being dull in the extreme, it takes a huge amount of skill to create a readable and living book out of it and that's just what Zuckerman has done. A pleasant surprise. More chips, please!

BEST SELLERS for the week ending May 22

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1 (1) Amsterdam Ian McEwan

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4 (6) Tara Road Maeve Binchy

5 (5) Proms Guide 1999 -

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:: Charts compiled by Waterstones

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