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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreview|title=The Art of Neil GaimanFrontpage|author=Hayley CampbellMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|ratingtitle=4.5|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=An early [[:Category:Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman]] book was all about Douglas Adams, and came out at the time he had a success with a book of his own regarding definitions of concepts that had previously not had a specific word attached. Gaiman himself is one of those concepts. I know what a polyglot is, and a polymath – but there should be a word for someone like Gaiman, who can write anything and everything he seems to want – a whimsical family-friendly picture book, a behemoth Reminiscences of modern fantasyTolstoy, an all-ages horror story, something with a soupcon of sci-fi or with a factor of the fable. He can cross genres – Chekhov and to some extent just leave them behind as unnecessary, as well as cross format – he was mastering the lengthy, literary graphic novel just as 'real' books were festering in his creativity, and songs and poems were just appearing here and there. So he is pretty much who you think of as regards someone who can turn his hands to anything he wishes. He is a poly-something, then, or just omni-something else.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781571392</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Brian Thompson|title=A Corner of Paradise: A love story (with the usual reservations)Andreyev|rating=3.5

|summary=In Biographies are often seen as the early seventies Brian Thompson met Elizabeth Northform 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, both and offers a vibrant, subjective yet informed portrait of them part three of failing marriages which would have died without any intervention on their partshis literary contemporaries. They became friendsIn the first section of this book, Tolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, they fell in love but they never felt the need of what you yourself imagine it to marry and would be together until Liz's death in 2010 at the age of seventy eight. Both are authors - Thompson Whom would maintain it help to know how I see this tower, that North was the better writer sea, or that Tartar - and North would perhaps have said that why should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''she'' should have made that clear. ''A Corner of Paradise'' tells the story - not of the homes they lived 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 - but of the joy such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of their relationshipit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581868</amazonuk>1804271977

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Grace: Her Lives - Her Loves: The startling royal exposéIan Penman|authortitle=Robert LaceyErik Satie Three Piece Suite|rating=43.5

|summary=Twenty-five years before another so-called fairytale royal romance which turned out to be anything butThis unconventional biography somewhat mirrors Satie's admittedly effusive personality: whimsical, one of America’s most beloved screen goddesses crossed the Atlantic experimental and married creative. It is divided into three sections: the principality of Monaco. The ceremony in 1956 was hailed as first, an essay, the wedding of second, an A-Z encyclopedia on Satie and the yearthird, but like the later and similar eventa 'Satie Diary', documenting Ian Penman's thoughts surrounding Satie, it was not the happiest of unionshis muse.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>191016738X</amazonuk>1804271535

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon RainforestJacqueline Feldman|authortitle=Wade DavisPrecarious Lease|rating=43.5|genre=Travel|summary=As someone who has always enjoyed learning about the Amazon, and with plans to travel to South America next year, this book practically screamed at me to be reviewed. And, although a little tough going and long-winded in parts, I'm glad I had the opportunity to get lost in Davis' incredible work of non-fiction. Difficult to describe in terms of genre, this book combines history, politics, science, botany and culture. It is delivered through a biographical account of Davis' own travels and as a memoir to Richard Evans Schultes, an ethnobotanist well known for his work and travels in the Amazon and Wade Davis' highly regarded mentor.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592967</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Angela Merkel: The Chancellor and Her World|author=Stefan Kornelius|rating=4

|summary=You have The title of this novel refers to admire the lady, this rather awkward and shy daughter of a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish Catholic. His daughter studied French legal term (''bail précaire'') associated with such intelligence and application that soon brought her academic success particularly squatters in Russian France, affording them temporary suspension from eviction charges and finally in Quantum Chemistryprocesses, but few scant property rights. At the age Among mentions of 26other squats dotted around Paris like Le Carrosse and La Miroiterie, she obtained her doctorate and - Feldman takes particular interest in passingone squat of massive proportions which adopted an almost mythical status for its inhabitants, it rather seems - her first husband, the physicist Ulrike Merkel. Her rise to power was rapid admirers and took place through the period in which the DDR collapsed as Russian policy under Gorbachev changeddetractors alike: Le Bloc. Along with Something like a wry haven for artists and dry sense marginal members of society (as one character, Le Général, repeats throughout, ''I live on the margins of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is the embodiment margins of the characteristic known in German as margins''fleissig), Le Bloc was subject to the continual threat of eviction and the pressures from above which oppressed its inhabitants'' - hardworkinglives. We follow Le Bloc from its opening in 2012 until its eventual dissolution, sedulous, diligent and assiduousframed as a tragedy in this book.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>1804271403

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Blazing Star: The Life and Times of John Wilmot, Earl of RochesterJacqueline Rose|authortitle=Alexander LarmanWomen in Dark Times

|summary=John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, was the ultimate 'live fast, die young' icon The world of the Stuart age, unconscious is not the seventeenth-century embodiment antagonist of 'Hope I die before I get old'. Restoration dandy, satirist and pornographic poet, he died a lingering death at the age of 33political life, racked by venereal disease and alcoholism. If he is remembered at all these daysbut its steadfast companion, except by those familiar with the history hidden place or literature of the age, it is as the James Dean or the Keith Moon of his day, a hellraiser whose poetry was heavily suppressed for many years by the censors. In fact much of his verse was not published under his name until long after his death, and as most of it was only circulated in manuscript form during his lifetime and a good deal destroyed by his mother after his death, it is uncertain how much does still survive.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851093</amazonuk>}}backdrop where any true revolution must begin…''

{{newreview|title=Dirty Bertie: An English King Made Women in France|author=Stephen Clarke|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Although he was Anglo-German by birthDark Times is Jacqueline Rose's homage to courageous women throughout history, so Stephen Clarke suggestsparticularly women of the 21st, King Edward VII was very much a Parisian by nature20th and 19th centuries. As we would expect from the author of several lighthearted books on our Gallic neighboursHer historical and political backdrop is, including ‘1000 Years of Annoying the French’thus, this is not the most weighty or solemn biography of the King you will ever findexpansive, but yet she navigates it with intelligence and an acknowledgment that feminism's lengthy mission is certainly an entertaininga testament to its successes, racy gallop through and not its failures: ''the life ongoing force of its subjectfeminism''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780890346</amazonuk>1804271713

{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Josephine: Desire, Ambition, NapoleonClaire Dederer|authortitle=Kate WilliamsMonsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating=43|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Until reading this biography, it had never really occurred Dederer sets out to me just how shadowy unveil what she calls a figure ''biography of the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparteaudience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, one exploration of the best-known European rulers old aphorism of separating the age, really wasart from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer's work is original and expressive. It may be common knowledge The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her name was Josephinebrilliant mind and onto the page. In particular, but few of us perhaps really know anything 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 woman behind first few chapters, interrogating the namelikes 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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>009955142X</amazonuk>1399715070

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788360702|title=Charles, The DevonshiresAlternative Prince: The Story of a Family and a NationAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Roy HattersleyEdzard Ernst

|summary=According to the back For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of this bookalternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''Charles, ‘the story of The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Devonshires is Prince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the story background of Britain’the scientific evidence. That’s an extravagant claim, but it contains more than a germ There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of truth. Certainly one would be hard-pushed to find an aristocratic, non-royal British family who treatments which have no scientific support has more consistently been central done considerable damage to our history since medieval times, as this detailed chronicle demonstrates. From the dissolution reputation of the monasteries under Henry VIII presided over in part by Sir William Cavendish, father a man who is proud of the first Earl, his refusal to the big business that their ancestral home Chatsworth House in Derbyshire has now become, the somewhat inaccurately geographicallyapply evidence-named Devonshires have often been, or helped tobased, contribute logical reasoning to, part of the fabric of Britain’s past and presenthis ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554399</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1739805100|title=The Life Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of Rebecca Joneswar|author=Angharad PriceAndrew March|rating=4.5

|summary=A newly-married couple make their way home from ''Loving the chapel, riding on a horse-drawn cart as it winds its way round familiar country lanes towards the beautiful valley of Maesglasau. The horse pauses atop a hill and the valley spreads out before them: Enemy''tells the vessel quite extraordinary story of their marriageauthor Andrew March'. The centuries-old stone farmhouse s grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the crook early days of the mountain is to be their homestead; Nazi regime in the 1930s. Fred, a sturdysensitive and thoughtful man, silent witness 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 the tragedy separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships and joy connections that is an intrinsic part of the fabric of family lifelasted for a lifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085738712X</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|title=Wilkie Collins: A Life of SensationFrontpage|author=Andrew Lycett|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Wilkie Collins has come down to us as the chief exponent of the Victorian ‘sensation novel’. This was the genre of story written specifically to expose deep-rooted domestic or family secrets, uncovering illegitimacy, bigamy or other irregular activities by supposedly respectable citizens leading outwardly normal, uneventful lives. There were mysteries, deceptions, betrayals, evil characters and good innocent ones. Measured by these standards, he led a ‘sensational’ life himself. When not writing novels, short stories, plays or articles for journals in order to earn a living, this apparently fine upstanding bachelor maintained two households, two mistresses, and children at the same time – and managed to keep them a secret from the public who would doubtless have been scandalized to know the truth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099557347</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWill Brooker|title=Four Sisters:The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchesses|author=Helen RappaportTruth About Lisa Jewell

|summary=A few years ago, Helen Rappaport wrote and published Meet [[Ekaterinburg: The Last Days Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport|Ekaterinburg: The Last Days thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the Romanovs]]two meeting each other, a painstakingas well, chilling account of and shows how 2021 drew the final days two closer and death closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the last Tsar words of Russia her latest book she was reciting, and his family. To her being in a certain extent this biography is ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a prequel 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 volumeis Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author's life, an account working to make a success of the short lives of OTMAlatest title, as they referred to themselves – and struggling with the Tsar’s daughters Olganext in line. Jewell, Tatianadue diligence appropriately done, Marie and Anastasiaagrees. And this is the result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0230768172</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Holy Fox: The Life of Lord HalifaxMartha Leigh|authortitle=Andrew RobertsInvisible Ink: A Family Memoir|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Of all the British nearly-Prime Ministers Edward Wood Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, 1st Earl of Halifax, must be uniqueimmediately recognisable upper middle class English family. He was the one who came closest to assuming the mantle only to find the job denied him, and had he done soHer father is a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on him Britain’s destiny would have depended. For his typewriter as he was edits the complete correspondence of the man whom several confidently expectedphilosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many wanted, to take over after his life's work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the resignation practicalities of Neville Chamberlain during life. There is love in the dark days of May 1940house but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781856974</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Boys In The Boat: An Epic Journey to the Heart of Hitler's BerlinPolly Barton|authortitle=Daniel James BrownFifty Sounds

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=You see, Jesse Owens had it easy – all he had to Where do was run fast. Alright, he did have to face unknown hardship, heinous prejudice at home and abroadI start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and make sure he was fast enough to outdo the rest of his compatriots then if the worldhadn's best to win gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympicst gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but others who wished to do the same had to do moreI am not hopeful. People such as those rowers in And like Barton, I don't know the coxed eights squad – people such as young Joe Rantz. He certainly had answer to face hardship, the prejudice borne by those question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the moneyed east coast yacht clubs against an upstart from question in the NW USAfirst essay, and when he got to compete he had to use so many more muscleswhich is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, and operate at varying tempiamong other things, with the temperament sound of the weather and water against him, all in perfect synchronicity with seven other beefcakes. Despite rowing being the second greatest ticket at those Games, Joe's story is a lot less well known, and probably a lot more entertaining'every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1447210980</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert A CaroFrederic Gros|title=The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means A Philosophy of AscentWalking

|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=It's only a matter I confess I picked this one up from the library in my pre-lockdown forage of days since random stuff. Now I finished listening have to [[The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power by Robert A Caro|The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power]], go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the first part of Robert A Caro's definitive work on the President pages I have marked and despite having just spent over forty hours on the book return to its varying wisdom when I wanted need to learn more. Some books draw you in slowly. I was torn though - the second book This one had me in a series is not often as good as the first and it struck me that these might two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not be the most exciting years in Johnsona sport''s life. Was this book going to be the link which took us on to the more exciting times? Not a bit of it.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00GSHD0U6</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert A CaroSharon Blackie|title=The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to PowerIf Women Rose Rooted

|genre=Biography|summary=Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President 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 United States, preceded by John F Kennedy and succeeded by Richard Nixon, with both being remembered most for the way they left officeone I've borrowed. His fiveI want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-year term in office was overshadowed at the start by changing' – although it is definitely the Kennedy assassination first two and increasingly blighted by only time will tell about the debacle which was Vietnam, third – but there was something about Johnson which always intrigued me: how does clichés exist for a poor boy from Texas hill country without an exceptional (or even reason and I'good') education become president of the United States? 'The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power' tells you all that you need to knowm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00GSHTJZQ</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0241446732|title=Born Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in SiberiaCrisis|author=Tamara AstafievaMalena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Michael Darlow Beata Thunberg and Debbie SlaterSvante Thunberg|rating=4.5|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=I tend to shy away from reviewing book titles, but this time it seems appropriate – here it's a title that doesn't tell you The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the half parenting of the storytheir two daughters. As much as Tamara Astafieva was born in Siberia, Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and returned there several times, for many different reasons talking and with many very different outcomesher sister, this is much more of a picture of the Soviet Union as we in Britain think of it – MoscowBeata, a bit of Saint Petersburgthen nine years old, and little elsestruggled with what was happening. ThatIn such circumstances, it's not natural to seek a fault – and again solution close to home, but eventually, itbecame clear to the family that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet''s not half of the story. The story here is so complex, so rich with detail and incident, and itself came about in such an unusual If they were to find a way, that any summary of the book has its work cut out in defining its many qualitiesto live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373343</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0648684806|title=Clara Colby: The Pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of WarInternational Suffragist|author=Lucy Hughes-HallettJohn Holliday|rating=3.54

|summary=Gabriele d’Annunzio The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was a strange and perhaps fortunately unique character, a kind of 20th century Renaissance man who almost defies posterity probably determined when her family emigrated to pigeonhole himthe USA. At various times he the time she was a poetjust three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, novelistshe wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, dramatistshe remained with her grandparents, journalistwho doted on her and saw that she received a good education, adventurer, self-styled demagogue both in and philandererout of school. Although he lost several friends during She was the First World War, as well as only child in the sight of one eye when his plane household and her childhood was shot down, he had a passion for war, seeing bloodshed as manly and death in battle as glorious self-sacrifice. He By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the dodgiest mid-west of moral compassesthe United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and yet was hardly her grandparents eventually went to join the Adonis he believed himself to befamily. One French courtesan who firmly rebuffed his physical advances later called him ‘a frightful gnome with red-rimmed eyes and no eyelashesClara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, no hairhad ten pregnancies, greenish teeth, bad breath seven surviving children and the manners of a mountebank’died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. Had he been alive todayAs the eldest girl, he a heavy burden would have probably been an instant celebrity fall on Clara and media personality with Wisconsin was a very short shelf-life. One half Jeremy Clarkson, one half Russell Brand, one might sayrude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007213964</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der Kiste1789017977|title=Alfred: Queen VictoriaRonnie and Hilda's Second SonRomance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=Prince Alfred Ronnie Williams was the second son of Queen Victoria Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg GothaEthel Wall. At the time of his birth There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he was second claimed to have been born in line to the throne after his brother1863, the Prince of Wales but he was already many years older than Ethel and was generally known within the family as Affiehe might well have shaved a few years off his age. In his early teens he joined For a while, the Royal Navy - at his own request - and whilst his family and status was undoubtedly no disadvantage quite well-to him, he worked hard -do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a genuine talent for the navy, eventually receiving his Admiral's baton and visiting all five continents in the course of his service. He was created Duke of Edinburgh (along with various other titles) by the queenvery different lifestyle. His marriage - to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia - One thing he did inherit from his father was not a happy union, with his wife being not need to be well-liked in society turned-out and obsessed by her precedencethis would stay with him throughout his life. They had six children (one of whom was stillborn) but only one son - 'young Affie' who committed suicide He joined the army at the age of twenty foureighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178155319X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Trip to Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink Patti Smith|authortitle=Olivia LaingYear of the Monkey

|summary=Coming from a family with an alcoholic backgroundOn the coast of Santa Cruz, Olivia Laing became fascinated by Patti Smith enters the idea of why and how some lunar year of the greatest works of twentiethmonkey -century literature were written by those one packed with a drink problemmischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. The list soon became In a long one – Dylan Thomasstranger's words, Raymond Chandler''Anything is possible: after all, Jack London, Jean Rhys, to name but a few, instantly came to mindit's the year of the monkey''. In As Smith wanders the spring coast of 2011 Santa Cruz in solitude, she crossed the Atlantic to take reflects on a trip across the USA, from New York City year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and New Orleans to Chicago and Seattle by hired car and trainageing 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 course of which she took a close look at the link between creativity and alcohol which inspired first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work of six authors, namely F. Scott Fitzgeraldas a miner, Ernest Hemingwayquarryman, Tennessee Williamsshepherd or pack-horse driver, John Berrymanbut because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, John Cheeverand its literary consequences, and Raymond Carverchanged our view of the world''. Taking her }}{{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 a character in Williams’s play ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ who says his journal, he is taking a trip to echo springdidn't take much notice of it. At the age of 24, an euphemism for Graff didn't realise the liquor cabinet, she travels to gravity of the places which were pivotal in their often overlapping lives and workpages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677940</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789016304|title=Hanns War and RudolfLove: The German Jew A family's testament of anguish, endurance and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitzdevotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Thomas HardingMelanie Martin

|summary=This dual biography concernsMelanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, as the title makes clear, two menparticularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. One was A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from an inherently German, rich Jewish family – they had a powerboat so he could waterski on the lake at their country cottage – who fled the rise of the Nazis early in city during the 1930s, and got away moderately lightlywar years, but only losing properties five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a large and successful medical careercountry with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. The other was from an inherently German family, Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who signed up for First World War service before his agethought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, but only really wanted that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to be a farmer and family manescalate in the way that it did, yet who ended up running probably history's worst slaughterhousebut initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. Both had a connection and a shared destiny that was largely unknown before this book was researched, thereIt's an atrocity on a chance that both vast scale but made up of them had the blood tens of one man and only one man directly on their hands from WWII service, and both of them – again, as the title makes clear – are given the dignity thousands of the familiar, first name throughout this incredible bookindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434022365</amazonuk>

{{Frontpage|isbn=1786893452|title=The Ungrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=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 journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0857058320|title=Lord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas 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|isbn=1788037812|title=Penelope FitzgeraldThe Fraternity of the Estranged: A LifeThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Hermione LeeBrian Anderson

|summary=Penelope Fitzgerald came from an earnest and renowned academic familyOriginally passed in 1885, the Knoxeslaw that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, which included several prominent clerics; her grandfather was the Bishop of Manchesterrestrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. A considerable biographer herselfBetween 1891 and 1908, she wrote a book three books on the Knox brothers, these included nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two Oxford pastors (one of whomhomosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, Ronald Knox, converted to Catholicism, was famous as a biblical translator well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and whilst chaplain at Trinity College became a mentor to studying homosexuality was common on the future prime ministerEuropean Continent, Harold Macmillan)but barely talked about in the UK, a top Bletchley cryptographic analyst and Penelope's own eminent father, 'Evoe' who was editor so the publications of Punch. Fitzgerald wrote prolifically from childhood and fulfilled some these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of these high expectations by gaining a brilliant First at Somerville. Graduating in 1938homosexuality, she was already known for her membership of and beginning the smart set, struggle for her student journalism recognition and a reticentequality, indeed peremptory manner. Women could not actually graduate at Oxford until a statute was passed in 1920. Hence she was amongst Oxford's early women graduates. Her striking appearance within the smart set earned her leading to the nickname milestone legalisation of the ''blonde bombshell''same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184957</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John FreemanBuckland_Zoo|title=How to Read a NovelistThe Man Who Ate the Zoo: Conversations with WritersFrank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history|author=Richard Girling

|summary=As a book reviewer there are certain people whom I hold conservationist in high regard and one of these is John Freeman. Not yet forty he has an enviable record as an editor to some of the big names in literature and it seems that every book of note for a decade and a half has been greeted by his review. Don't be misled by Victorian England before the title ''How to Read a Novelist'' - this isn't a guide to literary criticismterm existed, but Frank Buckland was very much a collection man ahead of Freeman's interviews with eminent authorshis time. There are fifty six in totalSurgeon, ranging from literary giants such as Toni Morrisonnaturalist, Ian McEwanveterinarian and eccentric sums him up perfectly, Gunter Grass and Kazuo Ishiguro through any biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to popular crime fiction writers such as Donna Leontell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472109376</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Williams_Captain|title=Inside The CentreCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: The His Military Life of J Robert Oppenheimerand Times|author=Ray MonkIvor George Williams|rating=54

|summary=Thinking back to the early 1960s, Bertrand Russell, In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the subject 17th Regiment of another prize winning biography by Ray Monk, Foot. He was frequently seen in command of the troops and convicts on black board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia: his wife and white television declaring his concerns over Nuclear Weaponsyoung son accompanied him. He stated, 'Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or was not destined to think sanely under the influence of live a great fear.' For nearly seventy yearslong life, mankind has wondered in dying suddenly at the words age of Sting34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Edwards'How can I save my boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy?' As concerns about nuclear proliferation death left his widow in relation a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to Iraqmanage, Pakistan and North Korea escalate it is salutary to return to a thorough biography of but she was also responsible for the man, known as convicts who worked the father of the bomb, that felt a deep and urgent need to be at the centre and to belong, J Robert Oppenheimerland. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099433532</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Peacock_mountain|title=Magic Words: Into The Extraordinary Mountain, A Life of Alan MooreNan Shepherd|author=Lance ParkinCharlotte Peacock|rating=4.5

|summary=Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I don't can understand the approach, but I also think that I ever saw [[:Category:Alan Moore|Alan Moore]] when I lived in Northamptonwe sell ourselves short by it, and I don't think I coincided with the publication of ''Maxwell the Magic Cat'' in we sell the local newspapermyriad 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 missed out read the reviews and follow up on the memorable frame of someone else who is six foot twowhat appeals, albeit a generation older and looking so hirsute he would seem to be afraid of scissors. But I certainly would not also have been alone in not recognising him for what he is. How many Northampton housewives flicked past the daily panels of ''Maxwell'' in complete ignorance of who Alan Moore actually is? – With no idea that the years he spent drawing that cartoon for £10 a week – later third-string to be £12my reading bow: randomness.50 – were just him gearing up to be the biggest man of letters in the comic book world?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781310777</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Alan Turing (Real Lives)|author=Jim Eldridge|rating=4|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Alan Turing was one of Britain's greatest thinkers of the last century. He did pioneering work Move on computing to [[Newest Business and artificial intelligence. He was also a hero of World War II, working in the famous code-breaking community at Bletchley Park, cracking German naval codes used to lethal effect organising U-boat attacks. Turing was the man who beat the Enigma machine. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472900103</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]