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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Thomas Wright1788360702|title=CirculationCharles, The Alternative Prince: William Harvey's Revolutionary IdeaAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst|rating=54

|summary='Circulation' by Thomas Wright is a biography For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of English physician William Harvey’s life, alternative medicine and the story of the complementary therapies. 'birth of a theory'. It takes the reader through time beforeCharles, during and after the creation and completion of The Alternative Prince''De Motu Cordis'critically assesses the Prince's opinions, in which Harvey famously outlines beliefs and aims against the most comprehensive antecedent background of the mechanism of blood circulation as we know it todayscientific evidence. The combination There are few instances of the writer's aptitude for storytelling his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the intriguing life reputation of the individual about whom he writes makes for a fascinating read, allowing one man who is proud of his refusal to course through chronologically arranged chapters on Harvey’s life and worksapply evidence-based, mixed with briefer essays on subject matters ranging from the history of vivisection logical reasoning to the philosophical underpinnings of Harvey’s workhis ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552698</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Morrison1739805100|title=The Love and Wars Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of Lina Prokofievwar|author=Andrew March

|summary=This book is a biography of and based largely on ''Loving the Enemy'' tells the letters quite extraordinary story of Lina Prokofiev. Born Carlina Codina author Andrew March's grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in Madrid in 1897, she spent most the early days of her childhood the Nazi regime in New Yorkthe 1930s. After making her stage debut as Fred, a soprano in Verdi’s ‘Rigoletto’ under the name of Lina Llubera, she met the Soviet composer sensitive and pianist Serge Prokofievthoughtful man, best remembered for the children’s musical fable ‘Peter and had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the Wolf’. They married growing hostilities between nations unfolding in 1924 and for Europe at the first thirteen years of their marriage they lived in Paris, where two sons, Oleg and Svyatoslav, were born to themtime. Soon after moving Fred's attempts to Moscow in 1936 their marriage fell apart. In 1941 separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he left her did make friendships and connections that lasted for a writer, Mira Mendelson, 24 years his junior, whom he married six years laterlifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846557313</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Yehuda Koren and Eilat NegevWill Brooker|title=Giants: The Dwarfs of Auschwitz: The Extraordinary Story of the Lilliput TroupeTruth About Lisa Jewell|rating=4.5

|summary=The title Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of this book does the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of course carry a sense the thousands of ironyless successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, although we never quite know exactly as well, and shows how much2021 drew the two closer and closer together. When a man of diminutive stature The meeting was born in rural Romania in the 1860s nobody was to know what would happen to his lineage – there was no clue then that he would father ten childrensome unspecified combination, it seems, and seven of them would inherit his genetic dwarfism. But history has pieced together all that followedher anecdote about cup cakes, including the careers those children had as a performance troupe, belting out showtunes to their own accompanimentwords of her latest book she was reciting, and acting her being in their own tragia ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-comic skits. And then having up never commonly worn at the limelight stolen from them by the Nazisauthor events I get to attend), and a transportation to Auschwitz. And then being surprisingly savedbut pulled Brooker, and given what passed as a cushty lifeprofessor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, fed and together, but tortured at down the hands of the camp doctor, avidly researching anything he thought might shed clues on what singled out his Aryan racerabbit-hole that is Jewell's genetic destinydiverse output. I say Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the amount published author's life, working to make a success of irony is unknown because we are not told exactly how short these little characters are – but hethe latest title, and struggling with the doctornext in line. Jewell, would have knowndue diligence appropriately done, agrees. As one of And this is the more ominous sentences you'll read all year has it – 'Mengele had plans for them'result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849544646</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter AckroydMartha Leigh|title=Wilkie CollinsInvisible Ink: A Family Memoir|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=While Peter Ackroyd has published some extremely long books over the last few years Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he has also been responsible for some commendably concise volumes as well. This life of edits the Victorian novelist is one complete correspondence of the latterphilosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his life's work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the latest practicalities of life. There is love in his series of 'Brief Lives', which have the house but also included Chaucer, the painter Turner and [[Poe by Peter Ackroyd|Edgar Allan Poe]]darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099287471</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gary RaymondPolly Barton|title=3-Minute JRR Tolkien: A Visual Biography of The World's Most Revered Fantasy WriterFifty Sounds|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=When something Where do I start? I could start with such a built-in cult base as Tolkien books have gets transported into another mediumwhere Barton herself starts, the manically interested fans have two reactions – to initially scoff at how nothing could compare with the original, and then to try question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and buy everything worthwhile with even a tenuous link to if the object of their affectionsworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, while avoiding I don't know the mountain of crud that could deluge the unwary. Such it will be until answer to the third movie part of question ''The Hobbitwhy Japan?'' is safely behind us, and She explains her feelings in respect of the question in the six-filmfirst essay, three-month long Blu-Ray box set which is on the shelves. Tolkien enthusiasts of course have a precarious situation sound ''giro' '' – so great do they rightly hold the originalswhich she describes as being, among other things, and so low can the quality sound of the spin-offs be, there are some who will never be satisfied. But there remains the newcomer, freshly inspired ''every party where you have to find out more, and those at least will certainly be able to enjoy this beginnerintroduce yourself''s guide to [[:Category:J R R Tolkien|J R R Tolkien]].|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1908005831</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John FisherFrederic Gros|title=Tommy Cooper 'Jus' Like That!': A Life in Jokes and PicturesPhilosophy of Walking|rating=45|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=I grew confess I picked this one up watching Tommy Cooper, and watching from the library in my dad do impressions pre-lockdown forage of Tommy Cooperrandom stuff. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I thought he was hilarious (can turn down the real Tommy!) pages I have marked and loved his expressions as he repeatedly tried and failed return to its varying wisdom when I need to do magic tricks! . Some books draw you in slowly. This book is rather unusual as although it is a biography of sorts, giving information about Tommy's life and his history one had me in the world of entertainmentfirst two pages, it isnwherein Gros explains why 't text heavy, and so mostly Tommy's story walking is told through photographs and picturesnot a sport''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184809311X</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Peter Unwin (editor)Sharon Blackie|title=Newcomers' Lives: The Story of Immigrants as Told in Obituaries from The TimesIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=I think normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I was not 've finished reading the only person who at first glance found the title and sub-title slightly misleadingone I've borrowed. For me I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it conjured up visions of those who came across on is definitely the ‘Windrush’ in 1948 first two and only time will tell about the life they led on settling in Britain third – but clichés exist for a reason and, perhaps, the lives of the more famous (assuming there were some) in obituary formI'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1441159177</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Artemis Cooper0241446732|title=Patrick Leigh FermorOur House is on Fire: An Adventure|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=The sub-title of this biography is highly appropriate, for the ninety-six years of Patrick Leigh Fermor were packed with adventure. Born in 1915, he was something Scenes of a maverick at school, intellectually gifted but perpetually naughty, Family and his punishments for various refractions included suspensions and even expulsions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719554497</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewa Planet in Crisis|author=Selina Guinness|title=The Crocodile by the Door: The Story of a HouseMalena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, a Farm Beata Thunberg and a FamilySvante Thunberg

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Selina Guinness lived at Tibradden as a child The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and in 2002 she talking and her husband-sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to-behome, Colin Grahambut eventually, moved back it became clear to the house when her elderly uncle Charles became frail. The surname might lead you to suspect family that there they were brewery millions in the background but this wasn't the case'burned-out people on a burned-out planet''. The couple If they were young academics and doing what needed to be done at Tibradden find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be done in addition to full-time jobsradical. The house was on the outskirts of Dublin - 'derelict fields' if you were a property developer or the last defence against the encroaching city if you were not.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844881571</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Harry Ricketts0648684806|title=Strange MeetingsClara Colby: The Lives of the Poets of the Great WarInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday|rating=4.5

|summary=The majority path of recent books on Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the War Poets tend time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to focus on their lives during sail with her parents and immediately after the conflictthree brothers. This enterprising accountInstead, borrowing its name from the poem by Wilfred Owenshe remained with her grandparents, takes who doted on her and saw that she received a different approach good education, both in spanning a full fifty years or more. It begins with the first meeting of Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke at one out of Eddie Marsh’s breakfasts in July 1914school. Marsh She was a tireless supporter of modern painters the only child in the household and after that promising new writers, particularly poetsher childhood was glorious. The journeyBy contrast, or rather account her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of meetingsthe United States and life was hard, takes us as Clara was to the western front find out when she and back her grandparents eventually went to Englandjoin the family. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, culminating had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in a reunion of two of childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the longest-livedeldest girl, Sassoon a heavy burden would fall on Clara and David Jones, in 1964Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951808</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Callow1789017977|title=Charles LaughtonRonnie and Hilda's Romance: A Difficult ActorTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=Once a towering presence on stage and screen, Ronnie Williams was the star son of fifty films Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and forty playsEthel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, Charles Laughton seems largely forgotten these daysbut he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. As an actor of For a younger generation and keen admirer of his workwhile, Callow is the family was quite well placed -to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to bring him back adjust to the forea very different lifestyle. He notes in One thing he did inherit from his father was his preface that the man has increasingly slipped need to be well-turned-out of public consciousness, and even within this would stay with him throughout his own profession he is virtually unknown to anybody under life. He joined the age of forty|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581957</amazonuk>army at eighteen in 1942.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=John SugdenPatti Smith|title=Nelson: A Dream Year of Glorythe Monkey|rating=54

|summary=I will admit that I didnOn the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, 't know what I was letting myself in for when I saw 'NelsonAnything is possible: A Dream after all, it's the year of Glorythe monkey' sitting on '. As Smith wanders the Bookbag shelfcoast of Santa Cruz in solitude, but I had just come back from Portsmouth she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and a wander around ageing are faced head-on the Victory, so as it was a bit hard to resistthe shifting political waters in America. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845951913</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kate Chisholm1912242052|title=Wits and Wives: Dr Johnson in the Company of WomenO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=53|genre=BiographyArt|summary=What's your mental image of a Great Writer? Most people would probably say 'Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the same thing: someone sitting in splendid isolationmountains alone, not because he had to for work, probably in as a garretminer, writing Great Words and hating them. The idea of Great Writers having friendsquarryman, shepherd or even a familypack-horse driver, is a bizarre one. Partly this is but because most Great Writers were incredibly weird people. But there's another issue at play. We're simply not used he wanted to imagining them in context, just one small part of a large for pleasure and busy worldadventure. Our notion of biography is an incredibly fragmented one: despite the fact that one of the best indications of someone's character is how they interact His rapturous encounters with other human beingstheir natural beauty, we expect biographers to essentially confine themselves to the person and their its literary outputconsequences, changed our view of the world''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951867</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances A GerardGraff_Find|title=Anna Amalia, Grand Duchess: Patron of Goethe and SchillerFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff|rating=43.5|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Anna Amalia When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of Brunswickhandwritten notes from his journal, a Duchess he didn't take much notice of Saxe-Weimar Eisenach in the eighteenth century, is scarcely little more than a footnote in European royal history these daysit. Nevertheless it was mainly through her patronage that At the court of Weimar became one age of 24, Graff didn't realise the most artistically renowned gravity of the time, a reputation it never lost throughout the increasingly militaristic times that Germany went through from the age of Bismarck and beyondpages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781550166</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adrian Fort1789016304|title=NancyWar and Love: The Story A family's testament of Lady Astoranguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin

|summary=Nancy, Lady AstorMelanie 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 Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the first woman to take her seat as an elected Member of Parliament at Westminsterwar years, is one of those characters about whom it is surely impossible for anyone but only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to write happen in a dull biographycountry with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. A determined character Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who inspired admirationthought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, respect and exasperation that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in equal measure from most if not all who had dealings with herthe way that it did, she is well served by this latest in but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a long line vast scale but made up of titles devoted to hertens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>022409016X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Julia Jones1786893452|title=Fifty Years In The Fiction Factory: The Working Life Of Herbert AllinghamUngrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri

|summary=Herbert Allingham was one of Here in the most prolific authors of his timeWest, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. Between 1886 and his death in 1936 he was a busy writer But all of melodramatic serial those stories in are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the mass-market halfpenny papers which flourished at investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the turn of world and the centurysituations that refugees find themselves in. Yet nothing he wrote was ever published It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in book form with his name to itthis intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the magazine proprietors made fortunes while their authors were the unsung heroes middle of the tradea revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1899262075</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Doggett0857058320|title=The Man Who Sold The World: David Bowie And The 1970s|rating=4.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=With hindsight, it’s difficult to argue with the oft-expressed opinion that David Bowie was the single most important rock musician of the 1970s. Having been a perpetual ‘one to watch’ from around 1966 onwards but with only one hit during that decade, ‘Space Oddity’, from 1972 onwards he went through several remarkable self-reinventions in musical style, with an uncanny knack of being able to pre-empt the next big trend. In examining his whole career but focusing largely on his work throughout that particular decade, Peter Doggett looks specifically at every song he recorded, including cover versions. There are also boxed-out features on each album, and articles on related topics such as ‘The Art of Minimalism’ and ‘The Heart of Plastic Soul’. He concludes that by 1979 Lord Of All the man’s extraordinary creativity was more or less spent and his subsequent output, successful though it may have been, was in effect treading water up to his ‘elegant, unannounced retirement’ in 2007.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548879</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewDead|author=Victoria Glendinning|title=Raffles And the Golden OpportunityJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=Although Raffles has gone down in history as ''Lord Of All the founder of Singapore his roots were far from grand. He had no advantages apart from his own drive and determination and his professional life began with Dead'' is a lowly clerkship with journey to uncover the East india Company, then as large author's lost ancestor's life and ungainly as many a governmentdeath. When he went abroad on behalf of Cercas is searching for the Company he quickly learned meaning behind his great uncle's death in the merits of doing something and asking permission afterwardsSpanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, not least because of is the figure who looms large over the time taken to contact London and then receive a replybook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Even if all went well Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this could take dictator. The question at the best part centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a year - by which time hero whilst having fought for the original question could well be academicwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846686032</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Simon Sykes1788037812|title=HockneyThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The Biography, Volume 1Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 19371891-19751908|author=Brian Anderson

|summary=With the possible exception of Princess DianaOriginally passed in 1885, Marilyn Monroe is probably the most written-about deceased woman law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in twentiethplace for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-century historysex relationships did not go unchallenged. The thirty-six years of her life Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the manner nature of her death will no doubt continue to provide an opportunity for homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as many writers well as they have since her sudden passingthe heterosexual Havelock Ellis. After a decade Exploring the margins of research Lois Bannersociety and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, a Professor of History and Gender Studies at university but barely talked about in Californiathe UK, has added another weighty tome so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the relevant shelves. As a self-styled pioneer scientific understanding of second-wave feminism homosexuality, and beginning the new women’s historystruggle for recognition and equality, she has some interesting insights leading to offer into her subject’s life as a gender role modelthe milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408814102</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Penny JunorBuckland_Zoo|title=Prince William: Born to be KingThe Man Who Ate the Zoo: An Intimate Portrait|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Prince William is one Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of the few people who genuinely needs no introduction. He's been in the public eye since his birth and the interest is certain to increase rather than diminish as time goes by. On the other hand he ''is'' only thirty. Is there really going to be enough to warrant a book and will it be anything more than an attempt to cash in on his marriage in 2011 and the current interest in all things royal engendered by the Queen's Diamond Jubilee? You can see that I was something of a reluctant reader - my sympathies are republican rather than royalist and in addition Penny Junor is known to be a supporter of Prince Charles in what can be described as the War of the Waleses. Was this ''really'' going to be a book which I would enjoy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444720392</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewnatural history|author=Shirley Harrison|title=Sylvia Pankhurst: The Rebellious SuffragetteRichard Girling

|summary=To some extent, the history of the suffragettes was also the history of As a conservationist in Victorian England before the Pankhurst family. Sylvia, born in 1882term existed, Frank Buckland was the second daughter of Dr Richard and Emmeline Pankhurst, and one of three sisters. The family had always been heavily politicised, Richard being very much a founder member man ahead of the Fabian Society alongside George Bernard Shaw and H.Ghis time. WellsSurgeon, and the children had quite an austere upbringing. When their father’s health took a sudden turn for the worse in 1898naturalist, Emmeline and eldest daughter Christabel were abroad on business veterinarian and Sylvia was left in charge of her younger siblings as well as having to nurse eccentric sums himup perfectly, taking the full force of the shock when he died in her arms. With his passing the family were left strangely detached from each other. His widow became heavily involved in public work and political agitation, an increasingly remote mother from the young children who needed herany biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780950187</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tracy BormanWilliams_Captain|title=Matilda: Wife Captain Ronald Campbell of the ConquerorBombala Station, first Queen of EnglandCambalong: His Military Life and Times|author=Ivor George Williams|rating=4.5

|summary=Writing In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the biography 17th Regiment of any woman who lived as long ago as the eleventh century, even someone as illustrious as a Queen, is a pretty thankless taskFoot. There will always be huge gaps He was in command of the knowledge available. For example we do not know when Matilda was born, troops and likewise we do not have convicts on board a precise date for her marriageship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, although we do know when she diedAustralia: his wife and young son accompanied him. No lifelike images of her are known, though evidence suggests that she He was quite short of stature. In not destined to live a male-dominated societylong life, there are approximate records dying suddenly at the age of when her sons were born34 at Bangalore, but not her daughters. Even more confusingly perhaps, many of the stories passed down leaving his widow to us throughout history are quite probably false. It is hardly surprising that this appears to be the first full-length life of her yet to appear in Englishraise their two young sons.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099549131</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michael Rosen|title=Fantastic Mr Dahl|rating=5|genre=ChildrenEdwards's Non-Fiction|summary=Reading this book is rather like curling up death left his widow in a deep, squishy armchair with a cup of cocoa and some squashed-fly biscuits while a favourite uncle chats difficult position: not only did she have their farm to you about books. He tells you interesting things about Roald Dahl's lifemanage, and then he discusses how those events may have affected his writing, secure in but she was also responsible for the knowledge that you already know and love convicts who worked the storiesland. Just as important, he pauses in his chat from time to time to ask your opinion — and it's clear he's really interested in your answerTwo years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell. Do you prefer the original version of ''James and the Giant Peach'', or the one which was eventually published? Can you imagine how funny it would be to see your grandfather looking in through your bedroom window, like the BFG?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141322136</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Leo McKinstryPeacock_mountain|title=Jack Hobbs: England's Greatest Cricketer|rating=5|genre=Sport|summary=Back in the early 1920s, there were only three Test cricket playing nations; England, Australia and South Africa. In the summer of 2012, both nations have been on tour; Australia recently beaten comprehensively at one day cricket and South Africa about to start a test series to determine the best Test nation in the world. Given that history is repeating itselfInto The Mountain, it seems appropriate that a new biography A Life of Jack Hobbs, England's greatest run scorer and a man who repeatedly blunted the bowling attacks of both nations, should become available now.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224083309</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNan Shepherd|author=Robert K Massie|title=Catherine the Great: Portrait of a WomanCharlotte Peacock

|summary=Already known for major biographies of Nicholas Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and Alexandraso many books… I can understand the approach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and of Peter we sell the Greatmyriad lesser-known authors short as well. So while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, Massie has now written an equally full and absorbing life of while, like most other people I read the late eighteenthreviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a third-century reigning Empressstring to my reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0679456724</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Tim Ewart|title=The Treasures of Queen Elizabeth|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Tim Ewart is Royal Correspondent for ITV News, which must be one of the perfect starting points for writing a biography of the Queen as she celebrates her diamond jubilee. She's only the second British monarch Move on to achieve this landmark - the other being Queen Victoria. After sixty years on the throne - and eighty six in public life - there's not much which isn't known about the Queen [[Newest Business and few pictures which haven't previously seen the light of day, but Ewart's book is marked out by the inclusion of memorabilia which will have a freshness for many readers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780970064</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]