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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__ ==Autobiography==<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Malalai JoyaAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Raising My Voice: The Extraordinary Story of the Afghan Woman Who Dares to Speak OutOther Girl|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyAutobiography|summary=Forget entertainment – this is a book to read if you have any interest in ''We were born from the war in Afghanistansame body. My particular view has developed from a British armchair, comprising part emotional reaction, a smidgeon of history and an over-reliance on British media sources. In a war zone where truth has been a casualty throughout, I've never really wanted to think about this book gives the general reader an authentic view of conditions in Afghanistan over the past twenty five years of continual warfare. Written by a young and hot-headed, wildly patriotic 'ordinary' woman, this is no more reliable than any other partisan view, but its value is to help put official news sources into their proper context. I found it educative in several senses.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846041503</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Perrin1036916375|title=West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of LossJust a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle|rating=3.54
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Where would you go if ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of memories and reflections from the love of your life, years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and your sonaround Liverpool. Some are factual, both died within such as the family history of a short few months of each other? sea-going family, with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the what-might-have-been. Jim Perrin headed West - It's a book to the scraggly patches of land off Ireland, closer settle into and allow your mind to the setting sunroam across your childhood memories, nearer to the further horizonthink of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, beyond despite the noise, information and opinion of humanity. Of course, blitz that question could also be answered was a constant factor in a more metaphoric wayMcArdle's early years. Jim went inward, I'd never heard of parachute mines before coming outward. He suffered - "involuntarily, but they were almost soundless and could appear after the tears have come. Who would have thought that death would release so many.." He also, although he would probably hate me for saying it, went on a "psycho-geographical ramble" all- both in life, and in making this bookclear was sounded.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843546116</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=G Willow WilsonAnnie Ernaux and Anna Moschovakis (translator)|title=The Butterfly Mosque: A Young Woman's Journey to Love and IslamPossession|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=This memoir is told in the first person so straight away there Ernaux opens with a disclaimer, warning readers that what follows is more or less a connection with the reader. The story starts - not in Egypt - but in the USA. Willow (lovely name) says sheconfession: 's ''in I have always wanted to write as if I would be gone when the market for a philosophy.book was published'' And in this search she is extremely thorough. She looks at mainstream religions - Christianity, Buddhism to name but two and puts them under Towards the microscope, so to speak. She dismisses all end of them before settling on Islam. It appears to offer what she is afterthe book, what she is looking for, claims that the title (somewhat enigmatic thing. But alsoat first) bares witness to a brief period of time in her life, therelabelled and documented here as ''The Possession''s some little twist which helps make her mind up. But not before she digs deep and seeks answers to complex and awkward questions. She reads and researches Islam and finds out surprising facts, in which she shares with felt herself in the reader. Willow is wellthroes of an all-read encompassing and well-educated. She seems set for seductive jealousy targeted at the new partner of W, a good career of her choice on American soil. Why not settle for that? But man she's set on travel to the Middle East come what mayhas since separated from after a six-year long affair.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843548283</amazonuk>1804271497
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna Del ConteMary McCarthy|title=Risotto with NettlesMemories of a Catholic Girlhood
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary= People who are serious about food will know Mary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', obsessively digging into the past to piece together the name broken mosaic of Anna Del Conteher life. Sheattributes her 's a serious writer about Italian food but not someone 'burning interest in the past'' to her orphanhood, as she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who has courted fame via died in the television screen1918 flu epidemic. You'll have met This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in places like 'SainsburyMinneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived under the harsh guardianship of her late father's Magazine' or read some of 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 her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her brilliant writing about the food with a different kind of her native Italyupbringing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099505991</amazonuk>1804271659
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael HutchinsonVirginie Despentes|title=Missing the Boat: Chasing a Childhood Sailing DreamKing Kong Theory
|rating=4
|genre=SportAutobiography |summary=As ''King Kong Theory'' is a youngster in the nineteen eightieshard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, Michael Hutchinson was passionate about sailing. He acquired which can be seen as a dinghy and crew, and spent his early years messing around on Belfast Lough. He learned call to sail, race Mirrors and fling jellyfish accurately arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at passing competitorsits core. In time, his salty daydreams became ambitiousOriginally written in French, encompassing the Olympic Games, America's Cup and Round the World yacht races. Trouble was, Hutchinson proved to be book is a deeply mediocre dinghy sailor, clocking up only one win collection of essays in several seasons round which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the buoys. Although he was good enough at race tactics and seamanship, he lacked the sprinkling complex prism of gold dust that differentiates the very good performer her varied life: from the brilliantrape to sex work and pornography. And so eventuallyThough these discussions are intertwined, as is their placement within the way of sensible young men, he became disenchanted and stopped trying. Ironicallybook can feel somewhat disjointed, he then found he had a talent for cycling which took him reflection of their original form as far as the Commonwealth Gamesindependent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099552345</amazonuk>191309734X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Greg BaxterJoan Didion|title=A Preparation for DeathThe Year of Magical Thinking|rating=34.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I've always been slightly wary of autobiographies which are written whilst the subject is still relatively young. They can often feel incomplete, particularly when you know the author is still successful in their chosen career. Frequently they are also written from an immediate perspective which time can alter thanks to hindsight.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141048433</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Frances Woodsford|title=Dear Mr Bigelow: A Transatlantic Friendship|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Meet Mister Bigelow. HeThis book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's elderly, living alone sudden death. Books that shed light on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough family taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and friends necessary resource to get him by, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas and morehelp people feel less alone. Meet, too, Frances Woodsford. She's reaching middleDidion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-age, living with her brother and mum in Bournemouthpity, denial and working for the local baths as organiser of events, office lackey delusion and more. I suggest you do meet makes themutterly normal, although neither ever met the other. Despite this they kept up lends them a brisk and lively conversation about all aspects of life, from the late 1940s until his death at the beginning of the 60s. And as a result comes this book, of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world of social history and entertaining diary-style commenthuman face to wear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099542293</amazonuk>0007216858
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Beaumont1787333175|title=The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and SocietyPopular Science|summary=Peter Beaumont is the Foreign Affairs editor at The Observer. He joined the paper in 1989 and has spent much of the intervening time dealing with the kind of I was tempted to read 'foreign affairs' that is better described as You Don'war reportingt Have to be Mad to Work Here'. 'The Secret Life of Warafter enjoying Adam Kay' s first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a distillation glorious mixture of insight into the workings of his years in the fieldNHS, humour and autobiography. It is a book ill-served by both its title ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and its cover, except maybe insofar as both might serve to sneak it onto the bookshelves work of those who really need a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to read it, be looking for humour in this setting but probably wouldn't choose to do so were the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it more accurately wrappedis always delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520982</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Younge0241636604|title=Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?The Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Journalist If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Younge’s book draws heavily on Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his articles for background is the Guardian newspaperEast End, as where he mentions in was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his acknowledgements, CV - but it isn’t just a collection he had been to the London School of his journalismEconomics. Who Are We? Stevenson is partly a memoir bright - extremely bright - and partly he has a thoughtful and incisive exploration facility with numbers which most of the politics and political impact of identity, including race, gender, language groups, religion, sexuality in various countries around the worldus can only envy. He sets out also realised that most rich people expect poor people to explore 'To be stupid. It was his ability at what extent can our various identities be mobilized to accentuate our universal humanity was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as opposed to separating us off into various, antagonistic camps?'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917036</amazonuk>a trader.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Jackson1529395224|title=MoonwalkLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Michael JacksonSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn's autobiographyt want to follow in his footsteps, based particularly when he considered the strain that being on tape-recorded conversations with call put on his editor Shaye Ereheart, father's life. When he was first published in 1988. This new edition has an introduction by Berry Gordy, founder seventeen he took the opportunity of Motown Records doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and his original mentor, and an afterword by Areheart about how was convinced this was the book was writtenjob for him. The main part of the book is a straight reprint of the originalBefore long, with no updating he was at allLiverpool University. Intriguingly, although GordyIt hadn's four pages refer to is protégé in the past tenset - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, calling him he''the greatest entertainer that ever lived', Areheart's writing, and also the cover, refer d wanted to him in the presentbe a professional footballer. No reference anywhere is made to his untimely death.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099547953</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Captain William WellsEdel Rodriguez|title=Worm: A Sailor's TalesCuban American Odyssey
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=Captain William Wells was born We're in New Zealand where his father ran a successful carpentry businesschildhood, but his heart wasnand we't re in following his father into the family firm or in most Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the lessons at schoolcountry, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. He was an enthusiastic sportsman but what enthralled him most Well, those hours-long speeches of his were the ships sailing out kind of Wellington harbour, which he could see from taking his bedroom windowtime away. Without his parentsOur narrator's family weren' knowledge t in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he applied for a scholarship which allowed six boys each year to travel would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the UK father being watched and undertake their basic nautical trainingwatched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. Billy WellsThe mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, who previously had only got 2% but in his English exam (his name was spelled correctly) had this sultry island country, it remains the second highest score in kind of heat forcing you out of the country and was soon on his way to England.kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095629040X</amazonuk>1474616720
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt MacAllester1035025299|title=Bittersweet: Lessons from my Mother's KitchenWent to London, Took the Dog|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4
|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 Nina Stibbe is returning 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 London for a sabbatical after the revolution, and settled in Denmark being away for nearly thirty twenty years until, feeling threatened by Stalin’s regime, they moved to Canada. She outlived him by two years's been at Victoria's smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writing, dying in 1960as there's always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. The other side of the decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906775168</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Chris StewartChristopher Fowler|title=Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist AfloatWord Monkey
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Books about sailing fall into two sorts: those written by authors who know what they are talking aboutIt's the first of August in the middle of a cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the pool in favour of going to my beach hut. The weather closed in, rain arrived, and I decided not to do that either. When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (though sometimes they don't convey it too wella) I wanted to finish reading this book and those who don't have a clue, but like (b) I did not want to think they doso anywhere near my shack. WellNo spoiler alerts, Chris Stewart may have started the book with dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a light man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and frothy touch as a novice sailoryou know he actually is at that point, but because he ends up with the credentials of an Ancient Marinerdoes. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956003842</amazonuk>0857529625
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael WolffKit De Waal|title=The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert MurdochWithout Warning and Only Sometimes|rating=3.54|genre=Politics and SocietyAutobiography|summary=There can be few people who are unaware 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 the bonds that bind family. This book is a memoir focussing on the name author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of Rupert MurdochBirmingham. Over four decades he's built News International into a seventy billion dollar corporation Her father is from its original Australian baseSt. His position Kitts in the UK media Caribbean and her mother is such that he's courted an Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by politicians and has what many believe marrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a large role in the autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to be an excessive amount of power for someone who is not elected her race, her class and is not even a UK citizenher gender. He's now expanding into Southeast Asia Her parents loom large and in his eightieth year it's still difficult are written with care, love, and the kind of anger only a child can express to imagine when – or where – he will stoptheir parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099523523</amazonuk>1472284852
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1638485216
|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa LynchBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=The C-WordI May Be Wrong|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=In When the beginning was Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the word, closely followed by rest of the internetworld responds to your book. The two combined to form I know, having read the wonder book in question, that is blogging, and when Lindeblad would disagree with that took off thought. He knows (and people wanted a more concrete and permanent record, books quickly followed. Perhaps at core so do I) that's not ''exactly'' it matters very much how the quote goes, but it's close enough. Breast cancer at twenty eight is not just scary and unusual. For journalist Lisarest of the world responds to this book, because it's downright inconvenient. But, when a stage three tumour bulges out of her boob, she decides to document her subsequent fight against tells the big C (or, truth as she affectionately calls itis, ''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 in the resultearly 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099547546</amazonuk>1526644827
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ngugi wa Thiong'ogareth_steel|title=Dreams in a Time of WarNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=The interest in 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 Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the lives of unfortunate children has created companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the publishing phenomenon nicknamed author would argue that ''All Creatures'misery memoirs'lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Happily Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers of Ngugi wa Thiongand - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn'o’s Dreams in a Time of War memories of the author’s often difficult childhood t lack sensitivity, although there are presented as a tale of triumph occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and empowerment rather than anger and self-pityeating. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846553776</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gervase PhinnDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Road to the DalesSpeedy: The Story of a Yorkshire LadHurled Through Havoc
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=As How to summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a teacher currently anticipating (I won't say looking forward pithy sentence to!) an OFSTED inspection, school inspectors aren't generally my favourite people. I'll make an exception for Gervase Phinn, though, as he's entertained me for many hours with his previous books on his time in the Dales doing the job. I was expecting his memoirs kick off a review of his childhood to be equally entertaining – and feel slightly letdownmemoir? Do you know, if Ireally don'm honestt think I can.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718149114</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Abby Lee0008350388|title=Girl With a One Track Mind: Exposed: Further Revelations of a Sex Blogger We Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Abby Lee ''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is back with a brand new book thatto be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''s sure We Need to bring her readers closer to her than theyTalk About Money''ve ever been before. by Otegha Uwagba
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alice Taylor0571365884|title=The Village|rating=3|genre=Autobiography|summary=Two other authors, [[:Category:Miss Read|Miss Read]] and [[:Category:Rebecca Shaw|Rebecca Shaw]], have already purloined the village for their own. I so wish that the publishers had chosen My Mess is a more distinctive title for this reprint. It's the Irishness Bit of the memoir that will attract English readers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224202</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewLife: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Margaret Drabble|title=The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws Georgia Pritchett|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Imagine Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the scenemonsters under the bed were comfortable: a major publishing house receives it was the latest pitch for sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. On a book. Its basis is visit to a history of the jigsawtherapist, as an adult, interwoven 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 highly personal memoir Bit of an ever so slightly irascible maiden aunt with whom the author partook in the delights of puzzling. Two words save this pitch from obliviona Life: Margaret Drabble. Faced with the same dilemma Adventures in a bookshop, Anxiety'' is the reader would be wise to follow the publisher's hunch and buy this book result - it is a gentle delight from start or so we are given to finishbelieve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843546205</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice TaylorDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=To School Through The FieldsA Tattoo on my Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=To School Through the Fields Alzheimer's is the memoir a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a farmer’s daughter who grew up in rural County Cork in the 1940s (though statue over time affected the book never mentions the date of when it is set)elements. Taylor makes it clear at the beginning It seems as if nature wants that she final victory over you and your dignity. This is writing a nostalgic look back at the era of her childhood, before the what makes Daniel Gibbs'changing winds of time' and then presents memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a series of anecdotes about her parents, her family neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and some of the other characters who lived has documented his journey in her village''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0863224210</amazonuk>1108838936
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{{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.''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicole Dryburgh0008333173|title=Talk to the Hand|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 Hungry: A Memoir 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>}} {{newreviewWanting More|author=Ian Mathie|title=The Man of PassageGrace Dent|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ian MathieI's association with Africa began m always relieved when his father was posted Grace Dent is one of the judges on ''Masterchef''. You know that you're going to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years oldget an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the time. School was You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in a convent and was run by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple front of hundred Africansher. Even when he was joined by others he was still part of an ethnic minority although he didnI't realise it! He was taught in ve often wondered about the local language and grew up with woman behind the local children. It was his home media image and was to be the centre ''Hungry: A Memoir of his life for decades to comeWanting More'' is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1504321383|title=Carole White Single, Again, and Again, and Sian WilliamsAgain|titleauthor=Struggle or StarveLouisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Struggle or Starve is ''You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a collection of autobiographical writings about girlsman' 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 was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to encourage Welsh women writersbelieve. Most of It wasn't unkind: it was simply the contributors adults in this book came from minersher life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced by all 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. Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without' families ' the expectation that they will marry and grew up in real poverty have children. It was a belief and economic insecurityit would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit Sakinu Ahronglong|title=Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely FriendshipHunter School|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In early 2005, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman The flyleaf to confirm and prepare for this little collection tells us that it is a telephone interview about day to day life work of fiction. That's possibly misleading. I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in Baghdadthe sense that Ahronglong made it all up, and about her thoughts or whether it is as the blurb goes on the forthcoming elections there. Mayto say ''s detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Beerecollections, folklore and a friendship develops between autobiographical stories''. It feels like the two womenlatter. They tell each other It feels like the stories he tells about their workhis experiences as a child, as an adolescent, as an adult are real and true. But memory is a fickle thing, relationships and family livesmaybe 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>0141038535</amazonuk>1999791282
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chinua Achebe1544641923|title=The Education of a British-Protected ChildAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=This book It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is a collection of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebeprivileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, whose best known work but family connections tell me that it is the novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958far from luxurious. Topics covered include Nigerian Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do so, Biafran and Igbo history and cultureyou know), African literature and but the legacy of colonialism in his country and the rest of Africa. Some of diplomatic spouse, the essays are taken from guest lectures at universities around the world and conference papersaccompanying baggage, and others are written for this bookwell, particularly many of the more personal pieces about Achebethat's familyan entirely different matter. She (and it still usually is a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142598</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gabriel Weston0241446732|title=Direct RedOur House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg
|rating=5
|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Few people have The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the ability to convey the minutiae parenting of their profession in ways which engage the readertwo daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, answer your unspoken questions and talk in such a way that you're neither patronised nor overburdened struggled with jargonwhat was happening. Gabriel Weston is one In such – and circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family that they were ''Direct Redburned-out people on a burned-out planet'' held me as though I was hypnotised for several hours. She's If they were to find a surgeon and we're pulled into the intricacies of her world without the way to live happily again their solution would need to don mask and gownbe radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520699</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dana Fowley191280493X|title=How Could She?Coming of Age|author=Danny Ryan
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=From ''He began writing novels and poetry at the age of five Dana Fowley twelve, but it was subjected to unimaginable sexual abuse and before long her sister would be subjected take him a further forty-eight years to more of the samerealise that he wasn’t very good at either. She was raped by her mother's partner and taken to the homes Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a shining example of her grandparents where she was abused by them and othershope over experience. 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.''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val Doonican190874572X|title=My StoryLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete AutobiographySarah Death (Translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson was Back at the personification beginning of politics and the Beatles the collective icon of youth culturecentury, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a wonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of light entertainment-friends. He may no longer have such I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a high profile – but he's outlasted them bothlater one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. Over I do know that it was four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himselfyears later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, and in that I eagerly awaited 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 with it, and do it as well as you can.' With Sort Of'' translations of the possible exception rest of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, itJansson's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across work and devoured them as soon as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you I could get'my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aeronwy Thomas 1908745819|title=My Father's Places: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughterSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Aeronwy Thomas was six years old Sometimes when she and her family came to settle after people suggest that you read a nomadic existence certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at Laugharnetheir word, or not, on but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't like the Welsh coastbook. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, in 1949I was told why. Dylan used to broadcast regularly on The blurb speaks of the BBCauthor considering ''an older, and while he continued less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to travel to London regularly for that my love of the purpose (as well as to carouse with friends in his old haunts)natural world, somewhere off of those aspects of the beaten track poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was a more suitable working environmentwritten 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>1849010056</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Palin1906852472|title=Diaries 1969-1979Wild Child: 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. 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 Growing Up a hero of my teenage years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNomad|author=Shirley Williams|title=Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley WilliamsIan Mathie|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Who could resist a title like that? And For Ian Mathie fans there is this some lesser-known Shirley Williamsgood and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, recalling the story of a life spent in libraries? very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The answer to bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the latter book is nopublished posthumously. Shirley CatlinAs always, as she it's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was born, tells us in the early pages feeling that many of this memoir that during her childhood her father encouraged her to climb the bookshelves questions in their Chelsea house, right up to the ceilingIan Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. It was a secret between Seemingly all that's now left in the two of them, as her mother, Testament of Youth Author Vera Brittain, would have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken armsdrawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844084760</amazonuk>
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