Hepburn was never one of Hitchcock’s leading ladies, though he worked with several other fashionable actresses. Style is obviously not the focus of pop-up legend Kees Moerbeek’s Alfred Hitchcock: The Master of Suspense. Each of the seven spreads in this appropriately bizarre tribute highlights a different movie with scenes rendered in 3-D, an overview of the plot and details about casting and filming. Though one might question the omission of North by Northwest (think of the pop-up possibilities the crop duster, Mount Rushmore) or The Man Who Knew Too Much (oh, well, que ser‡, ser‡), there’s no denying that Moerbeek captures the essence of Vertigo with an impressive re-creation of the tower and the falling man of the opening credits. He evokes the terror of The Birds with menacing black specimens and a window onto the gas station fire, while the Psycho pages are appropriately in all black-and-white (almost). Curiously missing in Alfred Hitchcock are the A-listers who appeared in the films, but that does leave the focus all on Hitch. As in the films, his cameos, interpreted as mini pop-ups, are not-to-be missed treats.

When it was announced that the black Givenchy evening gown Audrey Hepburn immortalized as Holly Golightly would be auctioned off this month, many fans mused about owning it. The Audrey Hepburn Treasures: Pictures and Mementos from a Life of Style and Purpose is not a bad consolation prize; in fact, sitting down with the book is like being granted access to Hepburn’s own scrapbooks. The disparate aspects of her life aristocratic forbears, wartime deprivation, professional ambition, devotion to family, iconic glamour and UNICEF missions are well chronicled in this lovely gift book written by Ellen Erwin, executive director of the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund, and Jessica Z. Diamond, archivist and curator of both the Fund and the Audrey Hepburn Estate.

There are numerous photographs from Hepburn’s childhood, movie stills and informal photos of her on-set, snapshots of her playing with her sons and hanging out with friends. Of course, part of the allure of Audrey Hepburn Treasures are the facsimiles stored in the book’s glassine envelopes: a contact sheet of photos from Hepburn’s wedding to Mel Ferrer, a shooting schedule from Sabrina, a receipt for her Roman Holiday Best Actress Oscar, marked-up Breakfast at Tiffany’s script pages and other memorabilia. A postcard of Hepburn and Givenchy walking along the Seine sent to the actress by Givenchy himself is a wonderful touch. The book’s introduction was written by Hepburn’s eldest son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer, and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.

<B>In the poet’s corner</B> Peter Ackroyd is well known on both sides of the Atlantic as a master of both history and biography, for works such as <I>London: The Biography</I> and the novel <I>The Clerkenwell Tales</I>. Ackroyd’s new project is a biography series entitled Ackroyd Brief Lives, appropriately beginning with <B>Chaucer</B>. In this short biography, Ackroyd elucidates Chaucer’s work and times and also reveals how significant a public figure Chaucer was, serving as a diplomat and courtier for a number of monarchs.

<B>Chaucer</B> is a small volume, the perfect size to keep at hand for quick and easy fact checking. This is the book you pick up when you need someone to simply and concisely explain exactly what Chaucer did (or rather, might have been doing) that summer in 1370 when he was sent by the king to Italy with special letters of protection against the Italian government. Chaucer is old-school biography, focusing on the deep religiosity of Chaucer’s works and the years spent in the service of the Crown, only speculating outside the standard and academically approved facts of Chaucer’s life when absolutely necessary to maintain the cherished image of a poet who is worldly yet innocent of the vices and human flaws he lambasted so successfully in his writing.