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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788360702|title=Golden ParasolCharles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Wendy Law-YoneEdzard Ernst|rating=54|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=If you look her up Wendy Law-Yone is described as a Burmese-born American authorFor over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. That ''Burmese-born AmericanCharles, The Alternative Prince''critically assesses the Prince' might be an accurate description s opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of the scientific evidence. There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of her current citizenship, but it barely hints at treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the ethnic mix reputation of a man who is proud of her heritagehis refusal to apply evidence-based, nor of her personal closeness (through her father) logical reasoning to her original homeland's struggle for freedom and democracyhis ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555999</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1739805100|title=The Art Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of Neil Gaimanwar|author=Hayley CampbellAndrew March

|genre=Graphic NovelsBiography|summary=An early [[:Category:Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman]] book was all about Douglas Adams, and came out at ''Loving the Enemy'' tells the time he had a success with a book quite extraordinary story of his own regarding definitions of concepts that had previously not had a specific word attached. Gaiman himself is one of those concepts. I know what a polyglot is, and a polymath – but there should be a word for someone like Gaimanauthor Andrew March's grandparents, who can write anything and everything he seems first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to want – a whimsical family-friendly picture book, a behemoth teach in the early days of modern fantasy, an all-ages horror storythe Nazi regime in the 1930s. Fred, something with a soupcon of sci-fi or with a factor of the fable. He can cross genres – sensitive and to thoughtful man, had some extent just leave them behind as unnecessary, as well as cross format – he was mastering vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the lengthy, literary graphic novel just as 'real' books were festering growing hostilities between nations unfolding in his creativity, and songs and poems were just appearing here and thereEurope at the time. So he is pretty much who you think of as regards someone who can turn his hands Fred's attempts to anything separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he wishes. He is did make friendships and connections that lasted for a poly-something, then, or just omni-something elselifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781571392</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian ThompsonWill Brooker|title=A Corner of Paradise: A love story (with the usual reservations)The Truth About Lisa Jewell

|summary=In Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the early seventies Brian Thompson met Elizabeth Northmost successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, both one of them part the thousands of failing marriages which would less successful authors I quite confidently never have died without any intervention on their partsread. They became friendsThis book starts with the two meeting each other, they fell in love but they never felt as well, and shows how 2021 drew the need to marry two closer and would be closer together until Liz's death in 2010 at the age of seventy eight. Both are authors - Thompson would maintain that North The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the better writer - words of her latest book she was reciting, and North would perhaps have said that her being in a ''sheblack lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' should have made (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that clearis Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the published author'A Corner s life, working to make a success of Paradise'' tells the story - not of latest title, and struggling with the homes they lived next in - but of line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the joy of their relationshipresult.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581868</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Grace: Her Lives - Her Loves: The startling royal exposéMartha Leigh|authortitle=Robert LaceyInvisible Ink: A Family Memoir|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=Twenty-five years before another so-called fairytale royal romance which turned out to be anything but 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, one forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of America’s most beloved screen goddesses crossed the Atlantic and married into philosopher 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 principality practicalities of Monacolife. The ceremony There is love in 1956 was hailed as the wedding of the year, house but like the later and similar event, it was also darker undercurrents that a child does not the happiest of unionsfully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>191016738X</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon RainforestPolly Barton|authortitle=Wade DavisFifty Sounds

|genre=TravelPolitics and Society|summary=As someone who Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has always enjoyed learning about been on my radar for a while and if the Amazon, and with plans to travel to South America next world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, this book practically screamed at me to be reviewedbut I am not hopeful. And, although a little tough going and long-winded in partslike Barton, Idon'm glad I had t know the opportunity answer to get lost the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in Davis' incredible work respect of non-fiction. Difficult to describe the question in terms of genrethe first essay, this book combines historywhich is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, politicsamong other things, science, botany and culture. It is delivered through a biographical account the sound of Davis' own travels and as a memoir 'every party where you have to Richard Evans Schultes, an ethnobotanist well known for his work and travels in the Amazon and Wade Davisintroduce yourself'' highly regarded mentor.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099592967</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Angela Merkel: The Chancellor and Her WorldFrederic Gros|authortitle=Stefan KorneliusA Philosophy of Walking|rating=45|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=You I confess I picked this one up from the library in my pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. Now I have to admire go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the lady, this rather awkward pages I have marked and shy daughter of a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish Catholicreturn to its varying wisdom when I need to. His daughter studied with such intelligence and application that soon brought her academic success particularly Some books draw you in Russian and finally slowly. This one had me in Quantum Chemistry. At the age of 26, she obtained her doctorate and - in passing, it rather seems - her first husbandtwo pages, the physicist Ulrike Merkelwherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport''. Her rise |isbn=1781688370}}{{Frontpage|author=Sharon Blackie|title=If Women Rose Rooted|rating=5|genre= Biography|summary= I normally say that you can tell how much a book means to power was rapid and took place through the period in which the DDR collapsed as Russian policy under Gorbachev changedme by how many pages have corners turned down. Along with a wry and dry sense Perhaps an even greater measure of humour Angela Merkel’s personality impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the embodiment of the characteristic known in German as one I've borrowed. I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful''fleissiginspiring'' life- hardworking, sedulous, diligent changing' – although it is definitely the first two and only time will tell about the third – but clichés exist for a reason and assiduousI'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0241446732|title=Blazing StarOur House is on Fire: The Life Scenes of a Family and Times of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochestera Planet in Crisis|author=Alexander LarmanMalena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=45|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was the ultimate 'live fast, die young' icon an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the Stuart age, the seventeenth-century embodiment parenting of 'Hope I die before I get old'their two daughters. Restoration dandy, satirist Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and pornographic poether sister, he died a lingering death at the age of 33Beata, racked by venereal disease and alcoholism. If he is remembered at all these daysthen nine years old, except by those familiar struggled with the history or literature of the age, it is as the James Dean or the Keith Moon of his day, a hellraiser whose poetry what was heavily suppressed for many years by the censorshappening. In fact much of his verse was not published under his name until long after his deathsuch circumstances, and as most of it was only circulated in manuscript form during his lifetime and 's natural to seek a good deal destroyed by his mother after his deathsolution close to home, but eventually, it is uncertain how much does still survivebecame 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>1781851093</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0648684806|title=Dirty BertieClara Colby: An English King Made in FranceThe International Suffragist|author=Stephen ClarkeJohn Holliday

|summary=Although he The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was Angloprobably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-German by birthyears-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, so Stephen Clarke suggestsshe remained with her grandparents, King Edward VII was very much who doted on her and saw that she received a Parisian by naturegood education, both in and out of school. As we would expect from She was the author of several lighthearted books on our Gallic neighbours, including ‘1000 Years of Annoying only child in the French’household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, this is not her family had become pioneer farmers in the most weighty or solemn biography mid-west of the King you will ever United States and life was hard, as Clara was to findout when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, but it is certainly an entertaininghad ten pregnancies, racy gallop through seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the life of its subjecteldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780890346</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789017977|title=JosephineRonnie and Hilda's Romance: Desire, Ambition, NapoleonTowards a New Life after World War II|author=Kate Wendy Williams

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=Until reading this biography, it had never really occurred to me just how shadowy a figure Ronnie Williams was the first wife son of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the best-Thomas Henry Williams (known European rulers of the ageas Harry) and Ethel 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, really but he wasalready many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. It may be common knowledge that her name For a while, the family was Josephine, quite well-to-do but few of us perhaps really know anything of disaster struck in the woman behind 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the namearmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955142X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Devonshires: The Story of a Family and a NationPatti Smith|authortitle=Roy HattersleyYear of the Monkey

|summary=According to On the back coast of this bookSanta Cruz, ‘the story Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the Devonshires monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything is the story of Britain’. That’s an extravagant claimpossible: after all, but it contains more than a germ 's the year of truth. Certainly one would be hard-pushed to find an aristocratic, non-royal British family who has more consistently been central to our history since medieval times, as this detailed chronicle demonstratesthe monkey''. From As Smith wanders the dissolution coast of the monasteries under Henry VIII presided over Santa Cruz in part by Sir William Cavendishsolitude, father of the first Earl, to the big business she reflects on a year that their ancestral home Chatsworth House brings huge shifts in Derbyshire has now become, the somewhat inaccurately geographicallyher life - loss and ageing are faced head-named Devonshires have often beenon, or helped to, contribute to, part of as it the fabric of Britain’s past and presentshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099554399</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1912242052|title=The Life of Rebecca JonesO Joy for me!|author=Angharad PriceKeir Davidson|rating=53|genre=BiographyArt|summary=A newly-married couple make their way home from ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the chapelmountains alone, not because he had to for work, riding on as a horseminer, quarryman, shepherd or pack-drawn cart as it winds its way round familiar country lanes towards the beautiful valley of Maesglasau. The horse pauses atop a hill driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and the valley spreads out before them: 'the vessel of their marriage'adventure. The centuries-old stone farmhouse in the crook of the mountain is to be His rapturous encounters with their homestead; a sturdynatural beauty, silent witness to the tragedy and joy that is an intrinsic part its literary consequences, changed our view of the fabric of family lifeworld''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085738712X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Graff_Find|title=Wilkie Collins: A Life of SensationFind Another Place|author=Andrew LycettBen Graff|rating=43.5|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Wilkie Collins has come down to us as the chief exponent When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, he didn't take much notice of the Victorian ‘sensation novel’it. This was At the genre age of story written specifically to expose deep-rooted domestic or family secrets24, uncovering illegitimacy, bigamy or other irregular activities by supposedly respectable citizens leading outwardly normal, uneventful lives. There were mysteries, deceptions, betrayals, evil characters and good innocent ones. Measured by these standards, he led a ‘sensational’ life himself. When not writing novels, short stories, plays or articles for journals in order to earn a living, this apparently fine upstanding bachelor maintained two households, two mistresses, and children at Graff didn't realise the same time – and managed to keep them a secret from gravity of the public who would doubtless have been scandalized to know the truthpages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099557347</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789016304|title=Four SistersWar and Love:The Lost Lives A family's testament of the Romanov Grand Duchessesanguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Helen RappaportMelanie Martin

|summary=A few years agoMelanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, Helen Rappaport wrote and published [[Ekaterinburg: particularly in ''The Last Days 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 Romanovs by Helen Rappaport|Ekaterinburg: The Last Days of city during the Romanovs]], a painstakingwar years, chilling account of the final days and death of the last Tsar of Russia but only five thousand survived and his family. To a certain extent Martin could not understand how this biography is could be allowed to happen in a prequel country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that volumethe Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, an account of that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the short lives of OTMAway that it did, but initial protests melted away as they referred to themselves – the Tsar’s daughters Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasiaorganisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230768172</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786893452|title=The Holy Fox: The Life of Lord HalifaxUngrateful Refugee|author=Andrew RobertsDina Nayeri

|summary=Of all Here in the British nearly-Prime Ministers Edward WoodWest, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, 1st Earl some scaremongering about them. But all of Halifaxthose stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, must be unique. He was no matter how deep the one who came closest investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to assuming the mantle only to world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the job denied himjourneys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in this intelligent, powerful and had he done so, on him Britain’s destiny would have depended. For he moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the man whom several confidently expected, and many wantedmiddle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to take over after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain during the dark days of May 1940America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781856974</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0857058320|title=The Boys In The Boat: An Epic Journey to Lord Of All the Heart of Hitler's BerlinDead|author=Daniel James BrownJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4.5

|summary=You see, Jesse Owens had it easy – all he had ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to do was run fastuncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Alright, he did have to face unknown hardship, heinous prejudice at home and abroad, and make sure he was fast enough to outdo Cercas is searching for the rest of meaning behind his compatriots then the worldgreat uncle's best to win gold at death in the 1936 Berlin OlympicsSpanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, but others Cercas' great uncle, is the figure who wished to do looms large over the same had to do morebook. People such as those rowers in the coxed eights squad – people such as He died relatively young Joe Rantzwhilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. He certainly had to face hardship, the prejudice borne by those in the moneyed east coast yacht clubs against an upstart from the NW USA, and when he got to compete he had to use so many more muscles, and operate The question at varying tempi, with the temperament centre of the weather and water against him, all in perfect synchronicity with seven other beefcakes. Despite rowing being the second greatest ticket at those Games, Joe's story this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a lot less well known, and probably a lot more entertaininghero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447210980</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert A Caro1788037812|title=The Years Fraternity of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=It's only a matter of days since I finished listening to [[The Years of Lyndon Johnsonthe Estranged: The Path to Power by Robert A Caro|The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power]]Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, the first part of Robert A Caro's definitive work on the President and despite having just spent over forty hours on the book I wanted to learn more. I was torn though 1891- the second book in a series is not often as good as the first and it struck me that these might not be the most exciting years in Johnson's life. Was this book going to be the link which took us on to the more exciting times? Not a bit of it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GSHD0U6</amazonuk>}} {{newreview1908|author=Robert A Caro|title=The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to PowerBrian Anderson

|summary=Lyndon Baines Johnson was Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the 36th President nature of the United States, preceded homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John F Kennedy and succeeded by Richard NixonAddington Symonds, with both being remembered most for as well as the way they left officeheterosexual Havelock Ellis. His five-year term in office was overshadowed at Exploring the start by the Kennedy assassination margins of society and increasingly blighted by studying homosexuality was common on the debacle which was VietnamEuropean Continent, but there was something barely talked about Johnson which always intrigued me: how does a poor boy from Texas hill country without an exceptional (or even 'good') education become president in the UK, so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the United States? 'The Years scientific understanding of Lyndon Johnson: The Path homosexuality, and beginning the struggle for recognition and equality, leading to Power' tells you all that you need to knowthe milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GSHTJZQ</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Buckland_Zoo|title=Born in SiberiaThe Man Who Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history|author=Tamara Astafieva, Michael Darlow and Debbie SlaterRichard Girling

|summary=Prince Alfred was the second son of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. At the time of his birth he was second As a conservationist in line to Victorian England before the throne after his brotherterm existed, the Prince Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of Wales and was generally known within the family as Affiehis time. In his early teens he joined the Royal Navy - at his own request - Surgeon, naturalist, veterinarian and whilst his family and status was undoubtedly no disadvantage to eccentric sums himup perfectly, he worked hard and had any biographer is immediately presented with a genuine talent for the navy, eventually receiving his Admiral's baton and visiting all five continents in the course of his service. He was created Duke of Edinburgh (along with various other titles) by the queen. His marriage - colourful tale to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia - was not a happy union, with his wife being not well-liked in society and obsessed by her precedence. They had six children (one of whom was stillborn) but only one son - 'young Affie' who committed suicide at the age of twenty fourtell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178155319X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Williams_Captain|title=The Trip to Echo SpringCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: Why Writers Drink His Military Life and Times|author=Olivia LaingIvor George Williams

|summary=Coming from a family with an alcoholic background, Olivia Laing became fascinated by In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the idea 17th Regiment of why and how some Foot. He was in command of the greatest works of twentieth-century literature were written by those with troops and convicts on board a drink problem. The list soon became a long one – Dylan Thomas, Raymond Chandler, Jack London, Jean Rhys, ship sailing from Plymouth to name but a fewSydney, instantly came to mindAustralia: his wife and young son accompanied him. In the spring of 2011 she crossed the Atlantic He was not destined to take live a trip across the USAlong life, from New York City and New Orleans to Chicago and Seattle by hired car and train, in dying suddenly at the course age of which she took a close look 34 at the link between creativity and alcohol which inspired the work of six authorsBangalore, namely Fleaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver. Taking her title from a character Edwards' death left his widow in Williams’s play ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ who says he is taking a trip difficult position: not only did she have their farm to echo springmanage, an euphemism but she was also responsible for the liquor cabinet, convicts who worked the land. Two years later she travels to the places which were pivotal in their often overlapping lives and workwould marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677940</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleisbn=Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of AuschwitzPeacock_mountain|author=Thomas Harding|ratingtitle=5|genre=Biography|summary=This dual biography concerns, as the title makes clear, two men. One was from an inherently German, rich Jewish family – they had a powerboat so he could waterski on the lake at their country cottage – who fled the rise of the Nazis early in the 1930s, and got away moderately lightly, only losing properties and a large and successful medical career. Into The other was from an inherently German familyMountain, who signed up for First World War service before his age, but only really wanted to be a farmer and family man, yet who ended up running probably history's worst slaughterhouse. Both had a connection and a shared destiny that was largely unknown before this book was researched, there's a chance that both of them had the blood of one man and only one man directly on their hands from WWII service, and both of them – again, as the title makes clear – are given the dignity of the familiar, first name throughout this incredible book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0434022365</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life|author=Hermione Lee|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Penelope Fitzgerald came from an earnest and renowned academic family, the Knoxes, which included several prominent clerics; her grandfather was the Bishop of Manchester. A considerable biographer herself, she wrote a book on the Knox brothers, these included two Oxford pastors (one of whom, Ronald Knox, converted to Catholicism, was famous as a biblical translator and whilst chaplain at Trinity College became a mentor to the future prime minister, Harold Macmillan), a top Bletchley cryptographic analyst and Penelope's own eminent father, 'Evoe' who was editor of Punch. Fitzgerald wrote prolifically from childhood and fulfilled some of these high expectations by gaining a brilliant First at Somerville. Graduating in 1938, she was already known for her membership of the smart set, for her student journalism and a reticent, indeed peremptory manner. Women could not actually graduate at Oxford until a statute was passed in 1920. Hence she was amongst Oxford's early women graduates. Her striking appearance within the smart set earned her the nickname of the ''blonde bombshell''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184957</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNan Shepherd|author=John Freeman|title=How to Read a Novelist: Conversations with WritersCharlotte Peacock

|summary=As a book reviewer Mostly we choose what books to read because there are certain people whom I hold in high regard and one of these is John Freeman. Not yet forty he has an enviable record as an editor to some of the big names in literature so little time and it seems that every book of note for a decade and a half has been greeted by his review. Don't be misled by so many books… I can understand the title ''How to Read a Novelist'' - this isn't a guide to literary criticismapproach, but a collection of Freeman's interviews with eminent authors. There are fifty six in total, ranging from literary giants such as Toni Morrison, Ian McEwan, Gunter Grass and Kazuo Ishiguro through to popular crime fiction writers such as Donna Leon.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472109376</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Inside The Centre: The Life of J Robert Oppenheimer|author=Ray Monk|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Thinking back to the early 1960s, Bertrand Russell, the subject of another prize winning biography I also think we sell ourselves short by Ray Monkit, was frequently seen on black and white television declaring his concerns over Nuclear Weapons. He stated, 'Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under we sell the influence of a great fearmyriad lesser-known authors short as well.' For nearly seventy yearsSo while, mankind has wondered in the words of Sting, 'How can like most other people I save have my boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy?' As concerns about nuclear proliferation in relation to Iraqfavourite genres, and favoured authors, Pakistan and North Korea escalate it is salutary to return to a thorough biography of the manwhile, known as like most other people I read the father of the bombreviews and follow up on what appeals, that felt I also have a deep and urgent need third-string to be at the centre and to belong, J Robert Oppenheimermy reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099433532</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Magic Words: The Extraordinary Life of Alan Moore|author=Lance Parkin|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=I don't think that I ever saw Move on to [[:Category:Alan Moore|Alan MooreNewest Business and Finance Reviews]] when I lived in Northampton, and I don't think I coincided with the publication of ''Maxwell the Magic Cat'' in the local newspaper. So I missed out on the memorable frame of someone else who is six foot two, albeit a generation older and looking so hirsute he would seem to be afraid of scissors. But I certainly would not have been alone in not recognising him for what he is. How many Northampton housewives flicked past the daily panels of ''Maxwell'' in complete ignorance of who Alan Moore actually is? – With no idea that the years he spent drawing that cartoon for £10 a week – later to be £12.50 – were just him gearing up to be the biggest man of letters in the comic book world?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781310777</amazonuk>}}