Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__{{newreview|author=Alison Maloney|title=St George: Let's Hear it for England<!|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=I was a bit of a patriot, even when it wasn't as fashionable as it is now becoming. Perhaps this is due to my once having played St. George in a Cub Scout celebration and getting the chance to personally slay the dragon in knitted chain mail with a plastic sword. In a world where being English has become synonymous with football violence and the flag of St. George is being used by a political party condemned as racist, it's perhaps unsurprising that more people celebrate St. Patrick's Day than St. George's Day.|amazonuk=<amazonuk-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->1848092628</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Douglas Rogers1788360702|title=Charles, The Last Resort|rating=5|genre=Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|summary=Author Douglas Rogers is a Zimbabwean who moved awayfrom the country many years ago, but has never been able to persuadehis parents – two white farmers, Lyn and Roz – to follow him out oftheir homeland, despite the resettlement policies of Robert Mugabe,the hyper-inflation, and the corruption in the country. Instead, thepair just wanted to stay on the farm welcoming people to Drifters,their backpackers' lodge.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906021910</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tracy Kidder|title=Strength in What RemainsEdzard Ernst

|summary=For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. 'Strength in What Remains' is Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the inspirational account of DeogratiasPrince's opinions, a man who has fled from beliefs and aims against the genocide and civil war in Burundi (just south background of the equator in East Central Africa, bordering Rwanda)scientific evidence. He escapes to New York, out There are few instances of fear his beliefs being vindicated and want his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the reputation of a safer life; only man who is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his new found American life isn't quite what it promisedambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186197857X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catrine Clay1739805100|title=Trautmann's JourneyLoving the Enemy: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup LegendBuilding bridges in a time of war|author=Andrew March

|summary='You have 'Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to learn Dresden to be hard men, to accept sacrifice without ever succumbing'. Such did Hitler say at teach in the early days of the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies regime in the 1930s. He probably did not have in mind playing in goal at Fred, a FA Cup final with a broken necksensitive and thoughtful man, such is had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the lifetime of difference growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the two referencestime. But Fred's attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships and connections that lasted for a lifetime, as packed and varied as it was, is in the pages of this ever-interesting and swiftly-devoured book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Angela ThirlwellWill Brooker|title=Into The Frame: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown |rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Ford Madox Brown, born in 1821 in Calais of a Scottish family, raised in France and Belgium before settling in England, was one of the foremost Victorian artists. Throughout his career he was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, and shared many of their same ideals, style and subject matter, though he never officially became a member of the group.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701179023</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Chris Skidmore|title=Death and the Virgin: Elizabeth, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate of Amy Robsart Truth About Lisa Jewell|rating=4.5

|summary=When Elizabeth Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I ascended the throne in November 1558've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, everyone's dominant concern was one of the matter thousands of her taking an appropriate husband less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, and securing shows how 2021 drew the successiontwo closer and closer together. The man most likely to become meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her husband latest book she was Robert Dudleyreciting, whom she made and her Master being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the Horse and entrusted with considerable responsibility for her coronation festivitiesrabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. The fact that Brooker decides he was already married 'd like nothing more than to Amy Robsart did little to quell follow her through a year in the speculationpublished author's life, especially since she was believed working to be dying make a success of breast cancerthe latest title, and struggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0297846507</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jad AdamsMartha Leigh|title=GandhiInvisible Ink: Naked AmbitionA Family Memoir|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=Until I read this Martha Leigh begins her booktalking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, Mohandas Karamchand (or Mahatma for short) Gandhi had always been immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a very shadowy figure. I was familiar with Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the picture complete correspondence of the loinclothphilosopher Jean-clad man who fell victim to an assassinJacques Rousseau, his life's bullet shortly after Indian independence, work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the practicalities of life. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knew little moreknows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849162107</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sue ShephardPolly Barton|title=The Surprising Life of Constance SpryFifty Sounds

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=The very mention of the name Constance Spry conjures up thoughts of flower arranging and books of recipes from a bygone era. Perhaps it was her misfortune that she died just before television Where do I start? I could have made a celebrity of herstart with where Barton herself starts, as it did of with the likes of Fanny Cradock question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and Nigella Lawsonif the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, to name but twoI am not hopeful. Even soAnd like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she enjoyed a remarkably successful careerdescribes as being, among other things, and the woman behind the public face was no ordinary career woman, but quite an unconventional personalitysound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230741819</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rob ChapmanFrederic Gros|title=Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head Philosophy of Walking

|genre=EntertainmentPolitics and Society|summary=Roger Barrett, who later acquired I confess I picked this one up from the moniker 'Syd' (let's make him Syd from now on) was born library in Cambridge in 1946my pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. The fourth of five children, he was Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the only one pages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need to inherit any lasting artistic talent, which came from his father Max. Some books draw you in slowly. The latter was a senior pathologist, member of This one had me in the local Philharmonic Societyfirst two pages, gifted singer, pianist and watercolour painterwherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571238548</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frances Stonor SaundersSharon Blackie|title=The Woman Who Shot MussoliniIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=Most British titled families I normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the 19th and 20th centuries have produced their fair share of rebelsone I've borrowed. Yet few came as close I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing ' – although it is definitely the course of European history as first two and only time will tell about the Honourable Violet Gibson, one of eight children of Baron Ashbourne, third – but clichés exist for a Protestant Anglo-Irish peer reason and MP in DisraeliI's government during the 1870sm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0571239773</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Josephine Wilkinson0241446732|title=The Early Loves Our House is on Fire: Scenes of Anne Boleyna Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=3.5|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=Before her marriage to King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn had already been courted by three suitors, any of whom might have become her husband - The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and possibly saved her from her eventual end Svante Thunberg took on most of the scaffoldparenting of their two daughters. The first was Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her Irish cousin James Butlersister, Beata, later Earl of Ormondthen nine years old, whom she struggled with what was at one time intended to marry in order happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to settle seek a family dispute over the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormond. After their marriage negotiations came solution close to an end in the face of legal obstacleshome, but eventually, she it became betrothed to Henry Percy, heir clear to the Duke of Northumberlandfamily that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet''. With If they were to find a little help from the scheming Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke, who had little time for his son, insisted that any idea of marriage between them should way to live happily again their solution would need to be dismissed forthwithradical. Soon after this the poet Thomas Wyatt became enamoured of her, but by this time there was fierce competition from his sovereign, and her destiny was sealed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848684304</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michele Monro0648684806|title=Matt MonroClara Colby: The Singer's SingerInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday|rating=4.5

|summary=In terms The path of British chart statistics and record sales, Matt Monro never quite fulfilled his full potentialClara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. When measured against At the achievements time she was just three-years-old but because of contemporary ballad singers like Tom Jones some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and Engelbert Humperdinck, he fell some way shortthree brothers. Yet the former Terry Parsons was a regular fixture Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on the light entertainment circuit, her and overseassaw that she received a good education, particularly both in Latin America and the Philippines, he was undoubtedly one out of Britain's most successful exports ever, and at one point he school. She was the biggest selling artist only child in Spainthe household and her childhood was glorious. His idol Frank SinatraBy contrast, to whom he her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and life was often comparedhard, often said that Matt as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. Clara would only British singer he ever really listened toknow her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848566182</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Caroline Moorehead 1789017977|title=Dancing to the Precipice Ronnie and Hilda's Romance: Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French RevolutionTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|summary=Two hundred years ago, with Ronnie Williams was the fall son of the monarchy Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and the Napoleonic wars, France underwent one cataclysmic change after anotherEthel Wall. There 's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, but he was already many who witnessed years older than Ethel and experienced the volatile he might well have shaved a few years off his age at first hand. For a while, the family was quite well-to-do but few left disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a more detailed record than very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the subject of this biography, Lucie-Henriette Dillon, Marquise Marchioness de La Tour du Pinarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099490528</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=A.Roger Ekirch Patti Smith|title=Birthright: The True Story That Inspired KidnappedYear of the Monkey

|summary=At school I remember spending a lot On the coast of time on Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the Tudors and the early Stuarts – obviously great favourites lunar year of the history teacher monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and then galloping unceremoniously through the intervening years until we reached another unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, 'meaningful'Anything is possible: after all, it' period – s the Victorian erayear of the monkey''. The importance As Smith wanders the coast of William and Mary was completely overlooked Santa Cruz in favour of solitude, she reflects on a quick mention of the fact year that William wasn't brings huge shifts in direct line of succession to the throne her life - loss and Mary had never wanted to marry him in the first place. Their successorageing are faced head-on, Queen Anne I remember simply as 'tables'it the shifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>075094577X</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Bakewell1912242052|title=How to Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer O Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=53|genre=BiographyArt|summary='Chance … really the way things happen,' wrote Howard Beck, Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the Chicago School sociologist. I visit Bookbag Towers with few preconceived ideas about first person to walk the next book for review. I'll allow myself mountains alone, not because he had to fall for work, as a quirky title miner, quarryman, shepherd or appealing coverpack-horse driver, despite only a smattering of interest in the subject matterbut because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. Just occasionally this wayHis rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, I stumble on a golden nugget so fascinating and well-written that I realise how lucky I am to be a reviewerits literary consequences, changed our view of the world''. I'm so pleased to have chanced upon this inviting biography of Montaigne by Sarah Bakewell!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701178922</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David BaldwinGraff_Find|title=The Kingmaker's Sisters: Six Powerful Women in the Wars of the RosesFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff|rating=43.5|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Due to the small amount When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of surviving personal sourceshandwritten notes from his journal, any book which purports to be a biography he didn't take much notice of a 15-century subject is almost inevitably going to be more a 'life and times' than a lifeit. In At the case age of women who were sisters but not sovereigns or consorts themselves24, Graff didn't realise the lack gravity of data will be even more acutethe pages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750950765</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue Roe1789016304|title=The Private Lives War and Love: A family's testament of the Impressionistsanguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=4.5

|summary=In the early 1860s a group of young Parisian artists were keen Melanie Martin read about what happened to exhibit their work, despite opposition from the official art world. Their protests at being spurned Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by the Salonwhat she discovered, the French equivalent particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the Royal Academy, resulted in their paintings being shown at city during the rather disparagingly-named Salon des Refuséswar years, where crowds but only five thousand survived and critics came Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to view - and jeerhappen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. When they held Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the first of their own exhibitions a few years later, one reviewer said city were convinced that they 'seem to have declared war on beauty'would soon be pushed back, while another assured his readers that every canvas must have been the work of some practical joker who had dipped his brushes Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in paint, smeared the way that it onto yards of canvasdid, and signed but initial protests melted away as the result with several different namesorganisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099458349</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Will Birch1786893452|title=Ian Dury: The Definitive BiographyUngrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri

|summary=Ian Dury was always one of Here in the most individualWest, even contrary characters in the musical world. In a branch of showbiz where people often relied we see news reports about immigrants on good looks as a short cut to stardomregular basis – some media welcoming them, he was no oil paintingsome scaremongering about them. During the pub rock eraBut all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, he and his groupalmost always, no matter how deep the Blockheadsinvestigative journalism they carry out, ploughed a lonely furrow which owed more outsiders to jazz-funk than rockthe world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It'n'roll, and his songs extolled s rare that we find out the virtues of characters from Billericay or Plaistow rather than those journeys from Memphis or California. Alongside the young punk rock upstarts with whom he competed for inches refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in the rock pressthis intelligent, he powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was comparatively born in the middle-aged. As if that was not enoughof a revolution in Iran, in his own words childhood illness had left him fleeing to America as a permanent 'raspberry ripple'ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071036</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Simpson0857058320|title=Alastair Sim: The Star of Scrooge Lord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and the Belles of St Trinian'sAnne McLean (translator)

|summary=The mere mention of Alastair Sim conjures up visions of pictures made during ''Lord Of All the 1950s when Dead'' is a more gentle humour was journey to uncover the order of the dayauthor's lost ancestor's life and death. Yet Cercas is searching for the man hated and did meaning behind his best to avoid publicitygreat uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, claiming that is the person figure who looms large over the public saw book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on screen revealed all that anybody needed to know about himwhy his uncle fought for this dictator. How he would have fared twenty years later in The question at the age centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a more intrusive press, one cannot but wonderhero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752453726</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Crawford1788037812|title=The BardFraternity of the Estranged: Robert Burns The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891- a biography1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=4.5

|summary=If Shakespeare is England's own BardOriginally passed in 1885, the comparatively shortlived Robert Burns – who lived and worked nearly two centuries later – fulfils the equivalent role law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in Scottish iconography more than adequatelyplace for 82 years. Yet as But during this very thorough biography demonstratestime, there is much more to restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the man than nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the wordsmith heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of 'Auld Lang Syne' society and 'Weestudying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, sleekitbut barely talked about in the UK, so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, cowrin'and beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, tim'rous beastie'leading to the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844139301</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Linda PorterBuckland_Zoo|title=Katherine The Man Who Ate the QueenZoo: The Remarkable Life Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of Katherine Parrnatural history|author=Richard Girling

|summary=Katherine Parr As a conservationist in Victorian England before the term existed, Frank Buckland was the last and arguably the most fortunate very much a man ahead of King Henry VIII's six wiveshis time. Apart from Anne of ClevesSurgeon, the speedily divorced 'Flanders mare'naturalist, she was the only one to survive veterinarian and eccentric sums him. And while all six of the queens consort remain rather shadowy figuresup perfectly, this biography gives the impression that she was probably the most intelligent and well-rounded personality of them allany biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230710395</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David ClaytonWilliams_Captain|title=The Richard Beckinsale StoryCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: His Military Life and Times|author=Ivor George Williams

|summary=In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A generation probably knows Richard Beckinsale only Edwards of the 17th Regiment of Foot. He was in command of the troops and convicts on board a ship sailing from repeats on the UK Gold TV channelsPlymouth to Sydney, Australia: his wife and from occasional mentions in young son accompanied him. He was not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the context age of 34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Edwards'how great he would death left his widow in a difficult position: not only did she have been if only…' In 1978 The Sunday Times Magazine tipped their farm to manage, but she was also responsible for the 30-year-old sitcom favourite as a rising major star of the 80s convicts who would blossom into one of worked the great all-round stage actorsland. One year Two years later, he was deadshe would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454404</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der KistePeacock_mountain|title=SonsInto The Mountain, Servants and Statesmen: The Men in Queen Victoria's A Lifeof Nan Shepherd|author=Charlotte Peacock

|summary=Like Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the first Elizabeth more books than are strictly necessary have been written about Queen Victoriaapproach, but John Van der Kiste has taken I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and we sell the unusual step of using the men in her life to illuminate some dark corners which might myriad lesser-known authors short as well. So while, like most other wise people I have remained unexplored. Of course the most famous man in her lifemy favourite genres, and favoured authors, husband and Prince Consort Albert isn't 'sonwhile, servant or statesman' as promised by like most other people I read the title of the bookreviews and follow up on what appeals, but he established a trend. Victoria, often regarded as a difficult woman to please, would always I also have a man in her life who would, third-string to a greater or lesser extent, dominate hermy reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0750937882</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Maureen Emerson|title=Escape to Provence|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=In the 1920s two women, one American, one British, settled in the south of France, both for different reasons. Elisabeth Starr had left her home in Philadelphia after an unhappy childhood and the death, possibly suicide, of her fiancé, a nephew of the American President. Drawn to Paris, 'the chosen European city for the sophisticated and well-heeled of the New World', she worked as a nurse during the Great War, then moved to Provence where she made her home in an ancient stone house, the Castello, and took French citizenship. Winifred (Peggy) Fortescue was the wife of the Royal Librarian at Windsor, who retired in 1926 with a knighthood and became a renowned (though hardly successful in financial terms) military historian. After the fall of the pound, it was hard for them to make ends meet in England, and they were drawn to find a property in Provence partly by the lifestyle, partly by a favourable exchange rate.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955832101</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sushila Anand |title=Daisy: The Lives and Loves of the Countess of Warwick|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Born Daisy Maynard in 1861, the Countess of Warwick lived a colourful life by any standards. She was notoriously promiscuous, a spendthrift who did not hesitate to try and provoke a royal scandal to shore up her parlous finances, and although she relished her lifestyle to the full, she spent several years fighting wholeheartedly for the pioneer socialists in Britain.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749909773</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Lewis|title=The Blind Side|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=I think my husband was a little taken aback to see me curled up Move on the sofa engrossed in a book about American Football. I suppose I should admit that I didn't actually know it was going to be about American Football. Well, I knew it was about a boy who ''played'' American Football, but I'd thought that was just going to be the background story, you know, like in ''Jerry Maguire''. So the first chapter seemed to go on [[Newest Business and on forever, and I thought my head might pop from reading about quarterbacks and blind sides and plays and offence and defence and running statistics...but then somehow I stumbled to the real heart of the story; the story of Michael Oher, a young African-American from the slums of Memphis whose father was never around, and whose mother was a drug addict and lost him to social services at a young age.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>039333838X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Billy Hopkins|title=Tommy's World|rating=4|genre=General Fiction|summary=Tommy Hopkins was born in October 1886 in Collyhurst, one of the poorer, inner-city suburbs of Manchester. His father had quite a good job and there wasn't a lot of money to spare but Tommy remembered the home as being filled with love and laughter. He was an only child but thought that he was spoilt in terms of affection rather than in the form of worldly goods. All that was to change when his father died of spinal meningitis and he and his mother had to move into cheaper lodgings. Even that tenuous security wasn't to last for long – his mother died of a heart attack in her thirties, leaving Tommy an orphan before he was eight years old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755359585</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Claire Tomalin|title=Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=I came to this biography having read three of Hardy's novels, two quite recently, and some of his poetry, but knowing very little about him as a person. Claire Tomalin has brought him admirably to life in these pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141017414</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jenifer Roberts|title=The Madness of Queen Maria: The Remarkable Life of Maria I of Portugal|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Born in 1734 in Lisbon, at that time the richest and most opulent city in Europe, Maria was destined to become the first female monarch in Portuguese history. Married to her uncle Infante Pedro, seventeen years her senior, she had six children (outliving all but one of them), and became Queen in 1777. A conscientious woman, she had the misfortune to be born in during the 'age of reason', when church and state were vying for supremacy. Instinctively a supporter of the old religion, with a humanitarian approach to state affairs, she was no Queen Elizabeth, no Catherine the Great, and wore her crown rather reluctantly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>095455891X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Graham McCann|title=Bounder!: The Biography of Terry-Thomas|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=When I was in my early teens, it sometimes seemed as if Terry-Thomas was one of the stars of almost every other five-star British comedy film around. He was certainly one of the most recognizable characters of all with his gap-toothed grin, cigarette holder and inimitable 'Hel-lo!', 'Hard cheese!', and best of all, the angry, 'You're an absolute shower!'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845134419</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stella Tillyard |title=A Royal Affair: George III and His Troublesome Siblings|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=King George III was not the luckiest of English sovereigns. America, and then his sons, in that order, gave him no end of grief, and the last few years of his life were clouded by madness. It is thus often overlooked that, before these troubles arose to haunt this most conscientious monarch, he also had a thankless task in trying to control his siblings.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099428563</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tracy Borman |title=Elizabeth's Women: The Hidden Story of the Virgin Queen|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=So many biographies have been written about the life and times of England's longest-lived and longest reigning sovereign that one might wonder whether there is anything new left to say about her. However Tracy Borman has found an interesting new angle – by telling the story of her life through the women closest to her.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082264</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=James Lever|title=Me Cheeta|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Straight out of the golden age of Hollywood comes the bitchiest, most revealing memoir from one of its stars. There are scores to be settled, stars to be insulted, secrets to be hinted at none too subtley, and lost opportunities to be longed for. Oh, and the star telling all? Well, for those of you who can't tell from the title (or even the picture on the front cover) it's Cheeta - chimpanzee star of the Tarzan films.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007280165</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philippe Auclair |title=Cantona: The Rebel Who Would Be King|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=Even though I'm not a Manchester United fan, Eric Cantona is one of my all time favourite players and I was really excited to get the opportunity to read a book which was billed as revealing his innermost thoughts, and being the definitive account of his career.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230706347</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alistair Duncan |title=Close to Holmes: A Look at the Connections Between Historical London, Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Even today, London is a remarkable compromise of the old and the new. As Alistair Duncan shows in this volume, the city of Conan Doyle and Holmes has changed – yet not changed. There have been a handful of books in the past on 'Holmes's London', but this is the first of its kind to place equal emphasis on places associated with the detective and his creator.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312500</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul R Spiring (Editor) |title=Bobbles & Plum: Four Satirical Playlets by Bertram Fletcher Robinson and PG Wodehouse|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=P.G. Wodehouse needs little if any introduction, but Bertram Fletcher Robinson's life and career were cut short and he is little known outside his connections with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This set of satirical playlets on which they collaborated, published in journals between 1904 and 1907 and virtually forgotten since, are presented in book form for the first time. As such they show how the careers of both men were evolving, particularly while Wodehouse was finding his feet and experimenting with the different facets of journalism before finding his niche in comic fiction.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312586</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Wynter Bee and Lucy Clapham |title=People of the Day 4: The Rich and Famous Caricatured|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Have you ever been asked to buy a book in aid of a charity and wished that you'd given a donation and not taken the book? Well, if you have I'm hoping to persuade you that there are exceptions to every rule and this book in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust is definitely worth the cover price.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0954811038</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jeremy Nicholas |title=Idle Thoughts on Jerome K Jerome: A 150th Anniversary Celebration|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Although he was a prolific novelist, short story writer, dramatist and journalist, Jerome Klapka Jerome will always be remembered first and foremost as the author of ''Three Men in a Boat''. This fascinating anthology, published on the 150th anniversary of his birth, reminds us that there was far more to the man than that one admittedly enduring book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956221203</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard D Ryder|title=Nelson, Hitler and Diana|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Was Horatio Nelson, a navy officer of great renown, forever thrusting himself into the limelight, doing it because his mother passed away when he was nine? Was Hitler overly affected by his father dying in a time of paternal disapproval, and a kind of Oedipal reaction to being the man in the house making him suffer when she herself died? And can Diana, Princess of Wales' parents' divorce lead to a claim she was a sufferer of borderline personality disorder?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401662</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Trevor Hamilton |title=Immortal Longings: F.W.H. Myers and the Victorian Search for Life After Death|rating=4|genre=Biography |summary=Born in 1843, Frederic Myers began his career as a classical lecturer at Cambridge University, but disliked teaching and soon gave it up in favour of writing poetry and essays in literature. Although his social circle included men such as Gladstone, Ruskin, Tennyson, Browning and Prince Leopold, the most intellectual of Queen Victoria's sons, his books (which are not so well remembered today) might have been his sole claim to fame, had it not been for his passionate curiosity about the meaning of human life. If it had a purpose, he was convinced, it could only be discovered through the study of human experiences.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401239</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul R Spiring (Editor) |title=The World of Vanity Fair - Bertram Fletcher Robinson|rating=5|genre=Biography |summary=Every now and then, you comes across a really sumptuous book, where just turning and looking at the pages takes you into another world. Such is the case with this one. ''Vanity Fair'' was a gentler Victorian forerunner of ''Private Eye''. Subtitled, ''A Weekly'' ''Show of Political, Social, and Literary Wares'', it appeared between 1868 and 1914. Like the more successful, longer-lasting ''Punch'', it began with radical aspirations, intending ''to expose what'' [the editorFinance Reviews]] ''perceived to be the'' ''vanities of the elite social classes''. However its satire was gently humorous rather than malicious, and almost everybody who was portrayed in its pages was flattered.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312535</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Piers Dudgeon|title=Captivated: J.M. Barrie, the Du Mauriers and the Dark Side of Neverland|rating=3.5|genre=Biography |summary=According to D.H. Lawrence, J.M. Barrie ''has a fatal touch for those he loves. They die.'' Barrie had an extraordinary fascination with a childlike world of innocence and young boys who never grew up. Had it merely stopped at creating Peter Pan, all well and good. Unfortunately this obsession manifested itself in an unhealthy involvement with others, notably the du Maurier family.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520451</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Emma Charles|title=How Could He Do It?|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Emma Charles was on the edge of thinking that she and her family were doing quite well. They were an ordinary family – mum, dad, two daughters, three dogs, a rabbit and a couple of guinea pigs. Sprinkle in an Open University course for Mum, private schooling for the girls, a nice car in the drive of the nice house, good clothes and fun holidays – and you can understand why she might be rather pleased with the way that life was going. Then her fifteen year old daughter, Tamsin, gave her a note, couched in graphic terms, saying that her father had been sexually abusing her for the past five years.In moments the family's life fell apart. Gone were all the certainties, the hopes and the expectations. In came the police, Social Services and Child Protection Officers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090005</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jacqueline Walker|title=Pilgrim State|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I was intrigued and touched by Jacqueline Walker's beautiful memoir of her childhood in Jamaica and London in the 1960's. This is a book inevitably compared with Andrea Levy's ''Small Island''. It follows similar ground, but the main difference and great strength, is that it's the real narrative of mother and daughter. As a girl I was familiar with areas of London where Jackie Walker lived and heard some members of my family denigrate Caribbean immigrants. From this memoir, I've garnered much about the lived experience of my less advantaged contemporaries.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340960809</amazonuk>}}