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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Greene1788360702|title=Midnight in SiberiaCharles, The Alternative Prince: A Train Journey into the Heart of Russia|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=It's no mistake that the cover of my edition of this book is a photo where the Trans-Siberian Railway is horizontal in the frame. It's well known for going east-west, left to right across the map of the largest country by far in the world. 9,288 kilometres from Moscow to the eastern stretches of Russia, it could only be a long, thin line across the cover, as it is in our imagination of it as a form of transport and a travel destination in its own right. So when this book mentions it as the spine or backbone of Russia a couple of times, that's got to be of a prone Russia – one lying down, not upright or active. David Greene, a stalwart of northern American radio journalism, uses this book to see just how active or otherwise Russia and Russians are – and finds their lying down to be quite a definite verdict, as well as a slight indictment. It's no mistake either for this cover to have people in the frame alongside the train carriages, for the people met both riding and living alongside the tracks of the Railway are definitely the ribs of the piece.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883709</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Frances Welch|title=Rasputin: A Short LifeEdzard Ernst

|summary=Was Grigori RasputinFor over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Siberian peasant turned mystic Prince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the time bomb who almost single-handedly precipitated background of the collapse scientific evidence. 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 Russian Empire in 1917, reputation of a genuine holy man or an evilwho is proud of his refusal to apply evidence-minded reprobate and total disaster?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178072232X</amazonuk>based, logical reasoning to his ambitions.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes1739805100|title=HRCLoving the Enemy: State Secrets and the Rebirth Building bridges in a time of Hillary Clintonwar|author=Andrew March|rating=4.5

|summary=Hillary Clinton initially came to our attention as First Lady and even then she might have faded into international obscurity had it not been for the way in which she managed to hold her head high during those unfortunate incidents with Bill - well, HRC wasn't 'Loving the Enemy'involved'tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March' but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Then she re-emerged through s grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the fog early days of the George W Bush presidency with her bid to gain Nazi regime in the Democratic nomination1930s. Fred, losing in a hotly contested series of primaries to Barack Obama - sensitive and went on to become his Secretary thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of State"building bridges" which may guard against the growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the time. Now the question is whether or not she will Fred's attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make another run friendships and connections that lasted for President in 2016a lifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099594692</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura ThompsonWill Brooker|title=Life in a Cold Climate: Nancy Mitford The BiographyTruth About Lisa Jewell

|summary=There can have been few more extraordinary families in Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British society and cultural life during authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the early twentieth century than thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the Mitfordstwo meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the six daughters two closer and one son of Baron Redesdalecloser together. The only sonmeeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, killed in action during the Second World Warwords of her latest book she was reciting, led an unexceptional life away from and her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the headlinesauthor events I get to attend), but four pulled Brooker, a professor of his sisters cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than made up for him. Dianato follow her through a year in the published author's life, wife working to make a success of the notorious Sir Oswald Mosleylatest title, never renounced her admiration for Hitler or and struggling with the Fascist movementnext in line. Jewell, while Unitydue diligence appropriately done, who shared 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 beliefsbook talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, shot herself forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the day war broke out but lingered pathetically for another brainphilosopher Jean-damaged eight yearsJacques Rousseau, and his life's work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the fiercely left-wing Jessica became an active member practicalities of the American Communist Partylife. Compared to them Nancy, There is love in the eldest and the subject of this biography, seems to have been the most balanced and least eccentric of them allhouse but also darker undercurrents that a child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1784082295</amazonuk>1800460384

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alan KennedyPolly Barton|title=Oscar & LucyFifty Sounds

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=With Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the film about Alan Turing, question ''The Imitation GameWhy Japan?'' getting rave reviews Japan has been on my radar for a while and award nominations rightif the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, left and centrebut I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the sterling work done by question in the Bletchley Park cryptographers during WWII first essay, which is quite high in our minds. But Enigma wasnon the sound ''giro' ''t – which she describes as being, among other things, the only code broken and Turing wasnsound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''t the only one doing secret but heroic work. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095646968X</amazonuk>1913097501

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=David LodgeFrederic Gros|title=Lives in WritingA Philosophy of Walking|rating=45|genre=EntertainmentPolitics and Society|summary=David Lodge Lives I confess I picked this one up from the library in Writingmy pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. So blares Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the cover of my edition, pages I have marked and it's not far wrongreturn to its varying wisdom when I need to. Some books draw you in slowly. When he's not entertaining us with his [[:Category:David Lodge|writing career]] (now This one had me in its third, more erudite and to me more serious stage, after the first third of comic light touchestwo pages, before he found his metier – and fame with TV adaptations– with comedies about the social and sexual lives of academe) hewherein Gros explains why 's teaching about and around writing. When I was younger I also read around writing – literature books, in other words – and Lodge's were among those I turned to. So this book and its contents are walking is not a welcome step back down a very familiar roadsport''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099587769</amazonuk>1781688370

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John Van der KisteSharon Blackie|title=The Prussian Princesses: The Sisters of Kaiser Wilhelm IIIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Kaiser Wilhelm II is well known and not for the best of reasons and he's certainly over-shadowed his six younger siblingsI normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. John Van der Kiste's first biography was Perhaps an even greater measure of his father, Kaiser Friedrich III and he has also written about Emperor Wilhelm II so he impact is well placed setting out to write about buy my own copy before I've finished reading the three youngest children Kaiser Friedrich and Victoria, Princess Royalone I've borrowed. Originally he intended I want to write about Friedrichavoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing's second daughter, but – although it quickly became obvious that is definitely the first two and only time will tell about the most satisfying biography - third – but clichés exist for reader and author - would be a biography of Victoria, Sophie reason and Margaret, their motherI's ''kleebatt'' or trio, as they were knownm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00QKROC9W</amazonuk>1912836017

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sarah Churchwell0241446732|title=Careless People Murder Mayhem Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and the Invention of the Great GatsbySvante Thunberg

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=In this accomplished literary biography Professor Churchwell expertly weaves together three guest lists- the Fitzgeralds The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and literary cast Svante Thunberg took on most of New York, the sensationalist tragic murder victims parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and suspects of New Brunswick, New Jersey talking and the careless characters of F. Scott's novel using the Fitzgeralds' archivesher sister, newspaper clippingsBeata, literary scrapbooksthen nine years old,diary entries and anecdotes to link the stories and chronicle the heedless hedonism of the 1920sstruggled with what was happening. It is not only a meticulously researched tribute tracing the genesis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s plot skeleton In such circumstances, which he roughly sketched in pencil in the back of it's natural to seek a booksolution close to home, entitled Man’s Hopebut eventually, but it also sparkles with sophisticated vocabulary fizzing with became clear to the effervescence of family that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet''. If they were to find a glass of champagne providing new treats for the reader with each inviting chapterway to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844087689</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Batchelor0648684806|title=TennysonClara Colby: To strive, to seek, to findThe International Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|summary=Most readersThe path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, if they were asked she wasn't allowed to name sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out of school. She was the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious. By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the ultimate poet mid-west of the Victorian ageUnited States and life was hard, would almost surely choose Alfred, Lord Tennysonas Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. He Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was Poet Laureate married for over forty fifteen years of Queen Victoria’s reign, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and inevitably her favourite versifierWisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950763</amazonuk>

{{newreview Frontpage|authorisbn=Zareer Masani 1789017977|title=Macaulay: BritainRonnie and Hilda's Liberal Imperialist Romance: Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams|rating=4.5 |genre=Biography History|summary=If Thomas Babington Macaulay is remembered at all today, it is probably for the historical writings to which he devoted himself during Ronnie Williams was the last few years son of his lifeThomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. Yet earlier 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 his career1863, but he was also already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a Member of Parliament, few years off his age. For a government ministerwhile, the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in the 1929 Depression and served for some years in India, playing five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a major reforming role as a member of 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 governor-general’s councilarmy at eighteen in 1942. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587025</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John CampbellPatti Smith|title=Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=It must be rare indeed that a British political figure who never became Prime Minister is the subject of or deserves a biography comprising 750 pages of text. However, as John Campbell demonstrates in this volume, it is difficult to do justice to the life, times and career of Roy Jenkins in much less than that.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224087509</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Walter Dean Myers|title=An African Princess: From African Orphan to Queen Victoria’s Favourite|rating=3.5|genre=Historical Fiction|summary=This elegant edition of An African Princess tells Year of the life of Sarah Bonetta who is suddenly swept from the threat of a savage execution in 1848 only to face a brave new world under the patronage of the imperious Queen Victoria. Meticulously researched by the twice elected US National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, Walter Dean Myers, it is a creatively imaginative account, with an historical backbone of genuine diary entries, letters, autobiographical work, contemporary newspapers, social and anthropological studies and period photographs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406354449</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Nigel Jones|title=Rupert Brooke: Life, Death and MythMonkey

|summary=Rupert Chawner Brooke’s reputation as one On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the greatest or at least bestmonkey -remembered war poets rests largely on his sonnet one packed with mischief, sorrow, and unexpected moments. In a stranger's words, 'The Soldier'Anything is possible: after all, it's the year of the monkey''. Perhaps it was English literature’s abiding As Smith wanders the coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss that his output was so slenderand ageing are faced head-on, as his career was cut short so suddenly. Had he lived longer he would surely have developed into a notable writerit the shifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781857164</amazonuk>1526614758

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Amber Hunt and David Batcher1912242052|title=The Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America's Most Public FamilyO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=43|genre=BiographyArt|summary=The Kennedy dynasty is mainly known ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the men who have come first person to political prominence: Jack Kennedywalk the mountains alone, the president who was assassinated in November 1963not because he had to for work, his brotheras a miner, Bobbyquarryman, Jack's Attorney General who would be assassinated in June 1968 and Senator Edward Kennedy the youngest of the nine children shepherd or pack- the only one of the brothers who wouldhorse driver, as they say, live but because he wanted to comb grey hairfor pleasure and adventure. Not quite so much is known about the women who were brave enough to marry into the family His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and Amber Hunt and David Batcher have set out to give us some background on five of these women: Rose Kennedy the matriarch of the family and wife of Joe Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of Jack, Ethelits literary consequences, wife changed our view of Bobby and Joan and Vicki, the first and second wives of Teddy Kennedyworld''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0762796340</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Graff_Find|title=The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Rebellious DaughterFind Another Place|author=Lucinda HawksleyBen Graff|rating=43.5|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=As When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a previous biographer once called herplastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, Princess Louise was Queen Victoria’s unconventional daughterhe didn't take much notice of it. Always popular with At the public for her comparatively easygoing manner (thoughage of 24, being royal, she was not averse to pulling rank), her forward-looking views on social issues, notably education and votes for women, and her artistic interests, she was certainly one Graff didn't realise the gravity of the most interesting of her familypages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951549</amazonuk>

I never heard the original radio series and I have quite deliberately shied away from the Americanised film version (even if it does sell itself well by having Stephen Fry as 'the voice of the book' - I mean, really, in this day and age, who else?!).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184809437X</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Laura Thompson1789016304|title=War and Love: A Different Class family's testament of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucananguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin

|summary=Effie Gray Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was born entranced by what she discovered, particularly in Perth in 1828''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 war years, but only five thousand survived and knew art critic John Ruskin from an early age. When he finally decided Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to ask her happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the city were convinced that they would soon be his wifepushed back, she called off that the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an engagement and happily acceptedatrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715648578</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786893452|title=Victoria: A LifeThe Ungrateful Refugee|author=A N WilsonDina Nayeri

|summary=Every few yearsHere in the West, it seemswe see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, we some scaremongering about them. But all of those stories are presented with another generously-sized biography of Queen Victoria. How many times can another author follow Elizabeth Longfordwritten by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, Stanley Weintraubno matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, or Christopher Hibbert outsiders to name but three, produce 500 pages or more the world and still say something new about her? Can the blurb’s claim situations that refugees find themselves in. It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that , in this shows us intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the sovereign ‘as she’s never been seen before’ really be justified? Fortunately it can, for even more than middle of a century after her deathrevolution in Iran, there is still new material from previously unseen sources fleeing to add to what we already know about herAmerica as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848879563</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0857058320|title=The Lives of the Famous and Lord Of All the Infamous: Everything You Need To Know About Everyone Who MatteredDead|author=The WeekJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4.5

|summary=To describe a book as unputdownable ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a pretty bold claim journey to makeuncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Jeremy OCercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle'Grady, editor-in-chief of The Week does just that s death in the foreword to The Lives of Spanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, is the Famous and figure who looms large over the Infamous, a collection of obituaries from the weekly magazinebook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Thankfully, Cercas ruminates on why his bold judgement is largely spot onuncle fought for this dictator. For those unfamiliar, ''The Week'' collates the best offerings from print media outlets around question at the world, condenses them into smaller chunks, adds a little centre of its own commentary and creates this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a highly concise and entertaining look at hero whilst having fought for the newswrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091958660</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788037812|title=Golden ParasolThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Wendy Law-YoneBrian Anderson

|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=If you look her up Wendy LawOriginally 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-Yone is described sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as a Burmese-born American authorwell as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. That ''Burmese-born American'' might be an accurate description Exploring the margins of her current citizenshipsociety and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but it barely hints at talked about in the ethnic mix of her heritageUK, nor so the publications of her personal closeness (through her father) these men were hugely significant – contributing to her original homeland's the scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the struggle for freedom recognition and democracyequality, leading to the milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555999</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Buckland_Zoo|title=The Art Man Who Ate the Zoo: Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of Neil Gaimannatural history|author=Hayley CampbellRichard Girling

|summary=In As a conservationist in Victorian England before the early seventies Brian Thompson met Elizabeth Northterm existed, both of them part Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of failing marriages which would have died without any intervention on their partshis time. They became friendsSurgeon, they fell in love but they never felt the need to marry naturalist, veterinarian and would be together until Liz's death in 2010 at the age of seventy eight. Both are authors - Thompson would maintain that North was the better writer - eccentric sums him up perfectly, and North would perhaps have said that ''she'' should have made that clear. ''A Corner of Paradise'' tells the story - not of the homes they lived in - but of the joy of their relationshipany biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581868</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Williams_Captain|title=Grace: Her Lives - Her LovesCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: The startling royal exposéHis Military Life and Times|author=Robert LaceyIvor George Williams

|summary=Twenty-five years before another so-called fairytale royal romance which turned out to be anything but, one In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of America’s most beloved screen goddesses crossed the Atlantic and married into the principality 17th Regiment of MonacoFoot. The ceremony He was in 1956 was hailed as the wedding command of the yeartroops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, but like the later Australia: his wife and similar event, it young son accompanied him. He was not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the happiest age of unions34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Edwards' death left his widow in a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to manage, but she was also responsible for the convicts who worked the land. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>191016738X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Peacock_mountain|title=One River: Explorations and Discoveries in the Amazon RainforestInto The Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd|author=Wade DavisCharlotte Peacock

|summary=You have Mostly we choose what books to admire the lady, this rather awkward read because there is so little time and shy daughter of a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had been born as a Polish Catholic. His daughter studied with such intelligence and application that soon brought her academic success particularly in Russian and finally in Quantum Chemistry. At so many books… I can understand the age of 26, she obtained her doctorate and - in passingapproach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it rather seems - her first husband, the physicist Ulrike Merkel. Her rise to power was rapid and took place through we sell the period in which the DDR collapsed as Russian policy under Gorbachev changed. Along with a wry and dry sense of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is the embodiment of the characteristic myriad lesser-known in German authors short as ''fleissig'' - hardworking, sedulous, diligent and assiduouswell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|title=Blazing Star: The Life and Times of John WilmotSo while, Earl of Rochester|author=Alexander Larman|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, was the ultimate 'live fast, die young' icon of the Stuart age, the seventeenth-century embodiment of 'Hope like most other people I die before I get old'. Restoration dandyhave my favourite genres, satirist and pornographic poetfavoured authors, he died a lingering death at the age of 33, racked by venereal disease and alcoholism. If he is remembered at all these dayswhile, except by those familiar with like most other people I read the history or literature of the age, it is as the James Dean or the Keith Moon of his dayreviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a hellraiser whose poetry was heavily suppressed for many years by the censors. In fact much of his verse was not published under his name until long after his death, and as most of it was only circulated in manuscript form during his lifetime and a good deal destroyed by his mother after his death, it is uncertain how much does still survivethird-string to my reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781851093</amazonuk>