134,836
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__ ==Autobiography=={{newreview|author=Matt MacAllester|title=Bittersweet: Lessons from my Mother's Kitchen|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Matt MacAllester is a Pulitzer<!-- Remove --prize winning journalist, used to covering the horrors of war, but nothing prepared him for his investigation into the life and death of his mother Anne. In May 2005 Ann MacAllester died suddenly of a heart attack and her son was overwhelmed by grief. This might not sound unusual, but his mother had been largely absent from him for about a quarter of a century, trapped in her own private world of madness. His earliest memories were of an idyllic childhood, where wonderful food was always at the centre of family life and with the help of Elizabeth David, his mother’s favourite cookery writer he sought to find his mother through the food she cooked.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408800942</amazonuk>}} {{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>
}}
|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>}}
}}
{{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
}}
|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=TeensAutobiography|summary=We first met Nicole Dryburgh in her book Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years. She's been at Victoria'The Way I See Its smallholding in Leicestershire which isn'', which she wrote at eighteen, and which detailed her battles with cancer and the loss of her sight. We loved the warts-and-t all picture of her life that she gave us thenconducive to writing, and so we were really pleased to see that sheas there's written always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. The other side of the decision was sealed when a second bookroom became available (courtesy of Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996978</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MathieChristopher Fowler|title=The Man of PassageWord Monkey|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ian MathieIt's association with Africa began when his father was posted to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years old. School was the first of August in a convent and was run by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst middle of a couple of hundred Africanscool wet summer in East Anglia. Even when he was joined by others he was still part I decided not to swim at the pool in favour of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise it! going to my beach hut. He was taught The weather closed in the local language , rain arrived, and grew up with the local childrenI decided not to do that either. It When I finished reading this book, I realised it was his home because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and was (b) I did not want to be do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, the centre of dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and his first chapter tells us about his life for decades terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to comelaugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and you know he actually is at that point, because he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>0857529625
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Carole White and Sian WilliamsKit De Waal|title=Struggle or StarveWithout Warning and Only Sometimes|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Struggle or Starve is a collection As Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad/ They may not mean to, but they do” Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of autobiographical writings about girls' parenthood and women's lives in South Wales between the warsbonds that bind family. This book is a new edition memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a book first published large role in 1998 by Honnothe autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, an independent publisher set up to encourage Welsh women writersher class and her gender. Most of the contributors in this book came from miners' families Her parents loom large and grew up in real poverty are written with care, love, and economic insecuritythe kind of anger only a child can express to their parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>1472284852
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit 1638485216|title=Talking About Jane Austen Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely FriendshipLife and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In early 2005''Corruption is not department, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman gender or race specific. It has everything to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview about day to day life in Baghdad, and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections theredo with character. Period. May's detailed and frank responses prompt ' ''One more curiosity and questions from Bee, and a friendship develops between the two womenbody just wouldn't matter''. They tell each other about their work, relationships and family lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gabriel WestonBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=Direct RedI May Be Wrong
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography|summary=Few people have When the ability Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to convey think it doesn't really matter how the minutiae rest of their profession in ways which engage the readerworld responds to your book. I know, answer your unspoken questions and talk having read the book in such a way question, that you're neither patronised nor overburdened Lindeblad would disagree with jargonthat thought. Gabriel Weston He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to this book, because it tells the truth as it is one such – , in the early 21st century.|isbn=1526644827}}{{Frontpage|isbn=gareth_steel|title=Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Direct RedNever Work With Animals'' held me as though I was hypnotised for several hoursit seems to be appropriate. SheStories of a vet's a surgeon life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and weSmall'' but ''Never Work With Animals''re pulled into is definitely not the intricacies of her world without companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the need book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to don mask inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and gowneating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520699</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dana FowleyDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=How Could She?Speedy: Hurled Through Havoc
|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 more of the same. She was raped by her mother's partner and taken How to summarise the homes life of her grandparents where she was abused by them and others. At other times she was forced Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to go to the homes kick off a review of other men where she was raped and abused. Did her mother not his memoir? Do you know what was going on? Did she turn a blind eye? It was neither of those, I really don't think I can.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val Doonican0008350388|title=My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete AutobiographyWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=In the 1960s''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, if Harold Wilson was the personification of politics less intelligent and the Beatles the collective icon of youth culture, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex of ultimately less valuable than my light entertainment-skinned counterparts... '' He may no longer have such a high profile – but he's outlasted them both'We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0. Over four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and 7% of English Literature GCSE students in the process he has never really put England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a foot wrongwoman. '' As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do best, and what 'The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to the public wants UK from youKenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, then stick with ither father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and do determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it as well as you canwas simply carefully harvested.' With When Otegha was ten the possible exception of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harrisfamily acquired a car. For Otegha, it's difficult education meant a scholarship to think of another person a private school in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, London and more then a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'place at New College, Oxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aeronwy Thomas 0571365884|title=My Father's PlacesMess is a Bit of Life: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughterAdventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=3.54
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Aeronwy Thomas Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was six years old when the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and her family came far between. On a visit to settle after a nomadic existence at Laugharnetherapist, on the Welsh coastas an adult, in 1949. Dylan used when she was completely unable to broadcast regularly on the BBC, speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and while he continued to travel to London regularly for ''My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the purpose (as well as result - or so we are given to carouse with friends in his old haunts), somewhere off the beaten track was a more suitable working environmentbelieve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010056</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael PalinDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=Diaries 1969-1979: The Python YearsA Tattoo on my Brain|rating=43.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Alzheimer''Never meet s is a disease that slowly wears away your heroesidentity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease,'' goes as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the old adageelements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs'memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in 'Never read their diaries'A Tattoo on my Brain' might be equally sage advice. That's probably why I didn'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 years.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>1108838936
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Shirley Williams1529109116|title=Climbing the BookshelvesCall Me Red: The Autobiography of Shirley WilliamsA Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=AutobiographyLifestyle|summary=Who could resist ''I want the image of a title like British farmer to simply be that? And of a person who is this some lesser-known Shirley Williams, recalling a life spent proudly employed in libraries? feeding the nation. The answer I don't think that is too much to the latter is noask.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jose Saramago 0008333173|title=Small MemoriesHungry: A Memoir of Wanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Having been born in 1922 and lived through so much I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the twentieth century, with judges on ''Masterchef''. You know that you're going to get an author's view honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of change and people, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced a lotthe time. Civil Wars You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in the neighbouring Spain; the growth front of his country - which still left it as western Europe's pooresther. Here he allows us witness to his mind drifting through his childhood, in I've often wondered about the woman behind the country media image and in Lisbon, and provides ''Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is a subtle stunning read which will make you laugh and gentle memoirbreak your heart in equal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655148X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1504321383|title=John Peel Single, Again, and Again, and Sheila RavenscroftAgain|titleauthor=Margrave of the MarshesLouisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=EntertainmentAutobiography|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the most important disc jockeys of all time. Born in Merseyside in 1939, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home 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 (even if I didn''You can't always enjoy it myself) be happy and his readiness to say exactly what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted to hear, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in the music weeklies and later Radio Timesfulfilled on your own. Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards 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-You are not complete until you find a man'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 one.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anita Thompson (Editor)Sakinu Ahronglong|title=Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S ThompsonSchool
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is almost 40 years since Dr Hunter S Thompsona work of fiction. That's seminal work possibly misleading. I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in the sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as the blurb goes on to say ''Fear And Loathing In Las Vegasrecollections, folklore and autobiographical stories'' first graced . It feels like the shelveslatter. His gonzo style, putting himself at It feels like the centre of the storystories he tells about his experiences as a child, should tell readers as much about the person doing the writing an adolescent, as the event he is describingan adult are real and true. If that's the case then what But memory is to be learned from a selection of interviews with the main man himself then? The answer is plentyfickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more people will read it. More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0330510711</amazonuk>1999791282
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Floyd1544641923|title=Stirred But Not Shaken: The AutobiographyAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I grew up with television cookery programmes It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and still have some recipes in my childish handwritingluxurious. It might be privileged, which begin but family connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it'4oz SR fl 2oz marg 2oz C sug…s really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' as I battled to copy what was on do so, you know), but the screen before we retuned to diplomatic spouse, the presenteraccompanying baggage, well, that's an entirely different matter. Programmes stagnated as the cook spoke to camera She (and lectured the viewer on how to make sponge cake or it still usually is a fish dish. Then we were shocked awake. There was a man, quite good-looking in a raffish, slightly dangerous sort of way, who cooked 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on the deck of a trawler or wherever the whim took him, always glass in hand and who was quite capable of berating the cameraman about how he was doing his job. Like him, or hate him – you could not help but know that he was Keith Floyd, or Floydy to millions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071052</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Johnson 0241446732|title=Rockers Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Rollers: An Automotive Autobiography Svante Thunberg|rating=3.5|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Brian Johnson will probably go down as one of the luckiest men in showbizThe Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. He had a brief moment Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of glory in the early 70s as vocalist with Geordie, a Tyneside version parenting of Slade, who had three Top 40 hits and then fell on hard timestheir two daughters. After going back to the day jobThen eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, a chance call invited him to go and audition for AC/DCthen nine years old, whose vocalist Bon Scott had suddenly diedstruggled with what was happening. Three decades laterIn such circumstances, not only have the group held on it's natural to seek a solution close to their loyal fanbasehome, but one of their albumseventually, according it became clear to an online source, is second only to Michael Jacksonthe family that they were 's 'burned-out people on a burned-out planet'Thriller'' in terms of global sales.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155424</amazonuk> If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Susan Hill 191280493X|title=Howards End is on the LandingComing of Age|author=Danny Ryan
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Esteemed author, Susan Hill challenges herself to a year of not buying books, ''He began writing novels and re-reading some poetry at the age of her vast collection: not a terribly original ideatwelve, but an intriguing one nonetheless. Most avid readers will no doubt have made similar vows at some point in their lives (I know I have…) Early in the memoir, Ms Hill does admit that for professional purposes she will continue it was to review books sent take him a further forty-eight years to her - but buying/obtaining realise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for pleasureall that time, is to be out he remains a shining example of boundshope over experience. In the course ..'' ''This a memoir from someone you have never heard of guiding us through her vast and eclectic collection, scattered throughout her home, she also sets herself the task of choosing her top 40 books - and comes up with a very erudite selectionbut will feel like you have.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682657</amazonuk>''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Keenan190874572X|title=I'll Tell Me Ma: A Childhood MemoirLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Keenan memorably told Back at the story beginning of his years as the century, I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a hostage in Beirut in ''An Evil Cradling'wonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of-friends. I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. Now he turns to his childhood. Anyone who had I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an urban upbringing in English translation of The Summer Book, and that I eagerly awaited the 1950's will find themselves saying ''I remember that!Sort Of'' at intervals throughout this book. Senior Service cigarettes, Pontefract cakes, translations of the rag and bone man, the Lone Ranger, family photographs kept in an old biscuit tin, Dad polishing everyonerest of Jansson's shoes, the realisation that there was a wider world beyond the city streets…These are some of the things that brought back work and devoured them as soon as I could get my own memories – what can you find?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224062166</amazonuk>hands on them.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Bennett1908745819|title=A Life Like Other People'sSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It was his motherSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it's illness which triggered Alan Bennett's excursions into his family background. The bout of depression hadnMostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't cleared as like the family had hoped and admission book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hospital hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the next step in the treatmentauthor considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself. '' Asked if there had been anything like this before, Bennett said not, failing to notice his fatherOlder. Less tethered. That's hand gently touch his kneenot a bad description of where I am. The son was educated at Oxford Add to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had even been seen my name on the televisionit. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. He did the talking rather than the father, reluctant butcher and a man not given I am pleased to putting himself forwardhave it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571248128</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elliott J Gorn 1906852472|title=Dillinger's Wild RideChild: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number OneGrowing Up a Nomad|author=Ian Mathie|rating=45|genre=HistoryAutobiography|summary=John Dillinger was born For Ian Mathie fans there is good and brought bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in Indiana. His childhood was no better and no worse than most but his narrative, the early part story of his adult life was to be blighted by a spell in prison when very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he was convicted of an attack on a man in a botched hold-upbecame). The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumously. As always, it's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. Hoping for leniency he pleaded guilty but What I most enjoyed was sentenced to a lengthy term the feeling that many of imprisonment, whilst the man questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with him pleaded not guilty and when convicted received a shorter sentencesatisfying clunk. ItSeemingly all that's easy to see where Dillinger's contempt for now left in the law was spawneddrawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0195304837</amazonuk>
}}