Author Sarah Bakewell was a self-confessed teenage existentialist, reading Sartre in the suburbs and pondering the meaning of life, which lead to an on-going penchant for philosophy.

In her previous book, How To Live, she tackled Montaigne, here it’s the gnarly questions of meaning and existence  (as posed by de Beauvoir, Sartre, Camus and their cohorts) that she elegantly untangles.

It’s a tricky subject, but Bakewell’s smart, unconventional approach – snappy biographical details, telling anecdotes and a breezy prose style – makes it entirely accessible and wholly entertaining.

At The Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell (Chatto & Windus, £16.99)