134,727
edits
Changes
From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to searchno edit summary
[[Category:Biography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Yangzom Brauen Maxim Gorky and Katy DarbyshireBryan Karetnyk (translator)|title=Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters Reminiscences of TibetTolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Fleeing your home Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can never be easy but when you are sixseen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, your only shoes are roughly hand-sewn and stuffed with hayoffers a vibrant, and your route is over the world's highest mountain range then it must be particularly challengingsubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. This was In the journey first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that Yangzom Brauen: 's mother took with her parents when they fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion 'you write not of real life as it is, but of 1959what you yourself imagine it to be. They were leaving behind all Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, that they knew and travelling to India in the hope sea, or that they could find sanctuary in the country where the Dalai Lama was in exile. Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?'Across Many Mountains' is their story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655344X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Ashdown-Hill|title=The Last Days of Richard III|rating=4|genre=History|summary=The controversy surrounding King Richard III has meant that there have been far more biographies about him than on any other pre-Tudor monarchWell, some extremely partisan in exonerating him of the crimes laid at his door, some (Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a minoritysubjective account, it seems) more than keen giving us access to endorse the Shakespearean portrait of a fiend in human shapehow he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and others steering a middle courseAndreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0752454048</amazonuk>1804271977
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edmund de WaalIan Penman|title=The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary='The Hare with Amber Eyes' vibrates with that rush of desire to uncover family history that often follows the death of someone you love. It is also a meticulously researched book of wide ranging scope. When I first picked it up, it looked worryingly erudite, and I had visions of becoming lost in a sea of names, places and ideas. So I was amazed to find myself reading it in one sitting, completely absorbed, and losing a whole day in the process. Edmund De Waal had me hooked from the bottom of page one when he admits to kicking the gate of the Japanese language school he was attending in frustration at his lack of fluency. He then thinks sheepishly: 'what it was to be twenty-eight and kicking a school gate.' This funny, disarming comment put me on his side from the off.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539551</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Spicer|title=The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice, Countess de Janze|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Happy Valley in Kenya was an idyllic setting. The high altitude made for a benign climate and the farms were owned by colonial settlers who became the 'White Mischief' set of the nineteen forties. They farmed their estates, partied the night away and extra-marital affairs were the norm. Author Paul Spicer's mother was loosely involved with the set and he uses the connection to good effect to tell the story of the life of Alice, Countess de Janzé – a beguiling and volatile woman who always thought more of her animals than of her children.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847399142</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jonny Steinberg|title=Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York City|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=South African Steinberg has won awards with previous non-fiction books and after reading the praise from various sources (New York Times, J M Coetzee) I came to the conclusion that I was in for a serious and thought-provoking read. The preface tells us that the two Liberian men - Rufus and the younger Jacob left Liberian soil in vastly different circumstances and for different reasons. But as they meet up years later and thousands of miles away from their homeland, their ''Little Liberia'' in New York City has a tall order: to contain and accommodate their big personalities and to a certain extent, their big egos. Can it cope?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085662</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Edward Pearce|title=Pitt the Elder: Man of WarErik Satie Three Piece Suite
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of ChathamThis unconventional biography somewhat mirrors Satie's admittedly effusive personality: whimsical, experimental and Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768creative. It is divided into three sections: the first, has come down to us through the ages as the great eighteenth century equivalent of Winston Churchillan essay, one of the great men of the British Empire in its earlier dayssecond, and the man who led England triumphantly through the Seven Years War of 1756an A-63. During the 'year of victories' in 1759, Quebec was captured, the combined English Z encyclopedia on Satie and Prussian forces defeated the French at Mindenthird, and the army won a famous victory at Quiberon Bay. For this, Pitt took – or was accorded by generations of historians – much of the credit.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951433</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tracy Kidder|title=Mountains Beyond Mountains|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Dr Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to helping the poorest and neediest in society. He works tirelessly to help people less fortunate than him. ''Dedicated his life'' and ''works tirelessly'' - phrases weSatie Diary've heard many times about many wonderful people, but when reading ''Mountains Beyond Mountains'', you'll realise theredocumenting Ian Penman's not a shred of hyperbole about these claims. Farmer began working with tuberculosis and AIDS patients in Haiti, and then worked with them, and worked for them, and worked with them, and worked for them, and worked with them. In an area where treating the disease is just one part of the problem, where poverty is rife, he has transformed an areathoughts surrounding Satie, saved countless lives, and made an incredible difference to many people. [http://www.pih.org/ Partners In Health], the healthcare organisation he set up with his colleagues, takes this work worldwidemuse. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846684315</amazonuk>1804271535
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Molly CarrJacqueline Feldman|title=In Search of Dr Watson - A Sherlockian InvestigationPrecarious Lease
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=The old saying that behind every great man there is title of this novel refers to a great woman has French legal term (''bail précaire'') associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and processes, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, Feldman takes particular interest in one major exception - Sherlock Holmessquat of massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, admirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. Behind him is the figure Something like a haven for artists and marginal members of Dr John Watsonsociety (as one character, Le Général, his biographerrepeats throughout, ''I live on the margins of the margins of the man who shares his Baker St lodgingsmargins''), Le Bloc was subject to the continual threat of eviction and the man eternally flummoxed by his deductionspressures from above which oppressed its inhabitants' lives. This biography successfully shows how the superior Holmes walked over Watson We follow Le Bloc from its opening in investigative skills2012 until its eventual dissolution, and also how Conan Doyle needed Watson, if only to help us admire Holmes more by making him less insufferably smugframed as a tragedy in this book.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907685766</amazonuk>1804271403
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lindsay ReadeJacqueline Rose|title=Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony and Lindsay WilsonWomen in Dark Times
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), best known as ''The world of the unconscious is not the creator antagonist of the clerical detective Father Brownpolitical life, but its steadfast companion, seems to have slipped a little among the general reading publichidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…''s estimation these days. This is surely unmerited, for he was just as versatile as and hardly less quotable than the Victorian enfant terrible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441179585</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Valerie Benaim and Yves AzeroualClaire Dederer|title=Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla BruniMonsters: The True StoryWhat Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=In November 2007 Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the French Presidentaudience'' in a deconstructed, Nicolas Sarkozy was newly divorced thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old aphorism of separating the art from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer's work is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from his second wife her brilliant mind andonto the page. In particular, despite his position the prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and busy lifeexalts the director Roman Polanski, feeling rather lonely. He accepted an invitation to a dinner party from a friend and met supermodel and recording artistshe personally admires for his art, Carla Bruniand yet despises for his actions. The attraction between This model of ''monstrous men'' as she calls them was instant – she had already said that she wanted a man with nuclear power and he was smitten by , is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the attentions likes of a beautifulWoody Allen, famous Michael Jackson and intelligent womanPablo Picasso. Within months they were marriedHer critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and a personal, rather than collective voice.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0907633145</amazonuk>1399715070
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roland Huntford1788360702|title=Race for the South PoleCharles, The Alternative Prince: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and AmundsenAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=In 1910 two European ships set out for the AntarcticFor over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. 'Terra Nova' was carrying British explorers under the leadership of Captain Robert ScottCharles, while The Alternative Prince'Fram' sailed with a rival Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen. The basic facts can be briefly summarized. Amundsen arrived at critically assesses the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and returned home to a heroPrince's welcomeopinions, while Scott reached beliefs and aims against the same destination 35 days later, only to perish with his men on background of the return journeyscientific evidence. Their bodies were found by a search party some eight months after they had died.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441169822</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Charles Margerison|title=Amazing Women: Inspirational Stories|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=The cover There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of this book tells treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the reader that these short ''bioviews'' or biographies can be read in 10 mins or so. This is one reputation of a series within ''The Amazing People Club'' courtesy of the ''Amazing People Team''. There man who is a rather fulsome ''Author's Note'' followed by a one-page introduction. I was immediately struck by the fact that, given the various feats proud of these women, I was anxious his refusal to read about them apply evidence- and not about Dr Margerison. Less is more. He goes on based, logical reasoning to say (by now I'm getting a bit tired of the smiling Margerison) that 'The stories are inspirational and can help you achieve your his ambitions in your own journey through life.' All of this and especially that last sentence sits rather uneasily with me, I'm afraid.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1921629940</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Selina Hastings1739805100|title=The Secret Lives Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of Somerset Maughamwar|author=Andrew March
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=These days, W. Somerset Maugham seems to be something of an anachronism. In his heyday, for much of a career which lasted from the end of the Victorian era to ''Loving the 1950s, he was one of Enemy'' tells the most successful and widely read quite extraordinary story of all British writersauthor Andrew March's grandparents, with his novels, short stories and plays spawning more film adaptations than any other author. Yet over the last thirty years or so he seems who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to have slipped from favour, as if his preoccupation with teach in the Edwardian England in which he grew up and his end-early days of-empire settings are deeply embedded the Nazi regime in an age we would rather forgetthe 1930s. MoreoverFred, as this very comprehensive biography demonstratesa sensitive and thoughtful man, he was not had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the most pleasant of individuals. The unhappy child, orphaned by growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the time . Fred's attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he was ten, afflicted with a lifelong stammer did make friendships and brought up by an aunt and uncle who showed him no affection, grew up to lead connections that lasted for a long and unhappy lifelifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719565553</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew McConnell StottWill Brooker|title=The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi: Laughter, Madness and the Story of Britain's Greatest ComedianTruth About Lisa Jewell|rating=45
|genre=Biography
|summary=This book has won several prestigious awardsMeet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], so my expectations were raised before one of the most successful British authors I'd even opened ve never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This bookstarts with the two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together. And The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of all her anecdote about cup cakes, the plaudits given on the back coverwords of her latest book she was reciting, my favourite was Simon Callowsand her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade' '(Acertainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend) great big Christmas pudding , but pulled Brooker, a professor of a book ...cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell' Stott has researched his subject thoroughlys diverse output. First up, thereBrooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author's a Grimaldi family treelife, working to make a Prologuesuccess of the latest title, an Introduction and all struggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this before you get to is the story proper, so to speakresult.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847677614</amazonuk>1529136024
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Martin DavidsonMartha Leigh|title=The Perfect NaziInvisible Ink: Uncovering My SS Grandfather's Secret Past and How Hitler Seduced a GenerationA Family Memoir|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=Meet Martin Davidson. NowMartha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, when I start my reviews like thatimmediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, normally it means he's the main character, but forever clacking away on his typewriter as he's not here. He's big in edits the world complete correspondence of BBC History documentaries, and grew up in the UKphilosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, half Scottish and half German, knowing that many of his older relatives lived through the Second World Warlife's work. Foremost among them was his German grandfather, Bruno Langbehn, Her mother is a concert pianist who would have been of fighting age - practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in his 30s - during the Third Reich. Nothing much was ever said about Bruno's own history during the war, except for many inflammatory, rising comments by Bruno himselfpracticalities of life. It took the old man to die for the truth to be admitted by Martin's mother - their forefather was There is love in the SShouse but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670916161</amazonuk>1800460384
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sjeng ScheijenPolly Barton|title=Diaghilev: A LifeFifty Sounds
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Sergey Diaghilev was one of Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the towering figures in question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the artistic world of Russiahadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, and indeed Europebut I am not hopeful. And like Barton, at I don't know the answer to the start question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the 20th century. Born question in 1872 the ambitious son of a bankrupt vodka producer from Permfirst essay, and a mother who died a few days later probably from puerperal fever, by his early twenties he was which is on close terms with such names the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as Tolstoybeing, Zolaamong other things, Tchaikovsky and Brahms. He worked his way into the ranks sound of the cultural cognoscenti at St Petersburg and launched the itinerant troupe which would become the Ballets Russes, playing ''every party where you have to packed houses as far west as Britain and the United Statesintroduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681642</amazonuk>1913097501
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David HowarthFrederic Gros|title=We Die AloneA Philosophy of Walking
|rating=5
|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Consider taking a five day sail I confess I picked this one up from the library in a small fishing boat the height of the North Sea from Shetland, to try and establish, train and supply some potentially vital antimy pre-German resistance in the far, far north lockdown forage of occupied Norway, your homelandrandom stuff. Imagine the sight of heavy naval parades where you intended Now I have to land, as galling proof go out an buy my own copy so that your intel is ages out of date. Ponder too I can turn down the fact that you get reported pages I have marked and return to the Nazis due its varying wisdom when I need to the most ridiculous slight of fortune. Some books draw you in slowly. All your colleagues are dead or capturedThis one had me in the first two pages, your equipment blown up with your trawler to keep it safe from Jerry hands, half your big toe has been shot off, and youwherein Gros explains why 're forced to go on the run in one of Europe's last, and coldest, wildernesses. And you have no idea whatsoever quite how bad this scenario walking is going to getnot a sport''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847678459</amazonuk>1781688370
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Janet SoskiceSharon Blackie|title=Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden GospelsIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Sisters of Sinai tells the story of two extraordinary, Victorian women who unearthed an important early copy of the Gospels from I normally say that you can tell how much a remote monastery in Egyptbook means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. It hardly seems possible that they organised and executed such remarkable feats Perhaps an even greater measure of unaccompanied travel during an age in which womenimpact is setting out to buy my own copy before I's freedom was hidebound by their status as ve finished reading the inferior sexone I've borrowed. Janet Soskice I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is well-placed as definitely the first two and only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for a feminist philosopher reason and theologian to explore their livesI'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009954654X</amazonuk>1912836017
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Natasha McElhone0241446732|title=After YouOur House is on Fire: Letters Scenes of Lovea Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, and LossGreta Thunberg, to a Husband Beata Thunberg and FatherSvante Thunberg|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=What would you do if, without warning, your brilliant, loving, superman partner died from a catastrophic heart event at the untimely age of 43, leaving you with two young boys The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and a third Svante Thunberg took on the way? Most most of us would probably reach for the Valium and book a very long course parenting of counselingtheir two daughters. But Natascha McElhone couldn't because she Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was already stretchedhappening. In such circumstances, juggling it's natural to seek a busy transatlantic career as an actress as well as caring for her sparky young solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family. Coping as that they were ''burned-out people on a single parent left no spare time for selfburned-indulgence; within months she had a new baby as wellout planet''. So she found her own If they were to find a way, grabbing instead at odd moments to write in her well-established diary. These short entries … e-mails, almost … live happily again their solution would need to her dead husband form the basis of 'After You'be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919098</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Firstbrook0648684806|title=The ObamasClara Colby: The Untold Story of an African FamilyInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=The book jacket states that this is path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the untold story USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of an African familysome childhood ailment, she wasn' t allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a presidential photograph good education, both in and out of Barack Obama, school. She was the only child in the book is certainly eye-catchinghousehold and her childhood was glorious. Along withBy contrast, I'm sure, millions her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of othersthe United States and life was hard, I've read 'The Audacity Of Hope' as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was charmed married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and blown away died in almost equal measurechildbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, so I a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was keen to get started on this booka rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092725</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stefan Klein1789017977|title=LeonardoRonnie and Hilda's LegacyRomance: How Da Vinci Reinvented the Towards a New Life after WorldWar II|author=Wendy Williams|rating=54|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=This excellent combination Ronnie Williams was the son of science history and biography starts with the most populist Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and some of the most awkwardly scientificEthel Wall. Basically it throws modern-day science at the Mona LisaThere's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, which you but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might think is well have shaved a few years off his age. For a little unfair – can she cope with being analysedwhile, and the neuroscience we now know used family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in interpreting her? Of course she can – she’s the world’s best1929 Depression and five-year-known masterpiece of Italian art, and she’s survived much worseold Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. Klein’s approach fully works, when we see also the science da Vinci One thing he did know inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and that he worked on himself, which all helps us know partly why this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the truths of La Gioconda are still unknowablearmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818256</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Valerie GrovePatti Smith|title=So Much To Tell|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Kaye Webb’s career would be the envy Year of many a young bookworm. From 1961 to 1978 she ran Puffin Books, the children’s division of Penguin. I still have some paperbacks from that time with “Kaye Webb – Editor” on the first page inside the front cover.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142008</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Matt MacAllester|title=Bittersweet: Lessons from my Mother's KitchenMonkey
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=Matt MacAllester is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalistOn the coast of Santa Cruz, used to covering Patti Smith enters the horrors lunar year of warthe monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, but nothing prepared him for his investigation into the life and death of his mother Anneunexpected moments. In May 2005 Ann MacAllester died suddenly of a heart attack and her son was overwhelmed by grief. This might not sound unusualstranger's words, but his mother had been largely absent from him for about a quarter of a century''Anything is possible: after all, trapped in her own private world it's the year of madnessthe monkey''. His earliest memories were As Smith wanders the coast of an idyllic childhoodSanta Cruz in solitude, where wonderful food was always at the centre of family she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and with the help of Elizabeth Davidageing are faced head-on, his mother’s favourite cookery writer he sought to find his mother through as it the food she cookedshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408800942</amazonuk>1526614758
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Welch and Lucian Randall1912242052|title=Ginger Geezer: The Life of Vivian Stanshall|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Redheads, they say, feel more pain than the rest of us. They may even have a layer of skin too few. However literally true this might be, it certainly seems to be the case O Joy for Vivian Stanshall. As his second wife says in this excellent book, 'There's nothing between him and all the sensations the world has to give us'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841156795</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewme!|author=Donald Spoto|title=High Society: Grace Kelly and HollywoodKeir Davidson
|rating=3
|genre=BiographyArt|summary=In his defence''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, we must acknowledge Spoto's subtitle. It underlines that this does not in any way shape because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or form claim pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to be a biography of the American actress who become Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monacofor pleasure and adventure. It is an analysis of her film career: a consideration His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the "Hollywood years"world''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515377</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison MaloneyGraff_Find|title=St George: Let's Hear it for England!Find Another Place|author=Ben Graff
|rating=3.5
|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=I was When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a bit plastic folder of a patriothandwritten notes from his journal, even when it wasnhe didn't as fashionable as take much notice of it is now becoming. Perhaps this is due to my once having played St. George in a Cub Scout celebration and getting At the chance to personally slay the dragon in knitted chain mail with a plastic sword. In a world where being English has become synonymous with football violence and the flag age of St. George is being used by a political party condemned as racist24, itGraff didn's perhaps unsurprising that more people celebrate St. Patrick's Day than St. George's Dayt realise the gravity of the pages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092628</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Douglas Rogers1789016304|title=The Last ResortWar and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Author Douglas Rogers is a Zimbabwean who moved awayMelanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the country many city during the war years ago, but has never been able only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to persuadehis parents – two white farmers, Lyn and Roz – happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to follow him out oftheir homeland, despite German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the resettlement policies of Robert Mugabe,Germans might reach the hyper-inflationcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, and that the corruption Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the country. Insteadway that it did, but initial protests melted away as thepair just wanted to stay organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on the farm welcoming people to Drifters,their backpackers' lodgea vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906021910</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tracy Kidder1786893452|title=Strength in What RemainsThe Ungrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary='Strength Here in What Remains' is the inspirational account West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of Deogratiasthose stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, a man who has fled from outsiders to the genocide world and civil war in Burundi (just south of the equator situations that refugees find themselves in East Central Africa, bordering Rwanda). He escapes It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to New Yorkdo that, out of fear in this intelligent, powerful and want moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a safer life; only his new found American life isn't quite what it promisedrevolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186197857X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catrine Clay0857058320|title=Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup LegendLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary='You have 'Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to learn to be hard men, to accept sacrifice without ever succumbinguncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Such did Hitler say at Cercas is searching for the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies meaning behind his great uncle's death in the 1930sSpanish Civil War. He probably did not have in mind playing in goal at a FA Cup final with a broken neckManuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, such is the lifetime of difference between figure who looms large over the two referencesbook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. But that lifetime, as packed and varied as it was, is in The question at the pages centre of this ever-interesting and swiftly-devoured bookis whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angela Thirlwell1788037812|title=Into The FrameFraternity of the Estranged: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Ford Madox BrownOriginally passed in 1885, born the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in 1821 in Calais of a Scottish familyplace for 82 years. But during this time, raised in France restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and Belgium before settling in England1908, was one three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the foremost Victorian artistsheterosexual Havelock Ellis. Throughout his career he Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was closely associated with common on the Pre-RaphaelitesEuropean Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, and shared many so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of their same idealshomosexuality, style and subject matterbeginning the struggle for recognition and equality, though he never officially became a member leading to the milestone legalisation of the groupsame-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701179023</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris SkidmoreBuckland_Zoo|title=Death and The Man Who Ate the VirginZoo: ElizabethFrank Buckland, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate forgotten hero of Amy Robsart natural history|author=Richard Girling
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=When Elizabeth I ascended As a conservationist in Victorian England before the throne in November 1558term existed, everyone's dominant concern Frank Buckland was the matter very much a man ahead of her taking an appropriate husband his time. Surgeon, naturalist, veterinarian and securing the succession. The man most likely to become her husband was Robert Dudleyeccentric sums him up perfectly, whom she made her Master of the Horse and entrusted any biographer is immediately presented with considerable responsibility for her coronation festivities. The fact that he was already married a colourful tale to Amy Robsart did little to quell the speculation, especially since she was believed to be dying of breast cancertell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297846507</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jad AdamsWilliams_Captain|title=GandhiCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: Naked AmbitionHis Military Life and Times|author=Ivor George Williams
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=Until I read this book, Mohandas Karamchand (or Mahatma for short) Gandhi had always been a very shadowy figure. I was familiar with the picture In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the loincloth-clad man who fell victim to an assassin's bullet shortly after Indian independence, but knew little more.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849162107</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sue Shephard|title=The Surprising Life 17th Regiment of Constance Spry|rating=4Foot.5|genre=Biography|summary=The very mention He was in command of the name Constance Spry conjures up thoughts of flower arranging troops and books of recipes convicts on board a ship sailing from a bygone eraPlymouth to Sydney, Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him. Perhaps it He was her misfortune that she died just before television could have made not destined to live a celebrity of herlong life, as it did of dying suddenly at the likes age of Fanny Cradock and Nigella Lawson34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to name but raise their twoyoung sons. Even so, she enjoyed Edwards' death left his widow in a remarkably successful career, and the woman behind the public face was no ordinary career woman, but quite an unconventional personality.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230741819</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rob Chapman|title=Syd Barrettdifficult position: A Very Irregular Head |rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Roger Barrett, who later acquired the moniker 'Syd' (let's make him Syd from now on) was born in Cambridge in 1946. The fourth of five children, he was the not only one to inherit any lasting artistic talent, which came from his father Max. The latter was a senior pathologist, member of the local Philharmonic Society, gifted singer, pianist and watercolour painter.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571238548</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Frances Stonor Saunders|title=The Woman Who Shot Mussolini|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Most British titled families of the 19th and 20th centuries did she have produced their fair share of rebels. Yet few came as close farm to changing the course of European history as the Honourable Violet Gibsonmanage, one of eight children of Baron Ashbourne, a Protestant Anglo-Irish peer and MP in Disraeli's government during but she was also responsible for the 1870s.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571239773</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Josephine Wilkinson|title=The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=Before her marriage to King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn had already been courted by three suitors, any of whom might have become her husband - and possibly saved her from her eventual end on convicts who worked the scaffoldland. The first was her Irish cousin James Butler, Two years later Earl of Ormond, whom she was at one time intended to would marry in order to settle a family dispute over the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormond. After their marriage negotiations came to an end in the face of legal obstacles, she became betrothed to Henry Percy, heir to the Duke of Northumberland. With a little help from the scheming Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke, who had little time for his son, insisted that any idea of marriage between them should be dismissed forthwith. Soon after this the poet Thomas Wyatt became enamoured of her, but by this time there was fierce competition from his sovereign, and her destiny was sealedCaptain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848684304</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michele MonroPeacock_mountain|title=Matt Monro: Into The Singer's SingerMountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd|author=Charlotte Peacock
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=In terms of British chart statistics Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and record sales, Matt Monro never quite fulfilled his full potential. When measured against so many books… I can understand the achievements of contemporary ballad singers like Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinckapproach, he fell some way but I also think we sell ourselves short. Yet the former Terry Parsons was a regular fixture on the light entertainment circuit, and overseasby it, particularly in Latin America and we sell the Philippinesmyriad lesser-known authors short as well. So while, he was undoubtedly one of Britain's like most successful exports everother people I have my favourite genres, and at one point he was the biggest selling artist in Spain. His idol Frank Sinatra, to whom he was often comparedfavoured authors, often said that Matt was the only British singer he ever really listened to.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848566182</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Caroline Moorehead |title=Dancing to the Precipice : Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French Revolution|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Two hundred years agowhile, with like most other people I read the fall of the monarchy reviews and the Napoleonic warsfollow up on what appeals, France underwent one cataclysmic change after another. There were many who witnessed and experienced the volatile age at first hand, but few left I also have a more detailed record than the subject of this biography, Luciethird-Henriette Dillon, Marquise Marchioness de La Tour du Pin.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099490528</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A.Roger Ekirch |title=Birthrightstring to my reading bow: The True Story That Inspired Kidnapped|rating=4|genre=History|summary=They say truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and it is not unusual for novels to be based partly on fact. So it was in the case of Robert Louis Stevenson's ''Kidnapped'', Sir Walter Scott's ''Guy Mannering'', and at least three others, all of which can point to the saga of James Annesley for inspirationrandomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393066150</amazonuk>
}}
