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[[Category:Biography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Games1788360702|title=Pevsner: Charles, The Early LifeAlternative Prince: Germany and ArtAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=Nikolai Pewsner – the minor changes For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of name came as a young adult - was born in Saxony in 1902 into a Russian-Jewish familyalternative medicine and complementary therapies. Just too young to avoid having to take part in ''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the warPrince's opinions, he had studied art history at no less than four universities by beliefs and aims against the age background of 22the scientific evidence. He then became an assistant keeper at There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the Dresden Gemaldegaleriereputation of a man who is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, and four years later he was appointed lecturer at Gottingen Universitylogical reasoning to his ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441190937</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nancy Mitford1739805100|title=The Sun King|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Nancy Mitford assumes that you'll need no introduction to Louis XIV, who ascended Loving the throne when he was four years old and reigned for well over seventy two years. To put him Enemy: Building bridges in context his reign began before Charles I was executed in Whitehall, lasted through the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth, the reigns of Charles I, James II, William III and into the beginning of the reign of Queen Anne. He bridged the gap between the middle ages and the early modern era.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099528886</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Matthew Kelly|title=Finding Poland|rating=5|genre=History|summary=Looking at any historical map of Poland anyone may see how its borders have changed over the centuries. Where will you find the Polish home? One answer must be that it is founded deep in the hearts of the Polish people who fought for the liberty and the integrity of the Polish homeland. Now consider the promontory of land around Vilnius, or Wilno as it was then known, which was contained inside Poland in 1921. It was an area in which the small market town of Hruzdowa, comprising some 52 buildings and just large enough to warrant a town hall, was situated. These wild borderlands – known as the Kresy - were fought over for centuries by Austrians, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Lithuanians. It was here that Matthew Kelly's great-grandfather, who had imbibed the values and élan time of the dashing officer class, Rafal Ryzewscy, came to teach with his clever young wife, Hanna. They were deeply committed to progress through education and to peaceably raising their two little daughters. However, the dreadful and calamitous year of 1939, was approaching when Hitler and Stalin partitioned Poland in the most cynical pact.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515997</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewwar|author=Cita Stelzer|title=Dinner with Churchill: The Prime Minister's Tabletop DiplomacyAndrew March
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=Winston Churchill was never a man to don ''Loving the hair shirt. A comfortable upbringing in Enemy'' tells the days quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, who first met when elaborate multiple courses were grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the done thing imbued in him from an early age a taste for days of the good things Nazi regime in life, and a bon viveur he remained until the very end1930s. Throughout his life he loved his foodFred, a sensitive and until near the end of his life, his appetite and digestion remained excellentthoughtful man, whereas many men in their advancing years might have cut back a little.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595422</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Savage|title=Furniture with Soul: Master Woodworkers and Their Craft|rating=5|genre=Crafts|summary=David Savage is a master furniture maker and one had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the artists featured in the book, so he is not – as he says himself – a neutral observer and nor can he be neutral in choosing who to include growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the booktime. Having said that, the pictures alone will tell you that he has chosen people who create furniture of great beauty and – often – originality. ItFred's the text that makes the book shine, though – as it seeks not attempts to give a critical appreciation of each man and one womanseparate individual people from ideology weren's work, t universally successful but to look at what makes them tick, what drives them on he did make friendships and how they have handled the good times as well as the bad. It is, if you like, ten in-depth biographies of artists who work in connections that lasted for a common medium and ten shorter pieces about those we should look out for in the futurelifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>4770031211</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=D R ThorpeWill Brooker|title=Supermac: The Life of Harold MacmillanTruth About Lisa Jewell
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=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 great-grandson meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of a crofterher latest book she was reciting, and sonher being in a ''black lace mini-indress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-law up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of a Dukecultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, Harold Macmillan was born in London in 1894down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. Despite the well-Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to-do aristocratic background, his years as follow her through a young adult were marked by bad experiences year in the trenches which left him with lifelong war woundspublished author's life, and his early service as working to make a Conservative Member success of Parliament by the plight of latest title, and struggling with the unemployed next in his first constituency of Stocktonline. He had much in common with another future Prime MinisterJewell, Winston Churchill; both had American mothersdue diligence appropriately done, and both were mavericks who were elected as Conservatives but refused to toe agrees. And this is the party line too steadfastlyresult.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1844135411</amazonuk>1529136024
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert RossMartha Leigh|title=Marty FeldmanInvisible Ink: The Biography of a Comedy LegendA Family Memoir|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=Some years ago Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, I was given immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Penguin edition Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of Wildethe philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his life's 'The Picture work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the practicalities of Dorian Gray', with what looked like an uniquely fearsome face on life. There is love in the front cover. A year or two later, I saw house but also darker undercurrents that a photograph of Marty Feldman and was convinced he must have inspired it if child does not actually been the modelfully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857683780</amazonuk>1800460384
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bettany HughesPolly Barton|title=The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good LifeFifty Sounds
|rating=4.5
|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=We donWhere do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn't know much about Socratesgone into melt-down I would have visited by now. For someone whose ideas are still so relevant so long after his deathI may get there later this year, his life is something of a mysterybut I am not hopeful. He didnAnd like Barton, I don't like know the answer to write things down, and so Hughes begins this book by saying that it may have something of a the question ''why Japan?'Socrates-sized hole' She explains her feelings in respect of the question in it. What we do see is the city of Athensfirst essay, and the hugely important changes which were going is on there while Socrates was alive. In Athens we see the beginnings of democracysound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, the seedlings of some of the ideas that we take for granted today, such as freedom of speechamong other things, and the right to a fair trial. This was an important time in the development sound of modern values, and Socrates was an important man. He was not only a brilliant thinker, he was also a man that didn't quite fit, infuriating 'every party where you have to converse with, yet fascinating to be aroundintroduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099554054</amazonuk>1913097501
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stacy SchiffFrederic Gros|title=Cleopatra: A LifePhilosophy of Walking|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Stacey Schiff's biography starts more I confess I picked this one up from the library in my pre-lockdown forage of less from Cleopatra's infamous meeting with Caesar, where she sneaks into his rooms random stuff. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the pages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need to. Some books draw you in a sackslowly. This is one of the most popular images of Cleopatra had me in the public consciousness and Schiff happily refutes the image of her emerging as a well polished seductressfirst two pages, pointing out that anyone who had been carried in wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sack for a considerable period of time will more likely be fairly dishevelled. Schiff takes us through from this moment up to Cleopatrasport''s much dramatised death, and beyond, to the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>075353956X</amazonuk>1781688370
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tina BrownSharon Blackie|title=The Diana ChroniclesIf Women Rose Rooted
|rating=5
|genre=Biography|summary=''The Diana Chronicles'' was first published in 2007, ten years after Diana's untimely death (forgive me if I proffer information normally say that you already know, but prior can tell how much a book means to reading this book, I was one me by how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of the small group of people in this country happily oblivious impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the Princess Diana industry)one I've borrowed. The book has been re-released in shocking pink, white and gold livery, as a I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'commemorative editioninspiring' to coincide with The Royal Wedding. A fanciful Foreword now imagines Diana's life -changing' – although it is definitely the first two and reaction to Will only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for a reason and KateI's marriage, had she survivedm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099568357</amazonuk>1912836017
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Wilson0241446732|title=How to Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of J. Bruce Ismay|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=As I read 'How to Survive the Titanic' I was conscious that we're only a matter of months away from the centenary of the sinking – and a slew Our House is on Fire: Scenes of media to mark the occasion. Given that the subject has been mined extensively over the years it will be interesting to see whether there's anything new to be said about the tragedy. It's a subject which has always fascinated me – Family and it was with a sense of anticipation that I opened the book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408809222</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPlanet in Crisis|author=Andrew Crowther|title=Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan: His Life Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and CharacterSvante Thunberg
|rating=5
|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Gilbert The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Sullivan were Svante Thunberg took on most of the Rice parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and Lloyd Webber of the late Victorian eratalking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. Some might regard their work as slightly dated these daysIn such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, especially it became clear to the satirical lyrics which family that they were so much ''burned-out people on a product of burned-out planet''. If they were to find a way to live happily again their time, but their appeal has never really faded and it surely never willsolution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752455893</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=D J Taylor0648684806|title=ThackerayClara Colby: The International Suffragist|author=John Holliday|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Today, William Makepeace Thackeray is remembered almost exclusively as the writer The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick'Vanity Fair', considered as among s life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the greatest novels of its timeUSA. Yet he At the time she was a prolific writerjust three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, also responsible for 'Pendennisshe wasn' t allowed to sail with her parents and 'The Newcomes'three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, as well as several sketcheswho doted on her and saw that she received a good education, essays both in and much poetryout of school. However most She was the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of his work is largely forgotten todaythe United States and life was hard, while as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. Clara would only know her mother for a person he remains little knownfew months: she was married for fifteen years, and he has been somewhat overshadowed by his better-known contemporaryhad ten pregnancies, old friend seven surviving children and rival Charles Dickens, born one year laterdied in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. This biography does an excellent job in rescuing him from such semi-obscurityAs the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099563258</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsey Fraser1789017977|title=J K RowlingRonnie and Hilda's Romance: the Mystery of FictionTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-FictionHistory|summary=Easily one of Ronnie Williams was the most renowned authors son of the 21st century, JThomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall.K. Rowling There's incredibly successful some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry Potter series shook the core of the literary world. It provoked a reaction, the likes of which 's birthdate: he claimed to have never been seen beforeborn in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and likely never willhe might well have shaved a few years off his age. A unique set of factors combined in order for For a while, the Harry Potter books family was quite well-to reach -do but disaster struck in the level of success they enjoyed, 1929 Depression and these factors are explored in this biography of Rowlingfive-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. It is difficult not One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be fascinated by the person who is responsible for the phenomenon that is Harry Potter, well-turned-out and although writing is a profession that doesn't have a typical path by which it can be reached, Rowling's story is anything but orthodox, and her personal 'rags to riches' story only enhances this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the Harry Potter legacyarmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906134693</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Charlotte FrostPatti Smith|title=Sir William Knighton: The Strange Career Year of a Regency Physicianthe Monkey|rating=34
|genre=Biography
|summary=Sir William Knighton came from humble beginnings: in later life On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the memories lunar year of his mother selling butter the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and eggs from unexpected moments. In a market stall would frequently be brought up and it was never to illustrate just how well hestranger'd done. The fact that he became a physician would normally be quite an achievements words, but his baronetcy and fame didn't come from his work as a physician but from his less well-publicised work for George IV. Although his work at court would span just over a decade 'Anything is possible: after all, it was far from being what he wanted to do – and for 's the most part it would not bring him a great deal year of happinessthe monkey''. At As Smith wanders the end coast of his career as Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a physician he simply wanted to retire to his cottage year that brings huge shifts in the country her life - loss and ageing are faced head- but found himself unable to desert a king who had become dependent on him, as it the shifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755213017</amazonuk>1526614758
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rodney Bolt1912242052|title=As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary BensonO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=53|genre=BiographyArt|summary=Since I hadn't previously heard of Archbishop Benson'Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he had to for work, as a miner, let alone his wifequarryman, I must commend the titleshepherd or pack-horse driver, cover but because he wanted to for pleasure and advertising of this bookadventure. All of the above provided an accurate His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and irresistible glimpse its literary consequences, changed our view of the biography within, and I wasnworld''t one whit disappointed in my choice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843548615</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barbara SinatraGraff_Find|title=Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank SinatraFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff|rating=43.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Barbara Blakeley, born in 1926, was married firstly to Robert Oliver, an executive, with whom she had When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a sonplastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, and secondly to Zeppo Marxhe didn't take much notice of it. But it was At the already thrice-married and thrice-divorced Francis Albert Sinatraage of 24, whom she had idolized as a singer for a long time, with whom she would make her most enduring marriage, and vice versa. They tied Graff didn't realise the gravity of the knot in 1976, and stayed together until his death in 1998pages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091937248</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Manning Marable1789016304|title=Malcolm XWar and Love: A Life family's testament of Reinventionanguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=People's preconceptions Melanie Martin read about Malcolm X are vast. This is no surprise given his dramatic lifewhat happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, untimely death, and subsequent increased fame through the likes particularly in ''The Diary of {{amazonurl|title=Spike LeeAnn Frank'' but then realised that her own family's 1992 film|isbn=B00005A7TO}}stories were equally fascinating. {{amazonurl|title=His autobiography|isbn=0141185430}} is a must-read for anyone interested in his life, or A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the tumultuous race struggle in city during the US in the 1960swar years, but it must only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be viewed allowed to happen in contexta country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. It was completed after Malcolm X's death, by co-author Alex Haley, and many aspects Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were highlighted or played downconvinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to suit Malcolm X's endsescalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. Manning Marable It's biography, years in the making, looks at his life with an atrocity on a new perspectivevast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0713998954</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Duncan Hamilton1786893452|title=The Unreliable Life of Harry the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel ThiefUngrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=The story of Harry Here in the Valet may not be particularly familiar to modern readersWest, but he was something of we see news reports about immigrants on a celebrity in the Victorian ageregular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. He achieved notoriety But all of those stories are written by stealing thousands of pounds worth of jewels from journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland - much investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the delight of many people who disliked world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the ladyrefugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, which appears to have been pretty much everyone who ever met her. Having pulled off in this audacious theftintelligent, Harry seemed to be invincible powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri - but he someone who was brought down by his love for born in the middle of a Gaiety Girlrevolution in Iran, and ended up facing fleeing to America as a trial which the papers fell over themselves to report onten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846058139</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreview|title=The Fetish Room|author=Redmond O'Hanlon and Rudi Rotthier|rating=4.5Frontpage|genreisbn=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>}} {{newreview0857058320|title=House of Exile: War, Love and Literature, from Berlin to Los Angeles|author=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 brother, 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. Lord 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 All the long painful journey into exile at first in Nice and later to the United States.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846144612</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDead|author=Simon Stephenson|title=Let Not The Waves of the SeaJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=The book opens after ''Lord Of All the catastrophic event and Dead'' is a journey to uncover the narrator/author Simon 's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the local area of Phi PhiSpanish Civil War. He describes it in glowing terms (which may sound a little strange) as he aimsManuel Mena, on a rather arduous climbCercas' great uncle, to be rewarded with a stunning viewis the figure who looms large over the book. And immediately I'm struck with StephensonHe died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's lilting style of writingforces. For example, ' Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator... an elderly lady carrying bags The question at the centre of rice over each shoulder as if they were no more than foam guesthouse pillows.' How lovely and evocative this book is whether it is that, I'm thinking possible for his great uncle to myselfbe a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848545584</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Philip Norman1788037812|title=John LennonThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The LifeFight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson
|rating=5
|genre=Entertainment
|summary=For part of my formative years, John Lennon was one of the four most famous people 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 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>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Hilary Spurling
|title=Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Peal BuckOriginally passed in 1885, the 5th of 7 children, was born law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in 1892 to American missionary parents working in Chinaplace for 82 years. But during this time, where she was then brought uprestrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. She learned Chinese before she learned EnglishBetween 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and only realised that she was considered a foreigner when anti foreigner riots known to John Addington Symonds, as well as the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 forced heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the family out margins of her childhood home. Later she became famous for her novels society and short stories set in China, especially The Good Earth. She won America's most famous literary prize, studying homosexuality was common on the PulitzerEuropean Continent, but barely talked about in 1932the UK, and so the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Yet her work is mostly forgotten in publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the US and Europescientific understanding of homosexuality, and in beginning the country she lovedstruggle for recognition and equality, her books were banned by Mao's regime after they came leading to power the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 19491967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1861978529</amazonuk>
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 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy LewisBuckland_Zoo|title=Shades of GreeneThe Man Who Ate the Zoo: One Generation Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of an English Familynatural history|author=Richard Girling
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Graham Greene's father actually had six childrenAs a conservationist in Victorian England before the term existed, and his brother six Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of his owntime. (WellSurgeon, there were nine in their generation for a start...) The surprising naturalist, veterinarian 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 eccentric sums him up in the BBCperfectly, 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 any biographer is immediately presented 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>}} {{newreview|author=Benjamin Mandelkern|title=Escape from the Nazis: The Incredible and Inspiring Saga of Two Young Jews on the Run in World War II Poland|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Do we all have it in us? Would you as a Pole in 1940s Poland, who like as not had been 'educated' in the horrendous evil of Jews by your church - would you ignore Nazi death threats and countless opportunities for the wrong thing colourful tale to be said, for the truth to be let out, for betrayal - would you help a Jewish life survive?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1550280554</amazonuk>tell.
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard LucasWilliams_Captain|title=Axis SallyCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: The American Voice of Nazi GermanyHis Military Life and Times|author=Ivor George Williams
|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>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Anthony James
|title=The Happy Passion: A Personal View of Jacob Bronowski
|rating=4.5
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Jacob Bronowski was a scientific administrator, poet, philosopher, dramatist, radio and TV personality, best remembered for the series 'The Ascent of Man'. This short book, about 90 pages long, is partly biographical sketch, partly – in fact largely – an overview of his major published works, occupying about two-thirds of the book. In the author's words, it is intended as a personal view of Bronowski as a philosopher.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402200</amazonuk>
}}
 
{{newreview
|author=Patrick Lienhardt, Olivier Philipponnat and Euan Cameron
|title=The Life of Irene Nemirovsky
|rating=3.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Irene Nemirovsky In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the 17th Regiment of Foot. He was born in Kiev in 1903 command of the troops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to a wealthy Jewish familySydney, Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him. Even as a child she He was used not destined to travel and regularly spent time in live a long life, dying suddenly at the South age of France34 at Bangalore, but the family was forced leaving his widow to flee Russia when they were threatened by the revolutionraise their two young sons. They lived for a time in Finland and Stockholm, eventually settling Edwards' death left his widow in France. Nemirovsky's father was something of a rough diamond and her mother selfish and unfaithful, vain and difficult – her motherposition: not only did she have their farm to manage, particularly but she was also responsible for the convicts who worked the land. Two years later she would form the basis for several characters in Nemirovsky's booksmarry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523981</amazonuk>
}}
 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Giles MiltonPeacock_mountain|title=Wolfram: Into The Boy Who Went To WarMountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd|author=Charlotte Peacock
|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 that one of her grandparents Mostly we choose what books to read because there is German she included so little time and so many books… I can understand the only German symbol which she knew: a Swastika. It was this incidentapproach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, which was an awkward mixture of funny and disquieting which brought about 'Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To War'. It's we sell the story of Giles' fathermyriad lesser-in-lawknown authors short as well. So while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, Wolfram Aïcheleand while, who was nine years old when Hitler came to power like most other people I read the reviews and who found himself caught follow up in on what appeals, I also have a situation which was none of his making and didn't accord with his own beliefs. He was a man who wanted third-string to be a sculptor or to paint, but he was forced to become a soldiermy reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340837888</amazonuk>
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{{newreview|author=Dudley Green|title=Patrick Bronte: Father of Genius|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=There have been many biographies about Charlotte Brontë 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 in England in 1802 and settled in Yorkshire seven years later, where he remained the rest of his days.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454455</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Donald Spoto|title=Possessed: 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 Move on 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 [[Newest Business and probably one of the greatest gardens of the twentieth century.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950968</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]

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