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<!-- Thion'o 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 imageof 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:Thiongo_BirthThe 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.jpg}}{{Frontpage|leftauthor=Edel Rodriguez|linktitle=httpsWorm:A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=We're in childhood, and we'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|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Nina Stibbe is 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 decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.}}{{Frontpage|author=Christopher Fowler|title=Word Monkey|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary= It's the first of August in the middle of a cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the pool in favour of going to my beach hut. The weather closed in, rain arrived, and I decided not to do that either. When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and (b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – 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 he is dying, and you know he actually is at that point, because he does. 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//wwwThey may not mean to, 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 and 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.amazonKit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, her class and her gender.coHer parents loom large and are written with care, love, and the kind of anger only a child can express to their parents.uk/gp/product/1784701300?ie|isbn=1472284852}}{{Frontpage|isbn=UTF8&tag1638485216|title=thebookbag-21&linkCodeBlack, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=as2&campFrederick Reynolds|rating=1634&creative5|genre=6738&creativeASINAutobiography|summary=1784701300]]''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.''

===[[Birth of a Dream Weaver: A writer's awakening by Ngugi wa Thiong'o]]===One more body just wouldn't matter''.

[[The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The imageof Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis:5starwhatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.}}{{Frontpage|author=Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=I May Be Wrong|rating=5|genre= Autobiography|summary= When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds to your book. I know, having read the book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to this book, because it tells the truth as it is, in the early 21st century.jpg|linkisbn=Category:{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 a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion 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's 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.}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category{{Frontpage|author=Dave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Speedy:Hurled Through Havoc|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|Autobiography]]summary=How to summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to kick off a review of his memoir? Do you know, I really don't think I can.

<!-- Omeiza -->[[image:Omeiza_ParentingDave is an author and an artist.jpg|left|link=https://wwwAn inspirational speaker and a professional horseman.amazonAnd a recovering alcoholic.coThe son of a Lutheran minister, he's struggled with a controlling father, run away to join the circus (not a metaphor), trained horses, painted caravans, designed and painted theatre sets, and hit rock bottom when the bottle took over.uk/gp/product/1524682853?ie|isbn=UTF8&tagB0965V3LLN}}{{Frontpage|isbn=thebookbag-21&linkCode0008350388|title=as2&campWe Need to Talk About Money|author=1634&creativeOtegha Uwagba|rating=6738&creativeASIN5|genre=1524682853]]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

===[[Parenting through the Eyes ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a Child: Memoirs book by a writer of My Childhood colour while only 7% study a book by Tabitha Ochekpe Omeiza]]===a woman.'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021

[[imageOtegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything:4starit was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating} For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford.}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]]

Tabitha Ochekpe Omeiza {{Frontpage|isbn=0571365884|title=My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was brought up in Nigeria the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and came far between. On a visit to Britain to study for her A levels a therapist, as an adult, when she was 18. Her parents used their savings completely unable to give speak about what was wrong with her this opportunity it was suggested that she should write it down and called it an investment ''My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in her futureAnxiety'' is the result - or so we are given to believe.}}{{Frontpage|author=Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=A Tattoo on my Brain|rating=3. Now 5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Alzheimer's is a qualified pharmacist, married disease that slowly wears away your identity and with a child sense of her ownself. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, Tabitha looks back at her childhood as have many. Your memories and reflects on personality worn away like a statue over time affected the way her mother elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and father raised herhas documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''. And she gives their parenting top marks|isbn=1108838936}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529109116|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah Jackson|rating=4. [[Parenting through 5|genre=Lifestyle|summary=''I want the Eyes image of a Child: Memoirs British farmer to simply be that of My Childhood by Tabitha Ochekpe Omeiza|Full Review]]<br>a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.''

<!-- Micheal -->[[imageThe stereotypical farmer was probably born on the 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 farmer. It's not always the case though. Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral:Micheal_Revelationshe'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 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District. She saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to be a shepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition.jpg}}{{Frontpage|leftisbn=0008333173|linktitle=httpsHungry://wwwA Memoir of Wanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the judges on ''Masterchef''. 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 time.amazon You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of her.co I've often wondered about the woman behind the media image and ''Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.uk/gp/product/1524666866?ie}}{{Frontpage|isbn=UTF8&tag1504321383|title=thebookbag-21&linkCodeSingle, Again, and Again, and Again|author=as2&campLouisa Pateman|rating=1634&creative4.5|genre=6738&creativeASINAutobiography|summary=1524666866]]''You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a man''.

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 what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will marry and have children. It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.}}{{Frontpage|author=Sakinu Ahronglong|title=Hunter School|rating=[[Revelation Ch4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary= The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of fiction. That's possibly misleading. I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in the sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as the blurb goes on to say ''recollections, 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, as an adult are real and true. But memory is a fickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more people will read it. More people should.|isbn=1999791282}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1544641923|title=Ambassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, but family connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. 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 diplomatic spouse, the accompanying baggage, well, that's an entirely different matter. She (and it still usually is a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241446732|title=Our House is on Fire:25 - A Letter To The Churches From The 24th Elder by Edward K Micheal]]Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet''. If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.}}

[[image:1.5star.jpg{{Frontpage|isbn=191280493X|title=Coming of Age|linkauthor=Category:{{{Danny Ryan|rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography=4|genre=Autobiography]], [[:Category:Spirituality and Religion|Spirituality summary=''He began writing novels and Religion]]poetry at the age of twelve, but it was to take him a further forty-eight years to realise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a shining example of hope over experience...''

<!''This a memoir from someone you have never heard of -- McGowan -->but will feel like you have.''}}{{Frontpage[[image:McGowan_Art.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1786071827?ieisbn=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1786071827]]190874572X|title===[[The Art of Failing: Notes Letters from the Underdog by Anthony McGowan]]===Tove [[image:4star.jpg|linkauthor=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] I had not come across Anthony McGowan's work before reading this bookTove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), as he mainly writes for Young Adults. I can imagine his books to be engaging and humorous from the clever way he constructs sentencesHelen Svensson (Editor), and the ironic subtlety with which he uses descriptive details. [[The Art of Failing: Notes from the Underdog by Anthony McGowan|Full Review]]Sarah Death (Translator)<br> <br> <br> <!-- Smith -->[[image:Smith_Dont.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/147212345X?ierating=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=147212345X]]5|genre===[[Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms by Harry Leslie Smith]]===Autobiography [[image:5star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]]  Don't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms is part autobiography and part rallying call for society to tackle Back at the systemic, endemic and debilitating inequality faced by the people beginning of the United Kingdomcentury, particularly in the NorthI went on holiday to Nepal. Through reflecting on his own experiences during his childhood, Harry Leslie Smith has painted I met a frank wonderful Finnish woman and uncompromising picture we became sort-of the grim, appallingly miserable childhood he had to endure due to the poverty faced by his family contrasted with the, shamefully still, grim and miserable lives many people endure today in a country ravaged by cuts, austerity and political turmoil-friends. [[DonI can't Let My Past Be Your Future: A Call to Arms by Harry Leslie Smith|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Bristow -->[[image:Bristow China.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1910985902?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1910985902]] ===[[China in Drag: Travels with remember if it was on that holiday or a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]] Having worked for nine years in Bejing as a journalist for the BBC, author Michael Bristow decided later one that Paula told me I really had to write about Chinese historyread Tove Jansson. Having been learning the local language for several I do know that it was four years, Bristow asked his language teacher for guidance - the language teacher, born in the early fifties, offered Bristow a compelling picture later that I finally acquired an English translation of life in Communist China - but added to thatThe Summer Book, Bristow was greatly surprised to find that his language teacher also enjoyed spending his spare time in ladies clothing. It soon becomes clear and that I eagerly awaited the tale told here is immensely personal - yet also paints a fascinating portrait ''Sort Of'' translations of one the rest of the worldJansson's most intriguing nationswork and devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them. [[China in Drag: Travels with a Cross-dresser by Michael Bristow|Full Review]]<br>}}{{Frontpage<!-- Moore -->|isbn=1908745819[[image:Moore Bientot.jpg|lefttitle=Surfacing |link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1782438610?ieauthor=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1782438610]]Kathleen Jamie ===[[A Bientot... by Roger Moore]]==|rating=5 [[image:4star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Entertainment|Entertainment]], [[:Category:Lifestyle|Lifestyle]] The news of the death of Sir Roger Moore in May 2017 came as a great shock: he was one of those summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you knew would go on for ever. There was just one small glimmer of light in the sadness - the news that read a matter of days before his death he'd delivered the finished manuscript of his certain book, they tell you ''À bientôt…this one has your name on it'', to his publishers. Just a few months later a copy landed on my desk and I didn't even bother to look as though I could resist reading it straight away. [[A Bientot... by Roger Moore|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Burrell -->[[image:Burrell_12.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/154712251X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=154712251X]] ===[[Twelve Times To The Max: One Man's Journey toMostly we take them at their word, and Recollections ofor not, Setting Twelve Verified World Records by Stuart Burrell]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]]but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, [[:Category:Sport|Sport]] The first of Stuart Burrellunless it turns out that we didn's world records, well, t like the first two, actually, as hebook. That's not a man to do things by halves, came about by accidentrare experience. There had been a plan to raise some money for the Children in Need Charity and quite late on the people People who were are sensitive to have been the main attraction got hearing a better offer and Burrell is not a man to let people down. What could be done to bring people in and raise some money? Most of us would have thought of jumble sales and cake bakesbook calling your name, but Burrell had made a hobby of escapology and idea of a sponsored escape had life breathed into rarely get itwrong. On 3 November 2002 he went for the Fastest Handcuff Escape world record and immediately afterwards Most Handcuffs Escaped in One Hour. Both were successful and more than £300 In this case, I was raised for Children in Needtold why. [[Twelve Times To The Max: One Manblurb speaks of the author considering ''s Journey toan older, and Recollections less tethered sense of, Setting Twelve Verified World Records by Stuart Burrell|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Lappin -->[[image:Lappin_Dreamherself.jpg|left|link=https://www'' Older.amazonLess tethered.co.uk/gp/product/1844085783?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1844085783]] ===[[What Language Do That's not a bad description of where I Dream In? by Elena Lappin]]=== [[image:5staram.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] Speaking many languages fluently seems close Add to a superpower to most that my love of us. Elena Lappin's memoir is about how she came to be at home in five or more languagesthe natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and what effect this has on her identity. Her family's history and the emigrations lyrical that led to her learning so many languages are caught up with European events. As a child she moved from Russia to Czechoslovakia about style not form, and from there to Germany. Elena was encouraged by exchange holidays abroad to learn French and English too. Then she chose university in Israel and learnt Hebrew. So just as the rest substance most of us might pick up bits of furniture or books from our various homesall, Elena picked up a language every timeabout connection. A clever member of an intellectual householdOf course, with parents who were translators and writers, there never seems to have been great effort involved in acquiring languages, it just happened. [[What Language Do I Dream In? by Elena Lappin|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Thorance -->[[image:Thorance_French.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1524681458?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1524681458]] ===[[The French Cashew Tree by Parrain Thorance]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] The place isn't given a this book had my name, but we can work out that on it's in the Caribbean and it's here that Parrain Thorance had an idyllic childhood with his parents, brother and sister until he was eight years old. It was then that his mother died suddenly and the family was broken up: his brother and sister went to live with an aunt and Parrain stayed with his father - but an aunt and uncle moved into the family homewritten for me. The aunt - his father's sister - was fine, but Parrain and her husband never got on. The easy, generous days of childhood, sitting under the titular French Cashew Tree might still be there superficially, but paradise It would never be untainted againhave found its way to me eventually. [[The French Cashew Tree by Parrain Thorance|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Davies -->[[image:Davies Life I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1471161293?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1471161293]]}}===[[A Life in the Day: Memories of Sixties London, Lots of Writing, The Beatles and my Beloved Wife by Hunter Davies]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] Although I knew the name Hunter Davies before I picked this book up, I was unaware just how pivotal a figure of the Swinging Sixties Hunter Davies really was. Take him, Harold Wilson and a certain musical quartet from Liverpool out of the decade, and you are left with a bit of a vacuum. [[A Life in the Day: Memories of Sixties London, Lots of Writing, The Beatles and my Beloved Wife by Hunter Davies|Full Review]]<br>Frontpage<!-- Dahl -->[[image:Dahl_War.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1405933194?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1405933194]] ===[[War by Roald Dahl]]==isbn=1906852472 [[image:5star.jpg|linktitle=CategoryWild Child:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Short Stories|Short Stories]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] In war, are we at our heroic best or our cowardly worst? Featuring the autobiographical stories from Roald Dahl's time as Growing Up a fighter pilot in the Second World War as well as seven other tales of conflict and strife, Dahl reveals the human side of our most inhumane activity. [[War by Roald Dahl|Full Review]]<br>Nomad <!-- Blackburn -->[[image:Blackburn_Threads.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099582198?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0099582198]] ===[[Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske by Julia Blackburn]]==author=Ian Mathie [[image:4.5star.jpg|linkrating=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]], [[:Category:Art|Art]]5John Craske was a fisherman, from a family of fishermen, who became too ill to go to sea. He was born in Sheringham on the north Norfolk coast in 1881 and would eventually die in the Norwich hospital in 1943 after a life which could have been defined by ill health. There were various explanations for what ailed him, what caused him to sink into a stupour, sometimes for years at a time and he was on occasions described as 'an imbecile'. But John had a natural artistic talent, albeit that his work had to be done on the available surfaces in his home. Chair seats, window sills, the backs of doors all carried his wonderful pictures of the sea. Then he moved on to embroidery, producing wonderful pictures of the Norfolk coast - and, most famously, of the evacuation at Dunkirk. [[Threads: The Delicate Life of John Craske by Julia Blackburn|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Elkin -->[[image:Elkin_Flaneuse.jpg|left|linkgenre=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099593378?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0099593378]] ===[[Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London by Lauren Elkin]]===Autobiography[[image:4star.jpg|linksummary=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] Lauren Elkin For Ian Mathie fans there is down on suburbs: they're places where you can't or shouldn't be seen walking; places where, in fiction, women who transgress boundaries are punished (thinking of everything from ''Madame Bovary'' to ''Revolutionary Road''). When she imagines to herself what the female version of that well-known historical figure, the carefree ''flâneur'', might be, she thinks about women who freely wandered the world's great cities without having the more insalubrious connotation of the word 'streetwalker' applied to them. [[Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice good and London by Lauren Elkin|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Noor -->[[image:Noor_Surgerybad news.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1521173192?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1521173192]] ===[[Surgery on Ian has come up with the Shoulders of Giants: Letters from a doctor abroad by Saqib Noor]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|missing link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]]in his narrative, [[:Category:Politics and Society|Politics and Society]] The letters begin much in the fashion story of any young man away from home, perhaps in a quite exciting country, writing back to family and friends to tell them of his experiencesvery unusual childhood (yes, the sights he's seen and very years that made him the people amazing man he's metbecame). ItThe bad – well it's just a little different in ''Surgery on the Shoulders of Giants'' though: Saqib Noor is a junior doctor, training to be an orthopaedic surgeon and over a period of ten hardly news two years he visited six countries, not as a tourist but to give medical assistance. They're countries which Noor describes as ''fourth world'' - third world with added disaster - and their need later – is desperate. [[Surgery on that the Shoulders of Giants: Letters from a doctor abroad by Saqib Noor|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Ringwood -->[[image:Ringwood Cargoesbook is published posthumously.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1544833555?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1544833555]] ===[[Cargoes & Capers: The life and times of a London Docklands man by Johnny Ringwood]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] Johnny Ringwood was born in 1936, just three years before the start of the second world war, as he saysAs always, it''slap bang next to the Royal Victoria dock''. His education was somewhat limiteds beautifully written, not least because it was regularly interrupted by the Luftwaffewith many exciting moments. You might therefore be surprised at what he has managed to achieve in the intervening eighty years. What I certainly most enjoyed was. [[Cargoes & Capers: The life and times of a London Docklands man by Johnny Ringwood|Full Review]]<br>  <!-- Grindrod -->[[image:Grindrod Outskirts.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1473625025?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1473625025]] ===[[Outskirts by John Grindrod]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Animals and Wildlife|Animals and Wildlife]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]] ''Outskirts'' is an interesting take on a phenomenon of the modern age: the introduction feeling that many of the green belt of countryside surrounding inner city housing estates. John Grindrod grew up on the edge of one such estate questions in the 1960Ian Mathie's and later books are answered in '70's, as he puts it, ''I grew up on the last road in London.Wild Child'' Grindrod explores the introduction of the green belt, and the various fights and developments it has gone through over the subsequent decades, as environmental and political arguments have affected planning decisions. Within this topic, he has somehow managed to wind around his personal memories of childhood, producing a memoir with a lot of heartsatisfying clunk. [[Outskirts by John Grindrod|Full Review]]<br> <!-- Wilbourne -->[[image:Wilbourne_Shepherd.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0283072709?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0283072709]] ===[[Shepherd of Another Flock by David Wilbourne]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Spirituality and Religion|Spirituality and Religion]] [[:Category:David Wilbourne|David WilbourneSeemingly all that's]] CV looks like a career path for people who are hard-of-humoured. Banker, teacher of Ancient Greek, vicar, bishop…none of these are jobs normally connected in our minds with a jovial twinkle. Yet now left in David's case we'd be totally wrong to assume. The current Bishop of Llandaff takes us by the hand to show us episodes from his life as vicar of the character-packed Yorkshire parish of Helmsley proving that tears of sorrow are equally shared with tears of laughterdrawer is unpublishable. [[Shepherd of Another Flock by David Wilbourne|Full Review]]<br> <br> <br> <!-- Nelson -->[[image:Nelson Red.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1784705799?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1784705799]] ===[[The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial by Maggie Nelson]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:True Crime|True Crime]] Maggie Nelson is the author of four volumes of poetry and five wide-ranging works of nonfiction that delve into the nature of violence and sexuality. From what I'd heard about her writing, I knew to expect an important and unconventional thinker with a distinctive, lyrical style. Now Vintage is making some of her backlist, including this book (originally published in 2007) and the uncategorisable Bluets, available for the first time in the UK. [[The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial by Maggie Nelson|Full Review]]<br> {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Marsh1999811402|title=Admissions: A Life in Brain SurgeryPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley

|summary=It's more than two years since I read [[Do No Harmvery difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh|Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery]] but the memories have stayed with me. originally I had thought then that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a lifestyle book about brain surgery might sound as though I was taking my pleasures too sadly, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. The answer would be something along the book was superb - lines of 'try it and very easy reading 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 when is now an A&E consultant (part-time). I heard about found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''AdmissionsCasualty'' I decided to treat myself to an audio download, particularly as Henry Marsh was narratingbut that isn't really what the book's about. I knew that my expectations were unreasonably highThere's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but how did it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the book dohard way'?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1474603866</amazonuk> Yep - that's the one. It's an autobiography.