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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Blackburn1788360702|title=Thin PathsCharles, The Alternative Prince: Journeys in and Around an Italian Mountain VillageAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|summary=Julia Blackburn had known Herman for many For over forty years, but they had drifted apart. She put the postcard which she received from him in Prince Charles has been an album: it mentioned a cottage he had discovered in Liguria ardent supporter of alternative medicine and which he was renovating. Some time later there was another postcard and an invitation to visit. Over time the cottage would become her home and Herman her husbandcomplementary therapies. 'Thin Paths' is Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the stories of the people who inhabit this harshPrince's opinions, wild landscape beliefs and aims against the background of the way in which the landscape has formed the peoplescientific evidence. The thin paths join the people 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 places together in reputation of a way man who is proud of life which is rarehis refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090682</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Erica Heller1739805100|title=Yossarian Slept Here|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary='To live forever or die in the attempt' was the essential glory in life and living that is at Loving the heart of John Yossarian Enemy: Building bridges in [[Catch 22 by Joseph Heller|Catch 22]]. This autobiography a time of the daughter of his creator, Joseph Heller, reveals how the same excitement and joie de vivre suffused throughout the Heller family. The harebrained unpredictability, the madcap exploits and relationships bowl us through this book with terrific pace and verve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099570084</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewwar|author=Chambers and Joan Bakewell|title=Chambers Biographical DictionaryAndrew March|rating=4.5

|summary=It''Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's now grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the ninth edition of this famous volume and that came as a bit early days of a shock when I glanced at the bookcase and realised that my copy dated back to 1974 and was still Nazi regime in regular use for a quick guide as to who might have been whothe 1930s. It's advertised as 'the greatFred, the gooda sensitive and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the not-so-great and growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the downright wicked' and ittime. Fred's difficult attempts to better that summary. It has eighteen thousand biographies and differs separate individual people from ideology weren''Who's Who'' with it's thirty thousand entries in t universally successful but he did make friendships and connections that covers the dead as well as the living and the ''interesting'' rather than those who need to be included because they have achieved lasted for a certain positionlifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0550106936</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Claire TomalinWill Brooker|title=Charles Dickens: A LifeThe Truth About Lisa Jewell

|summary=Having already written biographies 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 Thomas Hardy 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 Jane Austencloser together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, among othersit seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was reciting, and her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to say nothing of attend), but pulled Brooker, a study professor of Dickens and his mistress Nelly Ternancultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, Claire Tomalin down the rabbit-hole that is admirably qualified Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to produce follow her through a major year in the published author's life , working to make a success of the author to mark latest title, and struggling with the bicentenary of his birth next in 1812line. (SadlyJewell, due diligence appropriately done, she says agrees. And this will be her last large-scale book)is the result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670917672</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jermaine JacksonMartha Leigh|title=You Are Not AloneInvisible Ink: Michael Through A Brother's EyesFamily Memoir|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=It is inevitable that the books we have already seen Martha Leigh begins her book talking about Michael Jackson a childhood spent in the two years since a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his sudden passing will be merely typewriter as he edits the tip complete correspondence of the icebergphilosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his life's work. Yet Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for those which comprise and are based on first-hand knowledge hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the practicalities of his life and death, . There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there will surely be few if any to rival this account by his brother Jermaine and ghostwriter Steve Dennis.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0007435665</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreview|author=Graham Holderness|title=Nine Lives of William Shakespeare|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=There is a subtle irony in the fact that the world’s best-known playwright, and possibly the most famous author of all time, is a character about whom so little is known for certain. Nevertheless, as we are looking at someone who died nearly 400 years ago, the indisputable documentary evidence is bound to be lacking.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441151850</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anne Isba|title=Dickens's Women: His Life and Loves|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=The subject of the several women in the life of Charles Dickens might at first glance seem an unusual theme to build a biography around, but this fairly brief but penetrating book serves its purpose well. The author’s foreword begins by telling us that Dickens was a man who 'craved a love so unconditional that the yearning was unlikely to be satisfied in this world, a man in thrall to a vision of a womanhood so idealized that it was incompatible with everyday domesticity'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441107207</amazonuk>}} {{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 Ronnie Williams 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 son 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 – 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 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 of 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 in the book. Having said that, the pictures alone will tell you that he has chosen people who create furniture of great beauty and – often – originalityfew years off his age. It's the text that makes the book shine, though – as it seeks not to give For a critical appreciation of each man and one woman's workwhile, but to look at what makes them tick, what drives them on and how they have handled the good times as family was quite 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 to-do but disaster struck in the future.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>4770031211</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=D R Thorpe|title=Supermac: The Life of Harold Macmillan|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=The great-grandson of a crofter, 1929 Depression and sonfive-inyear-law of old Ronnie had to adjust to a Duke, Harold Macmillan was born in London in 1894very different lifestyle. Despite the One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-toturned-do aristocratic background, his years as a young adult were marked by bad experiences in the trenches which left out and this would stay with him with lifelong war wounds, and throughout his early service as a Conservative Member of Parliament by the plight of the unemployed in his first constituency of Stocktonlife. He had much joined the army at eighteen 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 steadfastly1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844135411</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert RossPatti Smith|title=Marty Feldman: The Biography Year of a Comedy Legendthe Monkey

|summary=Some years agoOn the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, I was given and unexpected moments. In a Penguin edition of Wildestranger's words, 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'Anything is possible: after all, with what looked like an uniquely fearsome face on it's the year of the front covermonkey''. A year or two laterAs Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, I saw she reflects on a photograph of Marty Feldman year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and was convinced he must have inspired ageing are faced head-on, as it if not actually been the modelshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0857683780</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bettany Hughes1912242052|title=The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search O Joy for the Good Lifeme!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=4.53|genre=BiographyArt|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 down, and so Hughes begins this book by saying that it may have something of a Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being 'Socrates-sized hole' in it. What we do see is the city of Athens, and first person to walk the hugely important changes which were going on there while Socrates was alive. In Athens we see the beginnings of democracymountains alone, the seedlings of some of the ideas that we take not because he had to for granted todaywork, such as freedom of speecha miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and the right to a fair trialadventure. This was an important time in the development of modern values His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and Socrates was an important man. He was not only a brilliant thinkerits literary consequences, he was also a man that didnchanged our view of the world''t quite fit, infuriating to converse with, yet fascinating to be around.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554054</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stacy SchiffGraff_Find|title=Cleopatra: A LifeFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff|rating=43.5|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Stacey SchiffWhen Ben Graff's biography starts more grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of less handwritten notes from Cleopatrahis journal, he didn's infamous meeting with Caesar, where she sneaks into his rooms in a sackt take much notice of it. This is one of the most popular images of Cleopatra in the public consciousness and Schiff happily refutes At the image age of her emerging as a well polished seductress24, 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 CleopatraGraff didn's much dramatised death, and beyond, to t realise the end gravity of the Ptolemaic dynastypages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075353956X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tina Brown1789016304|title=The Diana ChroniclesWar and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin

|summary=Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Diana ChroniclesDiary of Ann Frank'' was first published in 2007, ten years after Dianabut then realised that her own family's untimely death (forgive me if I proffer information that you already knowstories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, but prior only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to reading this book, I was one of the small group of people happen in this a country happily oblivious with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the Princess Diana industry). The book has been re-released occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in shocking pink, white and gold liverythe way that it did, but initial protests melted away as a 'commemorative edition' to coincide with The Royal Weddingthe organisers became more circumspect. A fanciful Foreword now imagines Diana It's life and reaction to Will and Kate's marriage, had she survivedan atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099568357</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Wilson1786893452|title=How to Survive the Titanic or the Sinking of J. Bruce IsmayThe Ungrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri

|summary=As I read 'How to Survive Here in the Titanic' I was conscious that West, we're only see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter of months away from how deep the centenary of investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the sinking – world and a slew of media to mark the occasion. Given situations 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 tragedyrefugees find themselves in. It's a subject which has always fascinated me rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and it was with this is a sense of anticipation rare opportunity to do that I opened the book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408809222</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Andrew Crowther|title=Gilbert of Gilbert , in this intelligent, powerful and Sullivan: His Life and Character|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Gilbert and Sullivan were moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the Rice and Lloyd Webber middle of the late Victorian era. Some might regard their work a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America 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 willten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752455893</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=D J Taylor0857058320|title=Thackeray|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Today, William Makepeace Thackeray is remembered almost exclusively as Lord Of All 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 in rescuing him from such semi-obscurity.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099563258</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDead|author=Lindsey Fraser|title=J K Rowling: the Mystery of FictionJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=Sir William Knighton came from humble beginnings: in later ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the memories of meaning behind his mother selling butter and eggs from a market stall would frequently be brought up and it was never to illustrate just how well hegreat uncle'd dones death in the Spanish Civil War. The fact that he became a physician would normally be quite an achievementManuel Mena, but his baronetcy and fame didnCercas't come from his work as a physician but from his less well-publicised work great uncle, is the figure who looms large over the book. He died relatively young whilst fighting for George IVFrancisco Franco's forces. Although Cercas ruminates on why his work at court would span just over a decade it was far from being what he wanted to do – and uncle fought for the most part it would not bring him a great deal of happinessthis dictator. At The question at the end centre of this book is whether it is possible for his career as great uncle to be a physician he simply wanted to retire to his cottage in hero whilst having fought for the country - but found himself unable to desert a king who had become dependent on himwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755213017</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rodney Bolt1788037812|title=As Good as God, as Clever as The Fraternity of the DevilEstranged: The Impossible Life of Mary BensonFight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson

|summary=Since I hadn't previously heard of Archbishop Benson, let alone his wifeOriginally passed in 1885, I must commend the titlelaw that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, cover restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and advertising 1908, three books on the nature of this bookhomosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. All Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, so the above provided an accurate and irresistible glimpse publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the biography withinscientific understanding of homosexuality, and I wasn't one whit disappointed beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in my choice1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843548615</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barbara SinatraBuckland_Zoo|title=Lady Blue EyesThe Man Who Ate the Zoo: My Life With Frank SinatraBuckland, forgotten hero of natural history|author=Richard Girling

|summary=People's preconceptions about Malcolm X are vast. This is no surprise given his dramatic life, untimely death, and subsequent increased fame through the likes of {{amazonurl|title=Spike Lee's 1992 film|isbn=B00005A7TO}}. {{amazonurl|title=His autobiography|isbn=0141185430}} is As a must-read for anyone interested in his life, or the tumultuous race struggle in the US conservationist in Victorian England before the 1960sterm existed, but it must be viewed in contextFrank Buckland was very much a man ahead of his time. It was completed after Malcolm X's deathSurgeon, by co-author Alex Haleynaturalist, veterinarian and many aspects were highlighted or played downeccentric sums him up perfectly, to suit Malcolm X's ends. Manning Marable's biography, years in the making, looks at his life and any biographer is immediately presented with a new perspectivecolourful tale to tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0713998954</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Duncan HamiltonWilliams_Captain|title=The Unreliable Life Captain Ronald Campbell of Harry the ValetBombala Station, Cambalong: The Great Victorian Jewel ThiefHis Military Life and Times|author=Ivor George Williams|rating=4.5

|summary=The story In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of Harry the Valet may not be particularly familiar to modern readers, but he 17th Regiment of Foot. He was something in command of the troops and convicts on board a celebrity in the Victorian ageship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him. He achieved notoriety by stealing thousands of pounds worth of jewels from the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland - much was not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the delight age of many people who disliked the lady34 at Bangalore, which appears leaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Edwards' death left his widow in a difficult position: not only did she have been pretty much everyone who ever met her. Having pulled off this audacious thefttheir farm to manage, Harry seemed to be invincible - but he she was brought down by his love also responsible for a Gaiety Girl, and ended up facing a trial which the papers fell over themselves to report onconvicts who worked the land. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846058139</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Peacock_mountain|title=Into The Fetish RoomMountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd|author=Redmond O'Hanlon and Rudi RotthierCharlotte Peacock

|summary=An ongoing debate in our family has centred on Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the value of biographiesapproach, particularly of writers. but I've always loved the touchstone of the places people lived and wrote, the banality of their lives, the detail, the insightalso think we sell ourselves short by it, and we sell 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 myriad lesser-known authors short as social history rather than biography, he'd lap it upwell. I guess I just don't make the distinction. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684145</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=House of Exile: War, Love and LiteratureSo while, 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 most other people I have my favourite authorgenres, 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, playwrightsfavoured authors, 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 brotherwhile, like most other people I read the famous author of ''The Magic Mountain'', Thomas Mann. Hendrick possessed a sensual nature reviews and fell passionately and easily in love with a number of women. Of these his relationship with Nellyfollow up on what appeals, I also have 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 third-string to the United Statesmy reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846144612</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Simon Stephenson|title=Let Not The Waves of the Sea|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=The book opens after the catastrophic event and the narrator/author Simon is in the local area of Phi Phi. He describes it in glowing terms (which may sound a little strange) as he aims, Move on a rather arduous climb, to be rewarded with a stunning view. And immediately I'm struck with Stephenson's lilting style of writing. For example, ' ... an elderly lady carrying bags of rice over each shoulder as if they were no more than foam guesthouse pillows.' How lovely and evocative is that, I'm thinking to myself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848545584</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Philip Norman|title=John Lennon: The Life|rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=For part of my formative 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 [[Newest Business and times of the former Beatle. It's also surely one of the most impartial. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>000719742X</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]