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[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{Frontpage|isbn=0241636604|title=The Trading Game: A Confession|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'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 - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a 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 was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Deborah ZieglerEdel Rodriguez|title=Wild Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=We're in childhood, and Precious Lifewe're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|isbn=1474616720}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1035025299|title=Went to London, Took the Dog|author=Nina Stibbe

|summary=You probably remember the case of Brittany Maynard; it was much in the news in the latter half of 2014Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years. Diagnosed with a massive brain tumour She's been at age 29, Brittany chose to move from her home Victoria's smallholding in California to Oregon so Leicestershire which isn't all that she could take drugs conducive to end her life at a time of her choosing using that statewriting, as there's Death with Dignity Actalways something smallholding happening - as you might expect. She and her family appeared in documentaries and national news media and gave official testimony to raise awareness about The other side of the cause decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of assisted dying for the terminally ill. A film about her story is also in the worksDeborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785033026</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Iris Murdoch, Avril Horner and Anne RoweChristopher Fowler|title= Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934-1995Word Monkey|rating= 5

|summary=This collection of Iris MurdochIt's most interesting and revealing letters gives us a living portrait the first of one August in the middle of a cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the twentieth century's greatest writers pool in favour of going to my beach hut. The weather closed in, rain arrived, and thinkersI decided not to do that either. They show her mind at work - seeing Murdoch grappling with philosophical questions When I finished reading this book, feeling anguish when I realised it was because (a ) I wanted to finish reading this book fails and (b) I did not want to come togetherdo so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, and uncovering Murdoch's famed personal life, in all its intriguing complexity. They also show the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'real life materialwas' – and his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that fed into her fiction - he is dying, and above all we see her life - blazingyou know he actually is at that point, brave, and brilliant in this collection of lettersbecause he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099570157</amazonuk>0857529625

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Magda SzubanskiKit De Waal|title= ReckoningWithout Warning and Only Sometimes|rating= 54

|summary=In her memoirAs Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, actressyour mum and dad/ They may not mean to, comedian but they do” Without Warning and activist Magda Szubanski describes her journey Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of self-discovery from parenthood and the bonds that bind family. This book is a suburban childhood memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as an immigrant child, haunted by the demons a teenager living in a lower class area of her Birmingham. Her father's espionage activities is from St. Kitts in wartime Poland the Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her secret awareness of 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 sexualityrace, to the complex dramas of adulthood and her need to find out the truth about herself class and her familygender. With courage and compassion she addresses her own frailties Her parents loom large and fearsare written with care, and asks the big questions about lifelove, about the shadows we inherit and the gifts we pass onkind of anger only a child can express to their parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1925355411</amazonuk>1472284852

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=George Harrison1638485216|title=I Me MineBlack, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds

|summary=This sumptuous volume was first published in 1980 as a rather heftily-priced limited edition of 2''Corruption is not department,000 copies, each signed by the former Beatlegender or race specific. It now appears has everything to do with a revised introduction by his widow Olivia, including brief references to their years togethercharacter. Period.'' ''One more body just wouldn't matter''. What we have here is not a book  The murder of memoirs in the conventional sense. George Harrison was the Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man whose first solo album, excluding two rather experimental records of electronic music and film soundtrack not really aimed at a mainstream audienceon 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, was a lavish boxed set including three longforty-playing recordsfour-year-old police officer, one consisting in the US city of extended musical jamming sessions with friendsMinneapolis sent shock waves around the world. If you We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd're expecting a tidy set s death was an exception. The image of chapters telling his story as he recalls it from childhood to Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the date he laid down his pen (or powered his laptop off, or whatever protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the 1980 equivalent was) police - this is and not itjust in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905662408</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Irina Ratushinskaya Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=Grey is the Colour of HopeI May Be Wrong

|genre=Autobiography|summary=In April 1983 [[:Category:Irina Ratushinskaya|Irina Ratushinskaya]] was convicted of When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn'agitation carried on for t really matter how the purpose rest of subverting or wrecking the Soviet Regime'world responds to your book. She had dared to defend human rights and to ask questions of I know, having read the Soviet system via her writing book in general and poetry in particular. The penalty question, that came Lindeblad would disagree with the conviction was 7 years in a labour camp followed by 5 years in internal exilethat thought. In [[In He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the Beginning by Irina Ratushinskaya|In rest of the Beginning]]world responds to this book, her first autobiographybecause it tells the truth as it is, Irina touches on that time in the early 21st century.|isbn=1526644827}}{{Frontpage|isbn=gareth_steel|title=Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of her a vet's life. Now, have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals''Grey is definitely not the Colour of Hopecompanion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures''lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he' goes back s written it to look at inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it in detaildoesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473637228</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Irina RatushinskayaDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=In the BeginningSpeedy: Hurled Through Havoc|rating=4.5

|summary=[[:Category:Irina Ratushinskaya|Irina Ratushinskaya]] was born in How to summarise the Ukraine life of 1954 Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to an engineer and kick off a teacher. Irinareview of his memoir? Do you know, I really don's very early childhood is innocent, having been sheltered by a loving extended family from the harsher side of Soviet lifet think I can. However, when Irina starts school she begins to realise that doing the right thing   Dave is often frowned on an author and tainted by an illogical regimeartist. Early on she realises she has An inspirational speaker and a choice: be professional horseman. And a good Soviet citizen or be true to her own sense of justicerecovering alcoholic. The choice – and living with its repercussions – form Irinason of a Lutheran minister, he's existence from that point onwards for Ratushinskaya struggled with a controlling father, run away to join the poetcircus (not a metaphor), the writertrained horses, painted caravans, the dissidentdesigned and painted theatre sets, and hit rock bottom when the prisonerbottle took over.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1473637244</amazonuk>B0965V3LLN

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lydia Ginzburg0008350388|title=Notes from the BlockadeWe Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba

|genre=Autobiography Politics and Society|summary=With the scenes from war torn Syria brought ''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to our screens every nightbe 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 'Notes from the blockade' is 0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a timely bookby a woman. It is the remarkable story of Lydia Ginzburg's survival during ' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to the 900-day siege of Leningrad during World War 2UK from Kenya when she was five years old. With beautiful prose full of Russian melancholy Her sisters were seven and pragmatismnine. It was her mother who came first, it details daily life in the besieged citywith her father joining them later. I The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have to confess that I found this to be one of the most moving books that it has ever been my pleasure to readbest education possible. Pleasure may be There was always a strange choice painful awareness of words to describe money although this did not translate into a book recounting horrifying events, but shortage of anything: it came from the lyrical quality of the writing. Ginzburg's prose is was simply beautifulcarefully harvested. Her descriptions of When Otegha was ten the minutiae of everyday lifefamily acquired a car. For Otegha, as it descends into the abysseducation meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, are the most human I have encountered. It is this that leaves its mark long after the final page is turnedOxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099583380</amazonuk>

Vikki Turner is a busy mum of four, and for her, family is everything. Her first two children gave her no cause for concern, hitting their developmental milestones right on cue and behaving beautifully when in public. When Toby came along, she naturally expected things to be the same, but it soon became apparent that there was something different about him. Toby had a fear of bright lights and insisted on wearing sunglasses wherever he went. Sounds bothered him, so he constantly wore earphones to block out the outside world. Earphones in, sunglasses on and hood up, Toby had created his own 'bubble' in which he could feel safe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032003</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris McIvor0571365884|title=The World My Mess is Elsewherea Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=54

|summary=As a Country Director, Chris McIvor Georgia Pritchett has worked for a number of years at Save the Children. 'The World is Elsewhere' covers his time there andalways been anxious, his journeys across even as a number of countrieschild. It is a beautiful mix She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of autobiography life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and travelfar between. It also captures his philosophical thoughts on international aid. He reflects on both the good and the bad with On a visit to a very easytherapist, conversational writing style as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that makes the book truly captivating. I read from cover to cover in she should write it down and ''My Mess is a single sitting, unusual for Bit of a reviewer. Such was Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the draw as he laid himself bareresult - or so we are given to believe. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124346</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Violet PraterDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=My Life from the BeginningA Tattoo on my Brain|rating=23.5

|summary=Violet Prater is 83 and sheAlzheimer's decided to tell us her story. She knows is a disease that there are grammar slowly wears away your identity and spelling errorssense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, but she wants to tell as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the story ''her'' way without any interference from an editorelements. I can understand It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and I recognise the your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs'memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in 'honesty'A Tattoo on my Brain' behind her words. Her story's important because it illustrates that child abuse can extend beyond beatings and sexual abuse.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524636738</amazonuk>1108838936

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mara Wilson1529109116|title= Where Am I Now?Call Me Red: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental FameA Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah Jackson|rating= 4.5|genre= AutobiographyLifestyle|summary= Mara Wilson has always felt a little young and a little out of place: as ''I want the only child on a film set full image of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boys, the sole clinically depressed member British farmer to simply be that of a cheerleading squad, a valley girl person who is proudly employed in New York and a neurotic in California, and an adult feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.'' The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the world still remembers land where ''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a little girlfarmer. It's not always the case though. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex 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. Her original intention was that she would become ''Melrose PlaceDr Jackson,whale scientist'' to losing and she was well on her mother at a young age, way to getting achieving this when her first kiss (or was it kisses?) life changed on a celebrity canoe trip, family holiday to not the Lake District. She saw a lamb being cute enough to make it in Hollywoodborn and, although 'Hannah Jackson, these essays tell farmer' lacked the story kudos of one young woman's journey from accidental fame her original intention, she knew that she wanted to relative obscurity, but also illuminate be a universal struggle: learning to accept yourselfshepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, and figuring out who you are and where you belongshe set about achieving her ambition. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0143128221</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Lydon0008333173|title= RottenHungry: No Irish, No Blacks, No DogsA Memoir of Wanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=3.5|genre=EntertainmentAutobiography|summary= Picking up this book immediately makes you wonder what exactly you make I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of John Lydon, the man who became notorious in the late 1970s as judges on ''Masterchef'Johnny Rotten' . You know that you're going to get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the Sex Pistolstime. Was he the iconoclast who if some You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of her. I've often wondered about the tabloids were to be believed was about to destroy western civilization almost single-handed? Had he really come to destroy, or merely to use woman behind the showbusiness system media image and end up becoming part ''Hungry: A Memoir of what he had set out to fight, or both – or what?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859653412</amazonuk>Wanting More'' is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Nev Schulman1504321383|title= In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital Age|rating= 4|genre= Reference|summary= Nev (it's pronounced Neev) is a man who knows about the darker side of online dating. Known for his documentary ''Catfish'' – a film which showed an online flirtation going sour, Nev then began making a tv show of the same nameSingle, travelling America to offer advice to those in online relationshipsAgain, and possibly being catfished (which means being lured into a relationship by someone adopting a fictional online persona). Now the go-to expert in online relationships for millenials, a generation who have never known a world without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other online places where interactions can form. Here, he takes his investigation to the page – exploring relationships in the era of social media, delving deeply into the complexities of dating in a digital ageAgain, and continuing the dialogue his show has begun about how we interact with each other online – as well as sharing insights from his own story. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473608066</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewAgain|author=Julie Barton|title=Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From MyselfLouisa Pateman|rating=34.5

|summary=It was 1996 ''You can't be happy and Julie Barton was twenty-two years old and one year into her job in publishing in New York when she collapsed fulfilled on the kitchen floor of her apartment in Manhattanyour own. She You are not complete until you find a man''. This was severely depressed, an illness provoked, on the face of what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasn't unkind: it, but the end of a destructive romantic relationship - or was it simply the end? Will kept coming back, adults in the early hours of the morning, sleeping with her, then leaving againlife advising her as to what they thought would be best for her. When Julie collapsed It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she could think to do was to ring 's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her mother who drove from Ohio so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough to New York be brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will marry and took her homehave children. Despite the best intentions of her parents It was a belief and therapists, Julie seemed unable to break out of the depression, until she finally made just one positive decision - to adopt it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a Golden Retriever puppy whom she called Bunker Hillchoice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1509834486</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sue PerkinsSakinu Ahronglong|title= Spectacles|rating= 4|genre= Autobiography|summary= A dash of drama, a sprinkling of gossip and a smattering of laugh-out-loud funny make for the best sort of memoir.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405918551</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Amy Krouse Rosenthal|title= Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= I wasn't sure what to expect when I asked for this book to review. It claims on the front cover to be ''not exactly a memoir'', and it isn't. Yet, also, it kind of is. In fact, I would struggle to describe or decipher exactly what it is. It is so unlike any book I've ever read before.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1101984546</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Alastair Fraser|title=Forestry Flavours of the Month: The Changing Face of World ForestryHunter School

|genre=Business and FinanceAutobiography|summary=Alastair Fraser's experience The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of forestry spans more than five decades and having the benefit of the long view hefiction. That's ideally placed to consider the changes which have occurred over the course of his careerpossibly misleading. He also has I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in the abilitysense that Ahronglong made it all up, not or whether it is as common as it ought the blurb goes on to be amongst professionals, of being able to look at what he does both from the point of view of the business say ''recollections, folklore andautobiographical stories'' . It feels like the people who work in it latter. It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, as an adolescent, as an adult are real and are affected by ittrue. There's But memory is a lack of tunnel vision too: he sees what's happening in forestry both in the narrow focus fickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and where maybe calling it sits globally so far as economics fiction means that its safer and politics are concernedtherefore more people will read it. More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1524628921</amazonuk>1999791282

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Gerald Durrell1544641923|title= My Family and Other Animals|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary=Meet the Durrells, a quintessentially eccentric English Family. We have Larry, the lazy and pompous eldest; Leslie, who loves hunting and the outdoors; Margo, a sulky teenage girl at the mercy of her hormones; Mother, who seems unflappable, even in the most extreme situations; Roger the loyal family dog and finally Gerry, who is 10 years old and has an obsession with the natural world. “My Family and Other Animals” is Gerry's story of what happened when the family decided to uproot to escape the drab monotony of England for the sunnier climes of Corfu.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141321873</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author= P J Kavanagh|title= The Perfect Stranger|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary=''The Perfect Stranger'' was originally published in 1966, this edition 50 years on hasn't lost any of its charm or appeal. Intended as a memorial, '...made out of bits and pieces lying around me, bits of myself, all I had to bring her. Or rather it's part of it', in the foreward added to the 1991 edition Kavanagh is appalled that his book should have been so widely categorised as an autobiography and states that if he had known that would happen he would have stopped writing at once. To me this attitude is an early indication to the personality and character of Kavanagh. His journey highlights how disaffected, withdrawn, and isolated he is from the world around him, with an arrogance and cynicism that goes beyond the petulance of his teenage years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910463299</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Liam Klenk|title= Paralian: Not Just Transgender|rating= 4.5|genre= Autobiography|summary= Paralian is an Ancient Greek word, meaning ''one who lives by the sea''. Here, we follow the author's journey through life, narrated by his relationship to water – the river he grew up near, the oceans he crosses, and the water that later becomes his place of work. A tumultuous journey, we follow the author in his quest to find authentic self and happiness, against an incredible array of adversities. At five months old, Liam was adopted from an orphanage – and thus began a journey to conquer childhood disability, issues with parents, marriages, divorces, and gender dysphoria.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785891200</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Amanda Leask|title=Miracle: The extraordinary dog that refused to dieSandra Aragona

|summary=Amanda Leask has been obsessed with dogs all her It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, but family connections tell me that itis far from luxurious. Now you's been an obsession which needs the world and a lot of re not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's attitudes to dogs to change for the better. Shereally like (it's not daunted by the obstacles: she's simply determined 'diplomatic'' to do all that she possibly can to make so, you know), but the diplomatic spouse, the world a better place for dogs. Amanda lives with her husband Tobiasaccompanying baggage, son Kyle and more than twenty rescue and sled dogs near Inverness. Very nicewell, youthat're probably thinkings an entirely different matter. WouldnShe (and it still usually is a 't we all like to have that sort of lifestyle? But hold she') can tell us exactly what goes on a minute.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032550</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Kalanithi0241446732|title=When Breath Becomes AirOur House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=At the age of thirty six Paul Kalanithi The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed to have a glittering career - perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and life - ahead Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of himtheir two daughters. He had degrees in English literature, human biology Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and history talking and philosophy of science and medicine from Stanford and Cambridge universitiesher sister, Beata, then nine years old, as well as the American Academy of Neurological Surgery's top award for researchstruggled with what was happening. His reflections on medicine had been published in the In such circumstances, it''New York Times''. The ''Washington Post'' as well as s natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family that they were ''Paris Review Dailyburned-out people on a burned-out planet''. It had been hinted, as he came If they were to find a way to the end of ten years training live happily again their solution would need to be a neurosurgeon, that he'd have the pick of the jobs on offer. There was just one nagging problemradical. Well there was more than one. He had severe back pain and he knew that he was unwell. He had stage four (terminal) lung cancer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847923674</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edith Morley191280493X|title=Before and After: Reminiscences Coming of a Working LifeAge|author=Danny Ryan

|summary=Edith Morley was born in Bayswater in 1875 ''He began writing novels and wasn't overly keen on being a girl, although she found poetry at the late Victorian conventions restrictive rather than repressive. Her descriptions age of the life which young women (or even women of any age) were expected twelve, but it was to take him a further forty-eight years to lead is exceptional in the way realise that it shows the tedium and the limitationshe wasn’t very good at either. She had one great good fortune in Consistently unpublished for all that her father (time, he remains a surgeon-dentist) and well-read mother believed in the benefits shining example of a good education for boys hope over experience...''and  '' girlsThis a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have. After spending two years in Germany as part of her education she went on to get an 'equivalent' degree from Oxford University (which is all that was available to women at the time) and then to become the first female professor in England in 1908, at Reading University.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1909747165</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret Forster190874572X|title=My Life in HousesLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)|rating=4.5

|summary=Love them or loathe themBack at the beginning of the century, the houses I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a wonderful Finnish woman and we live in have a way became sort-of defining our lives-friends. Author Margaret Forster decided I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a later one that Paula told me I really had to take this idea a stage further when writing her autobiographyread Tove Jansson. Instead I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of putting herself centre-stageThe Summer Book, she allows and that I eagerly awaited the houses that she has lived in to tell her story instead. From humble beginnings in a council-house on ''Sort Of'' translations of the notorious Raffles estate, we see Margaretrest of Jansson's fortunes improve work and devoured them as soon as her writing career blossoms. Student digs in Oxford, a shared house I could get my hands on Hampstead Heath, a villa in the Algarve and a remote cottage in the Lake District all have their time in the spotlight; but it soon becomes clear that only one very special house can earn the most precious title: HOMEthem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593971</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Quillen1908745819|title=Inside Alcatraz: My Life on the RockSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie

|summary=It sounds 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 something from the book. That's a Hollywood movierare experience. A group of young prisoners make People who are sensitive to hearing a daring escape from prison and go on the runbook calling your name, cleverly evading capture thanks to quick wits and creative thinkingrarely get it wrong. After managing to cover some distanceIn this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the men began to feel author considering ''smart, confident and quite comfortablean older,less tethered sense of herself.'' thinking that they had managed to outwit the police Older. A rude awakening with gun to the head one morning proved otherwiseLess tethered. The circumstances That's not a bad description of their escape meant where I am. Add to that their capture would lead to a long incarceration in one my love of the most notorious prisons in the natural world: Alcatraz. ''Inside Alcatraz'' is , of those aspects of the story poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of one of those menall, Jim Quillenabout connection. Of course, and his long road this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to redemptionhave it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784750662</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Malala Yousafzai1906852472|title= I Am Malala|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= ''She's a phenomenon'' is my OH's response to any mention of Malala. I can't disagree on some level, but what this book proves is that on another she is just a girl. One voice among many. It's just that she decided to speak louder than most. We know about Malala because she got lucky. She got lucky because when she got shot by the Taliban there were people nearby, doctors who got her to Wild Child: Growing Up a hospital, and then luckier still because when her condition worsened, nearby there were western doctors with access to western facilities and she was flown to the UK for treatment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780622163</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewNomad|author= Guy Martin|title= When You Dead, You Dead|rating= 4.5|genre= Autobiography|summary= It's a little depressing when a 34 year old is publishing his second autobiography, but that's what this book is, and Martin proves he's certainly not short on material. The author, for those of you who don't know, is a mechanic who dabbles in TV presenting and motorcycle racing, though it's the latter for which we he will be most well-known.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753556669</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Bee Rowlatt|title=In Search of Mary: The Mother of all JourneysIan Mathie|rating=3.5

|summary=As For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, the story of a university student at Glasgowvery unusual childhood (yes, Bee Rowlatt first encountered the proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft through her epistolary travel narrative, very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well it''Letters from Norway''. This s hardly news two years later – is that the book is her homage to Wollstonecraft as well as an attempt to pinpoint why this particular work has meant so much to her over the years and helped her form her own ideas about feminism and motherhoodpublished posthumously. From Norway to Paris and then San FranciscoAs always, it's beautifully written, Rowlatt follows with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of the questions in WollstonecraftIan Mathie's footsteps and asks everyone she meets how modern feminism and motherhood can coincidelater books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. By using a Dictaphone, she Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is able to recreate her dialogues exactly, making for lively, conversational proseunpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883784</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diana Melly1999811402|title=Strictly Ballroom: Tales from the DancefloorPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley

|summary=It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a lifestyle book, but you'Crosswords re not going to get advice on what to plant when and Sudoku will help but where for the best way results. The answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'. Then I 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 found out that there's an awful lot more to avoid dementia is what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what the book's about. There's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to take up ballroom dancingbe the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. It's an autobiography.}}

Diana Melly heard these words at a conference organized by the Alzheimer's Society. It was a subject close Move on to her heart, as she had recently lost her dear husband George to lung cancer and vascular dementia. The reason that ballroom dancing is so effective at warning off the ageing process is because it requires a form of coordination that effectively rewires the brain; activating the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. The lecture piqued Diana's interest and soon she was signing up for lessons at a local dance class. Little did she know that this would open up a whole new world to her; a world of sequins, heels, glitterballs and lifelong friends.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722540</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=A P McCoy|title=Winner: My Racing Life|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=In any walk of life there are people who are universally known by their first names alone. In flat racing, everyone knows who 'Frankie' is and in National Hunt you need say no more than 'A.P.' Legend is an over-used word but not when it comes to the achievements of Tony 'A.P.' McCoy. He's been champion jockey an unprecedented twenty times and his career record of 4,348 wins may never be beaten. In fact, it's tempting to say that it will ''never'' be beaten. He's won the Grand National, the Irish Grand National, two Cheltenham Gold Cups and won the Champion Hurdle three times. Unusually for a jockey he's also been BBC Sports Personality of the Year. He achieved all this by the age of forty one when he retired from racing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409162397</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Biography Reviews]]