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[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Wilbourne0241636604|title=Shepherd of Another FlockThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5

|summary=[[:Category:David Wilbourne|David WilbourneIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you's]] re unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV looks like a career path for people who are hard-but he had been to the London School ofEconomics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright -humouredand he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. BankerHe also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, teacher of Ancient Greekessentially, vicara card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, bishop…none this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of these are jobs normally connected in our minds with a jovial twinkleVet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. Yet His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in Davidhis footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's case we'd be totally wrong to assumelife. The current Bishop of Llandaff takes us by When he was seventeen he took the hand to show us episodes from his life as vicar opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the characterjob for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't -packed Yorkshire parish of Helmsley proving that tears of sorrow are equally shared as with tears of laughterso many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283072709</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Maggie NelsonEdel Rodriguez|title=The Red PartsWorm: Autobiography of a TrialA Cuban American Odyssey

|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=Maggie Nelson is the author We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of four volumes as a saviour of poetry the country, has proven himself a Communist, and five widenot done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-ranging works long speeches of nonfiction that delve into the nature his were kind of violence and sexualitytaking his time away. From what I Our narrator'd heard about her writings family weren't in the happiest of places here, I knew an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to expect an important some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and unconventional thinker with a distinctivenot liked for his successful photography business, lyrical stylesuccess being frowned upon. Now Vintage is making The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of her backlistthe heat, including but in this book (originally published in 2007) and the uncategorisable ''Bluets''sultry island country, available for it remains the first time in kind of heat forcing you out of the UK.kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784705799</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Marsh1035025299|title=Admissions: A Life in Brain SurgeryWent to London, Took the Dog|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5

|summary=It's more than two Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years since I read [[Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh|Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery]] but the memories have stayed with me. I had thought then that a book about brain surgery might sound as though I was taking my pleasures too sadly, but the book was superb - and very easy reading and when I heard about She's been at Victoria'Admissionss smallholding in Leicestershire which isn'' I decided t all that conducive to treat myself to an audio downloadwriting, particularly as Henry Marsh was narratingthere's always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. I knew that my expectations were unreasonably high, but how did The other side of the book do?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1474603866</amazonuk>decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anna KendrickChristopher Fowler|title=Scrappy Little NobodyWord Monkey|rating=3.5

|summary=Celebrity autobiographies. It's the first of August in the middle of a genre long tainted by cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the examples pool in favour of people who clearly didn't deserve going to be a celebritymy beach hut. The weather closed in, let alone have a ghost-writer create their bookrain arrived, and by those who did so little but managed I decided not to churn out five memoirs before they were even thirtydo that either. But more recently When I finished reading this book, I realised it's become was because (a way of staking a claim ) I wanted to importance for female comics. They've finish reading this book and (b) I did not all written autobiographies, as Bridget Christie proved, but enough have want to provide for a rapidly-filling shelf at the bookstoredo so anywhere near my shack. 2016 we had Amy Schumer winning a GoodReads awardNo spoiler alerts, Lena Dunhamthe dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 's been at it, was' – and we've also got Anna Kendrickhis first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. Now she's not There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a strict comic – not all of her films are designed to make man who repeatedly reminds you laughthat he is dying, and some of them you know he actually is at that are just don't – but this has to be in the same bracketpoint, because he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1471156834</amazonuk>0857529625

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Chris PackhamKit De Waal|title= Fingers in the Sparkle Jar: A MemoirWithout Warning and Only Sometimes

|summary=''Everything seemed alive in that scintillating moment 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 as the gleams gyrated Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of parenthood and glittered I imagined I could see their tiny twinkling hearts, seeding the sparks bonds that made them so very vividbind family. And then I wiped away This book is a memoir focussing on the spilled slop author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the river, polished the glare Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and thrust my fingers into marrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a large role in the sparkle jar autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to stir her race, her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and are written with care, love, and the soft tickles kind of the swirling tinsel of fishesanger only a child can express to their parents.|isbn=1472284852}}{{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.''

''Fingers in the Sparkle JarOne more body just wouldn't matter'' is . The murder of George Floyd, a unique memoirforty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, written in a distinct style quite unlike any other. Chris Packham, wellforty-four-year-known TV presenter and wildlife expertold police officer, takes us back to his childhood in 1960s Southampton, and we meet the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a curious child who doesnmurder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I't quite fit in to ll ever forget and the societal normprotests which followed cannot have been unexpected. Fast forward There was a few years, and backlash against the chasm widens, leading to bullying, namepolice -calling and beatings at not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the hands of the local thugs at his comprehensive schoolChauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785033506</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Jo Pavey|title= This Mum Runs|rating= 4|genre= Autobiography|summary= I am something of a self-confessed running addict: I think nothing of hitting the roads for 50 miles a week, and spend much of my time searching for races to run all over the country. That is, until I wound up with a persistent sports injury, hung up my running shoes for nearly a year, and switched the road to the pool. At the time I thought nothing could alleviate the misery of not being able to run; but now I wish I had had Jo Pavey's autobiographyBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, ''This Mum Runs'', to keep me company because the elite athlete’s account of the Olympics, injury, familyCaroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and life in general falls nothing short of inspirational.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224100432</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Patrice Chaplin Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=The Stone Cradle I May Be Wrong

|summary= Gone is a fascinating peephole into When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world of solo musicians and their instrumentsresponds to your book. When Min Kym's 300 year old Stradivarius violin was stolen in 2010 I know, having read the newspapers were eager to tell the story; this memoir is Kym's side of itbook in question, from her early childhood that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and education at core so do I) that it matters very much how the Purcell School (their youngest ever pupil) rest of the world responds to this book, because it tells the recovery of truth as it is, in the Strad and beyondearly 21st century. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0241263158</amazonuk>1526644827

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Cathryn Kempgareth_steel|title= Coming CleanNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating= 4|genre= AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary= When Cathryn develops acute pancreatitis it leaves her in intense pain. With no obvious cure, she is prescribed strong painkillers to manage the painful flare ups. Yet still she bounces in and out of hospital, from one I don'expertt often begin my reviews with a warning but with ' to another, undergoes needless operations when Consultants say 'Never Work With Animals'I know there's no evidence for this, but we may as well try it''…the list goes onseems to be appropriate. As time passes, the pain remains but is joined by Stories of a new friend: a dangerous addiction to painkillers, prescribed at many times above the usual dose and soon to vet's life have a damaging effect on her health.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749958073</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Charlotte Rampling, Christophe Bataille and William Hobson (translator)|title=Who I Am|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Iproved popular since ''ll drop all pretence of plot summary, All Creatures Great and set the stall out, just as this book does. Here's a quote from page one – Who I Am: Small''not a biographybut ''. Never Work With the name of one of cinemaAnimals''s most esteemed actresses on is definitely not the front, companion volume you might assume it to be an autobiography for a start, but before that quote we'll already have ve been disabused of that thought, looking for apart from a couple of quotes the first six and . As a half pages of TV show the book is addressed author would argue that ''toAll Creatures'' Charlotte Ramplinglacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and not apparently by her- after reading - I agree with him. There are gnomic paragraphs and lyrics here, in italics He says that suggest they are direct quotes, leaving the rest of the text here to be both a collaborative look at the starhe's backgroundwritten it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and a musing perusal of the nature of creating the book in the first place. And that stall I was setting out certainly distressing issues but it doesn't have the right number of legs if I don't mention this book can lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be read in well under an hourbest choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785781936</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter KornDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Why We Make Things and Why It MattersSpeedy: The Education of a CraftsmanHurled Through Havoc

|summary='My intuition from How to summarise the day I first picked up a hammer was that making things with life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a commitment to quality would lead pithy sentence to kick off a good lifereview of his memoir? Do you know,I really don' Peter Korn writest think I can. As   Dave is an author and an aimless, free-spirited University artist. An inspirational speaker and a professional horseman. And a recovering alcoholic. The son of Pennsylvania studenta Lutheran minister, he moved to Nantucket Island 's struggled with a controlling father, run away to earn join the rest of his college credits through independent study circus (not a metaphor), trained horses, painted caravans, designed and happened to be offered a carpentry job. That arbitrary job choice at the age of twenty would come to define the rest of his career. Manual labour was all new to himpainted theatre sets, but 'from and hit rock bottom when the start there was a mind/body wholeness to carpentry that put it way ahead of what I imagined office work to bebottle took over.'|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784705063</amazonuk>B0965V3LLN

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Henning Mankell0008350388|title= QuicksandWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba|rating= 5|genre= AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary= How do you judge ''To be a book? Not by its coverdark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, weless intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...''re told. In my case, often ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by the number of turned down corners or post-it-note-marked pages by the time IOtegha Uwagba ''ve finished reading it0. Sometimes, 7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by whether I worry about leaving its characters to fend for themselves a writer of colour while I take only 7% study a break…or book by how much of it stays with me afterwards or for how longa woman. In this case, it doesn't matter. ' However, I judge ''QuicksandThe Bookseller'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to the judgement comes up UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have the samebest education possible. This collection There was always a painful awareness of vignettes from an ageing, possibly dying, writer looking back on his own life is as powerful as money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it is simplewas simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Otegha, as easy education meant a scholarship to read as it is impossible to forgeta private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784701564</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Klebold0571365884|title=A Mother's ReckoningMy Mess is a Bit of Life: Living Adventures in the Aftermath of the Columbine TragedyAnxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett

|summary=Sue Klebold's son Dylan was one of the shooters at Columbine High School in LittletonGeorgia Pritchett has always been anxious, Coloradoeven as a child. Her book opens on 20 April 1999, She would worry about whether the day of monsters under the shootings. Klebold remembers bed were comfortable: it was the confusion and dread sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and her husband and older son felt when they learned something was happening at Columbinefar between. Early on they were told Dylan was On a visit to a suspecttherapist, and before long they also knew he as an adult, when she was dead, but they didn't know how he completely unable to speak about what was involved or how he died. From the start, though, wrong with her it was clear suggested that there would be falloutshe should write it down and ''My Mess is a Bit of a Life: one of Adventures in Anxiety'' is the first things they had result - or so we are given to do, before they even cremated their son, was have a clandestine meeting with a lawyer. In the months that followed, they were essentially in hiding in their own hometownbelieve. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753556812</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Saroo BrierleyDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title= Lion: A Long Way HomeTattoo on my Brain|rating= 3.5|genre= Autobiography|summary=At first glance, Saroo Brierley seems to be Alzheimer's is a normal, well adjusted Australian mandisease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. He has a job, a girlfriendI have been directly affected by this cruel disease, a good social life and a supportive family, but his life could as have turned out very differentlymany. Saroo was born in India, where his single mother had to work hard to feed him Your memories and his three siblingspersonality worn away like a statue over time affected the elements. The children lived an almost feral existence, disappearing for days, exploring the local area for food It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and job opportunitiesyour dignity. One fateful day, young Saroo begged his older brother Guddu to take him along on an adventure. The thrill soon turned to fear when the pair became separated and Saroo found himself trapped on a moving trainThis is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. After Daniel Gibbs is a long journey, the train finally pulled into Kolkata station, leaving the five-year-old child alone and terrified. Soon he neurologist who was found by the authorities diagnosed with Alzheimers and adopted by a family has documented his journey in Australia, where he spent most of his life trying to piece together his fragmented memories of his origins''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405930993</amazonuk>1108838936

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Xu Hongci and Erling Hoh (Translator)1529109116|title= No Wall Too HighCall Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah Jackson|rating= 4.5|genre= HistoryLifestyle|summary= It was one of ''I want the greatest prison breaks image of all time, during one a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the worst totalitarian tragedies of the 20th Centurynation. I don't think that is too much to ask. ''Xu Hongci The stereotypical farmer was an ordinary medical student when he was incarcerated under Maoprobably born on the land where ''s regime and forced to spend years of his youth in some of China'' family have farmed for generations. He's most brutal labour camps. Three times probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he tried really wants to escapedo: he knows that he'll be a farmer. It's not always the case though. And three times he failed Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animals. But Her original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, determinedwhale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District. She saw a lamb being born and, he eventually broke freealthough 'Hannah Jackson, travelling farmer' lacked the length kudos of Chinaher original intention, across she knew that she wanted to be a shepherd. With the Gobi desertdetermination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, and into Mongoliashe set about achieving her ambition.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846044960</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Simon Bennett0008333173|title= In Search Hungry: A Memoir of Sundance, Nessie...and ParadiseWanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating= 45|genre= Travel Autobiography|summary= Books are personalI'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the judges on ''Masterchef''. There are three things You know that signal good books you're going to me: get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the time. You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of her. I feel while reading them and in 've often wondered about the enforced spaces between reading them, woman behind the degree to which I bore everyone around me for ages afterwards by quoting them and talking about them, media image and whether I remember how, when and where I first read them. That last criterion can only be judged later, but on the first two ''In Search Hungry: A Memoir of Sundance…Wanting More'' definitely qualifiesis a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524666173</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Bruce Springsteen1504321383|title= Born to Run|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= No you haven't stumbled into a music review from the 1970sSingle, I'm talking about The Boss's autobiography. Lots of books have been written about Springsteen by folk who knew himAgain, worked with him and by others who have only read the cuttings. Over the last seven years he has been going about – not putting the record straightAgain, exactly – but telling it from his own perspective. As he puts it: ''Writing about yourself is a funny business''. By his own admission, it isn't the whole truth, discretion holds him back but ''in a project like this, the writer has made one promise, to show the reader his mind.'' ''In these pages, I've tried to do this.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471157792</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewand Again|author=Krystyna Mihulka and Krystyna Poray Goddu|title=Krysia: A Polish Girl's Stolen Childhood During World War IILouisa Pateman

|genre=Children's Non-FictionAutobiography|summary=Most of us would think of Polish children suffering in World War Two because of the Nazi death camps – they ''You can't be happy and their families suffering through countless round-ups, ghettoization, and transport to the end of the line, where they might by hint or dint survive to tell the horrid talefulfilled on your own. But most of us would think of such Polish children as Jewish victims of the HolocaustYou are not complete until you find a man''.  This book opens the eyes was what Louisa Pateman was brought up in a most vivid fashion to those who were not Jewishbelieve. They did not get resettled It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in the Nazi ''Lebensraum'', but were sent miles away her life advising her as to the Eastwhat they thought would be best for her. Krysia's family were split up, partly due to her father being a Polish reservist when It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the Nazis invaded, and then courtesy of Stalin, who had [[The Devils' Alliance: Hitlergirl (she's Pact with Stalin, 1939-1941 usually fairly young) is rescued by Roger Moorhouse|signed a pact]] with Hitler dividing the country between the two states, before handsome prince who then marries her so that they turned bitter enemiescan live happily ever after. KrysiaFew girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without''s family, living in the eastern city of Lwow, were packed up expectation that they will marry and sent – in the stereotypical cattle train – easthave children. And east, and east – right the way across the continent to rural Kazakhstan, It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a communal farm in the middle of anonymous desert, deep in Communist Soviet landschoice''. Proof, if proof were needed, that that horrendous war still carries narratives that will be new to us…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1613734417</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt WoodcockSakinu Ahronglong|title=Becoming Reverend: A diaryHunter School

|summary=[[:Category:Matt Woodcock|Matt Woodcock]] The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is enjoying life: successful journalist, happily married and a new dream home bought and heavily mortgagedwork of fiction. That's possibly misleading. The only cloud on the horizon I am not sure whether it is their struggle to have children but they have faith "fiction" in the IVF treatment sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as itthe blurb goes on to say ''recollections, folklore and autobiographical stories''s early days yet. Then comes It feels like the funny turn Matt has on the way to a story one daylatter. This takes him by surprise but It feels like the resulting clergy collar comes stories he tells about his experiences as a total shockchild, as an adolescent, as an adult are real and true. He's But memory is a normal bloke who always thought of himself as fickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more pint than piety believing in a God who's happy for him to remain in the pewspeople will read it. Errrrm… whoops!More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781400105</amazonuk>1999791282

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Patrick Mbaya1544641923|title= My Brain Is Out Of Control|rating= 4|genre= Home and Family|summary=Dr Patrick Mbaya was enjoying life as a consultant psychiatrist, husband and father. His career was going well and he enjoyed making ill people better. His marriage was solid and fulfilling and his two children were exploring their potential, often through the uplifting power of music. Life was good. But then...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524636649</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sue Klebold|title=A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of the Columbine TragedySandra Aragona

|summary=Sue KleboldIt's son Dylan was one of tempting to think that the shooters at Columbine High School in Littleton, Coloradodiplomatic life is privileged and luxurious. Her book opens on 20 April 1999 It might be privileged, the day of the shootingsbut family connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. Klebold remembers the confusion and dread she and her husband and older son felt when they learned something was happening at Columbine. Early on they were told Dylan was a suspect Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do so, and before long they also knew he was deadyou know), but they didn't know how he was involved or how he died. From the startdiplomatic spouse, though, it was clear that there would be fallout: one of the first things they had to doaccompanying baggage, before they even cremated their sonwell, was have that's an entirely different matter. She (and it still usually is a clandestine meeting with a lawyer. In the months that followed, they were essentially in hiding in their own hometown'she') can tell us exactly what goes on. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753556812</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Astrid Lindgren0241446732|title=A World Gone MadOur House is on Fire: The Diaries Scenes of Astrid Lindgren 1939-45a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=45|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Before she became a world famous authorThe Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, Astrid Lindgren worked as a secretarythen nine years old, and as a wife and motherstruggled with what was happening. She kept In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a diarysolution close to home, and throughout but eventually, it became clear to the war maintained her own personal record of world events, commenting family that they were ''burned-out people on political situations as well as her own day to day activities and strugglesa burned-out planet''. She writes in If they were to find a fresh and candid manner, and her observations are both personal and astuteway to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782272313</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Williams191280493X|title= My Son's Not Rainman: One Man, One Autistic Boy, A Million Adventures|rating= 3.5|genre= Autobiography|summary=In 2012, stand-up comedian John Williams was encouraged by his work colleagues to write a show charting his experiences as the parent Coming of an autistic boy. After registering the domain name: ''My Son's Not Rainman,'' he also decided to write a blog to share his funny anecdotes and experiences. After a shaky start (''I had a handful of followers. Three of them were my brothers''), the blog eventually went viral as it increased in popularity with parents who felt a connection with John and 'The Boy'. This book fills in some of the gaps in the story, starting with 'The Boy's' early childhood and ending, appropriately, on his thirteenth birthday, when he suddenly became 'The Teen'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782433880</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewAge|author=Deborah Ziegler|title=Wild and Precious LifeDanny Ryan

|summary=You probably remember ''He began writing novels and poetry at the case age of Brittany Maynard; twelve, but it was much in the news in the latter half of 2014. Diagnosed with to take him a massive brain tumour at age 29, Brittany chose to move from her home in California further forty-eight years to Oregon so realise that she could take drugs to end her life he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a time shining example of her choosing using that state's Death with Dignity Acthope over experience. She and her family appeared in documentaries and national news media and gave official testimony to raise awareness about the cause of assisted dying for the terminally ill. A film about her story is also in the works.''  |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785033026</amazonuk>''This a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have.''

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Iris Murdoch, Avril Horner and Anne Rowe190874572X|title= Living on Paper: Letters from Iris MurdochTove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), 1934-1995Sarah Death (Translator)|rating= 5

|summary=This collection of Iris Murdoch's most interesting and revealing letters gives us a living portrait of one Back at the beginning of the twentieth century's greatest writers , I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a wonderful Finnish woman and thinkerswe became sort-of-friends. They show her mind at work - seeing Murdoch grappling with philosophical questions, feeling anguish when I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a book fails later one that Paula told me I really had to come togetherread Tove Jansson. I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, and uncovering Murdochthat I eagerly awaited the 's famed personal life, in all its intriguing complexity. They also show 'Sort Of'' translations of the rest of Jansson'real life material' that fed into her fiction - s work and above all we see her life - blazing, brave, and brilliant in this collection of lettersdevoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099570157</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Magda Szubanski1908745819|title= Reckoning|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary=In her memoir, actress, comedian and activist Magda Szubanski describes her journey of self-discovery from a suburban childhood as an immigrant child, haunted by the demons of her father's espionage activities in wartime Poland and by her secret awareness of her sexuality, to the complex dramas of adulthood and her need to find out the truth about herself and her family. With courage and compassion she addresses her own frailties and fears, and asks the big questions about life, about the shadows we inherit and the gifts we pass on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1925355411</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewSurfacing |author=George Harrison|title=I Me MineKathleen Jamie

|summary=This sumptuous volume was first published in 1980 as Sometimes when people suggest that you read a rather heftily-priced limited edition of 2certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not,000 copiesbut rarely do we ask them why they thought so, each signed by unless it turns out that we didn't like the former Beatlebook. It now appears with That's a revised introduction by his widow Olivia, including brief references rare experience. People who are sensitive to their years together. What we have here is not hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of memoirs in the conventional author considering ''an older, less tethered senseof herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. George Harrison was Add to that my love of the man whose first solo albumnatural world, excluding two rather experimental records of electronic music those aspects of the poetic and film soundtrack lyrical that are about style not really aimed at a mainstream audienceform, was a lavish boxed set including three long-playing recordsand substance most of all, one consisting of extended musical jamming sessions with friendsabout connection. If you're expecting a tidy set of chapters telling his story as he recalls Of course, this book had my name on it from childhood . It was written for me. It would have found its way to the date he laid down his pen (or powered his laptop off, or whatever the 1980 equivalent was) - me eventually. this is not I am pleased to have itfall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905662408</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Irina Ratushinskaya 1906852472|title=Grey is the Colour of HopeWild Child: Growing Up a Nomad|author=Ian Mathie

|summary=In April 1983 [[:Category:Irina Ratushinskaya|Irina Ratushinskaya]] was convicted of 'agitation carried on for For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, the purpose story of subverting or wrecking a very unusual childhood (yes, the Soviet Regime'. She had dared to defend human rights and to ask questions of very years that made him the Soviet system via her writing in general and poetry in particularamazing man he became). The penalty bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that came with the conviction was 7 years in a labour camp followed by 5 years in internal exilebook is published posthumously. In [[In the Beginning by Irina Ratushinskaya|In the Beginning]]As always, her first autobiographyit's beautifully written, Irina touches on with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that time many of her life. Now, the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Grey is the Colour of HopeWild Child'' goes back to look at it with a satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in detailthe drawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473637228</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Irina Ratushinskaya1999811402|title=In the BeginningPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley

|summary=[[It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'':Category:Irina Ratushinskaya|Irina Ratushinskaya]] was born in the Ukraine of 1954 originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to an engineer plant when and a teacherwhere for the best results. Irina's very early childhood is innocent, having been sheltered by a loving extended family from The answer would be something along the harsher side lines of Soviet life'try it and see'. HoweverThen I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, when Irina starts finally got into medical school she begins to realise that doing the right thing and is often frowned on and tainted by now an illogical regimeA&E consultant (part-time). Early I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on she realises she has in a choice: be Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what the book's about. There's a good Soviet citizen or lot about rock & roll, which seems to be true to her own sense the real passion of justiceHartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. The choice – and living with its repercussions – form IrinaDid we have a category for 's existence from that point onwards for Ratushinskaya doing the poet, impossible the writer, hard way'? Yep - that's the dissident, the prisonerone. It's an autobiography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473637244</amazonuk>