Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Stephenson1788360702|title=Let Not Charles, The Waves of the SeaAlternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|summary=The book opens after the catastrophic event For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and the narrator/author Simon is in the local area of Phi Phicomplementary therapies. He describes it in glowing terms (which may sound a little strange) as he aims''Charles, on a rather arduous climb, to be rewarded with a stunning view. And immediately IThe Alternative Prince''m struck with Stephensoncritically assesses the Prince's lilting style opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of writingthe scientific evidence. For example, ' ... an elderly lady carrying bags There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of rice over each shoulder as if they were treatments which have no more than foam guesthouse pillows.' How lovely and evocative scientific support has done considerable damage to the reputation of a man who is thatproud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, I'm thinking logical reasoning to myselfhis ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848545584</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Norman1739805100|title=John LennonLoving the Enemy: The Life|rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=For part of my formative years, John Lennon was one of the four most famous people Building bridges in the world. All that we have learnt about him in the thirty years or so since his death has kept his name firmly in the public eye, if not always for the best a time of reasons. At over 800 pages, this is one of the lengthiest biographies written about the extraordinary life and times of the former Beatle. It's also surely one of the most impartial. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>000719742X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewwar|author=Hilary Spurling|title=Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in ChinaAndrew March

|summary=Peal Buck, ''Loving the Enemy'' tells the 5th quite extraordinary story of 7 childrenauthor Andrew March's grandparents, was born in 1892 who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to American missionary parents working in China, where she was then brought up. She learned Chinese before she learned English, and only realised that she was considered a foreigner when anti foreigner riots known Dresden to as the Boxer Rebellion teach in 1900 forced the family out early days of her childhood home. Later she became famous for her novels and short stories set the Nazi regime in China, especially The Good Earththe 1930s. She won America's most famous literary prizeFred, the Pulitzera sensitive and thoughtful man, in 1932, and had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Yet her work is mostly forgotten growing hostilities between nations unfolding in the US and Europe, and in at the country she loved, her books were banned by Maotime. Fred's regime after they came attempts to power in 1949separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships and connections that lasted for a lifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978529</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy LewisWill Brooker|title=Shades of Greene: One Generation of an English FamilyThe Truth About Lisa Jewell|rating=4.5

|summary=Graham GreeneMeet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I's father actually had six childrenve never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, and his brother six one of the thousands of his ownless successful authors I quite confidently never have read. (WellThis book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, there were nine in their generation for a start..and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together.) The surprising and joyous thing meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about this cup cakes, the words of her latest book is that it can show that Graham Greeneshe was reciting, and her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade''s remarkable life is by no means the only standout in that whole generation of family history. It can continuously throw up surprises (certainly a get- we know Hugh Greene was high up in never commonly worn at the BBCauthor events I get to attend), but it wasnpulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell't him who helped found Canadian public service broadcastings diverse output. We are familiar with Graham himself traipsing around Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author's life, working to make a success of the worldlatest title, reporting back in fact and fiction from unusual circumstances and exotic climes struggling with dubious systems of governmentthe next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, but it wasn't he who was noted for being an ardently public supporter of pro-Communist Chinaagrees. And this is the result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099551888</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Benjamin MandelkernMartha Leigh|title=Escape from the NazisInvisible Ink: The Incredible and Inspiring Saga of Two Young Jews on the Run in World War II PolandA Family Memoir|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Do we all have it in us? Would you as Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a Pole childhood spent in 1940s Polanda slightly eccentric, who like immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as not had been 'educated' in he edits the horrendous evil complete correspondence of Jews by your church the philosopher Jean- would you ignore Nazi death threats and countless opportunities Jacques Rousseau, his life's work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the wrong thing to be said, for practicalities of life. There is love in the truth to be let out, for betrayal - would you help house but also darker undercurrents that a Jewish life survive?child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1550280554</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreview|author=Richard Lucas|title=Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi Germany|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Take one personable failed actress, embittered by lack of success at home in the USA, and conspire to land her living in Germany as WW2 breaks out. What chance her becoming an American, female Lord Haw-Haw, being paid by Germany to broadcast entertaining, dissuasive propaganda worldwide on shortwave radio? Anybody could guess it would take innumerable factors, circumstances and events, and they're all here in this entertaining, eye-opening and educational biography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1935149431</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anthony JamesPolly Barton|title=The Happy Passion: A Personal View of Jacob BronowskiFifty Sounds

|genre=Popular SciencePolitics and Society|summary=Jacob Bronowski was Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a scientific administrator, poet, philosopher, dramatist, radio while and TV personality, best remembered for if the series 'The Ascent of Manworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. This short bookI may get there later this year, about 90 pages longbut I am not hopeful. And like Barton, is partly biographical sketch, partly – I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in fact largely – an overview of his major published works, occupying about two-thirds respect of the book. In question in the author's wordsfirst essay, it which is intended on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as a personal view being, among other things, the sound of Bronowski as a philosopher''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845402200</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Patrick Lienhardt, Olivier Philipponnat and Euan CameronFrederic Gros|title=The Life A Philosophy of Irene NemirovskyWalking|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Irene Nemirovsky was born I confess I picked this one up from the library in Kiev in 1903 to a wealthy Jewish familymy pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. Even as a child she was used Now I have to travel go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the pages I have marked and regularly spent time in the South of France, but the family was forced return to flee Russia its varying wisdom when they were threatened by the revolutionI need to. They lived for a time in Finland and Stockholm, eventually settling Some books draw you in Franceslowly. NemirovskyThis one had me in the first two pages, wherein Gros explains why 's father was something of 'walking is not a rough diamond and her mother selfish and unfaithful, vain and difficult – her mother, particularly would form the basis for several characters in Nemirovskysport''s books.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099523981</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Giles MiltonSharon Blackie|title=Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To WarIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Giles Milton's daughter was set the task of designing an heraldic shield which represented the most important elements of her family's history. Aware I normally say that one of her grandparents is German she included the only German symbol which she knew: you can tell how much a Swastikabook means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. It was this incident, which was Perhaps an awkward mixture even greater measure of funny and disquieting which brought about impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I'Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To Warve finished reading the one I've borrowed. ItI want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring's the story of Giles' fatherlife-in-law, Wolfram Aïchele, who was nine years old when Hitler came to power changing' – although it is definitely the first two and who found himself caught up in only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for a situation which was none of his making reason and didnI't accord with his own beliefs. He was a man who wanted to be a sculptor or to paint, but he was forced to become a soldierm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0340837888</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dudley Green0241446732|title=Patrick BronteOur House is on Fire: Father Scenes of Genius|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=There have been many biographies about Charlotte Brontë a Family and her siblings, but very little about their father. It is tempting to speculate whether he would be quite so deserving of one if he had not been the father of such a famous family. Yet Dudley Green, a retired Classics teacher, has demonstrated here that he did lead an interesting life himself. Born in rural Ireland in 1777, he spent his early years there before arriving Planet in England in 1802 and settled in Yorkshire seven years later, where he remained the rest of his days.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454455</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewCrisis|author=Donald Spoto|title=Possessed: The Life of Joan CrawfordMalena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=3.5|genre=EntertainmentPolitics and Society|summary=Thanks to the memoir 'Mommie Dearest' by her adopted daughter Christina, the enduring image of movie star Joan Crawford is one of an alcoholic, sadistic monsterThe Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Spoto clearly believes that this portrait is a gross exaggeration, Malena Ernman was an opera singer and is at pains to rectify the balance. Having previously written biographies Svante Thunberg took on most of Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe among others, he clearly knows the subject parenting of cinema inside out, and has written a very thorough chronicle of Crawford's careertheir two daughters. The impression the reader is left with, however, is that in looking at her family life Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and art he has perhaps striven too far to present her as a person more sinned against than sinningsister, Beata, a legendary talentthen nine years old, beauty and above all a grossly maligned adoptive mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091931274</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Anderton|title=Christopher Lloyd: His Life at Great Dixter|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=When I first had a garden I did what I always do struggled with a new project: I turned to books to see what help I could findwas happening. There were any number which told me how In such circumstances, it's natural to do the basics and what I needed seek a solution close to know home, but eventually, it became clear to make the right decisions. It was rather like cooking only with family that they were ''burned-out people on a few more uncertainties thrown inburned-out planet''. Then there If they were the books which didn't really bother about the basics but provided limitless inspiration. At the head of these writers, if not to find a way out in front, was Christopher Lloyd who gardened throughout his life at Great Dixter, producing colour combinations which stunned and probably one of the greatest gardens of the twentieth centuryto live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950968</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Yangzom Brauen and Katy Darbyshire0648684806|title=Across Many MountainsClara Colby: Three Daughters of TibetThe International Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|summary=Fleeing your home can never be easy but The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when you are six, your only shoes are roughly hand-sewn and stuffed with hay, and your route is over her family emigrated to the world's highest mountain range then it must be particularly challengingUSA. This At the time she was the journey that Yangzom Brauenjust three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn's mother took t allowed to sail with her parents when they fled Tibet after the Chinese invasion of 1959and three brothers. They were leaving behind all Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that they knew she received a good education, both in and travelling to India out of school. She was the only child in the hope that they could find sanctuary household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the country where mid-west of the United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the Dalai Lama family. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in exilechildbirth not long after Clara arrived. 'Across Many Mountains' is their storyAs the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655344X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Ashdown-Hill1789017977|title=The Last Days of Richard IIIRonnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|summary=The controversy surrounding King Richard III has meant that there have been far more biographies about him than on any other pre-Tudor monarch, some extremely partisan in exonerating him Ronnie Williams was the son of the crimes laid at his door, some Thomas Henry Williams (a minority, it seemsknown as Harry) more than keen to endorse the Shakespearean portrait of a fiend in human shape, and others steering a middle courseEthel Wall.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454048</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Edmund de Waal|title=The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary= There'The Hare with Amber Eyess some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry' vibrates with that rush of desire s birthdate: he claimed to uncover family history that often follows the death of someone you love. It is also have been born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a meticulously researched book of wide ranging scopefew years off his age. When I first picked it up, it looked worryingly erudite, and I had visions of becoming lost in For a sea of nameswhile, places and ideas. So I the family was amazed quite well-to find myself reading it -do but disaster struck in one sitting, completely absorbed, the 1929 Depression and losing five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a whole day in the processvery different lifestyle. Edmund De Waal had me hooked One thing he did inherit from the bottom of page one when he admits to kicking the gate of the Japanese language school he his father was attending in frustration at his lack of fluency. He then thinks sheepishly: 'what it was need to be twentywell-eight turned-out and kicking a school gatethis would stay with him throughout his life.' This funny, disarming comment put me on his side from He joined the offarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539551</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul SpicerPatti Smith|title=The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice, Countess de Janze|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Happy Valley in Kenya was an idyllic setting. The high altitude made for a benign climate and the farms were owned by colonial settlers who became the 'White Mischief' set of the nineteen forties. They farmed their estates, partied the night away and extra-marital affairs were the norm. Author Paul Spicer's mother was loosely involved with the set and he uses the connection to good effect to tell the story Year of the life of Alice, Countess de Janzé – a beguiling and volatile woman who always thought more of her animals than of her children.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847399142</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jonny Steinberg|title=Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York CityMonkey

|summary=South African Steinberg has won awards with previous non-fiction books and after reading On the praise from various sources (New York Timescoast of Santa Cruz, J M Coetzee) I came to Patti Smith enters the conclusion that I was in for a serious and thought-provoking read. The preface tells us that lunar year of the two Liberian men monkey - Rufus one packed with mischief, sorrow, and the younger Jacob left Liberian soil in vastly different circumstances and for different reasonsunexpected moments. But as they meet up years later and thousands of miles away from their homelandIn a stranger's words, their ''Little Liberia'' in New York City has a tall orderAnything is possible: to contain and accommodate their big personalities and to a certain extentafter all, their big egos. Can it cope?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085662</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Edward Pearce|title=Pitt 's the Elder: Man year of War|rating=3the monkey''.5|genre=Biography|summary=William Pitt As Smith wanders the Elder, 1st Earl coast of Chatham, and Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768, has come down to us through the ages as the great eighteenth century equivalent of Winston Churchill, one of the great men of the British Empire Santa Cruz in its earlier dayssolitude, and the man who led England triumphantly through the Seven Years War of 1756-63. During the 'she reflects on a year of victories' that brings huge shifts in 1759, Quebec was captured, the combined English her life - loss and Prussian forces defeated the French at Mindenageing are faced head-on, and as it the army won a famous victory at Quiberon Bay. For this, Pitt took – or was accorded by generations of historians – much of the creditshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845951433</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tracy Kidder1912242052|title=Mountains Beyond MountainsO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=4.53|genre=BiographyArt|summary=Dr Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to helping the poorest and neediest in society. He works tirelessly to help people less fortunate than him. ''Dedicated his lifeOh Joy for me!'' and gives Coleridge credit for being ''works tirelessly'' - phrases we've heard many times about many wonderful peoplethe first person to walk the mountains alone, but when reading ''Mountains Beyond Mountains''not because he had to for work, you'll realise there's not as a shred of hyperbole about these claims. Farmer began working with tuberculosis and AIDS patients in Haitiminer, quarryman, and then worked with themshepherd or pack-horse driver, and worked but because he wanted to for them, pleasure and worked adventure. His rapturous encounters with themtheir natural beauty, and worked for themits literary consequences, and worked with them. In an area where treating the disease is just one part changed our view of the problem, where poverty is rife, he has transformed an area, saved countless lives, and made an incredible difference to many peopleworld''. [http://www.pih.org/ Partners In Health], the healthcare organisation he set up with his colleagues, takes this work worldwide. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684315</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Molly CarrGraff_Find|title=In Search of Dr Watson - A Sherlockian InvestigationFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=The old saying that behind every great man there is When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a great woman has one major exception - Sherlock Holmes. Behind him is the figure plastic folder of Dr John Watson, handwritten notes from his biographerjournal, he didn't take much notice of it. At the man who shares his Baker St lodgingsage of 24, and Graff didn't realise the man eternally flummoxed by his deductions. This biography successfully shows how gravity of the superior Holmes walked over Watson in investigative skills, and also how Conan Doyle needed Watson, if only to help us admire Holmes more by making him less insufferably smugpages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685766</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsay Reade1789016304|title=Mr Manchester War and the Factory GirlLove: The Story of Tony and Lindsay Wilson|rating=4|genre=Entertainment|summary=Mr Manchester, as Tony Wilson came to be known, could have been the next John Humphrys. Instead he ended up becoming the next Malcolm McLaren – or, perhaps, a far less successful version of Richard Branson. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in English he became a trainee news reporter for ITN, and for much of his life he worked as an anchorman for regional evening news programmes. Yet he is less remembered for this than for his championship A family's testament of alternative music and punk rockanguish, founding of Factory Records endurance and involvement with the Hacienda Club. Although he loved the Beatles and folk music devotion in general, he disliked much of the contemporary music scene until he saw the Sex Pistols live in the summer of 1976.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654567</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewoccupied Amsterdam|author=Bevis Hillier|title=The Wit and Wisdom of G K Chesterton|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), best known as the creator of the clerical detective Father Brown, seems to have slipped a little among the general reading public's estimation these days. This is surely unmerited, for he was just as versatile as and hardly less quotable than the Victorian enfant terrible.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441179585</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Rosamund Bartlett|title=Tolstoy: A Russian LifeMelanie Martin

|summary=Count Lev Tolstoy came from a privileged family. He Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was born on 28 August 1828; unfailingly superstitious for the rest entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Diary of his days, he therefore adopted 28 as his lucky numberAnn Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. Like most young men A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from a similar background, he joined the Russian army. The Crimean city during the war proved years, but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to be the making of him happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that it developed his social conscience, opened his eyes to the conditions endured by occupation could never happen: even those born to a less lofty position in who thought that the Germans might reach the social order than himselfcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, and impressed on him the fervent belief that everybody in Russia ought to have the chance Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to learn to read and write. As a result he became a born-again repentant nobleman escalate in the light of having seen how way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the other half (or organisers became more than half) lived, he took circumspect. It's an atrocity on a long hard look at the world around him, turning into a rebel against organized religion and the authority vast scale but made up of tens of the state in the process. All this was exacerbated by his travels throughout Europe shortly afterwards, in which he was impressed with the comparative freedom he saw in other countries and then found the return to his homeland thoroughly depressing in the few years before the emancipation thousands of the serfsindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681383</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Valerie Benaim and Yves Azeroual1786893452|title=Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni: The True StoryUngrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri|rating=34.5

|summary=In November 2007 Here in the French PresidentWest, 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, Nicolas Sarkozy was newly divorced from his second wife andalmost always, despite his position and busy lifeno matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, feeling rather lonely. He accepted an invitation outsiders to a dinner party from a friend the world and met supermodel and recording artist, Carla Brunithe situations that refugees find themselves in. The attraction between them was instant It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – she had already said and this is a rare opportunity to do that she wanted a man with nuclear power , in this intelligent, powerful and he moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was smitten by born in the attentions middle of a beautifulrevolution in Iran, famous and intelligent woman. Within months they were marriedfleeing to America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0907633145</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roland Huntford0857058320|title=Race for Lord Of All the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott Dead|author=Javier Cercas and AmundsenAnne McLean (translator)

|summary=In 1910 two European ships set out ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the Antarctic. meaning behind his great uncle'Terra Nova' was carrying British explorers under s death in the leadership of Captain Robert ScottSpanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, while Cercas'Framgreat uncle, is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco' sailed with a rival Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsens forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. The basic facts can be briefly summarized. Amundsen arrived question at the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and returned home centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero's welcome, while Scott reached whilst having fought for the same destination 35 days later, only to perish with his men on the return journey. Their bodies were found by a search party some eight months after they had diedwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441169822</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles Margerison1788037812|title=Amazing WomenThe Fraternity of the Estranged: Inspirational StoriesThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=3.5

|summary=The cover of this book tells Originally passed in 1885, the reader law that these short ''bioviews'' or biographies can be read had made homosexual relations a crime remained in 10 mins or soplace for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. This is one Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of a series within ''The Amazing People Club'' courtesy of the ''Amazing People Team''homosexuality appeared. There is a rather fulsome ''Author's Note'' followed They were written by a one-page introductiontwo homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. I Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was immediately struck by common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the fact thatUK, given so the various feats publications of these womenmen were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of homosexuality, I was anxious to read about them - and not about Dr Margerison. Less is more. He goes on beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to say (by now I'm getting a bit tired the milestone legalisation of the smiling Margerison) that 'The stories are inspirational and can help you achieve your ambitions same-sex relationships in your own journey through life.' All of this and especially that last sentence sits rather uneasily with me, I'm afraid1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1921629940</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Selina HastingsBuckland_Zoo|title=The Secret Lives Man Who Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of Somerset Maughamnatural history|author=Richard Girling

|summary=These days, W. Somerset Maugham seems to be something of an anachronism. In his heyday, for much of As a career which lasted from the end of the conservationist in Victorian era to England before the 1950sterm existed, he Frank Buckland was one very much a man ahead of the most successful and widely read of all British writershis time. Surgeon, with his novelsnaturalist, short stories veterinarian and plays spawning more film adaptations than any other author. Yet over the last thirty years or so he seems to have slipped from favoureccentric sums him up perfectly, as if his preoccupation with the Edwardian England in which he grew up and his end-of-empire settings are deeply embedded in an age we would rather forget. Moreover, as this very comprehensive biography demonstrates, he was not the most pleasant of individuals. The unhappy child, orphaned by the time he was ten, afflicted any biographer is immediately presented with a lifelong stammer and brought up by an aunt and uncle who showed him no affection, grew up colourful tale to lead a long and unhappy lifetell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719565553</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew McConnell StottWilliams_Captain|title=The Pantomime Life Captain Ronald Campbell of Joseph GrimaldiBombala Station, Cambalong: Laughter, Madness His Military Life and the Story of Britain's Greatest ComedianTimes|author=Ivor George Williams

|summary=This book has won several prestigious awards, so my expectations were raised before I'd even opened the book. And In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of all the plaudits given on the back cover, my favourite was Simon Callows' '(A) great big Christmas pudding 17th Regiment of a book Foot...' Stott has researched his subject thoroughly. First up, there's a Grimaldi family tree, a Prologue, an Introduction and all this before you get to the story proper, so to speak.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677614</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martin Davidson|title=The Perfect Nazi: Uncovering My SS Grandfather's Secret Past and How Hitler Seduced a Generation|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Meet Martin Davidson. Now, when I start my reviews like that, normally it means he's the main character, but he's not here. He's big in the world of BBC History documentaries, and grew up in the UK, half Scottish and half German, knowing that many of his older relatives lived through the Second World War. Foremost among them was his German grandfather, Bruno Langbehn, who would have been of fighting age - in his 30s - during the Third Reich. Nothing much was ever said about Bruno's own history during the war, except for many inflammatory, rising comments by Bruno himself. It took the old man to die for the truth to be admitted by Martin's mother - their forefather was in the SS.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670916161</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sjeng Scheijen|title=Diaghilev: A Life|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Sergey Diaghilev was one command of the towering figures in the artistic world of Russia, troops and indeed Europe, at the start of the 20th century. Born in 1872 the ambitious son of convicts on board a bankrupt vodka producer ship sailing from PermPlymouth to Sydney, and a mother who died a few days later probably from puerperal fever, by Australia: his early twenties he was on close terms with such names as Tolstoy, Zola, Tchaikovsky wife and Brahmsyoung son accompanied him. He worked his way into was not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the ranks age of the cultural cognoscenti 34 at St Petersburg and launched the itinerant troupe which would become the Ballets RussesBangalore, playing leaving his widow to packed houses as far west as Britain and the United Statesraise their two young sons.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681642</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Howarth|title=We Die Alone|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Consider taking a five day sail Edwards' death left his widow in a small fishing boat the height of the North Sea from Shetland, difficult position: not only did she have their farm to try and establishmanage, train and supply some potentially vital anti-German resistance in but she was also responsible for the far, far north of occupied Norway, your homeland. Imagine convicts who worked the sight of heavy naval parades where you intended to land, as galling proof that your intel is ages out of date. Ponder too the fact that you get reported to the Nazis due to the most ridiculous slight of fortune. All your colleagues are dead or captured, your equipment blown up with your trawler to keep it safe from Jerry hands, half your big toe has been shot off, and you're forced to go on the run in one of Europe's last, and coldest, wildernesses. And you have no idea whatsoever quite how bad this scenario is going to getTwo years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847678459</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Janet SoskicePeacock_mountain|title=Sisters Into The Mountain, A Life of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden GospelsNan Shepherd|author=Charlotte Peacock

|summary=Sisters of Sinai tells Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the story of two extraordinaryapproach, Victorian women who unearthed an important early copy of but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and we sell the Gospels from a remote monastery in Egyptmyriad lesser-known authors short as well. It hardly seems possible that they organised So while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, and executed such remarkable feats of unaccompanied travel during an age in which women's freedom was hidebound by their status as while, like most other people I read the inferior sex. Janet Soskice is wellreviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a third-placed as a feminist philosopher and theologian string to explore their livesmy reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954654X</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Natasha McElhone|title=After You: Letters of Love, and Loss, to a Husband and Father|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=What would you do if, without warning, your brilliant, loving, superman partner died from a catastrophic heart event at the untimely age of 43, leaving you with two young boys and a third Move on the way? Most of us would probably reach for the Valium and book a very long course of counseling. But Natascha McElhone couldn't because she was already stretched, juggling a busy transatlantic career as an actress as well as caring for her sparky young family. Coping as a single parent left no spare time for self-indulgence; within months she had a new baby as well. So she found her own way, grabbing instead at odd moments to write in her well-established diary. These short entries … e-mails, almost … to her dead husband form the basis of 'After You'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919098</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Firstbrook|title=The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=The book jacket states that this is 'the untold story of an African family' [[Newest Business and with a presidential photograph of Barack Obama, the book is certainly eye-catching. Along with, I'm sure, millions of others, I've read 'The Audacity Of Hope' and was charmed and blown away in almost equal measure, so I was keen to get started on this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092725</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]