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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__ ==Autobiography==<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Olga Alexandrovna, Paul Kulikovsky, Sue Woolmans and Karen Roth-NichollsB0GCB1MQ7D|title=25 Chapters of Why My Life: The Memoirs of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was born in 1882, youngest child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and thus sister of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II. Her first marriage to Prince Peter Oldenburg, who was probably gay, ended in an amicable divorce, and in 1916 she married Colonel Nicholas Kulikovsky. They escaped from Russia after the revolution, and settled in Denmark for nearly thirty years until, feeling threatened by Stalin’s regime, they moved to Canada. She outlived him by two years, dying in 1960.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906775168</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewMother Went Away|author=Chris Stewart|title=Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist AfloatAlan Kennedy
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Books about sailing fall into two sorts: those I have often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. With 'celebrities', there's frequently a book they might or might not have written by authors who know what they are talking about, (though sometimes they donwhich might or might not tell the true story. It't convey it too well) s not often that you find a book that gives the full backstory, and those who donrarely do you discover a memoir where the telling is so perfect that you't have a cluell go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, but like to think they dojust for the pleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is one of those rare exceptions. WellIt's the story of how a boy from the Midlands, Chris Stewart may have started born at the beginning of the book with Second World War, would become a light and frothy touch as a novice sailorProfessor of Psychology at Dundee University. In fact, but he ends up with was one of the credentials founders of an Ancient Marinerthe department.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003842</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreview|author=Michael Wolff|title=The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=There can be few people who are unaware of the name of Rupert Murdoch. Over four decades he's built News International into a seventy billion dollar corporation from its original Australian base. His position in the UK media is such that he's courted by politicians and has what many believe to be an excessive amount of power for someone who is not elected and is not even a UK citizen. He's now expanding into Southeast Asia and in his eightieth year it's still difficult to imagine when – or where – he will stop.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523523</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil MacFarquhar|title=The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=''What are the chances of change in the Middle East?'' is the question central to this book. Since Neil MacFarquhar spent thirteen years wandering the length and breadth of the Islamic stronghold of the Middle East, I feel inclined to believe his in-depth assessment. In descriptive and reasoned terms, he identifies conservative forces which predominate in the region, primarily the religious and political machinery which condemns liberalization and modernization. This discussion of attempts to promote change, for example by individual dissidents or the media, is strengthened in the second half of the book by detailed case studies of six nations with particular reference to their readiness Annie Ernaux and motivation for changeAlison L. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586488112</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ronald Skirth and Duncan BarrettStrayer (translator)|title=The Reluctant Tommy: An Extraordinary Memoir of the First World WarOther Girl|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ronald Skirth was one of many young Englishmen of nineteen caught up in ''We were born from the First World Warsame body. He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916, was promoted I've never really wanted to Corporal, and sent to the western frontthink about this. Like most of his contemporaries, when he went he was an unquestioning servant of King and country, fighting for what he believed was right. On the battlefields of Flanders, one day he came across the body of Hans, a German soldier the same age, if not younger. The dead man's hand was clutching a photograph of his girlfriend, who could almost have been the twin sister of Ella, Skirth's own sweetheart. Like two of his friends who had just been killed, Hans had died as a result of the stupidity of others.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>023074673X</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Lisa Lynch|title=The C-Word|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=In the beginning was the wordErnaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, closely followed by but this raw epistolary text must be one of the internetmost intimate accounts I've read. The two combined Ernaux writes in direct address to form the wonder that is bloggingher sister, and when that took off and people wanted a more concrete and permanent recordhowever, books quickly followedthis letter will never reach her. Perhaps thatWhy? Because Annie Ernaux's not ''exactly'' how sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the quote goesvaccine was made compulsory in France, but it's close enoughand 2 years before the author was even born. Breast cancer at twenty eight is not just scary The large and unusual. For journalist Lisa, itinstant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's downright inconvenient. But, when a stage three tumour bulges out process of reckoning with this giant absence in her booblife, an absence that she decides to document her subsequent fight against the big C (or, as she affectionately calls it, ''The Bullshit'') online for all to see. The [http://alrighttit.blogspot.com/ blog] was a success, it garnered some famous fans ([[:Category:Stephen Fry|Stephen Fry]], among others) and a book offer followed. This is the resulthas always felt but often denied.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099547546</amazonuk>1804271845
}}
  {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ngugi wa Thiong'o1036916375|title=Dreams in Just a Time of WarLiverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=The interest ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and around Liverpool. Some are factual, such as the family history of a sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives of unfortunate children has created . Other stories blend seamlessly into the publishing phenomenon nicknamed 'misery memoirs'what-might-have-been. Happily for readers of Ngugi wa Thiong It'o’s Dreams in s a Time of War book to settle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories , to think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, despite the author’s often difficult childhood are presented as blitz that was a tale constant factor in McArdle's early years. I'd never heard of triumph parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and empowerment rather than anger and selfcould appear after the all-pityclear was sounded. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846553776</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gervase PhinnAnnie Ernaux and Anna Moschovakis (translator)|title=Road to the Dales: The Story of a Yorkshire LadPossession|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=As Ernaux opens with a disclaimer, warning readers that what follows is more or less a teacher currently anticipating (confession: ''I have always wanted to write as if I wonwould be gone when the book was published't say looking forward to!) an OFSTED inspection, school inspectors aren't generally my favourite people. I'll make an exception for Gervase PhinnTowards the end of the book, thoughshe claims that the title (somewhat enigmatic at first) bares witness to a brief period of time in her life, labelled and documented here as he's entertained me for many hours with his previous books on his time 'The Possession'', in which she felt herself in the Dales doing throes of an all-encompassing and seductive jealousy targeted at the job. I was expecting his memoirs new partner of his childhood to be equally entertaining – and feel slightly letdownW, if I'm honesta man she has since separated from after a six-year long affair.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718149114</amazonuk>1804271497
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pattie Boyd and Penny JunorMary McCarthy|title=Wonderful Today: The Autobiography Memories of Pattie Boyda Catholic Girlhood
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Pattie Boyd will always be remembered for one uniqueMary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', extraordinary claim obsessively digging into the past to famepiece together the broken mosaic of her life. She became attributes her ''burning interest in the wife of arguably past'' to her orphanhood, as she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who died in the two most famous and revered rock guitarists of the era1918 flu epidemic. This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, George Harrison and Eric ClaptonMinnesota, and thus inspired three where she lived under the harsh guardianship of their compositions which became three of the ageher late father's seminal love songs, namely 'Something', 'Layla'Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and Aunt Margaret. Later, she moved to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and 'Wonderful Tonight'her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a different kind of upbringing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755316436</amazonuk>1804271659
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean BaggottVirginie Despentes|title=The Girl on the Wall: One Life's Rich TapestryKing Kong Theory
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography|summary=Jean Baggott ''King Kong Theory'' is now seventy two a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the final year book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her history degree at Warwick University. After almost experiences as a lifetime woman through the complex prism of bending her varied life : from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the needs book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of other people she has decided that now is the time to look after herself – the eleven year old girl whose picture hangs on her wall. She plans to achieve what that girl would want her to achieve and from this she's found great fulfilmenttheir original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848311265</amazonuk>191309734X
}}
 {{newreview|author=Abby Lee|title=Girl With a One Track Mind: Exposed: Further Revelations of a Sex Blogger |rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Abby Lee is back with a brand new book that's sure to bring her readers closer to her than they've ever been before.  For those who missed the media spectacle that surrounded her first book, 'Girl With a One Track Mind' followed twelve months in the life of 'Abby Lee', a film runner who became an internet sensation after starting a blog in 2004 detailing her sexual exploits and thoughts. The book became an immediate success with men and women alike and earned Abby a couple of thousand more hits on her blog ever day.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330509691</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Leslie KentonJoan Didion|title=Love Affair: The Memoir Year of a Forbidden Father-daughter RelationshipMagical Thinking
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=For some years, I had been aware of Leslie KentonThis book is Joan Didion's books on healthy living, and also heartbreaking autobiographical account of Stan Kentonthe grief she endured following her husband's work as sudden death. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a jazz bandleader, though I had never made the connection until now. This family memoir reveals all about the famous father beautiful and later-necessary resource tohelp people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-be-famous daughterpity, denial and it is delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a disturbing talehuman face to wear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091910536</amazonuk>0007216858
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alice Taylor1787333175|title=The VillageYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=35|genre=AutobiographyPopular Science|summary=Two other authors, [[:Category:Miss ReadI was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|Miss Read]] and [[:Category:Rebecca Shawisbn=1509858636|Rebecca Shaw]]title=This is Going to Hurt}}, have already purloined a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the village for their ownNHS, humour and autobiography. I so wish that ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the publishers had chosen work of a more distinctive title psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this reprint. It's setting but the Irishness of the memoir that will attract English readerslaughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224202</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret Drabble0241636604|title=The Pattern in the CarpetTrading Game: A Personal History with Jigsaws Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Imagine the scene: If you were to bring up an image of a major publishing house receives city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the latest pitch for a book. Its basis pin-stripe suit and his background is a history of the jigsawEast End, interwoven where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a highly personal memoir of an ever so slightly irascible maiden aunt facility with whom the author partook in the delights numbers which most of puzzlingus can only envy. Two words save this pitch from oblivion: Margaret Drabble He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. Faced It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with the same dilemma in a bookshopCitibank. Eventually, the reader would be wise to follow the publisher's hunch and buy this book - it is turned into permanent employment as a gentle delight from start to finishtrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843546205</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alice Taylor1529395224|title=To School Through Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The FieldsSecret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=To School Through Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the Fields is strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the memoir opportunity of doing work experience with a farmer’s daughter family friend who grew up in rural County Cork in was a vet and was convinced this was the 1940s (though the book never mentions the date of when it is set)job for him. Taylor makes it clear Before long, he was at the beginning that she is writing Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a nostalgic look back at the era of her childhoodchild. If anything, before the he'changing winds of time' and then presents d wanted to be a series of anecdotes about her parents, her family and some of the other characters who lived in her villageprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224210</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Phil DanielsEdel Rodriguez|title=Phil DanielsWorm: Class ActorA Cuban American Odyssey
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=If We're in childhood, and we 're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were asked kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to nominate be the archetypal Cockney actor on large or small screen over good soldier the last twenty years or socountry demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, Phil Daniels would undoubtedly come high on such as Angola) and the listfather being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. Born The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in Islington in 1958 and raised in Kings Crossthis sultry island country, he was a graduate it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the Anna Scher Theatre in the 1970s.kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847376207</amazonuk>1474616720
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicole Dryburgh1035025299|title=Talk Went to London, Took the HandDog|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=We first met Nicole Dryburgh in her book ''The Way I See It'', which she wrote at eighteen, and which detailed her battles with cancer and the loss of her sight. We loved the warts-and-all picture of her life that she gave us then, and so we were really pleased to see that she's written a second book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996978</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Ian Mathie
|title=The Man of Passage
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ian Mathie's association with Africa began when his father was posted Nina Stibbe is returning to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years old. School was She's been at Victoria's smallholding in a convent and was run by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple of hundred AfricansLeicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writing, as there's always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. Even when he was joined by others he was still part The other side of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise it! He was taught in the local language and grew up with the local children. It decision was his home and was to be the centre sealed when a room became available (courtesy of his life for decades to comeDeborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreview|author=Carole White and Sian Williams|title=Struggle or Starve|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Struggle or Starve is a collection of autobiographical writings about girls' and women's lives in South Wales between the wars. This is a new edition of a book first published in 1998 by Honno, an independent publisher set up to encourage Welsh women writers. Most of the contributors in this book came from miners' families and grew up in real poverty and economic insecurity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit Christopher Fowler|title=Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely FriendshipWord Monkey
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In early 2005, It's the first of August in the middle of a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview about day swim at the pool in favour of going to day life my beach hut. The weather closed in Baghdad, rain arrived, and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections thereI decided not to do that either. May's detailed When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Bee(b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and a friendship develops between the two womenhis first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. They tell each other There is something very strange about their workbeing made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, relationships and family livesyou know he actually is at that point, because he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>0857529625
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chinua AchebeKit De Waal|title=The Education of a British-Protected ChildWithout Warning and Only Sometimes|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=This book is a collection of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, whose best known work is the novel Things Fall ApartAs Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, published in 1958. Topics covered include Nigerian“They f*** you up, Biafran your mum and Igbo history and culturedad/ They may not mean to, African literature but they do” Without Warning and the legacy Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of colonialism in his country parenthood and the rest bonds that bind family. This book is a memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of AfricaBirmingham. Some of the essays are taken Her father is from guest lectures at universities around St. Kitts in the world Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and conference papersmarrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a large role in the autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and others are written for this bookwith care, love, particularly many and the kind of the more personal pieces about Achebe's familyanger only a child can express to their parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846142598</amazonuk>1472284852
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gabriel Weston1638485216|title=Direct RedBlack, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Few people have the ability ''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to convey the minutiae of their profession in ways which engage the reader, answer your unspoken questions and talk in such a way that you're neither patronised nor overburdened do with jargoncharacter. Gabriel Weston is one such – and ''Direct Red'' held me as though I was hypnotised for several hoursPeriod. She's a surgeon and we're pulled into the intricacies of her world without the need to don mask and gown.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520699</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Dana Fowley|title=How Could She?|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=From the age of five Dana Fowley was subjected to unimaginable sexual abuse and before long her sister would be subjected to ''One more of the same. She was raped by her motherbody just wouldn't matter''s partner and taken to the homes of her grandparents where she was abused by them and others. At other times she was forced to go to the homes of other men where she was raped and abused. Did her mother not know what was going on? Did she turn a blind eye? It was neither of those.
Her mother The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a willing participant backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the abuse and organised much of itChauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009952225X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Val DoonicanBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete AutobiographyI May Be Wrong|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=In When the 1960sDalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, if Harold Wilson was the personification of politics and the Beatles I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the collective icon rest of youth culture, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex of light entertainment. He may no longer have such a high profile – but he's outlasted them both. Over four decades he has refused to bow world responds to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and in the process he has never really put a foot wrongyour book. As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do bestI know, and what having read the public wants from youbook in question, then stick that Lindeblad would disagree with it, that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it as well as you can.' With matters very much how the possible exception rest of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harristhe world responds to this book, because it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across tells the truth as more genuinely likeableit is, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'in the early 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>1526644827
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aeronwy Thomas gareth_steel|title=My Father's Places: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughterNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=3.54|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Aeronwy Thomas was six years old when she I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and her family came to settle after Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a nomadic existence at Laugharne, on TV show the Welsh coastauthor would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, in 1949as do other similar programmes. Dylan used to broadcast regularly on Gareth Steel says that the BBC, book is not suitable for younger readers and while - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he continued 's written it to travel to London regularly for the purpose (as well as to carouse inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with friends in his old haunts)some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, somewhere off the beaten track was a more suitable working environmentalthough there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010056</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael PalinDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Diaries 1969-1979Speedy: The Python YearsHurled Through Havoc
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''Never meet your heroesHow to summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to kick off a review of his memoir? Do you know,'' goes the old adage. ''Never read their diaries'' might be equally sage advice. That's probably why I didnreally don't tackle Michael Palin's collected daily journals until now. Along with the rest of the Monty Python team, he was without doubt a hero of my teenage yearsthink I can.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview
|author=Shirley Williams
|title=Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Who could resist a title like that? And is this some lesser-known Shirley Williams, recalling a life spent in libraries? The answer to the latter is no.
Shirley Catlin, as she was born, tells us in the early pages of this memoir that during her childhood her father encouraged her to climb the bookshelves in their Chelsea house, right up to the ceiling. It was a secret between the two of them, as her mother, Testament of Youth Author Vera Brittain, would have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken arms.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844084760</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|Dave is an author=Jose Saramago |title=Small Memories|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Having been born in 1922 and lived through so much of the twentieth century, with an author's view of change artist. An inspirational speaker and people, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced a lotprofessional horseman. And a recovering alcoholic. Civil Wars in the neighbouring Spain; the growth The son of his country - which still left it as western Europea Lutheran minister, he's poorest. Here he allows us witness to his mind drifting through his childhood, in the country and in Lisbon, and provides struggled with a subtle and gentle memoir.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655148X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft|title=Margrave of the Marshes|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the most important disc jockeys of all time. Born in Merseyside in 1939controlling father, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home run away to join Radio London and then become one of the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years later. I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day circus (even if I didn't always enjoy it myselfnot a metaphor) and his readiness to say exactly what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted to heartrained horses, painted caravans, designed and I always enjoyed reading his columns in the music weeklies painted theatre sets, and later Radio Times. Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards hit rock bottom when the end, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1's Round Table review programme come to mind), and thought his build-'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after a while. So I approached this book with an open mind as a fan, but not an uncritical onebottle took over.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>B0965V3LLN
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008350388
|title=We Need to Talk About Money
|author=Otegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
{{newreview|author=Jo Brand|title=Look Back in Hunger|rating=3''0.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Born 7% of English Literature GCSE students in Hastings in May 1957, after leaving Brunel University with England study a degree in social sciences, Jo Brand unsuccessfully applied for book by a research job with Channel 4 on writer of colour while only 7% study a series about racism, then worked for book by a time as a psychiatric nurse at the South London Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitalwoman. '' But the lure of showbiz proved too strong, and stardom in stand-up comedy soon beckoned.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755355237</amazonuk>}}''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
{{newreview|author=Anita Thompson (Editor)|title=Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S Thompson|rating=4Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine.5|genre=Autobiography|summary= It is almost 40 years since Dr Hunter S Thompson's seminal work ''Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'' was her mother who came first graced the shelves, with her father joining them later. His gonzo style The family was hard-working, putting himself at principled and determined that their children would have the centre best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the storyfamily acquired a car. For Otegha, should tell readers as much about the person doing the writing as the event he is describing. If that's the case then what is education meant a scholarship to be learned from a selection of interviews with the main man himself private school in London and then? The answer is plentya place at New College, Oxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510711</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Floyd0571365884|title=Stirred But Not ShakenMy Mess is a Bit of Life: The AutobiographyAdventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I grew up with television cookery programmes and still have some recipes in my childish handwritingGeorgia Pritchett has always been anxious, which begin ''4oz SR fl 2oz marg 2oz C sug…'' even as I battled to copy what was on a child. She would worry about whether the screen before we retuned to monsters under the presenter. Programmes stagnated as bed were comfortable: it was the cook spoke sort of life where if she had nothing to camera worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and lectured the viewer on how to make sponge cake or a fish dishfar between. Then we were shocked awake. There was On a man, quite good-looking in visit to a raffishtherapist, slightly dangerous sort of wayas an adult, who cooked on the deck when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and ''My Mess is a Bit of a trawler or wherever the whim took him, always glass Life: Adventures in hand and who was quite capable of berating Anxiety'' is the cameraman about how he was doing his job. Like him, result - or hate him – you could not help but know that he was Keith Floyd, or Floydy so we are given to millionsbelieve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071052</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian Johnson Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=Rockers and Rollers: An Automotive Autobiography A Tattoo on my Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Brian Johnson will probably go down Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as one of the luckiest men in showbizhave many. He had Your memories and personality worn away like a brief moment of glory in statue over time affected the early 70s elements. It seems as vocalist with Geordie, a Tyneside version of Slade, who had three Top 40 hits if nature wants that final victory over you and then fell on hard timesyour dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. After going back to the day job, Daniel Gibbs is a chance call invited him to go neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and audition for AC/DC, whose vocalist Bon Scott had suddenly died. Three decades later, not only have the group held on to their loyal fanbase, but one of their albums, according to an online source, is second only to Michael Jacksonhas documented his journey in 's ''ThrillerA Tattoo on my Brain'' in terms of global sales.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718155424</amazonuk>1108838936
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529109116
|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
|author=Hannah Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.''
{{newreview|author=Susan Hill |title=Howards End is The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the Landing|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Esteemed author, Susan Hill challenges herself land where ''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a year of farmer. It's not buying books, always the case though. Hannah Jackson was born and re-reading some of her vast collectionbrought up on the Wirral: not she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a terribly deep love of animals. Her original ideaintention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, but an intriguing one nonethelesswhale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District. Most avid readers will no doubt have made similar vows at some point in their lives (I know I have…) Early in She saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the memoirkudos of her original intention, Ms Hill does admit she knew that for professional purposes she will continue to review books sent to her - but buying/obtaining for pleasure, is wanted to be out of boundsa shepherd. In With the course determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of guiding us through her vast and eclectic collection, scattered throughout her home, she also sets herself the task of choosing set about achieving her top 40 books - and comes up with a very erudite selectionambition.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682657</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Keenan0008333173|title=I'll Tell Me MaHungry: A Childhood Memoirof Wanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Keenan memorably told I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the story of his years as a hostage in Beirut in judges on ''An Evil CradlingMasterchef''. Now he turns You know that you're going to his childhood. Anyone who had get an urban upbringing in honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the 1950's will find themselves saying ''I remember time. You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that!'' at intervals throughout this bookgood food in front of her. Senior Service cigarettes, Pontefract cakes, I've often wondered about the rag woman behind the media image and bone man, the Lone Ranger, family photographs kept in an old biscuit tin, Dad polishing everyone's shoes, the realisation that there was 'Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is a wider world beyond the city streets…These are some of the things that brought back my own memories – what can stunning read which will make you find?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224062166</amazonuk>laugh and break your heart in equal measures.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Bennett1504321383|title=A Life Like Other People'sSingle, Again, and Again, and Again|author=Louisa Pateman|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It was his mother's illness which triggered Alan Bennett's excursions into his family background. The bout of depression hadnYou can't cleared as the family had hoped be happy and admission to hospital was the next step in the treatmentfulfilled on your own. Asked if there had been anything like this before, Bennett said You are not, failing to notice his father's hand gently touch his knee. The son was educated at Oxford and had even been seen on the television. He did the talking rather than the father, reluctant butcher and complete until you find a man not given to putting himself forward''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571248128</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Elliott J Gorn |title=Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One|rating=4|genre=History|summary=John Dillinger This was what Louisa Pateman was born and brought up in Indianato believe. His childhood It wasn't unkind: it was no better and no worse than most but simply the early part of his adult adults in her life was advising her as to what they thought would be blighted best for her. It was reinforced by a spell in prison when he was convicted of an attack on a man in a botched hold-upall those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Hoping for leniency he pleaded guilty but was sentenced Few girls are lucky enough to a lengthy term of imprisonment, whilst be brought up ''without'' the man with him pleaded not guilty expectation that they will marry and when convicted received a shorter sentencehave children. Itwas a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice's easy to see where Dillinger's contempt for the law was spawned.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0195304837</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joaquin 'Jack' Garcia Sakinu Ahronglong|title=Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia FamilyHunter School|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Joaquin 'Jack' Garcia worked for the FBIThe flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of fiction. That might sound rather glamorous but Jack had a special claim to fame's possibly misleading. He was one of those rare people who always worked undercover – I am not just for hours sure whether it is "fiction" in the sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or days at a time but sometimes for years. In whether it is as the blurb goes on to say ''Making Jack Falconerecollections, folklore and autobiographical stories'' . It feels like the latter. It feels like the stories he tells the story of how he came to infiltrate the Mafia in New York about his experiences as a child, as an adolescent, as an adult are real and was responsible for a string of arrests which crippled the organised crime familiestrue. If that doesn't sound impressive enoughBut memory is a fickle thing, then just consider and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that Jack Garcia was a Cuban-born American its safer and he went undercover as an Italian amongst Italianstherefore more people will read it. More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847393942</amazonuk>1999791282
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lucy Mangan 1544641923|title=My Family and Other DisastersAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Not living in It's tempting to think that the UK means diplomatic life is privileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, but family connections tell me that we donit is far from luxurious. Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''t have British newspapers. Even when we lived in Englanddiplomatic'' to do so, you know), but the diplomatic spouse, the accompanying baggage, well, we never bought that's an entirely different matter. She (and it still usually is a 'The Guardian'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241446732|title=Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, so I had never actually heard Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of Lucy Mangan before being sent this booktheir two daughters. That Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it's probably not natural to seek a bad thingsolution close to home, since I began but eventually, it became clear to the book family that they were ''burned- out people on a collection of her Guardian columns burned- without any preconceptionsout planet''. If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852651244</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Buzz Aldrin191280493X|title=Magnificent DesolationComing of Age|author=Danny Ryan
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It seems ''He began writing novels and poetry at the first thing one does when one lands on the moon is go through all age of twelve, but the final steps in the process of flying straight back up - just in case. The first thing one does when one steps down on it was to the moon is to make sure you can step back up into your lunar module - just in case there's take him a panic somewhere. The first thing one does when land back on earth - you would think further forty- would be eight years to have the same urgency to get back up and out thererealise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, but life has he remains a habit shining example of getting in the wayhope over experience...''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804026</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|author=Bernard P Morgan |title=Memories of the Rare Old Times: Through The Eyes of a Dubliner|rating=2|genre=Autobiography|summary=''This is the story of Bernard Morgan, one of nine children growing up in Dublin in the 50s. As a boy Bernard tells us about his love of football and boxing. He played truant memoir from school, preferring to smoke cigarettes instead and, as he got older, he hung around in gangs with his brothers and friends. We hear someone you have never heard of the wars they had, and how the Irish stick by one another- but will feel like you have. Finally we see him go to England where he tries to find work, sleeping rough and living on nothing. Along the way we meet the street people of Dublin and above all Bernard's family.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312454</amazonuk>'
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Vicky Jaggers190874572X|title=SilencedLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Vicky Jaggers had a dreadful childhoodBack at the beginning of the century, I went on holiday to Nepal. One sister was in I met a home following an accident which made her violent wonderful Finnish woman and her elder brother, David, was obviously her mother's favourite. He was very intelligent, but disliking any we became sort -of work his abilities were directed towards getting what he wanted without making any effort-friends. The family moved house regularly as Vicky's father looked for work and schooling soon became an option which wasnI can't always chosenremember if it was on that holiday or a later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. Sexually mature at the age I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of nine The Summer Book, and looking much older than her years she took to spending much that I eagerly awaited the ''Sort Of'' translations of her time in the pubs her parents ran rest of Jansson's work and it was whilst her parents were serving in the bar that David raped her – devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on three successive nights – when she was only twelve. Her pregnancy wasn't evident for six monthsthem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340976772</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ruth Merry and Steve Emecz 1908745819|title=Enabled: One Disabled Woman's Incredible Story of Tackling Her Disability in Pursuit of a Lifelong DreamSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ruth Merry Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has never been your common-name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or-garden young lady. Born with no ability to move her legsnot, and morebut rarely do we ask them why they thought so, due unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a condition called arthrogryposisbook calling your name, she still became an avid equestrianrarely get it wrong. In this case, downhill skier, competitive swimmer, fund-raiser and moreI was told why. At The blurb speaks of the beginning author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of this book herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a flippant comment inspires anotherbad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, future dream - of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of going down in a four-man bobsleighall, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312322</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lucy Wadham 1906852472|title=The Secret Life of France|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=I'm rather at Wild Child: Growing Up a loss to describe this book for you, and I'm still uncertain how to categorise it. It's part personal memoir and part analytical. Whether you regard this particular mix as brilliant or irritating is down, I suppose, to personal taste and intellectual curiosity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571236111</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNomad|author=Lynn Barber |title=An EducationIan Mathie
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Lynn Barber comes from For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the ''lowermissing link in his narrative, unrememberedthe story of a very unusual childhood (yes, orders on both sidesthe very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well it''. There s hardly news two years later – is no ancestral home or village – just parents who were determined that she should work hard and make something of herselfthe book is published posthumously. WellAs always, they were – until Simon proposed and it was explained to her that Oxford didn't really matters beautifully written, that being married to a good man would be more importantwith many exciting moments. Simon What I most enjoyed was much older – older the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in fact than he would admit to – and he picked Lynn up (quite literally) at ''Wild Child'' with a bus stop when she was just sixteensatisfying clunk. Surprisingly her parents were unworried by this and threw them together, despite the fact Seemingly all that Simon, who was 's now left in the property business, had some strange friends. In the nineteen fifties it wasn't every sixteen year old girl who had a passing acquaintance with the evil slum landlord, Peter Rachmandrawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141039558</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview|author=Stan Cattermole |title=Bete de Jour|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Something's just come in that might appeal Move on to you'', said Sue from The Bookbag, having just taken delivery of ''Bête de Jour''. Pleased to be thought of, I never mustered the courage to ask whether this thought was motivated by a previous liking for bloke lit, or by the book's subtitle: ''The Intimate Adventures of an Ugly Man''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007312741</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Biography Reviews]]