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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->__NOTOC__ <!-- 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=Mary BeardEdel Rodriguez|title=All Worm: 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 Donlevel playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's Dayfamily 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=Mary BeardNina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years. She's latest collection, been at Victoria'All s smallholding in a Don's DayLeicestershire which isn', of her assembled blog pieces from 2009 until the end of 2011, covers similar concerns t all that conducive to her previous selectionwriting, [[Itas there's A Don's Life by Mary Beard|It's a Don's Life]]always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. Professor Beard is The other side of the decision was sealed when a fellow room became available (courtesy of Newnham College, Cambridge and became Classics Professor Deborah Moggach) at there in 2004. She is also an expert in Roman laughter, an interest which she fully indulges in the pages of her TLS blog. In her latest collection she bemoans the parlous current state of both Education and the Academy, and makes witty observations on matters as various as television chefs, what and how to visit in Rome and the art and worth of completing references in an age when only positive things may be said about postgraduate job-seekersa very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685362</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Clare PeakeChristopher Fowler|title=Under a Canvas Sky: Living Outside GormenghastWord Monkey
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=To many It's the first of us, August in the very name Peake on middle of a cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the cover 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 will immediately suggest and (b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, the creator of dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'Gormenghastwas' – and his familyfirst chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. We have had the occasional biography of Mervyn Peake from others, plus the recollections of his widow MaeveThere is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and to join them, here you know he actually is the story from another perspective altogether – at that of their youngest childpoint, daughter Clarebecause he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780333854</amazonuk>0857529625
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{{Frontpage|author= Kit De Waal|title= Without Warning and Only Sometimes|rating= 4|genre= Autobiography|summary= As Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad/ They may not mean to, 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. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and are written with care, love, and the kind of anger only a child can express to their parents.|isbn=1472284852}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roxy Freeman1638485216|title=The Little GypsyBlack, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life of Freedom, a Time of Secretsand Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Roxy Freeman''Corruption is not department, born gender or race specific. It has everything to a life of freedom and open roads, shares a gypsy caravan do with her parents, brother and four sisterscharacter. As a child she may not have gone to school but from an early age her skills, suited to living off the land, surpassed those of her more traditional peersPeriod. However, her innocence is stolen from her by family friend, 'Uncle' Tony and her childhood becomes tainted by fear and secrets.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849833443</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Erica HellerBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=Yossarian Slept HereI 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'To live forever or die in t really matter how the rest of the attempt' was world responds to your book. I know, having read the essential glory book in life question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and living at core so do I) that is at it matters very much how the heart of John Yossarian in [[Catch 22 by Joseph Heller|Catch 22]]. This autobiography rest of the daughter of his creatorworld responds to this book, Joseph Heller, reveals how because it tells the same excitement and joie de vivre suffused throughout the Heller family. The harebrained unpredictabilitytruth as it is, in the madcap exploits and relationships bowl us through this book with terrific pace and verveearly 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099570084</amazonuk>1526644827
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt Whymangareth_steel|title=Pig in the MiddleNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4.5|genre=PetsAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Idon't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals''m so pleased I read this bookit seems to be appropriate. ItStories of a vet's only life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the occasional writer who grabs me by companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the short 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 curlies - after reading - I agree with his observation of human naturehim. 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 accomplished childrenit doesn's writer Matt Whyman not only grabbed met lack sensitivity, but sold me on the mini-pigs as wellalthough there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444711466</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick Cockburn and Henry CockburnDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Henry's DemonsSpeedy: Living with Schizophrenia. a Father and Son's StoryHurled Through Havoc|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In February 2002 Patrick Cockburn was in Kabul, reporting How to The Independent on summarise the fall life of the Taliban. While he was there he called his wife Jan at home Dave Letterfly Knodererv in England, and was shocked a pithy sentence to learn that their 20-year-old elder son Henry had been rescued by fishermen after coming close to death while swimming, fully clothed, in the icy waters kick off a review of the Newhaven estuary. The police had decided that he was a danger to himselfhis memoir? Do you know, and he was now in a mental hospitalI really don't think I can.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377033</amazonuk>}}
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008350388
|title=We Need to Talk About Money
|author=Otegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angie Beasley0571365884|title=The Frog PrincessMy Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=34
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I expected Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a tabloid expose of child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the beauty queen industry, or a spirited defence against feminist ethical attacks sort of the past life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few years from one of its successful 'victims'and far between. Best of allOn a visit to a therapist, I enjoy as an ordinary person telling an authentic emotional taleadult, whatever their circumstances or personal history. Sadly Iwhen she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and ''m afraid that this book fell rather short on these attractions. At first I felt that Angie Beasley deserved My Mess is a Bit of a lot more editorial help Life: Adventures in developing her manuscript. Then I realised that Anxiety'' is the story was ghost written, which explains the lack of authentic voice fairly neatlyresult - or so we are given to believe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718158318</amazonuk>
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|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=John Bull was born in the mid thirties – old enough to be able to say Alzheimer's is a disease that he was bombed in his cradle but young enough not to be slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly involvedaffected by this cruel disease, as have many. He was one of Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the last cub reporters – after elements. It seems as if nature wants that they changed the name – final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs'The Smile on the Face of the Pig' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is the story of his time as a reporter, a National Serviceman, a husband neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and father has documented his journey in the nineteen fifties. It's a gentle, nostalgic look back at a decade when life was different. There might have been more hardships – but it's difficult to say that it was 'A Tattoo on my Brain'harder'' and this book is a reminder for those of us who were around at the time of what it was really like.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0956559549</amazonuk>1108838936
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529109116
|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
|author=Hannah Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.''
The 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: 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 '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.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mathie0008333173|title=Supper With The PresidentHungry: A Memoir of Wanting More|author=Grace Dent
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It's such a pleasure to read an Ian Mathie book, so I really looked forward to 'Supper with m always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the Presidentjudges on ''Masterchef''. No surprises, then, You know that you're going to find this book every bit as delightful, intriguing and informative as his othersget an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the time. Ian Mathie knows exactly You also ponder on how to stitch up a she can look so elegant with all that good story; the occasional photographs - proving the stories are not fiction – come almost as a surprise. The books are helpfully illustrated with simple maps placing the stories food in geographical contextfront of her. To me, Ian Mathie is simply the best of I've often wondered about the relatively unknown writers I have come across as a reviewer. Interestingly, woman behind the two men in my household grab media image and devour Ian Mathie's books, 'Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is a stunning read which will make you laugh and I imagine anyone interested break your heart in development issues and/or Africa would welcome one or two of his titles for Christmasequal measures. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852103</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1504321383|title=Samuel BeckettSingle, Martha Dow FehsenfeldAgain, Lois More Overbeckand Again, George Craig and Dan GunnAgain|titleauthor=The Letters of Samuel Beckett: Volume 2, 1941-1956Louisa Pateman|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Despite the title, Volume 2 really begins in 1945. During the war, Beckett was working with the French Resistance, ''You can't be happy and had to go into hidingfulfilled on your own. In order to keep the picture reasonably You are not complete, there is a chronology of the war years, and the introduction includes a lettercard sent to James Joyce in February 1941, until you find a pre-printed postcard presenting prefabricated phrases which the sender could strike out as appropriate. During the war only the mildest of family news could be sent through the mail, and even this was subject to censorship. Joyce never received the card, as he died the day after it was writtenman''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521867940</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roy TomkinsonSakinu Ahronglong|title=Of Boys, Men and Mountains - Life in the Rhondda ValleyHunter School|rating=34.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Roy Tomkinson comes over as pretty sentimental about aspects The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of his childhoodfiction. That's possibly misleading. He was born into a family of boys 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 surrounded by an extended family spread along autobiographical stories''. It feels like the valleylatter. He was It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child in the nineteen fifties, when post-War austerity was still a feature of life in Wales. Neverthelessas an adolescent, discipline, love as an adult are real and understanding were meted out by his parents in equal measures to provide true. But memory is a strong platform for his childhood adventures. Roy fickle thing, and his gang grew up free-ranging the valley, teaching their dogs maybe poetic licence has taken over here and ferrets to catch rats, trespassing on industrial land, learning about girls, there and entirely missing the growing affluence of central Britain. For them, maybe calling it was idyllic, fiction means that its safer and the author makes therefore more people will read it clear, many times, how lucky he feels to have enjoyed such a stable childhood environment. More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0862438683</amazonuk>1999791282
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Booth1544641923|title=Eat, Pray, EatAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=When you know that a biography tackles alcoholism, a motherIt's early death, feelings of loneliness tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and worthlessnessluxurious. It might be privileged, culminating in going blind, you expect but family connections tell me that this it is far from luxurious. Now you're not going to be one of two types of book – get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do so, you know), but the misery memoirdiplomatic spouse, or the positive 'all ends accompanying baggage, well, that' tales an entirely different matter. She (and it still usually is a 'What to Look for in Winter: A Memoir in Blindnessshe' is neither. It is a book which is as complex as the life it relates, and as deep) can tell us exactly what goes on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539535</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mathie0241446732|title=Man Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in a Mud HutCrisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=We tend to remember where we were The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and how we heard about Svante Thunberg took on most of the deaths parenting of people like John F Kennedytheir two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, Elvis Presley and Princess Dianastruggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, but Iit'd add another person s natural to the list: John Smith. I remember sitting in my office and seek a colleague coming in solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to tell me. She added 'I suppose we'll have the family that dreary Gordon Brown as leader nowthey were '. We'd many angstburned-out people on a burned-ridden miles to go before that came about but Smithout planet's death is the opening entry in this, the third volume (but first chronologically) of Chris Mullin's Diaries. This book covers the first period of 'New Labour', from Smith's death until Mullin's assumption into government in July 1999If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685230</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barry Miles191280493X|title=In The Seventies: Adventures in the CountercultureComing of Age|author=Danny Ryan|rating=3.54
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=The sixties, argues Barry Miles''He began writing novels and poetry at the age of twelve, did not end in 1969. For but it was to take him, they began as a definable period of cultural history in 1963 and lasted until 1977further forty-eight years to realise that he wasn’t very good at either. During Consistently unpublished for all that time , he worked on and with various underground and counter-cultural activities in London, among them the founding remains a shining example of hope over experience...'International Times' and of the Beatles' spoken word label Zapple.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686903</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Max Pemberton190874572X|title=The Doctor Will See You NowLetters from Tove|ratingauthor=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=The NHS is one of those things that everyone seems to have an opinion aboutTove Jansson (Author), and this of course includes those of us who work for said organisation Boel Westin (the world's 3rd largest employerEditor), don'tcha knowHelen Svensson (Editor). Max Pemberton is one of those people: a doctor, though despite what you might assume from the title, not a GP but a hospital medic. This is his third book on the subject of life Sarah Death (and deathTranslator) within the walls of a hospital, plus the odd excursion to rather misnamed Care Homes, and it's not a bad read. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340919949</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tim Parks|title=Teach Us to Sit Still: A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Self-help books are pretty polarising when you think about it. I mean, would you tell somebody that you were reading a self-help book if you had no idea how they were going to react? On Back at the one hand there must be people who devour these kinds beginning of books one after the othercentury, searching for that mystical formula that will bring about profound inner changeI went on holiday to Nepal. At the other end I met a wonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of the scale are readers that steer well clear of self-help or anything else that isnfriends. I can't rational and based remember if it was on proper scientific research and evidence. Entrenched views are what makes this title an interesting proposition. A sceptic's search for health and healing which alludes to meditation? Surely much more interesting than that holiday or a new age guru who already believes wholeheartedly later one that their insights will transform YOUR life and enrich their bank balancePaula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. I want to do know how the sceptic that it was convincedfour years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, not and that I eagerly awaited the guy who entered ''Sort Of'' translations of the room wearing healing crystalsrest of Jansson's work and devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548887</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pauline Black1908745819|title=Black by Design: A 2-tone MemoirSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=As Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't like the front cover of book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this volume of reminiscences reminds uscase, Pauline Black is remembered first and foremost for fronting I was told why. The Selecterblurb speaks of the author considering ''an older, one less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of the few 2-Tone ska bands where I am. Add to enjoy fleeting chart success at that my love of the end natural world, of those aspects of the 1970spoetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. Yet reading this reminds us that that It was only the tip of the icebergwritten for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668790X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andre Dubus III1906852472|title=TownieWild Child: A MemoirGrowing Up a Nomad|author=Ian Mathie|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=The book opens with Andre For Ian Mathie fans there is good and his father taking a jogbad news. Seems a normal and natural activity - what's to write about here, you could be asking. Well, I'll tell you. By this time Ian has come up with the father no longer lives missing link in his narrative, the family homestory of a very unusual childhood (yes, the mother is struggling to pay the bills and to put food on the table - and very years that made him the author, Andre is too embarrassed to admit to his father that amazing man he doesn't own a pair of jogging shoesbecame). HeThe bad – well it's borrowed his sister's even although they're about hardly news two sizes too smallyears later – is that the book is published posthumously. As always, heit's in agony seconds into the jog but is he going to own up? Nope. Bloody feet and pain are a by-product of precious time beautifully written, with his fathermany exciting moments. So straight away, What I'm getting most enjoyed was the gist feeling that many of the book and questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the relationship between father and sondrawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393064662</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andy Kershaw1999811402|title=No Off Switch: The AutobiographyPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'The boy Kershaw' : originally I thought that as his hero and later friend John Peel sometimes wryly referred to him on air, has had a pretty remarkable life. Heit's been – taken loosely based around a deep breath – year on an allotment it would be a concert promoter while studying politics at Leeds Universitylifestyle book, Billy Braggbut you's driver across most re not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. The answer would be something along the lines of Europe'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a presenter on BBC TV busker, finally got into medical school and successively also is now an A&E consultant (part-time). I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on Radios 1, 3 and 4, in a news correspondent reporting Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from Iraq''Casualty'', Haitibut that isn't really what the book's about. There's a lot about rock & roll, Angola and Rwandawhich seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, and also done time as but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a guest of Her Majestycategory for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. It's an autobiography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846687446</amazonuk>
}}