Difference between revisions of "Newest Autobiography Reviews"

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==Autobiography==
 
==Autobiography==
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{{newreview
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|author=Greg Baxter
 +
|title=A Preparation for Death
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=Autobiography
 +
|summary=I've always been slightly wary of autobiographies which are written whilst the subject is still relatively young.  They can often feel incomplete, particularly when you know the author is still successful in their chosen career.  Frequently they are also written from an immediate perspective which time can alter thanks to hindsight.
 +
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141048433</amazonuk>
 +
}}
 +
 
{{newreview
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Frances Woodsford
 
|author=Frances Woodsford
Line 316: Line 325:
 
|summary=Having been born in 1922 and lived through so much of the twentieth century, with an author's view of change and people, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced a lot.  Civil Wars in the neighbouring Spain; the growth of his country - which still left it as western Europe's poorest.  Here he allows us witness to his mind drifting through his childhood, in the country and in Lisbon, and provides a subtle and gentle memoir.
 
|summary=Having been born in 1922 and lived through so much of the twentieth century, with an author's view of change and people, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced a lot.  Civil Wars in the neighbouring Spain; the growth of his country - which still left it as western Europe's poorest.  Here he allows us witness to his mind drifting through his childhood, in the country and in Lisbon, and provides a subtle and gentle memoir.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655148X</amazonuk>
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655148X</amazonuk>
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft
 
|title=Margrave of the Marshes
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the most important disc jockeys of all time.  Born in Merseyside in 1939, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home to join Radio London and then become one of the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years later.  I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if I didn't always enjoy it myself) and his readiness to say exactly what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted to hear, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in the music weeklies and later Radio Times.  Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards the end, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1's Round Table review programme come to mind), and thought his build-'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after a while.  So I approached this book with an open mind as a fan, but not an uncritical one.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jo Brand
 
|title=Look Back in Hunger
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=Born in Hastings in May 1957, after leaving Brunel University with a degree in social sciences, Jo Brand unsuccessfully applied for a research job with Channel 4 on a series about racism, then worked for a time as a psychiatric nurse at the South London Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital.  But the lure of showbiz proved too strong, and stardom in stand-up comedy soon beckoned.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755355237</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Anita Thompson (Editor)
 
|title=Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S Thompson
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=It is almost 40 years since Dr Hunter S Thompson's seminal work ''Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'' first graced the shelves. His gonzo style, putting himself at the centre of the story, should tell readers as much about the person doing the writing as the event he is describing. If that's the case then what is to be learned from a selection of interviews with the main man himself then? The answer is plenty.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510711</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Keith Floyd
 
|title=Stirred But Not Shaken: The Autobiography
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=I grew up with television cookery programmes and still have some recipes in my childish handwriting, which begin ''4oz SR fl 2oz marg 2oz C sug…'' as I battled to copy what was on the screen before we retuned to the presenter.  Programmes stagnated as the cook spoke to camera and lectured the viewer on how to make sponge cake or a fish dish.  Then we were shocked awake. There was a man, quite good-looking in a raffish, slightly dangerous sort of way, who cooked on the deck of a trawler or wherever the whim took him, always glass in hand and who was quite capable of berating the cameraman about how he was doing his job.  Like him, or hate him – you could not help but know that he was Keith Floyd, or Floydy to millions.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071052</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Brian Johnson
 
|title=Rockers and Rollers: An Automotive Autobiography
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Brian Johnson will probably go down as one of the luckiest men in showbiz.  He had a brief moment of glory in the early 70s as vocalist with Geordie, a Tyneside version of Slade, who had three Top 40 hits and then fell on hard times.  After going back to the day job, a chance call invited him to go and audition for AC/DC, whose vocalist Bon Scott had suddenly died.  Three decades later, not only have the group held on to their loyal fanbase, but one of their albums, according to an online source, is second only to Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' in terms of global sales.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155424</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Susan Hill
 
|title=Howards End is on the Landing
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Esteemed author, Susan Hill challenges herself to a year of not buying books, and re-reading  some of her vast collection: not a terribly original idea, but an intriguing one nonetheless. Most avid readers will no doubt have made similar vows at some point in their lives (I know I have…) Early in the memoir, Ms Hill does admit that for professional purposes she will continue to review books sent to her - but buying/obtaining for pleasure, is to be out of bounds. In the course of guiding us through her vast and eclectic collection, scattered throughout her home, she also sets herself the task of choosing her top 40 books - and comes up with a very erudite selection.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682657</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Brian Keenan
 
|title=I'll Tell Me Ma: A Childhood Memoir
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Keenan memorably told the story of his years as a hostage in Beirut in ''An Evil Cradling''.  Now he turns to his childhood. Anyone who had an urban upbringing in the 1950's will find themselves saying ''I remember that!'' at intervals throughout this book.  Senior Service cigarettes, Pontefract cakes, the rag and bone man, the Lone Ranger, family photographs kept in an old biscuit tin, Dad polishing everyone's shoes, the realisation that there was a wider world beyond the city streets…These are some of the things that brought back my own memories – what can you find?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224062166</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Alan Bennett
 
|title=A Life Like Other People's
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=It was his mother's illness which triggered Alan Bennett's excursions into his family background.  The bout of depression hadn't cleared as the family had hoped and admission to hospital was the next step in the treatment.  Asked if there had been anything like this before, Bennett said not, failing to notice his father's hand gently touch his knee.  The son was educated at Oxford and had even been seen on the television.  He did the talking rather than the father, reluctant butcher and a man not given to putting himself forward.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571248128</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elliott J Gorn
 
|title=Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=John Dillinger was born and brought up in Indiana.  His childhood was no better and no worse than most but the early part of his adult life was to be blighted by a spell in prison when he was convicted of an attack on a man in a botched hold-up.  Hoping for leniency he pleaded guilty but was sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment, whilst the man with him pleaded not guilty and when convicted received a shorter sentence.  It's easy to see where Dillinger's contempt for the law was spawned.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0195304837</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Joaquin 'Jack' Garcia
 
|title=Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Joaquin 'Jack' Garcia worked for the FBI.  That might sound rather glamorous but Jack had a special claim to fame.  He was one of those rare people who always worked undercover – not just for hours or days at a time but sometimes for years.  In ''Making Jack Falcone'' he tells the story of how he came to infiltrate the Mafia in New York and was responsible for a string of arrests which crippled the organised crime families.  If that doesn't sound impressive enough, then just consider that Jack Garcia was a Cuban-born American and he went undercover as an Italian amongst Italians.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847393942</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 12:34, 25 June 2010


Autobiography

A Preparation for Death by Greg Baxter

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

I've always been slightly wary of autobiographies which are written whilst the subject is still relatively young. They can often feel incomplete, particularly when you know the author is still successful in their chosen career. Frequently they are also written from an immediate perspective which time can alter thanks to hindsight. Full review...

Dear Mr Bigelow: A Transatlantic Friendship by Frances Woodsford

4star.jpg Autobiography

Meet Mister Bigelow. He's elderly, living alone on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough family and friends to get him by, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas and more. Meet, too, Frances Woodsford. She's reaching middle-age, living with her brother and mum in Bournemouth, and working for the local baths as organiser of events, office lackey and more. I suggest you do meet them, although neither ever met the other. Despite this they kept up a brisk and lively conversation about all aspects of life, from the late 1940s until his death at the beginning of the 60s. And as a result comes this book, of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world of social history and entertaining diary-style comment. Full review...

The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict by Peter Beaumont

5star.jpg Politics and Society

Peter Beaumont is the Foreign Affairs editor at The Observer. He joined the paper in 1989 and has spent much of the intervening time dealing with the kind of 'foreign affairs' that is better described as 'war reporting'. 'The Secret Life of War' is a distillation of his years in the field. It is a book ill-served by both its title and its cover, except maybe insofar as both might serve to sneak it onto the bookshelves of those who really need to read it, but probably wouldn't choose to do so were it more accurately wrapped. Full review...

Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century? by Gary Younge

5star.jpg Autobiography

Journalist Gary Younge’s book draws heavily on his articles for the Guardian newspaper, as he mentions in his acknowledgements, but it isn’t just a collection of his journalism. Who Are We? is partly a memoir and partly a thoughtful and incisive exploration of the politics and political impact of identity, including race, gender, language groups, religion, sexuality in various countries around the world. He sets out to explore 'To what extent can our various identities be mobilized to accentuate our universal humanity as opposed to separating us off into various, antagonistic camps?' Full review...

Moonwalk by Michael Jackson

4star.jpg Autobiography

Michael Jackson's autobiography, based on tape-recorded conversations with his editor Shaye Ereheart, was first published in 1988. This new edition has an introduction by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records and his original mentor, and an afterword by Areheart about how the book was written. The main part of the book is a straight reprint of the original, with no updating at all. Intriguingly, although Gordy's four pages refer to is protégé in the past tense, calling him the greatest entertainer that ever lived', Areheart's writing, and also the cover, refer to him in the present. No reference anywhere is made to his untimely death. Full review...

A Sailor's Tales by Captain William Wells

4star.jpg Autobiography

Captain William Wells was born in New Zealand where his father ran a successful carpentry business, but his heart wasn't in following his father into the family firm or in most of the lessons at school. He was an enthusiastic sportsman but what enthralled him most were the ships sailing out of Wellington harbour, which he could see from his bedroom window. Without his parents' knowledge he applied for a scholarship which allowed six boys each year to travel to the UK and undertake their basic nautical training. Billy Wells, who previously had only got 2% in his English exam (his name was spelled correctly) had the second highest score in the country and was soon on his way to England. Full review...

Bittersweet: Lessons from my Mother's Kitchen by Matt MacAllester

4star.jpg Biography

Matt MacAllester is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, used to covering the horrors of war, but nothing prepared him for his investigation into the life and death of his mother Anne. In May 2005 Ann MacAllester died suddenly of a heart attack and her son was overwhelmed by grief. This might not sound unusual, but his mother had been largely absent from him for about a quarter of a century, trapped in her own private world of madness. His earliest memories were of an idyllic childhood, where wonderful food was always at the centre of family life and with the help of Elizabeth David, his mother’s favourite cookery writer he sought to find his mother through the food she cooked. Full review...

25 Chapters of My Life: The Memoirs of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna by Olga Alexandrovna, Paul Kulikovsky, Sue Woolmans and Karen Roth-Nicholls

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was born in 1882, youngest child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and thus sister of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas II. Her first marriage to Prince Peter Oldenburg, who was probably gay, ended in an amicable divorce, and in 1916 she married Colonel Nicholas Kulikovsky. They escaped from Russia after the revolution, and settled in Denmark for nearly thirty years until, feeling threatened by Stalin’s regime, they moved to Canada. She outlived him by two years, dying in 1960. Full review...

Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist Afloat by Chris Stewart

5star.jpg Autobiography

Books about sailing fall into two sorts: those written by authors who know what they are talking about, (though sometimes they don't convey it too well) and those who don't have a clue, but like to think they do. Well, Chris Stewart may have started the book with a light and frothy touch as a novice sailor, but he ends up with the credentials of an Ancient Mariner. Full review...

The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch by Michael Wolff

3.5star.jpg Politics and Society

There can be few people who are unaware of the name of Rupert Murdoch. Over four decades he's built News International into a seventy billion dollar corporation from its original Australian base. His position in the UK media is such that he's courted by politicians and has what many believe to be an excessive amount of power for someone who is not elected and is not even a UK citizen. He's now expanding into Southeast Asia and in his eightieth year it's still difficult to imagine when – or where – he will stop. Full review...

The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday by Neil MacFarquhar

4.5star.jpg Politics and Society

What are the chances of change in the Middle East? is the question central to this book. Since Neil MacFarquhar spent thirteen years wandering the length and breadth of the Islamic stronghold of the Middle East, I feel inclined to believe his in-depth assessment. In descriptive and reasoned terms, he identifies conservative forces which predominate in the region, primarily the religious and political machinery which condemns liberalization and modernization. This discussion of attempts to promote change, for example by individual dissidents or the media, is strengthened in the second half of the book by detailed case studies of six nations with particular reference to their readiness and motivation for change. Full review...

The Reluctant Tommy: An Extraordinary Memoir of the First World War by Ronald Skirth and Duncan Barrett

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

Ronald Skirth was one of many young Englishmen of nineteen caught up in the First World War. He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916, was promoted to Corporal, and sent to the western front. Like most of his contemporaries, when he went he was an unquestioning servant of King and country, fighting for what he believed was right. On the battlefields of Flanders, one day he came across the body of Hans, a German soldier the same age, if not younger. The dead man's hand was clutching a photograph of his girlfriend, who could almost have been the twin sister of Ella, Skirth's own sweetheart. Like two of his friends who had just been killed, Hans had died as a result of the stupidity of others. Full review...

The C-Word by Lisa Lynch

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

In the beginning was the word, closely followed by the internet. The two combined to form the wonder that is blogging, and when that took off and people wanted a more concrete and permanent record, books quickly followed. Perhaps that's not exactly how the quote goes, but it's close enough. Breast cancer at twenty eight is not just scary and unusual. For journalist Lisa, it's downright inconvenient. But, when a stage three tumour bulges out of her boob, she decides to document her subsequent fight against the big C (or, as she affectionately calls it, The Bullshit) online for all to see. The blog was a success, it garnered some famous fans (Stephen Fry, among others) and a book offer followed. This is the result. Full review...


Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

4star.jpg Autobiography

The interest in the lives of unfortunate children has created the publishing phenomenon nicknamed 'misery memoirs'. Happily for readers of Ngugi wa Thiong'o’s Dreams in a Time of War memories of the author’s often difficult childhood are presented as a tale of triumph and empowerment rather than anger and self-pity. Full review...

Road to the Dales: The Story of a Yorkshire Lad by Gervase Phinn

4star.jpg Autobiography

As a teacher currently anticipating (I won't say looking forward to!) an OFSTED inspection, school inspectors aren't generally my favourite people. I'll make an exception for Gervase Phinn, though, as he's entertained me for many hours with his previous books on his time in the Dales doing the job. I was expecting his memoirs of his childhood to be equally entertaining – and feel slightly letdown, if I'm honest. Full review...

Wonderful Today: The Autobiography of Pattie Boyd by Pattie Boyd and Penny Junor

4star.jpg Autobiography

Pattie Boyd will always be remembered for one unique, extraordinary claim to fame. She became the wife of arguably the two most famous and revered rock guitarists of the era, George Harrison and Eric Clapton, and thus inspired three of their compositions which became three of the age's seminal love songs, namely 'Something', 'Layla', and 'Wonderful Tonight'. Full review...

The Girl on the Wall: One Life's Rich Tapestry by Jean Baggott

4star.jpg Autobiography

Jean Baggott is now seventy two and in the final year of her history degree at Warwick University. After almost a lifetime of bending her life to the needs of other people she has decided that now is the time to look after herself – the eleven year old girl whose picture hangs on her wall. She plans to achieve what that girl would want her to achieve and from this she's found great fulfilment. Full review...

Girl With a One Track Mind: Exposed: Further Revelations of a Sex Blogger by Abby Lee

5star.jpg Autobiography

Abby Lee is back with a brand new book that's sure to bring her readers closer to her than they've ever been before.

For those who missed the media spectacle that surrounded her first book, 'Girl With a One Track Mind' followed twelve months in the life of 'Abby Lee', a film runner who became an internet sensation after starting a blog in 2004 detailing her sexual exploits and thoughts. The book became an immediate success with men and women alike and earned Abby a couple of thousand more hits on her blog ever day. Full review...

Love Affair: The Memoir of a Forbidden Father-daughter Relationship by Leslie Kenton

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

For some years, I had been aware of Leslie Kenton's books on healthy living, and also of Stan Kenton's work as a jazz bandleader, though I had never made the connection until now. This family memoir reveals all about the famous father and later-to-be-famous daughter, and it is a disturbing tale. Full review...

The Village by Alice Taylor

3star.jpg Autobiography

Two other authors, Miss Read and Rebecca Shaw, have already purloined the village for their own. I so wish that the publishers had chosen a more distinctive title for this reprint. It's the Irishness of the memoir that will attract English readers. Full review...

The Pattern in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws by Margaret Drabble

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

Imagine the scene: a major publishing house receives the latest pitch for a book. Its basis is a history of the jigsaw, interwoven with a highly personal memoir of an ever so slightly irascible maiden aunt with whom the author partook in the delights of puzzling. Two words save this pitch from oblivion: Margaret Drabble. Faced with the same dilemma in a bookshop, the reader would be wise to follow the publisher's hunch and buy this book - it is a gentle delight from start to finish. Full review...

To School Through The Fields by Alice Taylor

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

To School Through the Fields is the memoir of a farmer’s daughter who grew up in rural County Cork in the 1940s (though the book never mentions the date of when it is set). Taylor makes it clear at the beginning that she is writing a nostalgic look back at the era of her childhood, before the 'changing winds of time' and then presents a series of anecdotes about her parents, her family and some of the other characters who lived in her village. Full review...

Phil Daniels: Class Actor by Phil Daniels

4star.jpg Autobiography

If we were asked to nominate the archetypal Cockney actor on large or small screen over the last twenty years or so, Phil Daniels would undoubtedly come high on the list. Born in Islington in 1958 and raised in Kings Cross, he was a graduate of the Anna Scher Theatre in the 1970s. Full review...

Talk to the Hand by Nicole Dryburgh

4star.jpg Teens

We first met Nicole Dryburgh in her book The Way I See It, which she wrote at eighteen, and which detailed her battles with cancer and the loss of her sight. We loved the warts-and-all picture of her life that she gave us then, and so we were really pleased to see that she's written a second book. Full review...

The Man of Passage by Ian Mathie

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

Ian Mathie's association with Africa began when his father was posted to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years old. School was in a convent and was run by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple of hundred Africans. Even when he was joined by others he was still part of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise it! He was taught in the local language and grew up with the local children. It was his home and was to be the centre of his life for decades to come. Full review...

Struggle or Starve by Carole White and Sian Williams

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

Struggle or Starve is a collection of autobiographical writings about girls' and women's lives in South Wales between the wars. This is a new edition of a book first published in 1998 by Honno, an independent publisher set up to encourage Welsh women writers. Most of the contributors in this book came from miners' families and grew up in real poverty and economic insecurity. Full review...

Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit

5star.jpg Autobiography

In early 2005, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview about day to day life in Baghdad, and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections there. May's detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Bee, and a friendship develops between the two women. They tell each other about their work, relationships and family lives. Full review...

The Education of a British-Protected Child by Chinua Achebe

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

This book is a collection of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, whose best known work is the novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. Topics covered include Nigerian, Biafran and Igbo history and culture, African literature and the legacy of colonialism in his country and the rest of Africa. Some of the essays are taken from guest lectures at universities around the world and conference papers, and others are written for this book, particularly many of the more personal pieces about Achebe's family. Full review...

Direct Red by Gabriel Weston

5star.jpg Autobiography

Few people have the ability to convey the minutiae of their profession in ways which engage the reader, answer your unspoken questions and talk in such a way that you're neither patronised nor overburdened with jargon. Gabriel Weston is one such – and Direct Red held me as though I was hypnotised for several hours. She's a surgeon and we're pulled into the intricacies of her world without the need to don mask and gown. Full review...

How Could She? by Dana Fowley

4star.jpg Autobiography

From the age of five Dana Fowley was subjected to unimaginable sexual abuse and before long her sister would be subjected to more of the same. She was raped by her mother's partner and taken to the homes of her grandparents where she was abused by them and others. At other times she was forced to go to the homes of other men where she was raped and abused. Did her mother not know what was going on? Did she turn a blind eye? It was neither of those.

Her mother was a willing participant in the abuse and organised much of it. Full review...

My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete Autobiography by Val Doonican

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson was the personification of politics and the Beatles the collective icon of youth culture, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex of light entertainment. He may no longer have such a high profile – but he's outlasted them both. Over four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and in the process he has never really put a foot wrong. As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do best, and what the public wants from you, then stick with it, and do it as well as you can.' With the possible exception of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'. Full review...

My Father's Places: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughter by Aeronwy Thomas

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

Aeronwy Thomas was six years old when she and her family came to settle after a nomadic existence at Laugharne, on the Welsh coast, in 1949. Dylan used to broadcast regularly on the BBC, and while he continued to travel to London regularly for the purpose (as well as to carouse with friends in his old haunts), somewhere off the beaten track was a more suitable working environment. Full review...

Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years by Michael Palin

4star.jpg Autobiography

Never meet your heroes, goes the old adage. Never read their diaries might be equally sage advice. That's probably why I didn't tackle Michael Palin's collected daily journals until now. Along with the rest of the Monty Python team, he was without doubt a hero of my teenage years. Full review...

Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams by Shirley Williams

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

Who could resist a title like that? And is this some lesser-known Shirley Williams, recalling a life spent in libraries? The answer to the latter is no.

Shirley Catlin, as she was born, tells us in the early pages of this memoir that during her childhood her father encouraged her to climb the bookshelves in their Chelsea house, right up to the ceiling. It was a secret between the two of them, as her mother, Testament of Youth Author Vera Brittain, would have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken arms. Full review...

Small Memories by Jose Saramago

4star.jpg Autobiography

Having been born in 1922 and lived through so much of the twentieth century, with an author's view of change and people, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced a lot. Civil Wars in the neighbouring Spain; the growth of his country - which still left it as western Europe's poorest. Here he allows us witness to his mind drifting through his childhood, in the country and in Lisbon, and provides a subtle and gentle memoir. Full review...