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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marion Coutts0241636604|title=The IcebergTrading Game: A MemoirConfession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you'Something has happenedre unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A piece of newshoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. We have There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had a diagnosis that has been to the status London School of an eventEconomics. The news makes Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a rupture facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what went before.' With these plainwas, essentially, unsentimental words Coutts begins her devastating yet mysteriously gorgeous account of her husband Tom Lubbock's decline and death from a brain tumourcard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Shortlisted for the Costa Biography award and longlisted for the ''Guardian'' First Book Award Eventually, it was also this turned into permanent employment as a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prizetrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782393501</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Wendy Cope1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life, Love and the Archersof a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=As Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a rule, poetry does not appeal GP and Rowlands didn't want to me - at school it was something to be learned and recitedfollow in his footsteps, regardless of merit or meaning and I came to dread those lessons particularly when he considered the strain that being on- but there are two exceptions. I love John Drydencall put on his father's ''Absalom and Achitophel'' for its irreverence - and Wendy Cope, because she speaks to me in words I can understand about matters which concern melife. I discovered her when my daughter gave me When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a copy of {{amazonurl|isbn=0571167055|title=Serious Concerns}} vet and her humorous poems tempted me to read some of was convinced this was the more serious contentjob for him. I Before long, he was smittenat Liverpool University. Over the years IIt hadn've followed t - as with interest what she has had to say about such matters as copyright and the chance to review ''Lifeso many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, Love and the Archers'he' was far too tempting d wanted to missbe a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444795368</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=A Tour of Bones: Facing Fear and Looking for LifeEdel Rodriguez|authortitle=Denise IngeWorm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=54|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=American-born Dr Denise Inge was an expert on seventeenth-century mystic poet Thomas TraherneWe're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, mother to two daughtershas proven himself a Communist, and wife not done nearly enough to an Anglican clergymancreate a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Her husband Our narrator's appointment as Bishop family weren't in the happiest of Worcester saw them move places here, an uncle refusing to a townhouse adjacent be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to Worcester Cathedral – some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and attached to a charnel housethe father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. Whatever to do The mother gets the couple jobs with a basement full of bones? An even more pressing question was what the party to do with her fear ease some of the death they representedheat, especially when Inge was diagnosed with inoperable sarcoma late but in this sultry island country, it remains the writing process.kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1472913078</amazonuk>1474616720
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1035025299|title=Darling Monster: The Letters of Lady Diana Cooper Went to her Son John Julius Norwich 1939-1952London, Took the Dog|author=Diana CooperNina Stibbe
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Though she Nina Stibbe is perhaps little remembered these days except returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years. She's been at Victoria's smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writing, as there's always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. The other side of the mother of writer and historian John Julius Norwich, Lady Diana Cooper decision was one of the towering figures in society life between the wars and for much sealed when a room became available (courtesy of the period before her death in 1986Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009957859X</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Pamela O'CuneenChristopher Fowler|title=Hummingbirds in My Hair: Adventures of a Diplomatic Wife in the CaribbeanWord Monkey|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Pamela OIt'Cuneen was what is known s the first of August in the business as middle of a 'diplomatic wife': cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the spouse pool in favour of a diplomat sent abroad going to represent his countrymy beach hut. It's generally unpaid The weather closed in, rain arrived, and extremely hard work - I've always thought of it as one of the original BOGOF dealsdecided not to do that either. When we first meet Pamela she I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and her husband, KJ, have been transferred from their beloved Africa (b) I did not want to Surinamedo so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, or the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was'Suri-where?'' as people always responded when it was mentioned – and his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to themlaugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and you know he actually is at that point, because he does. It ''used'' He did.|isbn=0857529625}}{{Frontpage|author= Kit De Waal|title= Without Warning and Only Sometimes|rating= 4|genre= Autobiography|summary= As Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad/ They may not mean to be Dutch Guyana , but they do” Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of parenthood and the bonds that bind family. This book is a memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the Caribbean coast of South America and there her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a large role in the autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and are few people who would think of it in terms written with care, love, and the kind of anger only a holiday destinationchild can express to their parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0704373637</amazonuk>1472284852
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1638485216|title=Hitler's Last WitnessBlack, White, and Gray All Over: The Memoirs of HitlerA Black Man's BodyguardOdyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Rochus MischFrederick Reynolds|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I am proud to declare an interest in all things Holocaust, one of the key areas of which was the last days of Hitler – the Downfall, if you like''Corruption is not department, way before youtube satiristsgender or race specific. So this book, from the man who for some unspecified years was the last eye-witness to have been in the Fuhrerbunker at the end of the Nazi regime, was always going It has everything to be a great readdo with character. It remained that even after the foreword dismissed its own book, pointing out differences here to the canon of thought about the timings etc of April/May 1945, and declaring the author somewhat naïve in not being so aware, circumspect and authoritative about the major points of WWIIPeriod.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848327498</amazonuk>}}''
{{newreview|title=Diary of a Mad Diva|author=Joan Rivers|rating=3''One more body just wouldn't matter''.5|genre=Humour|summary=The late Joan Rivers was, without a doubt, a character. Actress, comedian, writer, director, presenter, she was well known in the USA and beyond for her sharp tongue and no holds barred persona. This was the last of the dozen books she published, her final title before her death in September 2014.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0425269027</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|title=Life on Air|author=David Attenborough|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I was one The murder of the generation who grew up when David Attenborough was George Floyd, a giant among presenters of wildlife programmes forty-six-year-old black man, on television25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, and anything with his name attached was a mustforty-four-year-watch. At the timeold police officer, I had no idea that he was also one of the pivotal characters in the development US city of broadcasting, having been controller Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of BBC2 and director of programming for BBC TV for several yearsa murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. These days, he The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is probably best remembered for writing not one which I'll ever forget and presenting the nine ‘Life’ series, protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a comprehensive survey of backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all life on '' tarred by the planetChauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849908524</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Last EscaperBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|authortitle=Peter TunstallI May Be Wrong|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryAutobiography|summary=When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn'The Last Escaper'' opens differently to many t really matter how the rest of the great escape biographies that were released soon after the war as it is told some 70 years laterworld responds to your book. Peter Tunstall was an RAF pilot who was shot down and spent many years as a Prisoner Of War across occupied EuropeI know, including having read the book in Colditzquestion, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He lived through knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the war, but also lived through many decades of peace. Will these years rest of the relative quiet life lesson world responds to this book, because it tells the tales of bravery and dare doing of truth as it is, in the war? Of course not!early 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>071564923X</amazonuk>1526644827
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=gareth_steel|title=The Never Work With Animals|author=Christopher Isherwood and Don BachardyGareth Steel
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Christopher Isherwood is I don't often begin my reviews with a writer whose work was often (in fact nearly always) biographical, and one who was always very open about his personal lifewarning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Interest in the life Stories of Isherwood seems to have been rife recently, with a film about Isherwood and Bachardy released in 2008, an adaptation of Isherwoodvet's book life have proved popular since 'A Single Man' released in 2009, All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a BBC adaptation of TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures'Christopher and his Kind' released in 2011lacked realism, as well as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the seemingly countless revivals of book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he'Cabarets written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784700827</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rick SteinDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Under a Mackerel SkySpeedy: Hurled Through Havoc
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Rick Stein was born if not How to wealth then certainly summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to privilegekick off a review of his memoir? Do you know, I really don't think I can. He was raised on   Dave is an Oxfordshire farm author and spent holidays at the family's home in Cornwallan artist. His parents were gregarious An inspirational speaker and intelligent and he was one a professional horseman. And a recovering alcoholic. The son of five children who led the sort of open-air life that country children did in those days before we worried about stranger danger. He enjoyed school and loved Cornwalla Lutheran minister, where he gained a reputation as he got older for giving riotous parties in 's struggled with a barn on the Cornish property. It was idyllic - until the day that his controlling father (who was bi-polar) committed suicide. Stein's reaction to this was to head , run away to join the Australian outback where he worked in circus (not a variety of jobs (some more palatable than othersmetaphor) , trained horses, painted caravans, designed and finally came back to Englandpainted theatre sets, via America and Mexicohit rock bottom when the bottle took over.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091949912</amazonuk>B0965V3LLN
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008350388
|title=We Need to Talk About Money
|author=Otegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
{{newreview|title=Me After You|author=Lucie Brownlee|rating=4''0.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=People die all the time. I’m not trying to be crude, they just do. It’s the circle 7% of life, or some less Disney-fied sentiment. And if everyone whose partner or parent died wrote English Literature GCSE students in England study a book about it, well, to say that would be less than good would be by a severe understatement. For writer of colour while only 7% study a book on such a theme to be worth reading, it has to have a pull, a twist, something to make you look twice. In Lucie’s case it’s the fact that her husband Mark was only 37 years old when he died. And not only that, he died during a bit of nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Talk about going out with by a bangwoman.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753555832</amazonuk>}}'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
{{newreview|author=Ellie Laks|title=My Gentle Barn: where animals heal and children learn Otegha Uwagba came to hope|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=As a child Ellie Laks was abused, but not only did she suffer at the hands of her abuser, UK from Kenya when she also had to endure parental indifference to what was happening to herfive years old. Her only relief sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came through animals - and even then she had to cope when the animals were taken from first, with herfather joining them later. As an adult she discovered that she had a real talent for healing animals The family was hard- working, principled and determined that they helped her to heal tootheir children would have the best education possible. In There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a brilliant leap shortage of intuition she realised that if anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the animals could help her family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to heal they could do the same for others a private school in London and so the Gentle Barn was born - then a place where animals were brought as a place of safety and where disadvantaged children and special needs groups could use as therapyat New College, Oxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099584883</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0571365884|title=Any Other MouthMy Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Anneliese MackintoshGeorgia Pritchett
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=With a title like ''Any Other Mouth'', you know from the outset that this is, shall we say, a rather niche book. It’s not all about orifices, though. Partially autobiographical, this is the messy, ludicrous, wildly entertaining story of a girl who’s just a little bit different. Ok, make that a lot different.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908754575</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|title=My Outdoor Life
|author=Ray Mears
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=SometimesGeorgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a seemingly insignificant incident in one's youth can have child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far-reaching and profound consequencesbetween. Life is punctuated with pivotal moments that can completely alter On a visit to a course of events. Ray Mears recalls such therapist, as an incident adult, when aged six, he opened an encyclopaedia she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and saw ''My Mess is a picture Bit of cavemen for a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the first time. A few months later, the same volume was sitting on the edge his desk, when suddenly, it started to slide. Mears reached out result - or so we are given to grab it..believe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444778218</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanna RakoffDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=My Salinger YearA Tattoo on my Brain|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Joanna Rakoff was twenty three when she took Alzheimer's is a job disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as assistant to a literary agent in New Yorkhave many. She'd not long left graduate school (Your memories and her 'college boyfriend') and her dream was to become personality worn away like a poetstatue over time affected the elements. The job was for experience It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and for income - her parents were somewhat dismissive of the position, pointing out that it was your dignity. This is what used to be called makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a secretary - but there neurologist who was a bonus which Rakoff had not anticipated, or even appreciated when she first heard of it. The agency might be stuck in the past - diagnosed with Dictaphones Alzheimers and typewriters rather than computers - but its main client was J D Salinger. Rakoff knew the name - obviously - but she had never read one of has documented his booksjourney in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408830175</amazonuk>1108838936
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529109116
|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
|author=Hannah Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.''
{{newreview|author=Lynne Martin|title=Home Sweet Anywhere: How We Sold Our House, Created a New Life, and Saw The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the World|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Lynne and Tim Martin had known each other decades ago but when we meet them theyland where ''his''ve only been married family have farmed for a short timegenerations. ThereHe's just one thing though - they're not ready probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to settle down, despite the fact do: he knows that theyhe're what might ll be called 'upper middle ageda farmer. It's not always the case though. Their roots are in the US - both have adult children there Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Martins have Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a house in California - but they want to travel and not just as touristsdeep love of animals. They want to see the world as the locals see it Her original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to experience what it's like achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to live therethe Lake District. Lynne describes them as not She saw a lamb being wealthyborn and, although 'Hannah Jackson, but they decide farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to sell their home, invest be a shepherd. With the money and become 'home-freedetermination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00J0CRNKE</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dave Roberts0008333173|title=Sad MenHungry: A Memoirof Wanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Before he was twenty Dave Roberts had had a lot I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of jobs - far too many to list - but he really wanted to work in advertising and specifically for Saatchi and Saatchi, whom he saw as the judges on ''bestMasterchef'' advertising agency and given their predominance in the early years of the eighties it's hard to argue with his judgement. The only problem was You know that jobs with the agency were hard you're going to come by and Dave eventually accepted that he would have to start get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather lower down than fine dining most of the ladder time. You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with the intention all that good food in front of working his way up to the topher. And that rung at I've often wondered about the woman behind the bottom media image and ''Hungry: A Memoir of the ladder was Wanting More'' is a job with an agency stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in Leedsequal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0593071301</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=A Woman's Story1504321383|author=Annie Ernaux|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summarytitle=After spending two years in an old people's home, Annie Ernaux's mother finally succumbs to Alzheimer's Disease. It has been a terrifyingly protracted end, and one that has spawned feelings of absolute helplessness in her daughterSingle, who watched as her mother's life crumbled before an 'imagination' that bore 'no relation to reality'. Yet Ernaux's distress is also fuelled by the realisation that she'll 'never hear the sound of her [mother's] voice again'Again, and by the fact that the fraying bond between the present and the past has finally been 'severed'. Impulsively, Ernaux decides to recreate that past, hoping to 'bring her [mother back] into the world' through a piece of writing. In short, she is 'incapable of doing anything else'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373440</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Call the Vet: FarmersAgain, Dramas and Disasters - My First Year as a Country VetAgain|author=Anna BirchLouisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Newly-qualified vet Anna arrives in the sleepy coastal village of Ebbourne filled with dreams of following in the footsteps of her hero, James Herriot as she starts her new role working in a rural mixed practice. She will ''You can't be treating farm animals, as well as smaller pets, in a friendly community in a stunning location. However, Anna barely has time to settle in before being thrown headlong into the thick of things with two tricky calvings to deal with happy and plenty of muck, blood and gorefulfilled on your own. “Oh yes Mum, it’s You are not complete until you find a glamorous job...” she lamentsman''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753555077</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|title=Slow Getting Up|author=Nate Jackson|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Sporting autobiographies are often written by those sports men and women who made This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as to the very pinnacle of their professionwhat they thought would be best for her. Their stories surround past glories and how they lifted themselves up above It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the great to become girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the very besthandsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. However, for every superstar footballer or tennis player, there needs Few girls are lucky enough to be a lot more average Joes brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will marry and Joettes for them to shine againsthave children. And who is to say It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that being an average player in ''a professional league belief is not an achievement in itself? Nate Jackson was one such ‘average’ player in the NFL – but would you call him that to his face?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00IO19CYW</amazonuk>a choice''.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Levels of LifeSakinu Ahronglong|authortitle=Julian BarnesHunter School|rating=34.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=If you read a broadsheet you will know the format of The flyleaf to this book from when little collection tells us that it came out in hardback – indeed I recognised is a great portion work of the third part as having been excerpted somewherefiction. That's possibly misleading. Part one of this triptych I am not sure whether it is a look back at pioneering aeronauts "fiction" in hot air balloons – either ''hydrogen balloons'' the sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as the blurb goes on to say ''flame balloonsrecollections, folklore and autobiographical stories''. It feels like the latter. It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, as an adolescent, whatever they as an adult arereal and true. They may have had crash landingsBut memory is a fickle thing, they may have suffered problems and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and risked life maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and limb, but they travelled, they saw the world from unique angles, and almost in homage to Barnes' characters chasing the sun in an airplane in his own book, saw themselves as a photographic negative writ large in shadow form on the tops of cloudstherefore more people will read it. More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099584530</amazonuk>1999791282
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1544641923|title=To Bed On ThursdaysAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Jenny Selby-GreenSandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=The advert asked for a young manIt's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, but seventeen year old Jenny Selby-Green applied anywayfamily connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. She met all Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do so, you know), but the other attributesdiplomatic spouse, and the alternative would be having to take whatever job she was offered via the Labour Exchangeaccompanying baggage, well, seeing as she’d already rejected the maximum of two offers under the 1950s Direction of Labourthat's an entirely different matter. And so, She (and it still usually is a 'she became a journalist, or journalist of sorts anyway') can tell us exactly what goes on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852170</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Jackson0241446732|title=A Little Piece of EnglandOur House is on Fire: A tale Scenes of self-sufficiencya Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg
|rating=5
|genre=LifestylePolitics and Society|summary=Here at Bookbag we're great fans The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of John Jacksontheir two daughters. We loved his [[Tales for Great Grandchildren by John Jackson Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini|Tales for Great Grandchildren]] ''talking andher sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it'' [[Brahma Dreaming: Legends from Hindu Mythology by John Jackson and Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini|Brahma Dreaming: Legends from Hindu Mythology]] so it was something of s natural to seek a treat solution close to meet the author on his own groundhome, but eventually, so it became clear to speak. Originally published as the family that they were ''A Bucket of Nuts and burned-out people on a Herring Net: The Birth of a Spareburned-Time Farmout planet'' . this is actually Jackson's first book and thirty-five years later we're delighted that it's been republished in hardback complete with the original black-and-white illustrations by Val BiroIf they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909661031</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=191280493X|title=My Life In AgonyComing of Age|author=Irma KurtzDanny Ryan
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I used to love the problem pages of magazines as a teenager. My friends and I would pour over the letters which invariable ended with some form of the question ''Am I normal?'' He began writing novels and mock poetry at the invariable Agony Aunt answer age of ''Of course you’re normal''twelve, hooting instead ''No, you’re, really, REALLY not!'' That response perhaps illustrates why none of us decided but it was to follow that as take him a career plan, but Irma Kurtz did, and as agony aunt for Cosmopolitan for more than 40 further forty-eight years it’s safe to say she has been realise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a fair bit more sympathetic than we ever wereshining example of hope over experience...''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883113</amazonuk>}}
{{newreview|title=Never Mind the Bullocks: One girl's 10,000 km adventure around India in the worlds cheapest car|author=Vanessa Able|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=With 'This a cute little map memoir from someone you have never heard of India on the front cover and cartoon cars puttering over the page, I thought I’d chosen an entertaining yet mind-broadening travelogue. Well I was wrong. Now I’ve read it through, I don’t even see it on the same shelf as a Lonely Planet. But that’s possibly this book’s novelty and great strength. The travelogue shelf is fair groaning under weighty tomes by Europeans digging into Indian life and culture. So let me unpack the delights of this particular book for you, but don’t be misled: will feel like you aren’t going to pick up many recommendations for your own odyssey from this round-India skedaddlehave.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1857886127</amazonuk>''
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=190874572X|title=Here and Now: Lettersfrom Tove|author=J M Coetzee and Paul AusterTove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Reading letters by writers affords a particular pleasure. They give us access to Back at the functioning beginning of the century, I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a writer’s mind when it’s somewhere between work wonderful Finnish woman and restwe became sort-of-friends. I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. Sometimes they reveal secrets I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, offer startling revelations about their writers and insights about that I eagerly awaited the times they lived in. ''Here and Now,Sort Of'' an exchange translations of the rest of letters between J M Coetzee Jansson's work and Paul Auster between 2008 and 2011, describes itself devoured them as soon as ‘an epistolary dialogue between two great writers who became great friendsI could get my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099584220</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1908745819|title=How to Disappear Completely: on modern anorexiaSurfacing |author=Kelsey OsgoodKathleen Jamie|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=To Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't like the awkward 14 year-old Kelseybook. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a happy family bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and a comfortable suburban life lyrical that are dull about style not form, and numbingsubstance most of all, about connection. A self-professed bookworm and fan of the literary greatsOf course, she craves meaning and purpose in an utterly normal teenage existencethis book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715647539</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1906852472|title=Sorcerers and Orange PeelWild Child: Growing Up a Nomad
|author=Ian Mathie
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I can’t understand why For Ian Mathie isn’t a more celebrated writer fans there is good and commentator on African cultural affairsbad news. I’ve never yet heard him on radio, re-telling episodes from Ian has come up with the missing link in his memorable life. Our loss. Africa is moving forwardnarrative, but to understand the Africa story of today we need to pay attention to its recent past as a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well as its early colonial historyit's hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumously. Ian’s unassuming witness of African tribes as they slowly emerged into As always, it's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the world feeling that many of the 1970’s is unparalleled for its authenticity and depth of experiencequestions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. This recent memoir Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is his best constructed yet; a seriously informative tale for anyone who wants to know about the real Africa beneath the surface of today’s mobile phones and pre-loved designer jeansunpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852278</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Oscar Goodman and George Anastasia1999811402|title=Being Oscar: From Mob Lawyer to Mayor of Las VegasPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=IIt've a confession s very difficult to make. Iclassify ''Painting Snails''ve done something which I tell our reviewers they must never do: originally I took 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 review which I didn't expect get advice on what to likeplant when and where for the best results. The Mafia, answer would be something along the mob - call lines of 'try it what you will - are not people and see'. Then I admire considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and is now an A&E consultant (part-time). I thought it would be found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a small step to extend Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that to an attorney who defended themisn't really what the book's about. Las Vegas? Well, itThere's not going a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be my destination the real passion of choice. IHartley'm not against gamblings life, but I struggle with it didn't actually fit into the concept of travelling to a city that revels in itentertainment genre either. Oscar Goodman says that had he been Did we have a category for 'doing the benevolent dictator of Las Vegas rather than impossible the mayor he would have legalised prostitution and drugs. hard way'? Hmm..Yep - that's the one. This book was going to be one of those that I threw against the wall in disgust, wasnIt't it?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00HX9UEG6</amazonuk>s an autobiography.
}}
 
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