Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__ {{newreview|title=The Fetish Room|author=Redmond O'Hanlon and Rudi Rotthier|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=An ongoing debate in our family has centred on the value of biographies, particularly of writers. I've always loved the touchstone of the places people lived and wrote, the banality of their lives, the detail, the insight, and the fact that it can tell you everything or nothing at all about the work. My Dad held that the work was what mattered; the rest is just social history. He said that almost disparagingly, which is odd, because if you presented it as social history rather than biography, he'd lap it up. I guess I just don't make the distinction. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684145</amazonuk!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->}} {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=House of Exile: War, Love and Literature, from Berlin to Los Angeles1788360702|authortitle=Evelyn Juers|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kröger-Mann were in a constant state of hazardous exile after the rise of fascism in Germany in 1933. He became like Zola, his favourite author, a socially committed novelist and political activist and fierce critic of militarism. He was convivial, having a wide circle of friends that contained many creative artists, playwrights, socialists. He seemed drawn to the bohemians and the demi-monde. This elegant and sometimes formal gentleman came from the Hanseatic town of Lubeck where his father belonged to a renowned grain merchant family. These might be described as the haute-bourgeoisie. There was an unusual degree of sibling rivalry between him and his less robust brotherCharles, the famous author of ''The Magic Mountain'', Thomas Mann. Hendrick possessed a sensual nature and fell passionately and easily in love with a number of women. Of these his relationship with Nelly, a fascinating woman, a seamstress and nightclub hostess, as full of contradictions as himself, was the most successful and long lasting. She followed him on the long painful journey into exile at first in Nice and later to the United States.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846144612</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAlternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Simon Stephenson|title=Let Not The Waves of the SeaEdzard 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 Phi. He describes it in glowing terms (which may sound a little strange) as he aims, on a rather arduous climb, to be rewarded with a stunning viewcomplementary therapies. And immediately I'm struck with Stephenson's lilting style of writing. For exampleCharles, The Alternative Prince' ... an elderly lady carrying bags of rice over each shoulder as if they were no more than foam guesthouse pillows.' How lovely and evocative is that, Icritically assesses the Prince'm thinking to myself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848545584</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip Norman|title=John Lennon: The Life|rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=For part of my formative yearss opinions, John Lennon was one beliefs and aims against the background of the four most famous people in the worldscientific evidence. All that we There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have learnt about him in the thirty years or so since his death no scientific support has kept his name firmly in the public eye, if not always for done considerable damage to the best reputation of reasons. At over 800 pages, this a man who is one proud of the lengthiest biographies written about the extraordinary life and times of the former Beatle. It's also surely one of the most impartialhis refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>000719742X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Hilary Spurling1739805100|title=Burying Loving the BonesEnemy: Pearl Buck Building bridges in Chinaa time of war|author=Andrew 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>

 {{newreview|author=Jeremy Lewis|title=Shades of Greene: One Generation of an English Family|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Graham Greene's father actually had six children, and his brother six of his own. (Well, there were nine in their generation for a start...) The surprising and joyous thing about this book is that it can show that Graham Greene's remarkable life is by no means the only standout in that whole generation of family history. It can continuously throw up surprises - we know Hugh Greene was high up in the BBC, but it wasn't him who helped found Canadian public service broadcasting. We are familiar with Graham himself traipsing around the world, reporting back in fact and fiction from unusual circumstances and exotic climes with dubious systems of government, but it wasn't he who was noted for being an ardently public supporter of pro-Communist China.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551888</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Benjamin MandelkernWill Brooker|title=Escape from the Nazis: The Incredible and Inspiring Saga of Two Young Jews on the Run in World War II PolandTruth About Lisa Jewell|rating=3.5

|summary=Do we all Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was reciting, and her being in us? Would you as a Pole in 1940s Poland''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who like as not had been has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell'educateds diverse output. Brooker decides he' d like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the horrendous evil published author's life, working to make a success of Jews by your church - would you ignore Nazi death threats the latest title, and countless opportunities for struggling with the wrong thing to be saidnext in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, for agrees. And this is the truth to be let out, for betrayal - would you help a Jewish life survive?result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1550280554</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Richard LucasMartha Leigh|title=Axis SallyInvisible Ink: The American Voice of Nazi GermanyA Family Memoir|rating=45|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=Take one personable failed actress, embittered by lack of success at home Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in the USAa slightly eccentric, and conspire to land her living in Germany as WW2 breaks outimmediately recognisable upper middle class English family. What chance her becoming an AmericanHer father is a Cambridge don, female Lord Hawforever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-Haw, being paid by Germany to broadcast entertaining, dissuasive propaganda worldwide on shortwave radio? Anybody could guess it would take innumerable factors, circumstances and eventsJacques Rousseau, and theyhis life're all here s work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in this entertaining, eye-opening and educational biographythe 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>1935149431</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{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 Geniusa Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=There have been many biographies about Charlotte Brontë and her siblings, but very little about their fatherThe Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. It is tempting to speculate whether he would be quite so deserving Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of one if he had not been the father parenting of such a famous familytheir two daughters. Yet Dudley GreenThen eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, a retired Classics teacherBeata, then nine years old, has demonstrated here that he did lead an interesting life himselfstruggled with what was happening. Born in rural Ireland in 1777In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, he spent his early years there before arriving in England in 1802 and settled in Yorkshire seven years laterbut eventually, where he remained it became clear to the rest of his daysfamily that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet''. If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454455</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Donald Spoto0648684806|title=PossessedClara Colby: The Life of Joan Crawford|rating=3.5|genre=Entertainment|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 monster. Spoto clearly believes that this portrait is a gross exaggeration, and is at pains to rectify the balance. Having previously written biographies of Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe among others, he clearly knows the subject of cinema inside out, and has written a very thorough chronicle of Crawford's career. The impression the reader is left with, however, is that in looking at her family life and art he has perhaps striven too far to present her as a person more sinned against than sinning, a legendary talent, 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 with a new project: I turned to books to see what help I could find. There were any number which told me how to do the basics and what I needed to know to make the right decisions. It was rather like cooking only with a few more uncertainties thrown in. Then there were the books which didn't really bother about the basics but provided limitless inspiration. At the head of these writers, if not 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 century.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950968</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewInternational Suffragist|author=Yangzom Brauen and Katy Darbyshire|title=Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of TibetJohn 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 Year of Alice, Countess de Janzethe Monkey

|summary=Happy Valley in Kenya was an idyllic setting. The high altitude made for a benign climate and On the farms were owned by colonial settlers who became coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the 'White Mischief' set lunar year of the nineteen forties. They farmed their estatesmonkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, partied the night away and extra-marital affairs were the normunexpected moments. Author Paul SpicerIn a stranger's words, ''Anything is possible: after all, it's mother was loosely involved with the set and he uses year of the connection to good effect to tell monkey''. As Smith wanders the story coast of the life of AliceSanta Cruz in solitude, Countess de Janzé – she reflects on a beguiling year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and volatile woman who always thought more of her animals than of her childrenageing are faced head-on, as it the shifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847399142</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonny Steinberg1912242052|title=Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York CityO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=43|genre=BiographyArt|summary=South African Steinberg has won awards with previous non-fiction books and after reading ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the praise from various sources (New York Timesmountains alone, J M Coetzee) I came not because he had to the conclusion that I was in for work, as a serious and thoughtminer, quarryman, shepherd or pack-provoking read. The preface tells us that the two Liberian men - Rufus and the younger Jacob left Liberian soil in vastly different circumstances horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and for different reasonsadventure. But as they meet up years later His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and thousands its literary consequences, changed our view of miles away from their homeland, their the world''Little Liberia'' in New York City has a tall order: to contain and accommodate their big personalities and to a certain extent, their big egos. Can it cope?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085662</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edward PearceGraff_Find|title=Pitt the Elder: Man of WarFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of Chatham, and Prime Minister handwritten notes from 1766 to 1768his journal, has come down to us through the ages as the great eighteenth century equivalent of Winston Churchill, one he didn't take much notice of it. At the great men age of the British Empire in its earlier days24, and the man who led England triumphantly through the Seven Years War of 1756-63. During Graff didn't realise the 'year gravity of victories' in 1759, Quebec was captured, the combined English and Prussian forces defeated the French at Minden, and the army won a famous victory at Quiberon Bay. For this, Pitt took – or pages he was accorded by generations of historians – much of the creditholding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951433</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tracy Kidder1789016304|title=Mountains Beyond MountainsWar and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=4.5

|summary=Dr Paul Farmer has dedicated his life Melanie Martin read about what happened to helping the poorest Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and neediest was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in society. He works tirelessly to help people less fortunate than him. ''Dedicated his life'' and ''works tirelessly'The Diary of Ann Frank' - phrases we've heard many times about many wonderful people, but when reading ''Mountains Beyond Mountains'', you'll realise therethen realised that her own family's not a shred of hyperbole about these claimsstories were equally fascinating. Farmer began working with tuberculosis A hundred and AIDS patients in Haitiseven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, but only five thousand survived and then worked Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with them, and worked for them, and worked with them, and worked for them, and worked with themliberal values who were resistant to German occupation. In an area where treating Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the disease is just one part of Germans might reach the problemcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, where poverty is rifethat the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, he has transformed but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an area, saved countless lives, and atrocity on a vast scale but made an incredible difference to many people. [http://www.pih.org/ Partners In Health], the healthcare organisation he set up with his colleagues, takes this work worldwideof tens of thousands of individual tragedies. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684315</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Molly Carr1786893452|title=In Search of Dr Watson - A Sherlockian InvestigationThe Ungrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri|rating=34.5

|summary=The old saying that behind every great man there is Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a great woman has one major exception - Sherlock Holmesregular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. Behind him is the figure But all of Dr John Watsonthose stories are written by journalists – almost always western, his biographerand almost always, no matter how deep the man who shares his Baker St lodgingsinvestigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the man eternally flummoxed by his deductionssituations that refugees find themselves in. This biography successfully shows how It's rare that we find out the journeys from the superior Holmes walked over Watson refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in investigative skillsthis intelligent, powerful and also how Conan Doyle needed Watsonmoving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, if only fleeing to help us admire Holmes more by making him less insufferably smugAmerica as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685766</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsay Reade0857058320|title=Mr Manchester and Lord Of All the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Lindsay WilsonAnne McLean (translator)

|summary=G''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death.KCercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Chesterton (1874-1936)Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, best known as is the creator of figure who looms large over the clerical detective Father Brown, seems to have slipped a little among the general reading publicbook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's estimation these daysforces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. This The question at the centre of this book is whether it is surely unmerited, possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for he was just as versatile as and hardly less quotable than the Victorian enfant terriblewrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441179585</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rosamund Bartlett1788037812|title=TolstoyThe Fraternity of the Estranged: A Russian LifeThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson

|summary=Count Lev Tolstoy came from Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a privileged familycrime remained in place for 82 years. He was born But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on 28 August 1828; unfailingly superstitious for the rest nature of his days, he therefore adopted 28 as his lucky numberhomosexuality appeared. Like most young They were written by two homosexual men from a similar background: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, he joined as well as the Russian armyheterosexual Havelock Ellis. The Crimean war proved to be Exploring the making margins of him in that it developed his social conscience, opened his eyes to the conditions endured by those born to a less lofty position in the social order than himself, society and impressed studying homosexuality was common on him the fervent belief that everybody European Continent, but barely talked about in Russia ought to have the chance to learn to read and write. As a result he became a born-again repentant nobleman in the light of having seen how the other half (or more than half) livedUK, he took a long hard look at so the world around him, turning into a rebel against organized religion and the authority publications 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 these men were hugely significant – contributing to his homeland thoroughly depressing in the few years before the emancipation scientific understanding of the serfs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681383</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Valerie Benaim and Yves Azeroual|title=Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni: The True Story|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=In November 2007 the French Presidenthomosexuality, Nicolas Sarkozy was newly divorced from his second wife and, despite his position and busy life, feeling rather lonely. He accepted an invitation to a dinner party from a friend and met supermodel and recording artist, Carla Bruni. The attraction between them was instant – she had already said that she wanted a man with nuclear power and he was smitten by beginning the attentions of a beautiful, famous and intelligent woman. Within months they were married.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0907633145</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Roland Huntford|title=Race struggle for the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott recognition and Amundsen|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=In 1910 two European ships set out for the Antarctic. 'Terra Nova' was carrying British explorers under the leadership of Captain Robert Scottequality, while 'Fram' sailed with a rival Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen. The basic facts can be briefly summarized. Amundsen arrived at the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and returned home leading to a hero's welcome, while Scott reached the milestone legalisation of 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 died-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441169822</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles MargerisonBuckland_Zoo|title=Amazing Women: Inspirational Stories|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=The cover of this book tells Man Who Ate the reader that these short ''bioviews'' or biographies can be read in 10 mins or so. This is one of a series within ''The Amazing People Club'' courtesy of the ''Amazing People Team''. There is a rather fulsome ''Author's Note'' followed by a one-page introduction. I was immediately struck by the fact that, given the various feats of these womenZoo: Frank Buckland, I was anxious to read about them - and not about Dr Margerison. Less is more. He goes on to say (by now I'm getting a bit tired of the smiling Margerison) that 'The stories are inspirational and can help you achieve your ambitions in your own journey through life.' All forgotten hero of this and especially that last sentence sits rather uneasily with me, I'm afraid.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1921629940</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewnatural history|author=Selina Hastings|title=The Secret Lives of Somerset MaughamRichard 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, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, Victorian women who unearthed an important early copy of the Gospels from a remote monastery in Egypt. It hardly seems possible that they organised and executed such remarkable feats of unaccompanied travel during an age in which women's freedom was hidebound by their status as we sell the inferior sex. Janet Soskice is wellmyriad lesser-placed known authors short as a feminist philosopher and theologian to explore their liveswell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954654X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Natasha McElhone|title=After You: Letters of LoveSo while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and Lossfavoured authors, to a Husband and Father|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=What would you do if, without warning, your brilliant, lovingwhile, superman partner died from a catastrophic heart event at like most other people I read the untimely age of 43, leaving you with two young boys reviews and a third follow up 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 stretchedwhat appeals, juggling I also have 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 selfthird-indulgence; within months she had a new baby as well. So she found her own way, grabbing instead at odd moments string to write in her well-established diary. These short entries … e-mails, almost … to her dead husband form the basis of 'After You'my reading bow: randomness.|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' 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 Move on to [[Newest Business and blown away in almost equal measure, so I was keen to get started on this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092725</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]