Astronaut required …

HELEN SHARMAN’s autobiography Seize the Moment is now out in paperback (Gollancz, pp 189, £4.99). Written with Christopher Priest, it is a lively and anecdotal account of how she seized the chance to beome the first woman astronaut from Britain by joining a Soviet mission to the space station Mir. She obviously enjoyed her trip and continues to enthuse others about the need for an active space programme. She does, however, suffer from an incurable disease: the cosmonauts’ longing to return to space.