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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__ ==Autobiography==<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael HutchinsonB0GCB1MQ7D|title=Missing the Boat: Chasing a Childhood Sailing Dream|rating=4|genre=Sport|summary=As a youngster in the nineteen eighties, Michael Hutchinson was passionate about sailing. He acquired a dinghy and crew, and spent his early years messing around on Belfast Lough. He learned to sail, race Mirrors and fling jellyfish accurately at passing competitors. In time, his salty daydreams became ambitious, encompassing the Olympic Games, America's Cup and Round the World yacht races. Trouble was, Hutchinson proved to be a deeply mediocre dinghy sailor, clocking up only one win in several seasons round the buoys. Although he was good enough at race tactics and seamanship, he lacked the sprinkling of gold dust that differentiates the very good performer from the brilliant. And so eventually, as is the way of sensible young men, he became disenchanted and stopped trying. Ironically, he then found he had a talent for cycling which took him as far as the Commonwealth Games.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552345</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWhy My Mother Went Away|author=Greg Baxter|title=A Preparation for DeathAlan Kennedy|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ihave often wondered how prominent people came to hold their positions. With 've always been slightly wary of autobiographies celebrities', there's frequently a book they might or might not have written, which are written whilst might or might not tell the subject is still relatively youngtrue story. They can It's not often feel incompletethat you find a book that gives the full backstory, particularly when and rarely do you know discover a memoir where the author telling is so perfect that you'll go back and reread paragraphs and sentences, just for the pleasure the words give. ''Why My Mother Went Away'' is still successful in their chosen careerone of those rare exceptions. Frequently they are also written It's the story of how a boy from an immediate perspective which time can alter thanks to hindsightthe Midlands, born at the beginning of the Second World War, would become a Professor of Psychology at Dundee University. In fact, he was one of the founders of the department.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141048433</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Frances WoodsfordAnnie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)|title=Dear Mr Bigelow: A Transatlantic FriendshipThe Other Girl
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Meet Mister Bigelow. He's elderly, living alone on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough family and friends to get him by, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas and more. Meet, too, Frances Woodsford. She's reaching middle-age, living with her brother and mum in Bournemouth, and working for We were born from the local baths as organiser of events, office lackey and moresame body. I suggest you do meet them, although neither ever met the other. Despite this they kept up a brisk and lively conversation 've never really wanted to think about all aspects of life, from the late 1940s until his death at the beginning of the 60s. And as a result comes this book, of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world of social history and entertaining diary-style comment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542293</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Younge1036916375|title=Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?Just a Liverpool Lad|author=Peter McArdle|rating=54
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Journalist Gary Younge’s book draws heavily on his articles for the Guardian newspaper, as he mentions in his acknowledgements, but it isn’t just ''Just a Liverpool Lad '' is a collection of his journalism. Who Are We? is partly a memoir memories and partly a thoughtful reflections from the years Peter McArdle spent growing up in and incisive exploration of around Liverpool. Some are factual, such as the politics and political impact family history of identitya sea-going family, including race, gender, language groups, religion, sexuality in various countries around with the docks dominating lives. Other stories blend seamlessly into the worldwhat-might-have-been. He sets out It's a book to explore 'To what extent can our various identities be mobilized settle into and allow your mind to accentuate our universal humanity as opposed roam across your childhood memories, to separating us off into variousthink of simpler times when life seemed less constrained, antagonistic camps?despite the blitz that was a constant factor in McArdle's early years. I'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917036</amazonuk>d never heard of parachute mines before - but they were almost soundless and could appear after the all-clear was sounded.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Michael JacksonAnnie Ernaux and Anna Moschovakis (translator)|title=MoonwalkThe Possession|rating=45
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Michael Jackson's autobiography, based on tape-recorded conversations Ernaux opens with his editor Shaye Erehearta disclaimer, warning readers that what follows is more or less a confession: ''I have always wanted to write as if I would be gone when the book was first published in 1988''. This new edition has an introduction by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records and his original mentor, and an afterword by Areheart about how Towards the book was written. The main part end of the book is a straight reprint of , she claims that the original, with no updating title (somewhat enigmatic at all. Intriguingly, although Gordy's four pages refer first) bares witness to is protégé a brief period of time in the past tenseher life, calling him labelled and documented here as ''the greatest entertainer that ever livedThe Possession', Areheart's writing, in which she felt herself in the throes of an all-encompassing and also seductive jealousy targeted at the covernew partner of W, refer to him in the present. No reference anywhere is made to his untimely deatha man she has since separated from after a six-year long affair.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099547953</amazonuk>1804271497
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Captain William WellsMary McCarthy|title=A Sailor's TalesMemories of a Catholic Girlhood
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Captain William Wells was born in New Zealand where his father ran a successful carpentry businessMary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', but his heart wasn't in following his father obsessively digging into the family firm or in most past to piece together the broken mosaic of the lessons at schoolher life. He was an enthusiastic sportsman but what enthralled him most were She attributes her ''burning interest in the ships sailing out of Wellington harbourpast'' to her orphanhood, which he could see as she lacked any second-hand memories from his bedroom window. Without his her parents' knowledge he applied for a scholarship which allowed six boys each year to travel to the UK and undertake their basic nautical training. Billy Wells, who previously had only got 2% died in his English exam (his name was spelled correctly) had the second highest score 1918 flu epidemic. This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived under the country harsh guardianship of her late father's Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and was soon on his way Aunt Margaret. Later, she moved to Seattle to Englandlive with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a different kind of upbringing.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095629040X</amazonuk>1804271659
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matt MacAllesterVirginie Despentes|title=Bittersweet: Lessons from my Mother's KitchenKing Kong Theory
|rating=4
|genre=BiographyAutobiography |summary=Matt MacAllester ''King Kong Theory'' is a Pulitzerhard-prize winning journalisthitting memoir and feminist manifesto, used which can be seen as a call to covering the horrors of war, but nothing prepared him arms for his investigation into the life and death of his mother Anne. In May 2005 Ann MacAllester died suddenly of women in a heart attack and her son was overwhelmed by griefphallocentric society broken at its core. This might not sound unusualOriginally written in French, but his mother had been largely absent from him for about the book is a quarter collection of a century, trapped essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her own private world of madness. His earliest memories were of an idyllic childhood, where wonderful food was always at experiences as a woman through the centre complex prism of family her varied life : from rape to sex work and with pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the help book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of Elizabeth David, his mother’s favourite cookery writer he sought to find his mother through the food she cookedtheir original form as independent essays.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408800942</amazonuk>191309734X
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Olga Alexandrovna, Paul Kulikovsky, Sue Woolmans and Karen Roth-NichollsJoan Didion|title=25 Chapters of My Life: The Memoirs Year of Grand Duchess Olga AlexandrovnaMagical Thinking
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was born in 1882, youngest child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia and thus sister This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas IIgrief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Her first marriage Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to Prince Peter Oldenburg, who was probably gay, ended in an amicable divorcehelp people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and in 1916 she married Colonel Nicholas Kulikovsky. They escaped from Russia after the revolution, delusion and settled in Denmark for nearly thirty years until, feeling threatened by Stalin’s regimemakes them utterly normal, they moved lends them a human face to Canada. She outlived him by two years, dying in 1960wear.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906775168</amazonuk>0007216858
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Stewart1787333175|title=Three Ways You Don't Have to be Mad to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist AfloatWork Here|author=Benji Waterhouse
|rating=5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=0241636604
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Books about sailing fall into two sorts: those written by authors who know what they are talking aboutIf you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, (though sometimes they don't convey it too well) and those who donyou't have a clue, but like re unlikely to think they doof someone like Gary Stevenson. WellA hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, Chris Stewart may have started the book where he was familiar with a light violence, poverty and frothy touch as a novice sailor, injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he ends up had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with the credentials numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an Ancient Marinerinternship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956003842</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Wolff1529395224|title=The Man Who Owns Letting the Cat Out of the NewsBag: Inside the The Secret World Life of Rupert Murdocha Vet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=Politics Animals and SocietyWildlife|summary=There can be few people who are unaware of the name of Rupert Murdoch. Over four decades he's built News International Siôn Rowlands fell into a seventy billion dollar corporation from its original Australian baseveterinary science accidentally. His position father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the UK media is such strain that hebeing on-call put on his father's courted by politicians and has what many believe to be an excessive amount life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of power for someone doing work experience with a family friend who is not elected was a vet and is not even a UK citizenwas convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. HeIt hadn's now expanding into Southeast Asia and in t - as with so many students - been his eightieth year itdream since he was a child. If anything, he's still difficult d wanted to imagine when – or where – he will stopbe a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523523</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Neil MacFarquharEdel Rodriguez|title=The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy BirthdayWorm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and SocietyGraphic Novels|summary=We're in childhood, and we'What are the chances of change re in the Middle East?'' is the question central to this bookCuba. Since Neil MacFarquhar spent thirteen years wandering the length The revolution has happened, and breadth Castro, first thought of the Islamic stronghold as a saviour of the Middle Eastcountry, I feel inclined has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to believe create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his in-depth assessmenttime away. In descriptive and reasoned termsOur narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he identifies conservative forces which predominate in the regionwould probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, primarily such as Angola) and the religious father being watched and political machinery which condemns liberalization watched, and modernizationnot liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. This discussion The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of attempts to promote change, for example by individual dissidents or the mediaheat, is strengthened but in this sultry island country, it remains the second half kind of heat forcing you out of the book by detailed case studies of six nations with particular reference to their readiness and motivation for change. kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1586488112</amazonuk>1474616720
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ronald Skirth and Duncan Barrett1035025299|title=The Reluctant Tommy: An Extraordinary Memoir of Went to London, Took the First World WarDog|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ronald Skirth was one of many young Englishmen of nineteen caught up in the First World War. He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1916, was promoted Nina Stibbe is returning to Corporal, and sent to the western front. Like most of his contemporaries, when he went he was an unquestioning servant of King and country, fighting London for what he believed was right. On the battlefields of Flanders, one day he came across the body of Hans, a German soldier the same age, if not youngersabbatical after being away for twenty years. The dead manShe's hand was clutching a photograph of his girlfriend, who could almost have been the twin sister of Ellaat Victoria's smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writing, Skirthas there's own sweetheartalways something smallholding happening - as you might expect. Like two The other side of his friends who had just been killed, Hans had died as the decision was sealed when a result room became available (courtesy of the stupidity of othersDeborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>023074673X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa LynchChristopher Fowler|title=The C-WordMonkey|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In It's the beginning was first of August in the word, closely followed by middle of a cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the internetpool in favour of going to my beach hut. The two combined weather closed in, rain arrived, and I decided not to do that either. When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to form finish reading this book and (b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, the wonder dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is bloggingdying, and when you know he actually is at that took off point, because he does. He did.|isbn=0857529625}}{{Frontpage|author= Kit De Waal|title= Without Warning and people wanted a more concrete Only Sometimes|rating= 4|genre= Autobiography|summary= As Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, your mum and permanent record, books quickly followed. Perhaps that's dad/ They may not ''exactly'' how the quote goesmean to, but it's close enoughthey do” Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of parenthood and the bonds that bind family. Breast cancer at twenty eight This book is not just scary and unusuala memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of Birmingham. For journalist Lisa, it's downright inconvenientHer father is from St. But, when a stage three tumour bulges out of Kitts in the Caribbean and her boob, she decides to document mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her subsequent fight against the big C (or, as she affectionately calls it, ''The Bullshit'') online family for all to seebecoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. The [http://alrighttitThis intersectionality plays a large role in the autobiography.blogspotKit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, her class and her gender.com/ blog] was a successHer parents loom large and are written with care, it garnered some famous fans ([[:Category:Stephen Fry|Stephen Fry]]love, among others) and the kind of anger only a book offer followed. This is the resultchild can express to their parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099547546</amazonuk>1472284852
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1638485216
|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.''
''One more body just wouldn't matter''.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gervase PhinnBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=Road to the Dales: The Story of a Yorkshire LadI May Be Wrong|rating=45|genre=Autobiography|summary=As a teacher currently anticipating (When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I won't say looking forward m inclined to!) an OFSTED inspection, school inspectors arenthink it doesn't generally my favourite peoplereally matter how the rest of the world responds to your book. I'll make an exception for Gervase Phinnknow, thoughhaving read the book in question, as he's entertained me for many hours that Lindeblad would disagree with his previous books on his time in the Dales doing the jobthat thought. He knows (and at core so do I was expecting his memoirs ) that it matters very much how the rest of his childhood the world responds to be equally entertaining – and feel slightly letdownthis book, because it tells the truth as it is, if I'm honestin the early 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718149114</amazonuk>1526644827
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Pattie Boyd and Penny Junorgareth_steel|title=Wonderful Today: The Autobiography of Pattie BoydNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Pattie Boyd will always I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be remembered for one unique, extraordinary claim to fameappropriate. She became the wife Stories of arguably the two most famous a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and revered rock guitarists of Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the era, George Harrison and Eric Clapton, and thus inspired three of their compositions which became three of companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the ageauthor would argue that 's seminal love songs, namely 'SomethingAll Creatures''lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he'Laylas written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and 'Wonderful Tonight'eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755316436</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jean BaggottDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=The Girl on the WallSpeedy: One Life's Rich TapestryHurled Through Havoc
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Jean Baggott is now seventy two and in How to summarise the final year life of her history degree at Warwick University. After almost Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a lifetime of bending her life pithy sentence to the needs kick off a review of other people she has decided that now is the time to look after herself – the eleven year old girl whose picture hangs on her wall. She plans to achieve what that girl would want her to achieve and from this shehis memoir? Do you know, I really don's found great fulfilmentt think I can.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311265</amazonuk>}}
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{{Frontpage
|isbn=0008350388
|title=We Need to Talk About Money
|author=Otegha Uwagba
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret Drabble0571365884|title=The Pattern My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in the Carpet: A Personal History with Jigsaws Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Imagine Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the scenemonsters under the bed were comfortable: a major publishing house receives it was the latest pitch for sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. On a book. Its basis is visit to a history of the jigsawtherapist, as an adult, interwoven when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and ''My Mess is a highly personal memoir Bit of an ever so slightly irascible maiden aunt with whom the author partook in the delights of puzzling. Two words save this pitch from obliviona Life: Margaret Drabble. Faced with the same dilemma Adventures in a bookshop, Anxiety'' is the reader would be wise to follow the publisher's hunch and buy this book result - it is a gentle delight from start or so we are given to finishbelieve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843546205</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alice TaylorDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=To School Through The FieldsA Tattoo on my Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=To School Through the Fields Alzheimer's is the memoir of a farmer’s daughter who grew up in rural County Cork in the 1940s (though the book never mentions the date disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of when it is set)self. Taylor makes it clear at the beginning that she is writing a nostalgic look back at the era of her childhoodI have been directly affected by this cruel disease, before the 'changing winds of time' as have many. Your memories and then presents personality worn away like a series of anecdotes about her parents, her family and some of statue over time affected the other characters who lived in her villageelements.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863224210</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Phil Daniels|title=Phil Daniels: Class Actor|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=If we were asked to nominate the archetypal Cockney actor on large or small screen It seems as if nature wants that final victory over the last twenty years or you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so, Phil Daniels would undoubtedly come high on the listadmirable. Born in Islington in 1958 Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and raised has documented his journey in Kings Cross, he was a graduate of the Anna Scher Theatre in the 1970s''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847376207</amazonuk>1108838936
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529109116
|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
|author=Hannah Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Mathie0008333173|title=The Man Hungry: A Memoir of PassageWanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ian MathieI's association with Africa began m always relieved when his father was posted Grace Dent is one of the judges on ''Masterchef''. You know that you're going to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years oldget an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the time. School was You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in a convent and was run by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple front of hundred Africansher. Even when he was joined by others he was still part of an ethnic minority although he didnI't realise it! He was taught in ve often wondered about the local language and grew up with woman behind the local children. It was his home media image and was to be the centre ''Hungry: A Memoir of his life for decades to comeWanting More'' is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1504321383|title=Carole White Single, Again, and Again, and Sian WilliamsAgain|titleauthor=Struggle or StarveLouisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Struggle or Starve is ''You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a collection of autobiographical writings about girlsman' and women's lives in South Wales between the wars. This is a new edition of a book first published in 1998 by Honno, an independent publisher set was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to encourage Welsh women writersbelieve. Most of It wasn't unkind: it was simply the contributors adults in this book came from minersher life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without' families ' the expectation that they will marry and grew up in real poverty have children. It was a belief and economic insecurityit would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit Sakinu Ahronglong|title=Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely FriendshipHunter School|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In early 2005, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman The flyleaf to confirm and prepare for this little collection tells us that it is a telephone interview about day to day life work of fiction. That's possibly misleading. I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in Baghdadthe sense that Ahronglong made it all up, and about her thoughts or whether it is as the blurb goes on the forthcoming elections there. Mayto say ''s detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Beerecollections, folklore and a friendship develops between autobiographical stories''. It feels like the two womenlatter. They tell each other It feels like the stories he tells about their workhis experiences as a child, as an adolescent, as an adult are real and true. But memory is a fickle thing, relationships and family livesmaybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more people will read it. More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>1999791282
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chinua Achebe1544641923|title=The Education of a British-Protected ChildAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=This book It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is a collection of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebeprivileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, whose best known work but family connections tell me that it is the novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958far from luxurious. Topics covered include Nigerian Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do so, Biafran and Igbo history and cultureyou know), African literature and but the legacy of colonialism in his country and the rest of Africa. Some of diplomatic spouse, the essays are taken from guest lectures at universities around the world and conference papersaccompanying baggage, and others are written for this bookwell, particularly many of the more personal pieces about Achebethat's familyan entirely different matter. She (and it still usually is a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142598</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gabriel Weston0241446732|title=Direct RedOur 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=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Few people have The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the ability to convey the minutiae parenting of their profession in ways which engage the readertwo daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, answer your unspoken questions and talk in such a way that you're neither patronised nor overburdened struggled with jargonwhat was happening. Gabriel Weston is one In such – and circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family that they were ''Direct Redburned-out people on a burned-out planet'' held me as though I was hypnotised for several hours. She's If they were to find a surgeon and we're pulled into the intricacies of her world without the way to live happily again their solution would need to don mask and gownbe radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520699</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dana Fowley191280493X|title=How Could She?Coming of Age|author=Danny Ryan
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=From ''He began writing novels and poetry at the age of five Dana Fowley twelve, but it was subjected to unimaginable sexual abuse and before long her sister would be subjected take him a further forty-eight years to more of the samerealise that he wasn’t very good at either. She was raped by her mother's partner and taken to the homes Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a shining example of her grandparents where she was abused by them and othershope over experience. At other times she was forced to go to the homes of other men where she was raped and abused. Did her mother not know what was going on? Did she turn a blind eye? It was neither of those.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Val Doonican190874572X|title=My StoryLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete AutobiographySarah Death (Translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson was Back at the personification beginning of politics and the Beatles the collective icon of youth culturecentury, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a wonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of light entertainment-friends. He may no longer have such I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a high profile – but he's outlasted them bothlater one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. Over I do know that it was four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himselfyears later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, and in that I eagerly awaited the process he has never really put a foot wrong. As he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do best, and what the public wants from you, then stick with it, and do it as well as you can.' With Sort Of'' translations of the possible exception rest of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, itJansson's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across work and devoured them as soon as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you I could get'my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aeronwy Thomas 1908745819|title=My Father's Places: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughterSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Aeronwy Thomas was six years old Sometimes when she and her family came to settle after people suggest that you read a nomadic existence certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at Laugharnetheir word, or not, on but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't like the Welsh coastbook. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, in 1949I was told why. Dylan used to broadcast regularly on The blurb speaks of the BBCauthor considering ''an older, and while he continued less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to travel to London regularly for that my love of the purpose (as well as to carouse with friends in his old haunts)natural world, somewhere off of those aspects of the beaten track poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was a more suitable working environmentwritten for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010056</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Palin1906852472|title=Diaries 1969-1979Wild Child: The Python Years|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=''Never meet your heroes,'' goes the old adage. ''Never read their diaries'' might be equally sage advice. That's probably why I didn't tackle Michael Palin's collected daily journals until now. Along with the rest of the Monty Python team, he was without doubt Growing Up a hero of my teenage years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNomad|author=Shirley Williams|title=Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley WilliamsIan Mathie|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Who could resist a title like that? And For Ian Mathie fans there is this some lesser-known Shirley Williamsgood and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, recalling the story of a life spent in libraries? very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The answer to bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the latter book is nopublished posthumously. Shirley CatlinAs always, as she it's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was born, tells us in the early pages feeling that many of this memoir that during her childhood her father encouraged her to climb the bookshelves questions in their Chelsea house, right up to the ceilingIan Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. It was a secret between Seemingly all that's now left in the two of them, as her mother, Testament of Youth Author Vera Brittain, would have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken armsdrawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844084760</amazonuk>
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