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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roger Hutchinson1788360702|title=Charles, The Silent WeaverAlternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=There is no question but that the story For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of Angus has all the right ingredients for a fascinating studyalternative medicine and complementary therapies. Taken from his Scottish Lowlands agricultural early childhood to ''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the isolation of a Hebridean island of South UistPrince's opinions, joining beliefs and aims against the last ever horse platoon in background of the British Army at the outbreak scientific evidence. There are few instances of the Second World War, then mental breakdown his beliefs being vindicated and effective incarceration for almost all the rest of his life, he created some relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the most unusual works reputation of folk art that have existed this century. And Hutchison tackles every angle a man who is proud of this rich narrative, exploring the military thinking behind how horse regiments were his refusal to combat Hitlerapply evidence-based, through logical reasoning to the operations of mental health care in later twentieth century Scotland, and all points in betweenhis ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841589713</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Harry Thompson1739805100|title=TintinLoving the Enemy: Herge and His CreationBuilding bridges in a time of war|author=Andrew March|rating=34.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=I love Tintin''Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the early days of the Nazi regime in the 1930s. I love his quiff and his innocenceFred, his plus-fours a sensitive and his foreign adventuresthoughtful man, I love Snowy had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the dog and most of all I love Captain Haddock and growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the flamboyance of his blistering barnacles languagetime. So I was thrilled Fred's attempts to see separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships and connections that lasted for a biography of the character and Hergé, his creator, and I picked it up with enthusiasmlifetime. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848546726</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Stephen GamesWill Brooker|title=Pevsner: The Early Life: Germany and ArtTruth About Lisa Jewell|rating=45
|genre=Biography
|summary=Nikolai Pewsner – 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 minor changes thousands of name came as a young adult - was born in Saxony in 1902 into a Russian-Jewish familyless successful authors I quite confidently never have read. Just too young to avoid having to take part in This book starts with the wartwo meeting each other, as well, he had studied art history at no less than four universities by and shows how 2021 drew the age of 22two closer and closer together. He then became an assistant keeper at The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the Dresden Gemaldegaleriewords of her latest book she was reciting, and four years later he was appointed lecturer her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at Gottingen University.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441190937</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|the author=Nancy Mitford|title=The Sun King|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Nancy Mitford assumes that you'll need no introduction events I get to Louis XIVattend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who ascended has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the throne when he was four years old and reigned for well over seventy two yearsrabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. To put him in context his reign began before Charles I was executed Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in Whitehall, lasted through the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwellpublished author's Commonwealthlife, working to make a success of the reigns of Charles I, James IIlatest title, William III and into struggling with the beginning of the reign of Queen Annenext in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. He bridged the gap between the middle ages and And this is the early modern eraresult.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099528886</amazonuk>1529136024
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Matthew KellyMartha Leigh|title=Finding PolandInvisible Ink: A Family Memoir|rating=5|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=Looking at any historical map of Poland anyone may see how its borders have changed over the centuries Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Where will you find the Polish home? One answer must be that it Her father 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 Vilniusa Cambridge don, or Wilno forever clacking away on his typewriter as it was then known, which was contained inside Poland in 1921. It was an area in which he edits the small market town complete correspondence of Hruzdowa, comprising some 52 buildings and just large enough to warrant a town hall, was situated. These wild borderlands – known as the Kresy philosopher Jean- were fought over for centuries by AustriansJacques Rousseau, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Lithuanians. It was here that Matthew Kellyhis life's great-grandfather, work. Her mother is a concert pianist who had imbibed practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the values and élan practicalities of the dashing officer class, Rafal Ryzewscy, came to teach with his clever young wife, Hannalife. 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 There is love in the most cynical pacthouse but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099515997</amazonuk>1800460384
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Cita StelzerPolly Barton|title=Dinner with Churchill: The Prime Minister's Tabletop DiplomacyFifty Sounds
|rating=4.5
|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=Winston Churchill was never 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 man to don while and if the hair shirtworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. A comfortable upbringing in And like Barton, I don't know the days when elaborate multiple courses were answer to the done thing imbued question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in him from an early age a taste for respect of the good things question in lifethe first essay, and a bon viveur he remained until which is on the very end. Throughout his life he loved his foodsound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, among other things, and until near the end sound of his life, his appetite and digestion remained excellent, whereas many men in their advancing years might ''every party where you have cut back a littleto introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907595422</amazonuk>1913097501
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David SavageFrederic Gros|title=Furniture with Soul: Master Woodworkers and Their CraftA Philosophy of Walking
|rating=5
|genre=CraftsPolitics and Society|summary=David Savage is a master furniture maker and I confess I picked this one of up from the artists featured library in my pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the book, so he is not – as he says himself – a neutral observer pages I have marked and nor can he be neutral in choosing who return to its varying wisdom when I need to include in the book. Having said that, the pictures alone will tell Some books draw you that he has chosen people who create furniture of great beauty and – often – originalityin slowly. It's This one had me in the text that makes the book shinefirst two pages, though – as it seeks wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not to give a critical appreciation of each man and one womansport''s work, but to look at what makes them tick, what drives them on 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 a common medium and ten shorter pieces about those we should look out for in the future.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>4770031211</amazonuk>1781688370
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=D R ThorpeSharon Blackie|title=Supermac: The Life of Harold MacmillanIf Women Rose Rooted
|rating=5
|genre=Biography|summary=The great-grandson of I normally say that you can tell how much a crofter, and son-in-law of a Duke, Harold Macmillan was born in London in 1894. Despite the well-book means to-do aristocratic background, his years as a young adult were marked me by bad experiences in the trenches which left him with lifelong war wounds, and his early service as a Conservative Member of Parliament by the plight of the unemployed in his first constituency of Stocktonhow many pages have corners turned down. He had much in common with another future Prime Minister, Winston Churchill; both had American mothers, and both were mavericks who were elected as Conservatives but refused Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to toe buy my own copy before I've finished reading the party line too steadfastlyone I've borrowed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844135411</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Ross|title=Marty Feldman: The Biography of a Comedy Legend|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Some years ago, I was given a Penguin edition of Wildewant to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring's 'The Picture of Dorian Graylife-changing', with what looked like an uniquely fearsome face on – although it is definitely the front cover. A year or first two later, I saw and only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for a photograph of Marty Feldman reason and was convinced he must have inspired I'm not sure I can succinctly put it if not actually been the modelany better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857683780</amazonuk>1912836017
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bettany Hughes0241446732|title=The Hemlock CupOur House is on Fire: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=We don't know much about Socrates. For someone whose ideas are still so relevant so long after his death, his life is something Scenes of a mystery. He didn't like to write things down, Family and so Hughes begins this book by saying that it may have something of a 'Socrates-sized hole' Planet in it. What we do see is the city of Athens, and the hugely important changes which were going on there while Socrates was alive. In Athens we see the beginnings of democracy, the seedlings of some of the ideas that we take for granted today, such as freedom of speech, and the right to a fair trial. This was an important time in the development 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 to converse with, yet fascinating to be around.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554054</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewCrisis|author=Stacy Schiff|title=Cleopatra: A Life|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Stacey Schiff's biography starts more of less from Cleopatra's infamous meeting with Caesar, where she sneaks into his rooms in a sack. This is one of the most popular images of Cleopatra in the public consciousness and Schiff happily refutes the image of her emerging as a well polished seductressMalena Ernman, pointing out that anyone who had been carried in a sack for a considerable period of time will more likely be fairly dishevelled. Schiff takes us through from this moment up to Cleopatra's much dramatised deathGreta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and beyond, to the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075353956X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tina Brown|title=The Diana ChroniclesSvante Thunberg
|rating=5
|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=''The Diana Chronicles'' Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was first published in 2007an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, ten Beata, then nine years after Dianaold, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it's untimely death (forgive me if I proffer information that you already knownatural to seek a solution close to home, but prior to reading this bookeventually, I was one of the small group of people in this country happily oblivious it became clear to the Princess Diana industry). The book has been refamily that they were ''burned-released in shocking pink, white and gold livery, as out people on a burned-out planet'commemorative edition' . If they were to find a way to coincide with The Royal Wedding. A fanciful Foreword now imagines Diana's life and reaction live happily again their solution would need to Will and Kate's marriage, had she survivedbe radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099568357</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Wilson0648684806|title=How to Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of J. Bruce IsmayClara Colby: The International Suffragist|author=John Holliday|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=As I read The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick'How s life was probably determined when her family emigrated to Survive the TitanicUSA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn' I was conscious t allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that we're only she received a matter good education, both in and out of months away from school. She was the centenary of only child in the sinking – household and a slew of media to mark the occasionher childhood was glorious. Given that By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the subject has been mined extensively over mid-west of the years it will be interesting United States and life was hard, as Clara was to see whether there's anything new find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to be said about join the tragedyfamily. 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 childbirth not long after Clara arrived. It's As the eldest girl, a subject which has always fascinated me – heavy burden would fall on Clara and it Wisconsin was with a sense of anticipation that I opened the bookrude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408809222</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew Crowther1789017977|title=Gilbert of Gilbert Ronnie and SullivanHilda's Romance: His Towards a New Life and Characterafter World War II|author=Wendy Williams|rating=54|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=Gilbert and Sullivan were Ronnie Williams was the Rice son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Lloyd Webber of the late Victorian eraEthel Wall. Some might regard their work There's some doubt as slightly dated these daysto whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, especially the satirical lyrics which were so much but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a product of their timewhile, the family was quite well-to-do but their appeal has never really faded disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and it surely never willfive-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752455893</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=D J TaylorPatti Smith|title=ThackerayYear of the Monkey|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=Today, William Makepeace Thackeray is remembered almost exclusively as On the writer coast of 'Vanity Fair'Santa Cruz, considered as among Patti Smith enters the greatest novels lunar year of its timethe monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. Yet he was In a prolific writerstranger's words, also responsible for 'Pendennis' and Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey'The Newcomes', as well as several sketches, essays and much poetry. However most As Smith wanders the coast of his work is largely forgotten todaySanta Cruz in solitude, while as she reflects on a person he remains little known, year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and he has been somewhat overshadowed by his betterageing are faced head-known contemporaryon, old friend and rival Charles Dickens, born one year later. This biography does an excellent job as it the shifting political waters in rescuing him from such semi-obscurityAmerica.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099563258</amazonuk>1526614758
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsey Fraser1912242052|title=J K Rowling: the Mystery of Fiction|rating=4|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Easily one of the most renowned authors of the 21st century, J.K. Rowling's incredibly successful Harry Potter series shook the core of the literary world. It provoked a reaction, the likes of which have never been seen before, and likely never will. A unique set of factors combined in order for the Harry Potter books to reach the level of success they enjoyed, and these factors are explored in this biography of Rowling. It is difficult not to be fascinated by the person who is responsible O Joy for the phenomenon that is Harry Potter, 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 the Harry Potter legacy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906134693</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewme!|author=Charlotte Frost|title=Sir William Knighton: The Strange Career of a Regency PhysicianKeir Davidson
|rating=3
|genre=BiographyArt|summary=Sir William Knighton came from humble beginnings: in later life ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the memories of his mother selling butter and eggs from a market stall would frequently be brought up and it was never first person to illustrate just how well walk the mountains alone, not because he'd done. The fact that he became a physician would normally be quite an achievementhad to for work, but his baronetcy and fame didn't come from his work as a physician miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but from his less well-publicised work for George IV. Although his work at court would span just over a decade it was far from being what because he wanted to do – for pleasure and for the most part it would not bring him a great deal of happinessadventure. At the end His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of his career as a physician he simply wanted to retire to his cottage in the country - but found himself unable to desert a king who had become dependent on himworld''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755213017</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rodney BoltGraff_Find|title=As Good as God, as Clever as the Devil: The Impossible Life of Mary Benson|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Since I hadn't previously heard of Archbishop Benson, let alone his wife, I must commend the title, cover and advertising of this book. All of the above provided an accurate and irresistible glimpse of the biography within, and I wasn't one whit disappointed in my choice.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843548615</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFind Another Place|author=Barbara Sinatra|title=Lady Blue Eyes: My Life With Frank SinatraBen 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>
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{{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>
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{{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=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.
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{{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=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>
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{{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, Wolfram Aïchelelike most other people I have my favourite genres, who was nine years old when Hitler came to power and who found himself caught up in a situation which was none of his making and didn't accord with his own beliefs. He was a man who wanted to be a sculptor or to paintfavoured authors, but he was forced to become a soldier.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340837888</amazonuk>}} {{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 siblingswhile, 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 like most other people I read the father of such a famous family. Yet Dudley Greenreviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have 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 daysthird-string to my reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454455</amazonuk>
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