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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->__NOTOC__{{Frontpage|isbn=B0GCB1MQ7D|title=Why My Mother Went Away|author=Alan Kennedy|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary==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, which might or might not tell the true story. It's not often that you find a book that gives the full backstory, and rarely do you discover a memoir where the telling is so perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the pleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is one of those rare exceptions. It's the story of how a boy from the Midlands, born at the beginning of the Second World War, would become a Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. In fact, he was one of the founders of the department.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Captain William WellsAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=A Sailor's TalesThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Captain William Wells was ''We were born in New Zealand where his father ran a successful carpentry businessfrom the same body. I've never really wanted to think about this.'' Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but his heart wasn't in following his father into this raw epistolary text must be one of the family firm or in most of the lessons at schoolintimate accounts I've read. He was an enthusiastic sportsman but what enthralled him most were the ships sailing out of Wellington harbourErnaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, which he could see from his bedroom windowthis letter will never reach her. Without his parentsWhy? Because Annie Ernaux' knowledge he applied for s sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a scholarship which allowed six boys each year to travel to few months before the UK vaccine was made compulsory in France, and undertake their basic nautical training. Billy Wells, who previously had only got 2% in his English exam (his name years before the author was spelled correctly) had even born. The large and instant void created by the second highest score jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in the country and was soon on his way to Englandher life, an absence that she has always felt but often denied.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095629040X</amazonuk>1804271845
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt MacAllester1036916375|title=Bittersweet: Lessons from my Mother's KitchenJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was born ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in 1882and around Liverpool. Some are factual, youngest child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and thus sister such as the family history of a sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the illwhat-fated Tsar Nicholas IImight-have-been. Her first marriage It's a book to Prince Peter Oldenburgsettle into and allow your mind to roam across your childhood memories, to think of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, who despite the blitz that was probably gay, ended a constant factor in an amicable divorce, and in 1916 she married Colonel Nicholas KulikovskyMcArdle's early years. They escaped from Russia I'd never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear 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 1960all-clear was sounded.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906775168</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris StewartAnnie Ernaux and Anna Moschovakis (translator)|title=Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist AfloatThe Possession
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Books about sailing fall into two sortsErnaux opens with a disclaimer, warning readers that what follows is more or less a confession: those written by authors who know what they are talking about, (though sometimes they don't convey it too well) and those who don't I have a clue, but like always wanted to think they dowrite as if I would be gone when the book was published''. WellTowards the end of the book, Chris Stewart may have started she claims that the book with title (somewhat enigmatic at first) bares witness to a light brief period of time in her life, labelled and frothy touch documented here as a novice sailor''The Possession'', but he ends up with in which she felt herself in the credentials throes of an Ancient Marinerall-encompassing and seductive jealousy targeted at the new partner of W, a man she has since separated from after a six-year long affair.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956003842</amazonuk>1804271497
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael WolffMary McCarthy|title=The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World Memories of Rupert Murdocha Catholic Girlhood|rating=3.54|genre=Politics and SocietyAutobiography|summary=There can be few people who are unaware of Mary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', obsessively digging into the past to piece together the name broken mosaic of Rupert Murdochher life. Over four decades heShe attributes her ''burning interest in the past''s built News International into a seventy billion dollar corporation to her orphanhood, as she lacked any second-hand memories from its original Australian baseher parents, who died in the 1918 flu epidemic. His position This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived under the UK media is such that heharsh guardianship of her late father's courted by politicians Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and has what many believe Aunt Margaret. Later, she moved to Seattle to be an excessive amount of power for someone who is not elected live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and is not even her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with 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 stopdifferent kind of upbringing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099523523</amazonuk>1804271659
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil MacFarquharVirginie Despentes|title=The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy BirthdayKing Kong Theory|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyAutobiography |summary=''What are the chances of change in the Middle East?King Kong Theory'' is the question central to this book. Since Neil MacFarquhar spent thirteen years wandering the length a hard-hitting memoir and breadth of the Islamic stronghold of the Middle Eastfeminist manifesto, I feel inclined which can be seen as a call to believe his arms for women in-depth assessmenta phallocentric society broken at its core. In descriptive and reasoned terms, he identifies conservative forces which predominate Originally written in the regionFrench, primarily the religious and political machinery book is a collection of essays in which condemns liberalization Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and modernizationpornography. This discussion of attempts to promote changeThough these discussions are intertwined, for example by individual dissidents or their placement within the mediabook can feel somewhat disjointed, is strengthened in the second half of the book by detailed case studies a reflection of six nations with particular reference to their readiness and motivation for changeoriginal form as independent essays. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1586488112</amazonuk>191309734X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ronald Skirth and Duncan BarrettJoan Didion|title=The Reluctant Tommy: An Extraordinary Memoir Year of the First World WarMagical Thinking
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ronald Skirth was one of many young Englishmen This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of nineteen caught up in the First World Wargrief she endured following her husband's sudden death. He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916, was promoted Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to Corporalhelp people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and sent delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a human face to the western frontwear. Like most of his contemporaries, when he went he |isbn=0007216858}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1787333175|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I was an unquestioning servant of King and countrytempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, fighting for what he believed was right. On the battlefields a glorious mixture of Flanders, one day he came across insight into the body workings of Hans, a German soldier the same ageNHS, if not youngerhumour and autobiography. The dead man's hand was clutching a photograph of his girlfriend, who could almost have been 'You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the twin sister work of Ella, Skirth's own sweethearta psychiatrist. Like two of his friends who had just been killed, Hans had died as I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a result of the stupidity of othersperson and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>023074673X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Lynch0241636604|title=The C-WordTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the beginning pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was the wordfamiliar with violence, closely followed by the internetpoverty and injustice. The two combined There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to form the wonder that London School of Economics. Stevenson is blogging, bright - extremely bright - and when he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that took off and most rich people expect poor people wanted to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a more concrete and card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent record, books quickly followedemployment as a trader. Perhaps that's not ''exactly'' how }}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the quote goes, but it's close enoughBag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3. Breast cancer at twenty eight is not just scary 5|genre=Animals and unusualWildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. For journalist Lisa His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, itparticularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's downright inconvenientlife. But, when When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a stage three tumour bulges out of her boob, she decides to document her subsequent fight against vet and was convinced this was the big C (or, as she affectionately calls it, ''The Bullshit'') online job for all to seehim. The [http://alrighttit Before long, he was at Liverpool University.blogspot.com/ blog] It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a successchild. If anything, it garnered some famous fans ([[:Category:Stephen Fry|Stephen Fry]], among others) and he'd wanted to be a book offer followed. This is the resultprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099547546</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ngugi wa Thiong'oEdel Rodriguez|title=Dreams in a Time of WarWorm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The interest in revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the lives of unfortunate children country, has created the publishing phenomenon nicknamed 'misery memoirs'proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Happily for readers Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of Ngugi wa Thiongtaking his time away. Our narrator's family weren'o’s Dreams t in a Time of War memories the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the author’s often difficult childhood are presented country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as a tale of triumph Angola) and the father being watched and empowerment rather than anger watched, and self-pitynot liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846553776</amazonuk>1474616720
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gervase Phinn1035025299|title=Road Went to London, Took the Dales: The Story of a Yorkshire LadDog|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=As Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a teacher currently anticipating (I wonsabbatical after being away for twenty years. She's been at Victoria's smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't say looking forward all that conducive to!) an OFSTED inspection, school inspectors aren't generally my favourite people. I'll make an exception for Gervase Phinn, thoughwriting, as hethere's entertained me for many hours with his previous books on his time in the Dales doing always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. The other side of the job. I decision was expecting his memoirs sealed when a room became available (courtesy of his childhood to be equally entertaining – and feel slightly letdown, if I'm honestDeborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718149114</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pattie Boyd and Penny JunorChristopher Fowler|title=Wonderful Today: The Autobiography of Pattie BoydWord Monkey|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Pattie Boyd will always be remembered for one unique, extraordinary claim to fame. She became It's the wife first of arguably August in the two most famous and revered rock guitarists middle of a cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the erapool in favour of going to my beach hut. The weather closed in, rain arrived, George Harrison and Eric ClaptonI decided not to do that either. When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and thus inspired three of their compositions which became three of (b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, the agedust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 's seminal love songs, namely 'Somethingwas'– and his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, 'Layla'and you know he actually is at that point, and 'Wonderful Tonight'because he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755316436</amazonuk>0857529625
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean BaggottKit De Waal|title=The Girl on the Wall: One Life's Rich TapestryWithout Warning and Only Sometimes|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Jean Baggott is now seventy two 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 parenthood and in the final year of her history degree at Warwick Universitybonds that bind family. After almost This book is a lifetime of bending her life to memoir focussing on the needs author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of other people she has decided that now Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the time to look after herself – 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 large role in the eleven year old girl whose picture hangs on her wallautobiography. She plans Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to achieve what that girl would want her race, her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and are written with care, love, and the kind of anger only a child can express to achieve and from this she's found great fulfilmenttheir parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848311265</amazonuk>1472284852
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Abby Lee1638485216|title=Girl With a One Track MindBlack, White, and Gray All Over: Exposed: Further Revelations of a Sex Blogger A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Abby Lee ''Corruption is back not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with a brand new book thatcharacter. Period.'s sure to bring her readers closer to her than they've ever been before.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice TaylorBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=The VillageI May Be Wrong|rating=35|genre=Autobiography|summary=Two other authorsWhen the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, [[:Category:Miss Read|Miss Read]] and [[:Category:Rebecca Shaw|Rebecca Shaw]]I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds to your book. I know, have already purloined having read the village for their ownbook in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I so wish ) that it matters very much how the rest of the publishers had chosen a more distinctive title for world responds to this reprint. It's book, because it tells the Irishness of truth as it is, in the memoir that will attract English readersearly 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0863224202</amazonuk>1526644827
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret Drabblegareth_steel|title=The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Imagine the scene: I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a major publishing house receives vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the latest pitch companion volume you've been looking for a book. Its basis is As a history of TV show the jigsawauthor would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, interwoven with a highly personal memoir of an ever so slightly irascible maiden aunt as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with whom the author partook in the delights of puzzlinghim. Two words save this pitch from oblivion: Margaret DrabbleHe says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. Faced It deals with the same dilemma in a bookshopsome uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, the reader although there are occasions when you would be wise to follow the publisher's hunch best choosing between reading and buy this book - it is a gentle delight from start to finisheating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843546205</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice TaylorDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=To School Speedy: Hurled Through The Fields|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=To School Through the Fields is the memoir of a farmer’s daughter who grew up in rural County Cork in the 1940s (though the book never mentions the date of when it is set). Taylor makes it clear at the beginning that she is writing a nostalgic look back at the era of her childhood, before the 'changing winds of time' and then presents a series of anecdotes about her parents, her family and some of the other characters who lived in her village.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224210</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Phil Daniels|title=Phil Daniels: Class ActorHavoc
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If we were asked How to nominate summarise the archetypal Cockney actor on large or small screen over the last twenty years or so, Phil Daniels would undoubtedly come high on the list. Born life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in Islington in 1958 and raised in Kings Cross, he was a graduate pithy sentence to kick off a review of the Anna Scher Theatre in the 1970shis memoir? Do you know, I really don't think I can.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376207</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Carole White and Sian Williams0008350388|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 We Need 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>}} {{newreviewTalk About Money|author=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit |title=Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely FriendshipOtegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=In early 2005, ''To be a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi dark-skinned Black woman is to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview about day to day life in Baghdadbe seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections thereultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts. May's detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Bee, and a friendship develops between the two women. They tell each other about their work, relationships and family lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>}}'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dana Fowley0571365884|title=How Could She?My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett
|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 sameGeorgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was raped by her mother's partner and taken to the homes sort of her grandparents life where if she was abused by them had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and othersfar between. At other times On a visit to a therapist, as an adult, when she was forced completely unable to go to the homes of other men where she speak about what was raped and abused. Did wrong with her mother not know what it was going on? Did suggested that she turn should write it down and ''My Mess is a blind eye? It was neither Bit of those. Her mother was a willing participant Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the abuse and organised much of itresult - or so we are given to believe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009952225X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Val Doonican|title=My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete Autobiography|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson was the personification of politics and the Beatles the collective icon 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 to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and in the process he has never really put a foot wrong. As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do best, and what the public wants from you, then stick Daniel Gibbs with it, and do it as well as you can.' With the possible exception of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Aeronwy Thomas Teresa H Barker|title=My Father's Places: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughterTattoo on my Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Aeronwy Thomas was six years old when she Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and her family came to settle after a nomadic existence at Laugharnesense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, on the Welsh coast, in 1949as have many. Dylan used to broadcast regularly on the BBC, Your memories and while he continued to travel to London regularly for personality worn away like a statue over time affected the purpose (elements. It seems as well as to carouse 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 friends Alzheimers and has documented his journey in his old haunts), somewhere off the beaten track was a more suitable working environment''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849010056</amazonuk>1108838936
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Palin1529109116|title=Diaries 1969-1979Call Me Red: The Python Years|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Never meet your heroes,'' goes the old adage. ''Never read their diaries'' might be equally sage advice. ThatA Shepherd'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.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewJourney|author=Shirley Williams|title=Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley WilliamsHannah 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.''
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{{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>
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{{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>}}
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{{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
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{{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>
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{{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.
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{{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>''
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{{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.
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{{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>
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{{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>
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