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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Rebellious DaughterMaxim Gorky and Bryan Karetnyk (translator)|authortitle=Lucinda HawksleyReminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev|rating=43.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=As 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 previous biographer once called hervibrant, Princess Louise was Queen Victoria’s unconventional daughtersubjective yet informed portrait of three of his literary contemporaries. Always popular with In the public for her comparatively easygoing manner (thoughfirst section of this book, being royalTolstoy complains to his friend Gorky that: ''you write not of real life as it is, she was not averse but of what you yourself imagine it to be. Whom would it help to pulling rank)know how I see this tower, her forwardthat sea, or that Tartar -looking views on social issueswhy should it interest anyone? Of what use is it?''. Well, notably education and votes for womenMaxim Gorky shows exactly what can be gained from a subjective account, giving us access to how he saw Tolstoy, Chekhov and her artistic interests, she was certainly Andreyev in such privileged detail that one almost feels unworthy of the most interesting of her familyit.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845951549</amazonuk>1804271977
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{{newreviewFrontpage|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 Froodtitle 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=Jem RobertsJacqueline Rose|title=Women in Dark Times
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=They say that you should never meet your heroes. After reading ''The Authorised and Very Official History world of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to unconscious is not the Galaxy' a.k.a. ''antagonist of political life, but its steadfast companion, the Froodhidden place or backdrop where any true revolution must begin…'' I understand why.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura ThompsonClaire Dederer|title=A Different Class of MurderMonsters: The Story of Lord LucanWhat Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating=53|genre=True CrimePolitics and Society|summary=ItDederer sets out to unveil what she calls a 's difficult to believe that it's forty years since biography of the murder audience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of nanny Sandra Rivett and the subsequent disappearance old aphorism of Lord Lucan, not least because there have been numerous theories about what happened on November separating the art from the artist in the 7th 1974 - and what became context of Lucan. It might also be thought that - short of the Earl turning up with an explanation - therecontemporary 's not a great deal 'cancel culture'new'. Dederer' which can be added to 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 pile of published material on prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the subjectdirector Roman Polanski, so I began reading an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of ''A Different Class of Murdermonstrous men'' with as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the thought that there would be no great surpriseslikes 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>1781855366</amazonuk>1399715070
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788360702|title=Effie GrayCharles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Suzanne Fagence CooperEdzard Ernst|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Effie Gray was born in Perth in 1828For 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 knew art critic John Ruskin from an early ageaims against the background of the scientific evidence. When he finally decided 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 ask her apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to be his wife, she called off an engagement and happily acceptedambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715648578</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1739805100|title=VictoriaLoving the Enemy: A LifeBuilding bridges in a time of war|author=A N WilsonAndrew March
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Every few years''Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, it seems, we are presented with another generously-sized biography who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the early days of Queen Victoriathe Nazi regime in the 1930s. How many times can another author follow Elizabeth LongfordFred, Stanley Weintrauba sensitive and thoughtful man, or Christopher Hibbert 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 name separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but three, produce 500 pages or more he did make friendships and still say something new about her? Can the blurb’s claim connections that this shows us the sovereign ‘as she’s never been seen before’ really be justified? Fortunately it can, lasted for even more than a century after her death, there is still new material from previously unseen sources to add to what we already know about herlifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879563</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Lives of the Famous and the Infamous: Everything You Need To Know About Everyone Who MatteredWill Brooker|authortitle=The WeekTruth About Lisa Jewell|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=To describe a book as unputdownable is a pretty bold claim to makeMeet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Jeremy O'Grady Now meet Will Brooker, editor-in-chief one of The Week does just that in the foreword to The Lives thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the Famous two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the Infamoustwo closer and closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, a collection of obituaries from her anecdote about cup cakes, the weekly magazine. Thankfully, his bold judgement is largely spot on. For those unfamiliarwords of her latest book she was reciting, and her being in a ''The Weekblack lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' collates (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the best offerings from print media outlets around the worldauthor events I get to attend), condenses them into smaller chunksbut pulled Brooker, adds a little professor of its own commentary and creates 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 highly concise success of the latest title, and entertaining look at struggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the newsresult.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091958660</amazonuk>1529136024
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Golden ParasolMartha Leigh|authortitle=Wendy Law-YoneInvisible Ink: A Family Memoir|rating=5|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=If you look Martha Leigh begins her up Wendy Law-Yone book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is described as a Burmese-born American author. That ''Burmese-born American'' might be an accurate description of her current citizenshipCambridge don, but it barely hints at forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the ethnic mix complete correspondence of her heritagethe philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, nor of her personal closeness (through her father) to her original homelandhis life's struggle work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for freedom and democracyhours 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.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099555999</amazonuk>1800460384
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Art of Neil GaimanPolly Barton|authortitle=Hayley CampbellFifty Sounds
|rating=4.5
|genre=Graphic NovelsPolitics and Society|summary=An early [[:Category:Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman]] book was all about Douglas AdamsWhere 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 came out at if the time he had a success with a book of his own regarding definitions of concepts that had previously not had a specific word attachedworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. Gaiman himself is one of those concepts. I know what a polyglot ismay get there later this year, and a polymath – but there should be a word for someone I am not hopeful. And like GaimanBarton, who can write anything and everything he seems I don't know the answer to want – a whimsical family-friendly picture book, a behemoth the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of modern fantasythe question in the first essay, an all-ages horror story, something with a soupcon of sci-fi or with a factor of which is on the fable. He can cross genres sound ''giro' '' – and to some extent just leave them behind which she describes as unnecessarybeing, among other things, as well as cross format – he was mastering the lengthy, literary graphic novel just as sound of 'real' books were festering in his creativity, and songs and poems were just appearing here and there. So he is pretty much who every party where you think of as regards someone who can turn his hands have to anything he wishes. He is a poly-something, then, or just omni-something elseintroduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781571392</amazonuk>1913097501
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian ThompsonFrederic Gros|title=A Corner Philosophy of Paradise: A love story (with the usual reservations)Walking
|rating=5
|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=In I confess I picked this one up from the early seventies Brian Thompson met Elizabeth North, both library in my pre-lockdown forage of them part of failing marriages which would have died without any intervention on their partsrandom stuff. They became friends, they fell in love but they never felt 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 marry and would be together until Liz's death . Some books draw you in 2010 at the age of seventy eightslowly. Both are authors - Thompson would maintain that North was This one had me in the better writer - and North would perhaps have said that first two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''she'' should have made that clear. walking is not a sport''A Corner of Paradise'' tells the story - not of the homes they lived in - but of the joy of their relationship.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581868</amazonuk>1781688370
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Grace: Her Lives - Her Loves: The startling royal exposéSharon Blackie|authortitle=Robert LaceyIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=Twenty-five years before another so-called fairytale royal romance which 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 be anything but, buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one of America’s most beloved screen goddesses crossed the Atlantic and married into the principality of MonacoI've borrowed. The ceremony in 1956 was hailed as I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is definitely the wedding of first two and only time will tell about the year, third – but like the later clichés exist for a reason and similar event, I'm not sure I can succinctly put it was not the happiest of unionsany better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>191016738X</amazonuk>1912836017
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0241446732|title=One RiverOur House is on Fire: Explorations Scenes of a Family and Discoveries a Planet in the Amazon RainforestCrisis|author=Wade DavisMalena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=4.5|genre=TravelPolitics and Society|summary=As someone who has always enjoyed learning about The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the Amazonparenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, and Beata, then nine years old, struggled with plans what was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to travel seek a solution close to South America next yearhome, but eventually, this book practically screamed at me it became clear to be reviewed. And, although the family that they were ''burned-out people on a little tough going and longburned-winded in parts, Iout planet'm glad I had the opportunity to get lost in Davis' incredible work of non-fiction. Difficult If they were to describe in terms of genre, this book combines history, politics, science, botany and culture. It is delivered through find a biographical account of Davis' own travels and as a memoir way to live happily again their solution would need to Richard Evans Schultes, an ethnobotanist well known for his work and travels in the Amazon and Wade Davis' highly regarded mentorbe radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592967</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0648684806|title=Angela MerkelClara Colby: The Chancellor and Her WorldInternational Suffragist|author=Stefan KorneliusJohn Holliday
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=You have The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to admire the ladyUSA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, this rather awkward she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and shy daughter of a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish Catholicthree brothers. His daughter studied Instead, she remained with such intelligence her grandparents, who doted on her and application saw that soon brought her academic success particularly she received a good education, both in Russian and finally out of school. She was the only child in Quantum Chemistrythe household and her childhood was glorious. At By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the age mid-west of 26the United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she obtained her doctorate and - in passing, it rather seems - her first husband, grandparents eventually went to join the physicist Ulrike Merkelfamily. Her rise to power Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was rapid married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and took place through the period died in which the DDR collapsed as Russian policy under Gorbachev changedchildbirth not long after Clara arrived. Along with a wry and dry sense of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is As the embodiment of the characteristic known in German as ''fleissig'' - hardworkingeldest girl, sedulous, diligent a heavy burden would fall on Clara and assiduousWisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789017977|title=Blazing StarRonnie and Hilda's Romance: The Towards a New Life and Times of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochesterafter World War II|author=Alexander LarmanWendy Williams
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, Ronnie Williams was the ultimate 'live fast, die young' icon of the Stuart age, the seventeenth-century embodiment son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. There'Hope I die before I get olds some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry'. Restoration dandys birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, satirist but he was already many years older than Ethel and pornographic poet, he died might well have shaved a lingering death at the few years off his age of 33, racked by venereal disease and alcoholism. If he is remembered at all these daysFor a while, except by those familiar with the history or literature of family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the age, it is as the James Dean or the Keith Moon of his day, 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a hellraiser whose poetry was heavily suppressed for many years by the censorsvery different lifestyle. In fact much of his verse was not published under his name until long after One thing he did inherit from his death, and as most of it father was only circulated in manuscript form during his lifetime need to be well-turned-out and a good deal destroyed by this would stay with him throughout his mother after his death, it is uncertain how much does still survivelife. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851093</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Dirty Bertie: An English King Made in FrancePatti Smith|authortitle=Stephen ClarkeYear of the Monkey
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=Although he was Anglo-German by birth, so Stephen Clarke suggests, King Edward VII was very much a Parisian by nature. As we would expect from On the author coast of several lighthearted books on our Gallic neighboursSanta Cruz, including ‘1000 Years Patti Smith enters the lunar year of Annoying the French’monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, this and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything is not possible: after all, it's the most weighty or solemn biography year of the King you will ever findmonkey''. As Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, but she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are faced head-on, as it is certainly an entertaining, racy gallop through the life of its subjectshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780890346</amazonuk>1526614758
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1912242052|title=Josephine: Desire, Ambition, NapoleonO Joy for me!|author=Kate WilliamsKeir Davidson|rating=43|genre=BiographyArt|summary=Until reading this biography''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, it not because he had never really occurred to me just how shadowy for work, as a figure the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparteminer, quarryman, one of the bestshepherd or pack-known European rulers of the agehorse driver, really wasbut because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. It may be common knowledge that her name was JosephineHis rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, but few of us perhaps really know anything changed our view of the woman behind the nameworld''.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=Graff_Find|title=Find Another Place|author=Ben Graff|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|amazonuksummary=<amazonuk>009955142X</amazonuk>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.
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789016304|title=The DevonshiresWar and Love: The Story A family's testament of a Family anguish, endurance and a Nationdevotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Roy HattersleyMelanie Martin|rating=45
|genre=Biography
|summary=According Melanie Martin read about what happened to the back of this bookDutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, ‘the story 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 Devonshires is city during the story of Britain’. That’s an extravagant claimwar years, but it contains more than a germ of truth. Certainly one would only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be hard-pushed allowed to find an aristocratic, non-royal British family happen in a country with liberal values who has more consistently been central were resistant to our history since medieval times, as this detailed chronicle demonstratesGerman occupation. From Most people believed that the dissolution of occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the monasteries under Henry VIII presided over in part by Sir William Cavendishcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, father of that the first Earl, Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the big business way that their ancestral home Chatsworth House in Derbyshire has now becomeit did, but initial protests melted away as the somewhat inaccurately geographically-named Devonshires have often been, or helped to, contribute to, part organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of the fabric thousands of Britain’s past and presentindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554399</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786893452|title=The Life of Rebecca JonesUngrateful Refugee|author=Angharad PriceDina Nayeri|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=A newly-married couple make their way home from Here in the chapelWest, riding we see news reports about immigrants on a horse-drawn cart as it winds its way round familiar country lanes towards the beautiful valley regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of Maesglasau. The horse pauses atop a hill those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the valley spreads investigative journalism they carry out before them: ', outsiders to the world and the vessel of their marriagesituations that refugees find themselves in. It'. The centuries-old stone farmhouse in s rare that we find out the crook of journeys from the mountain refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to be their homestead; a sturdydo that, in this intelligent, silent witness to the tragedy powerful and joy that is an intrinsic part of moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the fabric middle of family lifea revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085738712X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0857058320|title=Wilkie Collins: A Life of SensationLord Of All the Dead|author=Andrew LycettJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=Wilkie Collins has come down ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to us as uncover the chief exponent of author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the Victorian ‘sensation novel’. This was meaning behind his great uncle's death in 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 livesSpanish Civil War. There were mysteriesManuel Mena, deceptionsCercas' great uncle, betrayals, evil characters and good innocent onesis the figure who looms large over the book. Measured by these standards, he led a ‘sensational’ life himselfHe died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. When not writing novels, short stories, plays or articles Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for journals in order to earn a living, this apparently fine upstanding bachelor maintained two households, two mistresses, and children dictator. The question at the same time – and managed centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to keep them be a secret from the public who would doubtless have been scandalized to know hero whilst having fought for the truthwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099557347</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788037812|title=Four Sisters:The Lost Lives Fraternity of the Romanov Grand DuchessesEstranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Helen RappaportBrian Anderson
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=A few Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years ago. But during this time, Helen Rappaport wrote restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and published [[Ekaterinburg: The Last Days 1908, three books on the nature of the Romanovs homosexuality appeared. They were written by Helen Rappaport|Ekaterinburgtwo homosexual men: The Last Days Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the Romanovs]]European Continent, a painstakingbut barely talked about in the UK, chilling account of so the final days and death publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the last Tsar scientific understanding of Russia homosexuality, and his family. To a certain extent this biography is a prequel to that volume, an account of beginning the short lives of OTMAstruggle for recognition and equality, as they referred leading to themselves – the Tsar’s daughters Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasiamilestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230768172</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Buckland_Zoo|title=The Holy FoxMan Who Ate the Zoo: The Life Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of Lord Halifaxnatural history|author=Andrew RobertsRichard Girling
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Of all As a conservationist in Victorian England before the British nearly-Prime Ministers Edward Woodterm existed, 1st Earl Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of Halifaxhis time. Surgeon, must be unique. He was the one who came closest to assuming the mantle only to find the job denied himnaturalist, veterinarian and had he done so, on eccentric sums him Britain’s destiny would have depended. For he was the man whom several confidently expectedup perfectly, and many wanted, any biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to take over after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain during the dark days of May 1940tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781856974</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Williams_Captain|title=The Boys In The BoatCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: An Epic Journey to the Heart of Hitler's BerlinHis Military Life and Times|author=Daniel James BrownIvor George Williams|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=You see, Jesse Owens had it easy – all he had to do In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the 17th Regiment of Foot. He was run fast. Alright, he did have in command of the troops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to face unknown hardshipSydney, heinous prejudice at home Australia: his wife and abroad, and make sure he young son accompanied him. He was fast enough not destined to outdo live a long life, dying suddenly at the rest age of his compatriots then the world's best to win gold 34 at the 1936 Berlin OlympicsBangalore, but others who wished to do the same had leaving his widow to do more. People such as those rowers in the coxed eights squad – people such as raise their two young Joe Rantzsons. He certainly had to face hardship, the prejudice borne by those Edwards' death left his widow in the moneyed east coast yacht clubs against an upstart from the NW USA, and when he got to compete he had a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to use so many more musclesmanage, and operate at varying tempi, with but she was also responsible for the temperament of convicts who worked the weather and water against him, all in perfect synchronicity with seven other beefcakesland. Despite rowing being the second greatest ticket at those Games, Joe's story is a lot less well known, and probably a lot more entertainingTwo years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447210980</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert A CaroPeacock_mountain|title=Into The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=It's only a matter of days since I finished listening to [[The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power by Robert A Caro|The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power]]Mountain, the first part of Robert A Caro's definitive work on the President and despite having just spent over forty hours on the book I wanted to learn more. I was torn though - the second book in a series is not often as good as the first and it struck me that these might not be the most exciting years in Johnson's life. Was this book going to be the link which took us on to the more exciting times? Not a bit of it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GSHD0U6</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert A Caro|title=The Years Life of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President of the United States, preceded by John F Kennedy and succeeded by Richard Nixon, with both being remembered most for the way they left office. His five-year term in office was overshadowed at the start by the Kennedy assassination and increasingly blighted by the debacle which was Vietnam, but there was something about Johnson which always intrigued me: how does a poor boy from Texas hill country without an exceptional (or even 'good') education become president of the United States? 'The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power' tells you all that you need to know.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GSHTJZQ</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Born in SiberiaNan Shepherd|author=Tamara Astafieva, Michael Darlow and Debbie SlaterCharlotte Peacock
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Gabriele d’Annunzio was a strange Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and perhaps fortunately unique characterso many books… I can understand the approach, a kind of 20th century Renaissance man who almost defies posterity to pigeonhole him. At various times he was a poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist, adventurerbut I also think we sell ourselves short by it, self-styled demagogue and philanderer. Although he lost several friends during we sell the First World War, myriad lesser-known authors short as well as the sight of one eye when his plane was shot down. So while, he had a passion for warlike most other people I have my favourite genres, seeing bloodshed as manly and death in battle as glorious self-sacrifice. He had the dodgiest of moral compassesfavoured authors, and yet was hardly while, like most other people I read the Adonis he believed himself to be. One French courtesan who firmly rebuffed his physical advances later called him ‘a frightful gnome with red-rimmed eyes and no eyelashes, no hair, greenish teeth, bad breath reviews and the manners of a mountebank’. Had he been alive todayfollow up on what appeals, he would I also have probably been an instant celebrity and media personality with a very short shelfthird-life. One half Jeremy Clarkson, one half Russell Brand, one might saystring to my reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007213964</amazonuk>
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