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[[Category:Biography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{Frontpage
|author=Maxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)
|title=Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Biographies are often seen as the form of life-writing which offers less colour; it can be seen as more objective and less personal. I think that Gorky completely rejects this perspective, and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. In the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, but of what you yourself imagine it to be. Whom would it help to know how I see this tower, that sea, or that Tartar - why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Well, Maxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of it.
|isbn=1804271977
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Ian Penman
|title=Erik Satie Three Piece Suite
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=This unconventional biography somewhat mirrors Satie's admittedly effusive personality: whimsical, experimental and creative. It is divided into three sections: the first, an essay, the second, an A-Z encyclopedia on Satie and the third, a 'Satie Diary', documenting Ian Penman's thoughts surrounding Satie, his muse.
|isbn=1804271535
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jacqueline Feldman
|title=Precarious Lease
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=The title of this novel refers to a French legal term (''bail précaire'') associated with squatters in France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and processes, but few scant property rights. Among mentions of other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, Feldman takes particular interest in one squat of massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, admirers and detractors alike: Le Bloc. Something like a haven for artists and marginal members of society (as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, ''I live on the margins of the margins of the margins''), Le Bloc was subject to the continual threat of eviction and the pressures from above which oppressed its inhabitants' lives. We follow Le Bloc from its opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, framed as a tragedy in this book.
|isbn=1804271403
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Jacqueline Rose
|title=Women in Dark Times
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=''The world of the unconscious is not the antagonist of political life, but its steadfast companion, the hidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…''
Women in Dark Times is Jacqueline Rose's homage to courageous women throughout history, particularly women of the 21st, 20th and 19th centuries. Her historical and political backdrop is, thus, expansive, yet she navigates it with intelligence and an acknowledgment that feminism's lengthy mission is a testament to its successes, and not its failures: ''the ongoing force of feminism''.
|isbn=1804271713
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Claire Dederer
|title=Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?
|rating=3
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the audience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old aphorism of separating the art from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer's work is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the page. In particular, the prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of ''monstrous men'' as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the likes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and a personal, rather than collective voice.
|isbn=1399715070
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1788360702
|title=Charles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography
|author=Edzard Ernst
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Prince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of the scientific evidence. There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the reputation of a man who is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739805100
|title=Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of war
|author=Andrew March
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary= ''Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the early days of the Nazi regime in the 1930s. Fred, a sensitive and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the time. 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.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Will Brooker
|title=The Truth About Lisa Jewell
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was reciting, and her 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 rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author's life, working to make a success of the latest title, and struggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the result.
|isbn=1529136024
}}
{{Frontpage
|author= Martha Leigh
|title= Invisible Ink: A Family Memoir
|rating= 5
|genre= Biography
|summary= Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his life's 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 knows is there.
|isbn=1800460384
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Polly Barton
|title=Fifty Sounds
|rating=4.5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary= Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And 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 describes as being, among other things, the sound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.
|isbn=1913097501
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Frederic Gros
|title=A Philosophy of Walking
|rating=5
|genre= Politics and Society
|summary= I confess I picked this one up from the library in my pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the pages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need to. Some books draw you in slowly. This one had me in the first two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport''.
|isbn=1781688370
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Sharon Blackie
|title=If Women Rose Rooted
|rating=5
|genre= Biography
|summary= 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 one I've borrowed. I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is definitely the first two and only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for a reason and I'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.
|isbn=1912836017
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0241446732
|title=Our House is on Fire: 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.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0648684806
|summary=Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel 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 years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a while, the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a 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 army at eighteen in 1942.
}}
{{Frontpage
|author=Patti Smith
|summary=On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey''. As Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are faced head-on, as it the shifting political waters in America.
|isbn=1526614758
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1912242052
|title=O Joy for me!
|author=Keir Davidson
|rating=3
|genre=Art
|summary=''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the world''.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=Graff_Find
|title=Find Another Place
|author=Ben Graff
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, he didn't take much notice of it. At the age of 24, Graff didn't realise the gravity of the pages he was holding.
}}
{|class-"wikitable" cellpadding="15" <!-- Melanie Martin -->|-{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|1789016304[[image:1789016304.jpg|linktitle=httpWar and Love://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1789016304/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[War and Love: A A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie |author=Melanie Martin]]==|rating=5 [[image:5star.jpg|linkgenre=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] summary=Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, 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 city during the war years, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies. [[War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam by Melanie Martin|Full Review]]}}{{Frontpage<!-- Nayeri -->|isbn=1786893452|-title=The Ungrateful Refugee| styleauthor="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Dina Nayeri[[image:1786893452.jpg|linkrating=http://www4.amazon.co.uk/dp/1786893452/ref5|genre=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] Biography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Ungrateful Refugee Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are written by Dina Nayeri]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Politics journalists – almost always western, and Society|Politics and Society]]almost always, [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Here in no matter how deep the Westinvestigative journalism they carry out, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about themoutsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. But all of those stories are written by journalists It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – almost always westernand this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and almost always, no matter how deep moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the investigative journalism they carry outmiddle of a revolution in Iran, outsiders fleeing to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves inAmerica as a ten-year-old. It's rare that we find out }}{{Frontpage|isbn=0857058320|title=Lord Of All the journeys from the refugees themselves – Dead|author=Javier Cercas and this is a rare opportunity Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to do that, in this intelligent, powerful uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in death. Cercas is searching for the middle of a revolution meaning behind his great uncle's death in Iranthe Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, fleeing to America as a ten-year-oldCercas' great uncle, is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces.[[The Ungrateful Refugee by Dina Nayeri|Full Review]] <!-- Cercas -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:0857058320.jpg|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857058320/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]]ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.}}{{Frontpage| styleisbn="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"1788037812|title===[[Lord Of All The Fraternity of the Dead by Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)]]=== [[imageEstranged:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]]The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, [[:Category:Biography1891-1908|Biography]]author=Brian Anderson|rating=5''Lord Of All |genre=Biography|summary=Originally passed in 1885, the Dead'' is law that had made homosexual relations a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and deathcrime remained in place for 82 years. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil WarBut during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Manuel MenaBetween 1891 and 1908, Cercas' great unclethree books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, is as well as the figure who looms large over heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The question at the centre European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, so the publications of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle these men were hugely significant – contributing to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side. [[Lord Of All scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the Dead by Javier Cercas struggle for recognition and Anne McLean (translator)|Full Review]] <!equality, leading to the milestone legalisation of same-- Anderson -->sex relationships in 1967.}}|-{{Frontpage| styleisbn="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|Buckland_Zoo[[image:1788037812.jpg|linktitle=httpThe Man Who Ate the Zoo://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788037812/refFrank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history|author=nosim?tagRichard Girling|rating=thebookbag-21]]4.5|genre=Biography| stylesummary="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights As a conservationist in Victorian Englandbefore the term existed, 1891-1908 by Brian Anderson]]=== [[image:5starFrank Buckland was very much a man ahead of his time.jpg|link=Category:{{{ratingSurgeon, naturalist, veterinarian and eccentric sums him up perfectly, and any biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to tell.}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History{{Frontpage|History]], [[:Category:Referenceisbn=Williams_Captain|Reference]]title=Captain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, [[Cambalong:Category:BiographyHis Military Life and Times|Biography]]author=Ivor George Williams Originally passed in 1885, |rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained 17th Regiment of Foot. He was in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions command of the troops and convicts on same-sex relationships did not go unchallengedboard a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on He was not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the nature age of homosexuality appeared. They were written by 34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to raise their two homosexual menyoung sons. Edwards' death left his widow in a difficult position: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as not only did she have their farm to manage, but she was also responsible for the convicts who worked the heterosexual Havelock Ellisland. Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UKTwo years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Peacock_mountain|title=Into The Mountain, so the publications A Life of these men were hugely significant – contributing Nan Shepherd|author=Charlotte Peacock|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Mostly we choose what books to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, read because there is so little time and beginning so many books… I can understand the struggle for recognition and equalityapproach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, leading to the milestone legalisation of sameand we sell the myriad lesser-sex relationships in 1967known authors short as well. [[The Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in EnglandSo while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, and while, 1891-1908 by Brian Anderson|Full Review]] <!like most other people I read the reviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a third-- Davidson -->|-| style=''width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;''|[[image:1912242052.jpg|link=http://wwwstring to my reading bow: randomness.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912242052/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style=''vertical-align: top; text-align: left;''|===[[O Joy for me! by Keir Davidson]]=== [[image:3star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Art|Art]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Reference|Reference]] ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the world''. [[O Joy for me! by Keir Davidson|Full Review]] <!-- Graff -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Graff_Find.jpg|left|link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1788034546/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Find Another Place by Ben Graff]]=== [[image:3.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]], [[:Category:Autobiography|Autobiography]], [[:Category:Home and Family|Home and Family]] When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, he didn't take much notice of it. At the age of 24, Graff didn't realise the gravity of the pages he was holding. [[Find Another Place by Ben Graff|Full Review]] <!-- Buckland -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Buckland_Zoo.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1784701610?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1784701610]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Man Who Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history by Richard Girling]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] As a conservationist in Victorian England before the term existed, Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of his time. Surgeon, naturalist, veterinarian and eccentric sums him up perfectly, and any biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to tell. [[The Man Who Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history by Richard Girling|Full Review]] <!-- Williams -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Williams_Captain.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1546280804?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1546280804]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Captain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: His Military Life and Times by Ivor George Williams]]=== [[image:4star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the 17th Regiment of Foot. He was in command of the troops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him. He was not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the age of 34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Edwards' death left his widow in a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to manage, but she was also responsible for the convicts who worked the land. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell. [[Captain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: His Military Life and Times by Ivor George Williams|Full Review]] <!-- Seward -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Peacock_mountain.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1903385563?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1903385563]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Into The Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd by Charlotte Peacock]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]],[[:Category:History|History]] Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the approach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and we sell the myriad lesser-known authors short as well. So while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, and while, like most other people I read the reviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a third string to my reading bow: randomness. [[Into The Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd by Charlotte Peacock|Full Review]] <!-- Hewitt -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Hewitt_Renoir.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1785782738?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1785782738]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon by Catherine Hewitt]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]], [[:Category:Art|Art]] Deep in the rural parts of France in the 1860s, you would never really expect to find someone who would come to embody a full artistic period – and not just a movement at that, but a full generation of both creative and societal change. And if you were to expect that someone, they would like as not be male. But almost stumbling into the hedonistic culture of Montmartre came Marie-Clementine Valadon. She started in the circus that first caught her teenaged eye, although her gymnastic career was short-lived. But what she did have from that was the poise to be an appealing model for some seriously important painters, and a natural beauty and figure to appeal to both them and their audiences. And what she also had, much to the surprise of many and the distaste of some, was artistic talent of her own… [[Renoir's Dancer: The Secret Life of Suzanne Valadon by Catherine Hewitt|Full Review]] <!-- Ravilious -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Ravilious_James.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1908524944?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=1908524944]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[James Ravilious: A Life by Robin Ravilious]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] The name of Eric Ravilious, war artist, engraver and designer, has long been familiar. Less well-known was his equally gifted son James. This delightful biography by his widow should help to put the situation right. [[James Ravilious: A Life by Robin Ravilious|Full Review]] <!-- Thomas -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Thomas_Pearl.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/144566125X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=144566125X]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and His Daughter Mary by Melita Thomas]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] As the eldest surviving child of a much-married father whose main aim was to secure the royal succession with sons, Mary Tudor's relationship with Henry VIII, who called her his 'pearl of the world', was inevitably an important and often fraught one.[[The King's Pearl: Henry VIII and His Daughter Mary by Melita Thomas|Full Review]] <!-- Gordon -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Gordon_Carter.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099575728?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0099575728]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[The Invention of Angela Carter by Edmund Gordon]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Angela Carter is remembered as an influential and inventive writer – with works like ''The Bloody Chamber'' and ''Nights at the Circus'' propelling her to fame, and a status as an icon and inspiration for many modern-day writers.Here author Edmund Gordon delves into the life of Carter – from the London of the 1940s through to the London of the 1990s, with stops in Bristol, Tokyo, Australia, and various other places in between. A work that is as full of detail as it is full of devotion to a remarkable woman, ''The Invention of Angela Carter'' is the first authorised biography of a woman and a writer who is hugely missed today. [[The Invention of Angela Carter by Edmund Gordon|Full Review]] <!-- Dittricht -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Dittrich_Patient.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0099571862?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0099571862]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness and Family Secrets by Luke Dittrich]]=== [[image:4.5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:Popular Science|Popular Science]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] Luke Dittrich seeks to shed light on the man behind the initials, and in doing so, uncovers quite a bit more than he expected. [[Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness and Family Secrets by Luke Dittrich|Full Review]] <!-- Morris -->|-| style="width: 10%; vertical-align: top; text-align: center;"|[[image:Morris_Footsteps.jpg|left|link=https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/144567114X?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=144567114X]] | style="vertical-align: top; text-align: left;"|===[[In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: The visitor's companion to the palaces, castles & houses associated with Henry VIII's iconic queens by S Morris and N Grueninger]]=== [[image:5star.jpg|link=Category:{{{rating}}} Star Reviews]] [[:Category:History|History]], [[:Category:Travel|Travel]], [[:Category:Biography|Biography]] It was inevitable that each of the six wives of Henry VIII would have left their mark in some way on the places they lived and visited. This book straddles several categories; it is part history, part gazetteer or guide book, and also a collection of potted biographies. [[In the Footsteps of the Six Wives of Henry VIII: The visitor's companion to the palaces, castles & houses associated with Henry VIII's iconic queens by S Morris and N Grueninger|Full Review]]}}