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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chambers and Joan Bakewell1788360702|title=Chambers Biographical DictionaryCharles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|summary=It's now the ninth edition For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of this famous volume alternative medicine and that came as a bit of a shock when I glanced at the bookcase and realised that my copy dated back to 1974 and was still in regular use for a quick guide as to who might have been whocomplementary therapies. It 's advertised as 'the greatCharles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the goodPrince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the not-so-great and background of the downright wicked' and it's difficult to better that summaryscientific evidence. It There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has eighteen thousand biographies and differs from ''Who's Who'' with it's thirty thousand entries in that covers done considerable damage to the dead as well as the living and the ''interesting'' rather than those reputation of a man who need is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to be included because they have achieved a certain positionhis ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0550106936</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Claire Tomalin1739805100|title=Charles DickensLoving the Enemy: A Life|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Having already written biographies of Thomas Hardy and Jane Austen, among others, to say nothing of a study of Dickens and his mistress Nelly Ternan, Claire Tomalin is admirably qualified to produce Building bridges in a major life time of the author to mark the bicentenary of his birth in 1812. (Sadly, she says this will be her last large-scale book).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917672</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewwar|author=Jermaine Jackson|title=You Are Not Alone: Michael Through A Brother's EyesAndrew March

|summary=It is inevitable that ''Loving the Enemy'' tells the books we have already seen about Michael Jackson quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the two years since his sudden passing will be merely early days of the tip of Nazi regime in the iceberg1930s. Yet for those which comprise Fred, a sensitive and are based on first-hand knowledge thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of his life and death, there will surely be few if any "building bridges" which may guard against the growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the time. Fred's attempts to rival this account by his brother Jermaine separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships and ghostwriter Steve Dennisconnections that lasted for a lifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007435665</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Graham HoldernessWill Brooker|title=Nine Lives of William ShakespeareThe Truth About Lisa Jewell|rating=45

|summary=There is a subtle irony in 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 fact that two closer and closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the world’s best-known playwrightwords of her latest book she was reciting, and possibly her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the most famous author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of all timecultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author's life, working to make a character about whom so little is known for certainsuccess of the latest title, and struggling with the next in line. NeverthelessJewell, as we are looking at someone who died nearly 400 years agodue diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the indisputable documentary evidence is bound to be lackingresult.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1441151850</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Anne IsbaMartha Leigh|title=Dickens's WomenInvisible Ink: His Life and LovesA Family Memoir|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=The subject of the several women Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in the life of Charles Dickens might at first glance seem an unusual theme to build a biography aroundslightly eccentric, but this fairly brief but penetrating book serves its purpose wellimmediately recognisable upper middle class English family. The author’s foreword begins by telling us that Dickens was Her father is a man who 'craved a love so unconditional that Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the yearning was unlikely to be satisfied in this worldphilosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his life's work. Her mother is a man concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in thrall to a vision the practicalities of life. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a womanhood so idealized that it was incompatible with everyday domesticity'child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1441107207</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bruce DuffyPolly Barton|title=Disaster was my GodFifty Sounds

|genre=Literary FictionPolitics and Society|summary=The life of Arthur Rimbaud must be one of 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 while and if the most outrageous in literary historyworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, more scandalous than Wildebut I am not hopeful. And like Barton, more self-destructive than Malcolm Lowery, Rimbaud was I don't know the boy poet and iconoclast who took on answer to the literary establishment at end question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the nineteenth century and won. So Duffyquestion in the first essay, which is on the sound ''giro' ''s fictional account– which she describes as being, among other things, based closely around the actual facts sound of Rimbaud's life, was bound 'every party where you have to be an exciting and furious, and he doesnintroduce yourself''t disappoint. This is a difficult book to put down.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846685273</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Paul OppenheimerFrederic Gros|title=Machiavelli: A Life Beyond Ideology Philosophy of Walking|rating=45|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Machiavelli, 'I confess I picked this one up from the first philosopher library in my pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. Now I have to define politics as treachery', has probably been better known as go out an adjective, Machiavellian being a synonym for duplicity 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 statecraft, than as a historical personslowly. InterestinglyThis one had me in the first two pages, the term wherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport'Machiavel' became common in English usage as an adjective and noun around 1570, although none of his works were translated into the language for another seventy years or so after that.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847252214</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Roger HutchinsonSharon Blackie|title=The Silent WeaverIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=There is no question but I normally say that the story of Angus has all the right ingredients for you can tell how much a fascinating study. Taken from his Scottish Lowlands agricultural early childhood book means to the isolation of a Hebridean island of South Uist, joining the last ever horse platoon in the British Army at the outbreak of the Second World War, then mental breakdown and effective incarceration for almost all the rest of his life, he created some of the most unusual works of folk art that me by how many pages have existed this centurycorners turned down. And Hutchison tackles every angle Perhaps an even greater measure of this rich narrative, exploring impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the military thinking behind how horse regiments were to combat Hitler, through one I've borrowed. I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is definitely the first two and only time will tell about the operations of mental health care in later twentieth century Scotland, third – but clichés exist for a reason and all points in betweenI'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1841589713</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Harry Thompson0241446732|title=TintinOur House is on Fire: Herge Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and His CreationSvante Thunberg|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=I love TintinThe Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. I love his quiff and his innocence, his plus-fours and his foreign adventures, I love Snowy the dog Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of all I love Captain Haddock and the flamboyance parenting of his blistering barnacles languagetheir two daughters. So I Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was thrilled happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to see seek a biography of the character and Hergésolution close to home, his creatorbut eventually, and I picked it up with enthusiasmbecame clear to the family 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>1848546726</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Games0648684806|title=PevsnerClara Colby: The Early Life: Germany and ArtInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|summary=Nikolai Pewsner – The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the minor changes time she was just three-years-old but because of name came as some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a young adult - good education, both in and out of school. She was born the only child in Saxony the household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in 1902 into a Russianthe mid-Jewish 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 family. Just too young to avoid having to take part in the warClara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, he had studied art history at no less than four universities by the age of 22ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. He then became an assistant keeper at As the Dresden Gemaldegalerieeldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and four years later he Wisconsin was appointed lecturer at Gottingen Universitya rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441190937</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nancy Mitford1789017977|title=The Sun KingRonnie and Hilda's Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams

|summary=Nancy Mitford assumes that you'll need no introduction to Louis XIV, who ascended the throne when he was four years old and reigned for well over seventy two years. To put him 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 Ronnie Williams was contained inside Poland in 1921. It was an area in which the small market town son of Hruzdowa, comprising some 52 buildings and just large enough to warrant a town hall, was situated. These wild borderlands – Thomas Henry Williams (known as the Kresy - were fought over for centuries by Austrians, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians Harry) and LithuaniansEthel Wall. It was here that Matthew Kelly There's great-grandfather, who had imbibed the values and élan of the dashing officer class, Rafal Ryzewscy, came some doubt as to teach with his clever young wife, Hanna. They whether or not 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>}} {{newreview|author=Cita Stelzer|title=Dinner with Churchill: The Prime Ministerever married or even Harry's Tabletop Diplomacy|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Winston Churchill was never a man birthdate: he claimed to don the hair shirt. A comfortable upbringing have been born in the days when elaborate multiple courses were the done thing imbued in him from an early age a taste for the good things in life1863, and a bon viveur but he remained until the very end. Throughout his life he loved his food, and until near the end of his life, his appetite and digestion remained excellent, whereas was already many men in their advancing years older than Ethel and he might well have cut back shaved a littlefew years off his age.|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 For a master furniture maker and one of while, the artists featured family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the book, so he is not – as he says himself – a neutral observer 1929 Depression and nor can he be neutral in choosing who five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to include in the booka very different lifestyle. Having said that, the pictures alone will tell you that One thing he has chosen people who create furniture of great beauty did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and – often – originalitythis would stay with him throughout his life. It's the text that makes He joined the book shine, though – as it seeks not to give a critical appreciation of each man and one woman's work, but to look army 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 eighteen in the future1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>4770031211</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=D R ThorpePatti Smith|title=Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=The great-grandson of a crofter, and son-in-law of a Duke, Harold Macmillan was born in London in 1894. Despite the well-to-do aristocratic background, his years as a young adult were marked 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 Year of Stockton. 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 to toe the party line too steadfastly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844135411</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Ross|title=Marty Feldman: The Biography of a Comedy LegendMonkey

|summary=Some years ago, I was given a Penguin edition of Wilde's 'The Picture On the coast of Dorian Gray'Santa Cruz, with what looked like an uniquely fearsome face on Patti Smith enters the front cover. A lunar year or two later, I saw a photograph of Marty Feldman and was convinced he must have inspired it if not actually been the model.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857683780</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bettany Hughes|title=The Hemlock Cup: 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 of a mystery. He didn't like to write things downmonkey - one packed with mischief, and so Hughes begins this book by saying that it may have something of a 'Socrates-sized hole' in it. What we do see is the city of Athenssorrow, and the hugely important changes which were going on there while Socrates was aliveunexpected moments. 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 didnstranger't quite fit, infuriating to converse withs words, yet fascinating to be around.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554054</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|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 Anything 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 seductresspossible: after all, 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 Cleopatrait's much dramatised death, and beyond, to the end year of the Ptolemaic dynasty.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075353956X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tina Brown|title=The Diana Chronicles|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=monkey''The Diana Chronicles'' was first published in 2007, ten years after Diana's untimely death (forgive me if I proffer information that you already know, but prior to reading this book, I was one of . As Smith wanders the small group coast of people in this country happily oblivious to the Princess Diana industry). The book has been re-released Santa Cruz in shocking pinksolitude, white and gold livery, as she reflects on a 'commemorative edition' to coincide with The Royal Wedding. A fanciful Foreword now imagines Diana's year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and reaction to Will and Kate's marriageageing are faced head-on, had she survived.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099568357</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Frances Wilson|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 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 – and it was with a sense of anticipation that I opened the book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408809222</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andrew Crowther|title=Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan: His Life and Character|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Gilbert and Sullivan were the Rice and Lloyd Webber of the late Victorian era. Some might regard their work as slightly dated these days, especially the satirical lyrics which were so much a product of their time, but their appeal has never really faded and it surely never will.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752455893</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=D J Taylor|title=Thackeray|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Today, William Makepeace Thackeray is remembered almost exclusively as the writer of 'Vanity Fair', considered as among the greatest novels of its time. Yet he was a prolific writer, also responsible for 'Pendennis' and 'The Newcomes', as well as several sketches, essays and much poetry. However most of his work is largely forgotten today, while as a person he remains little known, and he has been somewhat overshadowed by his better-known contemporary, old friend and rival Charles Dickens, born one year later. This biography does an excellent job 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

|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>

 {{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

|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

|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 the tumultuous race struggle in A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the US in city during the 1960swar years, but it must only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be viewed allowed to happen in context. It was completed after Malcolm X's death, by co-author Alex Haley, and many aspects a country with liberal values who were highlighted or played down, resistant to suit Malcolm X's endsGerman occupation. Manning Marable's biography, years in Most people believed that the making, looks at his life with a new perspective.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0713998954</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Duncan Hamilton|title=The Unreliable Life of Harry occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel Thief|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=The story of Harry Germans might reach the Valet may not city were convinced that they would soon be particularly familiar pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to modern readersescalate in the way that it did, but he was something of a celebrity in initial protests melted away as the Victorian ageorganisers became more circumspect. He achieved notoriety by stealing thousands It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of pounds worth tens of jewels from the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland - much to the delight thousands of many people who disliked the lady, which appears to have been pretty much everyone who ever met her. Having pulled off this audacious theft, Harry seemed to be invincible - but he was brought down by his love for a Gaiety Girl, and ended up facing a trial which the papers fell over themselves to report onindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846058139</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786893452|title=The Fetish RoomUngrateful Refugee|author=Redmond O'Hanlon and Rudi RotthierDina Nayeri

|summary=An ongoing debate Here in our family has centred the West, we see news reports about immigrants on the value of biographiesa regular basis – some media welcoming them, particularly some scaremongering about them. But all of writers. I've those stories are written by journalists – almost always loved the touchstone of the places people lived western, and wrotealmost always, no matter how deep the banality of their lives, the detailinvestigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the insight, world and the fact situations that it can tell you everything or nothing at all about the workrefugees find themselves in. My Dad held It's rare that we find out 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>}} {{newreview|title=House of Exile: War, Love and Literature, journeys 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 refugees themselves – and political activist and fierce critic of militarism. He was convivial, having this is a wide circle of friends rare opportunity to do that contained many creative artists, playwrightsin this intelligent, socialists. He seemed drawn to the bohemians powerful 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 hautemoving work by Dina Nayeri -bourgeoisie. There someone who was an unusual degree of sibling rivalry between him and his less robust brother, born in the famous author middle of ''The Magic Mountain'', Thomas Mann. Hendrick possessed a sensual nature and fell passionately and easily revolution in love with a number of women. Of these his relationship with NellyIran, fleeing to America as 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 Statesten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846144612</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Stephenson0857058320|title=Let Not The Waves of Lord Of All the SeaDead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|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

|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>

 {{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

|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 eccentric sums him 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 worldperfectly, 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 Chinaa colourful tale to tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099551888</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Benjamin MandelkernWilliams_Captain|title=Escape from the Nazis: The Incredible and Inspiring Saga Captain Ronald Campbell 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 PolandBombala Station, who like as not had been 'educated' in the horrendous evil of Jews by your church - would you ignore Nazi death threats Cambalong: His Military Life and countless opportunities for the wrong thing to be said, for the truth to be let out, for betrayal - would you help a Jewish life survive?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1550280554</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewTimes|author=Richard Lucas|title=Axis Sally: The American Voice of Nazi GermanyIvor George Williams

|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

|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-law, Wolfram Aïchele, 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 beliefsknown authors short as well. He was a man who wanted to be a sculptor or to paintSo while, 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 like most other people I have been many biographies about Charlotte Brontë my favourite genres, and her siblingsfavoured authors, 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 Christinawhile, like most other people I read 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, reviews and is at pains to rectify the balance. Having previously written biographies of Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe among othersfollow up on what appeals, he clearly knows the subject of cinema inside out, and has written I also have 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 third-string to present her as a person more sinned against than sinning, a legendary talent, beauty and above all a grossly maligned adoptive mothermy reading bow: randomness.|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 Move on 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 [[Newest Business and probably one of the greatest gardens of the twentieth century.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950968</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]