[[Category:Biography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1788360702
|title=Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography
|author=Edzard Ernst
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Prince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of the scientific evidence. There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the reputation of a man who is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739805100
|title=Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of war
|author=Andrew March
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary= ''Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the early days of the Nazi regime in the 1930s. Fred, a sensitive and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the 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 did make friendships and connections that lasted for a lifetime.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Will Brooker
|title=The Truth About Lisa Jewell
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was reciting, and her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author's life, working to make a success of the latest title, and struggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the result.
|isbn=1529136024
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Martha Leigh
|title= Invisible Ink: A Family Memoir
|rating= 5
|genre= Biography
|summary= Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his life's work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the practicalities of life. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there.
|isbn=1800460384
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Polly Barton
|title=Fifty Sounds
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, the sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.
|isbn=1913097501
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Frederic Gros
|summary=''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the world''.
}}
{{Frontpage|class-"wikitable" cellpaddingisbn="15" Graff_Find<!-- Melanie Martin -->|title=Find Another Place|-author=Ben Graff| stylerating="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"3.5|genre=Autobiography[[image:1789016304.jpg|linksummary=http://wwwWhen Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, he didn't take much notice of it.amazonAt the age of 24, Graff didn't realise the gravity of the pages he was holding.co.uk/dp/1789016304/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1789016304
|title=War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam
|author=Melanie Martin
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Melanie 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 city during the war years, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1786893452
|title=The Ungrateful Refugee
|author=Dina Nayeri
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0857058320
|title=Lord Of All the Dead
|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1788037812
|title=The Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908
|author=Brian Anderson
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, 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 heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=Buckland_Zoo
|title=The Man Who Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history
|author=Richard Girling
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=As a conservationist in Victorian England before the term existed, Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of his time. Surgeon, naturalist, veterinarian and eccentric sums him up perfectly, and any biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to tell.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=Williams_Captain
|title=Captain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: His Military Life and Times
|author=Ivor George Williams
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the 17th Regiment of Foot. He was in command of the troops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him. He was not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the age of 34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Edwards' death left his widow in a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to manage, but she was also responsible for the convicts who worked the land. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=Peacock_mountain
|title=Into The Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd
|author=Charlotte Peacock
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the approach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and we sell the myriad lesser-known authors short as well. So while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, and while, like most other people I read the reviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a third-string to my reading bow: randomness.
}}
| style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Melanie 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 city during the war years, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies. [[War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin|Full Review]] <!-- Nayeri -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1786893452.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786893452/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri|Full Review]] <!-- Cercas -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058320.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058320/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Lord Of All the Dead by Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side. [[Lord Of All the Dead by Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|Full Review]] <!-- Anderson -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:1788037812.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788037812/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908 by Brian Anderson]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, 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 heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967. [[The Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908 by Brian Anderson|Full Review]] <!-- Graff -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Graff_Find.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788034546/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Find Another Place by Ben Graff]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Home and Family|Home and Family]] When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, he didn't take much notice of it. At the age of 24, Graff didn't realise the gravity of the pages he was holding. [[Find Another Place by Ben Graff|Full Review]] <!-- Buckland -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Buckland_Zoo.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1784701610?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1784701610]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Man Who Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history by Richard Girling]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] As a conservationist in Victorian England before the term existed, Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of his time. Surgeon, naturalist, veterinarian and eccentric sums him up perfectly, and any biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to tell. [[The Man Who Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history by Richard Girling|Full Review]] <!-- Williams -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Williams_Captain.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1546280804?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1546280804]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Captain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: His Military Life and Times by Ivor George Williams]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the 17th Regiment of Foot. He was in command of the troops and convicts Move on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him. He was not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the age of 34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Edwards' death left his widow in a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to manage, but she was also responsible for the convicts who worked the land. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell. [[Captain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: His Military Life Newest Business and Times by Ivor George Williams|Full Review]] <!-- Seward -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Peacock_mountain.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1903385563?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1903385563]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Into The Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd by Charlotte Peacock]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Finance Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]],[[:Category:History|History]] Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the approach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and we sell the myriad lesser-known authors short as well. So while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, and while, like most other people I read the reviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a third string to my reading bow: randomness. [[Into The Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd by Charlotte Peacock|Full Review]] <!-- Hewitt -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hewitt_Renoir.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785782738?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785782738]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon by Catherine Hewitt]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]], [[:Category:Art|Art]] Deep in the rural parts of France in the 1860s, you would never really expect to find someone who would come to embody a full artistic period – and not just a movement at that, but a full generation of both creative and societal change. And if you were to expect that someone, they would like as not be male. But almost stumbling into the hedonistic culture of Montmartre came Marie-Clementine Valadon. She started in the circus that first caught her teenaged eye, although her gymnastic career was short-lived. But what she did have from that was the poise to be an appealing model for some seriously important painters, and a natural beauty and figure to appeal to both them and their audiences. And what she also had, much to the surprise of many and the distaste of some, was artistic talent of her own… [[Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon by Catherine Hewitt|Full Review]] <!-- Ravilious -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Ravilious_James.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1908524944?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1908524944]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[James Ravilious: A Life by Robin Ravilious]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] The name of Eric Ravilious, war artist, engraver and designer, has long been familiar. Less well-known was his equally gifted son James. This delightful biography by his widow should help to put the situation right. [[James Ravilious: A Life by Robin Ravilious|Full Review]] <!-- Thomas -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Thomas_Pearl.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/144566125X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=144566125X]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and His Daughter Mary by Melita Thomas]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] As the eldest surviving child of a much-married father whose main aim was to secure the royal succession with sons, Mary Tudor's relationship with Henry VIII, who called her his 'pearl of the world', was inevitably an important and often fraught one.[[The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and His Daughter Mary by Melita Thomas|Full Review]] <!-- DO NOT REMOVE ANYTHING BELOW THIS LINE -->|}