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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788360702|title=VictoriaCharles, The Alternative Prince: A LifeAn Unauthorised Biography|author=A N WilsonEdzard Ernst|rating=4.5

|summary=Every few For over forty years, it seems, we are presented with another generously-sized biography Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of Queen Victoriaalternative medicine and complementary therapies. How many times can another author follow Elizabeth Longford''Charles, Stanley WeintraubThe Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Prince's opinions, or Christopher Hibbert to name but three, produce 500 pages or more beliefs and still say something new about her? Can aims against the blurb’s claim that this shows us background of the sovereign ‘as she’s never been seen before’ really be justified? scientific evidence. Fortunately it can, for even more than 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 reputation of a century after her death, there man who is still new material from previously unseen sources proud of his refusal to add apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to what we already know about herhis ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879563</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1739805100|title=The Lives of Loving the Famous and the InfamousEnemy: Everything You Need To Know About Everyone Who MatteredBuilding bridges in a time of war|author=The WeekAndrew March

|summary=To describe a book as unputdownable is a pretty bold claim to make. Jeremy O'Grady'Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, editor-in-chief of The Week does just that who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the foreword to The Lives early days of the Famous and Nazi regime in the Infamous1930s. Fred, a collection sensitive and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of obituaries from "building bridges" which may guard against the growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the weekly magazine. Thankfully, his bold judgement is largely spot ontime. For those unfamiliar, Fred's attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren'The Week'' collates the best offerings from print media outlets around the world, condenses them into smaller chunks, adds a little of its own commentary t universally successful but he did make friendships and creates connections that lasted for a highly concise and entertaining look at the newslifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091958660</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Golden ParasolWill Brooker|authortitle=Wendy Law-YoneThe Truth About Lisa Jewell

|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=If you look her up Wendy Law-Yone is described Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, as a Burmese-born American authorwell, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together. That The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was reciting, and her being in a ''Burmeseblack lace mini-born Americandress with gold brocade'' might be an accurate description (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of her current citizenshipcultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, but it barely hints at down the ethnic mix of rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her heritagethrough a year in the published author's life, nor working to make a success of the latest title, and struggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the result.|isbn=1529136024}}{{Frontpage|author= Martha Leigh|title= Invisible Ink: A Family Memoir|rating= 5|genre= Biography|summary= Martha Leigh begins her personal closeness (through her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father) to her original homelandis a Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, his life's struggle work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for freedom and democracyhours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the practicalities of life. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099555999</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Art of Neil GaimanPolly Barton|authortitle=Hayley CampbellFifty Sounds

|genre=Graphic NovelsPolitics and Society|summary=An early [[:Category:Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman]] book was all about Douglas AdamsWhere 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 came out at if the time he had a success with a book of his own regarding definitions of concepts that had previously not had a specific word attachedworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. Gaiman himself is one of those concepts. I know what a polyglot ismay get there later this year, and a polymath – but there should be a word for someone I am not hopeful. And like GaimanBarton, who can write anything and everything he seems I don't know the answer to want – a whimsical family-friendly picture book, a behemoth the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of modern fantasythe question in the first essay, an all-ages horror story, something with a soupcon of sci-fi or with a factor of which is on the fable. He can cross genres sound ''giro' '' – and to some extent just leave them behind which she describes as unnecessarybeing, among other things, as well as cross format – he was mastering the lengthy, literary graphic novel just as sound of 'real' books were festering in his creativity, and songs and poems were just appearing here and there. So he is pretty much who every party where you think of as regards someone who can turn his hands have to anything he wishes. He is a poly-something, then, or just omni-something elseintroduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781571392</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Brian ThompsonFrederic Gros|title=A Corner Philosophy of Paradise: A love story (with the usual reservations)Walking

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=In I confess I picked this one up from the early seventies Brian Thompson met Elizabeth North, both library in my pre-lockdown forage of them part of failing marriages which would have died without any intervention on their partsrandom stuff. They became friends, they fell in love but they never felt Now I have to go out an 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 marry and would be together until Liz's death . Some books draw you in 2010 at the age of seventy eightslowly. Both are authors - Thompson would maintain that North was This one had me in the better writer - and North would perhaps have said that first two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''she'' should have made that clear. walking is not a sport''A Corner of Paradise'' tells the story - not of the homes they lived in - but of the joy of their relationship.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099581868</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Grace: Her Lives - Her Loves: The startling royal exposéSharon Blackie|authortitle=Robert LaceyIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=Twenty-five years before another so-called fairytale royal romance which I 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 be anything but, buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one of America’s most beloved screen goddesses crossed the Atlantic and married into the principality of MonacoI've borrowed. The ceremony in 1956 was hailed as I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is definitely the wedding of first two and only time will tell about the year, third – but like the later clichés exist for a reason and similar event, I'm not sure I can succinctly put it was not the happiest of unionsany better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>191016738X</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0241446732|title=One RiverOur House is on Fire: Explorations Scenes of a Family and Discoveries a Planet in the Amazon RainforestCrisis|author=Wade DavisMalena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=4.5|genre=TravelPolitics and Society|summary=As someone who has always enjoyed learning about The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the Amazonparenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, and Beata, then nine years old, struggled with plans what was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to travel seek a solution close to South America next yearhome, but eventually, this book practically screamed at me it became clear to be reviewed. And, although the family that they were ''burned-out people on a little tough going and longburned-winded in parts, Iout planet'm glad I had the opportunity to get lost in Davis' incredible work of non-fiction. Difficult If they were to describe in terms of genre, this book combines history, politics, science, botany and culture. It is delivered through find a biographical account of Davis' own travels and as a memoir way to live happily again their solution would need to Richard Evans Schultes, an ethnobotanist well known for his work and travels in the Amazon and Wade Davis' highly regarded mentorbe radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592967</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0648684806|title=Angela MerkelClara Colby: The Chancellor and Her WorldInternational Suffragist|author=Stefan KorneliusJohn Holliday

|summary=You have The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to admire the ladyUSA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, this rather awkward she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and shy daughter of a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish Catholicthree brothers. His daughter studied Instead, she remained with such intelligence her grandparents, who doted on her and application saw that soon brought her academic success particularly she received a good education, both in Russian and finally out of school. She was the only child in Quantum Chemistrythe household and her childhood was glorious. At By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the age mid-west of 26the United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she obtained her doctorate and - in passing, it rather seems - her first husband, grandparents eventually went to join the physicist Ulrike Merkelfamily. Her rise to power Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was rapid married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and took place through the period died in which the DDR collapsed as Russian policy under Gorbachev changedchildbirth not long after Clara arrived. Along with a wry and dry sense of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is As the embodiment of the characteristic known in German as ''fleissig'' - hardworkingeldest girl, sedulous, diligent a heavy burden would fall on Clara and assiduousWisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789017977|title=Blazing StarRonnie and Hilda's Romance: The Towards a New Life and Times of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochesterafter World War II|author=Alexander LarmanWendy Williams

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, Ronnie Williams was the ultimate 'live fast, die young' icon of the Stuart age, the seventeenth-century embodiment son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. There'Hope I die before I get olds some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry'. Restoration dandys birthdate: he claimed to have been born in 1863, satirist but he was already many years older than Ethel and pornographic poet, he died might well have shaved a lingering death at the few years off his age of 33, racked by venereal disease and alcoholism. If he is remembered at all these daysFor a while, except by those familiar with the history or literature of family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the age, it is as the James Dean or the Keith Moon of his day, 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a hellraiser whose poetry was heavily suppressed for many years by the censorsvery different lifestyle. In fact much of his verse was not published under his name until long after One thing he did inherit from his death, and as most of it father was only circulated in manuscript form during his lifetime need to be well-turned-out and a good deal destroyed by this would stay with him throughout his mother after his death, it is uncertain how much does still survivelife. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851093</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Dirty Bertie: An English King Made in FrancePatti Smith|authortitle=Stephen ClarkeYear of the Monkey

|summary=Although he was Anglo-German by birth, so Stephen Clarke suggests, King Edward VII was very much a Parisian by nature. As we would expect from On the author coast of several lighthearted books on our Gallic neighboursSanta Cruz, including ‘1000 Years Patti Smith enters the lunar year of Annoying the French’monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, this and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, ''Anything is not possible: after all, it's the most weighty or solemn biography year of the King you will ever findmonkey''. As Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, but she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are faced head-on, as it is certainly an entertaining, racy gallop through the life of its subjectshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780890346</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1912242052|title=Josephine: Desire, Ambition, NapoleonO Joy for me!|author=Kate WilliamsKeir Davidson|rating=43|genre=BiographyArt|summary=Until reading this biography''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, it not because he had never really occurred to me just how shadowy for work, as a figure the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparteminer, quarryman, one of the bestshepherd or pack-known European rulers of the agehorse driver, really wasbut because he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. It may be common knowledge that her name was JosephineHis rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, but few of us perhaps really know anything and its literary consequences, changed our view of the woman behind the nameworld''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955142X</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|title=The Devonshires: The Story of a Family and a Nation|author=Roy Hattersley|rating=4Frontpage|genreisbn=Biography|summary=According to the back of this book, ‘the story of the Devonshires is the story of Britain’. That’s an extravagant claim, but it contains more than a germ 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 demonstrates. From the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII presided over in part by Sir William Cavendish, father of the first Earl, to the big business that their ancestral home Chatsworth House in Derbyshire has now become, the somewhat inaccurately geographically-named Devonshires have often been, or helped to, contribute to, part of the fabric of Britain’s past and present.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554399</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGraff_Find|title=The Life of Rebecca JonesFind Another Place|author=Angharad PriceBen Graff|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=A newly-married couple make their way home When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of handwritten notes from the chapelhis journal, riding on a horse-drawn cart as it winds its way round familiar country lanes towards the beautiful valley of Maesglasau. The horse pauses atop a hill and the valley spreads out before them: he didn'the vessel t take much notice of their marriage'it. The centuries-old stone farmhouse in At the crook age of the mountain is to be their homestead; a sturdy24, silent witness to Graff didn't realise the tragedy and joy that is an intrinsic part gravity of the fabric of family lifepages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085738712X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789016304|title=Wilkie CollinsWar and Love: A Life family's testament of Sensation|author=Andrew Lycett|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Wilkie Collins has come down to us as the chief exponent of the Victorian ‘sensation novel’. This was the genre of story written specifically to expose deep-rooted domestic or family secrets, uncovering illegitimacy, bigamy or other irregular activities by supposedly respectable citizens leading outwardly normal, uneventful lives. There were mysteries, deceptions, betrayalsanguish, evil characters endurance 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 devotion in order to earn a living, this apparently fine upstanding bachelor maintained two households, two mistresses, and children at the same time – and managed to keep them a secret from the public who would doubtless have been scandalized to know the truth.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099557347</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Four Sisters:The Lost Lives of the Romanov Grand Duchessesoccupied 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=Gabriele d’Annunzio was As a strange and perhaps fortunately unique characterconservationist in Victorian England before the term existed, Frank Buckland was very much a kind of 20th century Renaissance man who almost defies posterity to pigeonhole him. At various times he was a poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist, adventurer, self-styled demagogue and philanderer. Although he lost several friends during the First World War, as well as the sight ahead of one eye when his plane was shot downtime. Surgeon, he had a passion for warnaturalist, seeing bloodshed as manly veterinarian and death in battle as glorious self-sacrifice. He had the dodgiest of moral compasses, and yet was hardly the Adonis he believed himself to be. One French courtesan who firmly rebuffed his physical advances later called eccentric sums him ‘a frightful gnome with red-rimmed eyes and no eyelashesup perfectly, no hair, greenish teeth, bad breath and the manners of a mountebank’. Had he been alive today, he would have probably been an instant celebrity and media personality any biographer is immediately presented with a very short shelf-life. One half Jeremy Clarkson, one half Russell Brand, one might saycolourful tale to tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007213964</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Van der KisteWilliams_Captain|title=AlfredCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: Queen Victoria's Second SonHis Military Life and Times|author=Ivor George Williams

|summary=Prince Alfred was In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the second son 17th Regiment of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg GothaFoot. At the time of his birth he He was second in line to the throne after his brother, the Prince command of Wales and was generally known within the family as Affie. In his early teens he joined the Royal Navy - at his own request - troops and whilst convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia: his family wife and status young son accompanied him. He was undoubtedly no disadvantage not destined to himlive a long life, he worked hard and had a genuine talent for dying suddenly at the navyage of 34 at Bangalore, eventually receiving leaving his Admiralwidow to raise their two young sons. Edwards's baton and visiting all five continents death left his widow in the course of his service. He was created Duke of Edinburgh (along with various other titles) by the queen. His marriage - a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia - was not a happy unionmanage, with his wife being not well-liked in society and obsessed by her precedence. They had six children (one of whom but she was stillborn) but only one son - 'young Affie' also responsible for the convicts who committed suicide at worked the age of twenty fourland. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178155319X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Peacock_mountain|title=Into The Trip to Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd|author=Olivia LaingCharlotte Peacock|rating=4.5

|summary=Coming from a family with an alcoholic background, Olivia Laing became fascinated by the idea of why Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and how some of so many books… I can understand the greatest works of twentieth-century literature were written by those with a drink problem. The list soon became a long one – Dylan Thomas, Raymond Chandler, Jack London, Jean Rhysapproach, to name but a few, instantly came to mind. In the spring of 2011 she crossed the Atlantic to take a trip across the USA, from New York City and New Orleans to Chicago and Seattle I also think we sell ourselves short by hired car and trainit, in the course of which she took a close look at the link between creativity and alcohol which inspired we sell the work of six myriad lesser-known authors, namely Fshort as well. Scott FitzgeraldSo while, Ernest Hemingwaylike most other people I have my favourite genres, Tennessee Williamsand favoured authors, John Berryman, John Cheeverand while, like most other people I read the reviews and Raymond Carver. Taking her title from a character in Williams’s play ‘Cat follow up on what appeals, I also have a Hot Tin Roof’ who says he is taking a trip to echo spring, an euphemism for the liquor cabinet, she travels third-string to the places which were pivotal in their often overlapping lives and workmy reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677940</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=Hanns and Rudolf: The German Jew and the Hunt for the Kommandant of Auschwitz|author=Thomas Harding|rating=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. The other was from an inherently German family, 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 Move 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 [[Newest Business 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>}} {{newreview|author=John Freeman|title=How to Read a Novelist: Conversations with Writers|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=As a book reviewer 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 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 the title ''How to Read a Novelist'' - this isn't a guide to literary criticism, 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>}}Finance Reviews]]