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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Molly CarrClaire Dederer|title=In Search of Dr Watson - A Sherlockian InvestigationMonsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=The Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the audience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old saying that behind every great man there aphorism of separating the art from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer's work is a great woman has one major exception - Sherlock Holmesoriginal and expressive. Behind him is The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the figure of Dr John Watsonpage. In particular, his biographerthe prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, the man who shares an artist she personally admires for his Baker St lodgingsart, and the man eternally flummoxed by yet despises for his deductionsactions. This biography successfully shows how model of ''monstrous men'' as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the superior Holmes walked over Watson in investigative skillslikes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and also how Conan Doyle needed Watsona personal, if only to help us admire Holmes more by making him less insufferably smugrather than collective voice.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907685766</amazonuk>1399715070

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsay Reade1788360702|title=Mr Manchester and the Factory GirlCharles, The Alternative Prince: The Story of Tony and Lindsay WilsonAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|genre=EntertainmentBiography|summary=Mr ManchesterFor over forty years, as Tony Wilson came to be known, could have Prince Charles has been the next John Humphrysan ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. Instead he ended up becoming ''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the next Malcolm McLaren – orPrince's opinions, perhaps, a far less successful version beliefs and aims against the background of Richard Bransonthe scientific evidence. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in English he became a trainee news reporter for ITN, and for much There are few instances of his life he worked as an anchorman for regional evening news programmes. Yet he is less remembered for this than for beliefs being vindicated and his championship relentless promotion of alternative music and punk rock, founding of Factory Records and involvement with the Hacienda Club. Although he loved treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the Beatles and folk music in general, he disliked much reputation of the contemporary music scene until he saw the Sex Pistols live in the summer a man who is proud of 1976his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning to his ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654567</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Bevis Hillier1739805100|title=The Wit and Wisdom Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of G K Chestertonwar|author=Andrew March

|summary=G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936)''Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, best known as who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the creator early days of the clerical detective Father BrownNazi regime in the 1930s. Fred, seems to have slipped a little among sensitive and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the general reading publictime. Fred's estimation these days. This is surely unmerited, for attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he was just as versatile as did make friendships and hardly less quotable than the Victorian enfant terribleconnections that lasted for a lifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441179585</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Rosamund BartlettWill Brooker|title=Tolstoy: A Russian LifeThe Truth About Lisa Jewell

|summary=Count Lev Tolstoy came from a privileged familyMeet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. He was born on 28 August 1828; unfailingly superstitious for Now meet Will Brooker, one of the rest thousands of his daysless successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, he therefore adopted 28 as his lucky number. Like most young men from a similar backgroundwell, he joined and shows how 2021 drew the Russian armytwo closer and closer together. The Crimean war proved to be meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the making words of him her latest book she was reciting, and her being in that it developed his social conscience, opened his eyes to a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the conditions endured by those born author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a less lofty position in the social order than himselfprofessor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, and impressed on him down the fervent belief rabbit-hole that everybody in Russia ought to have the chance to learn to read and writeis Jewell's diverse output. As a result Brooker decides he became 'd like nothing more than to follow her through a born-again repentant nobleman year in the light of having seen how the other half (or more than half) livedpublished author's life, he took working to make a long hard look at success of the world around himlatest title, turning into a rebel against organized religion and struggling with the authority of the state next in the processline. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. All And this was exacerbated by his travels throughout Europe shortly afterwards, in which he was impressed with is the comparative freedom he saw in other countries and then found the return to his homeland thoroughly depressing in the few years before the emancipation of the serfsresult.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681383</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Valerie Benaim and Yves AzeroualMartha Leigh|title=Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla BruniInvisible Ink: The True StoryA Family Memoir|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=In November 2007 the French President 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, Nicolas Sarkozy was newly divorced from forever clacking away on his second wife andtypewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, despite his position and busy life, feeling rather lonely's work. He accepted an invitation to a dinner party from Her mother is a friend and met supermodel and recording artist, Carla Bruniconcert pianist who practises for hours every day. The attraction between them was instant – she had already said that she wanted a man with nuclear power and he was smitten by Neither parent is hugely interested in the attentions practicalities of life. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a beautiful, famous and intelligent woman. Within months they were marriedchild does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0907633145</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreview|author=Roland Huntford|title=Race for the South Pole: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=In 1910 two European ships set out for the Antarctic. 'Terra Nova' was carrying British explorers under the leadership of Captain Robert Scott, while 'Fram' sailed with a rival Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen. The basic facts can be briefly summarized. Amundsen arrived at the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and returned home to a hero's welcome, while Scott reached the same destination 35 days later, only to perish with his men on the return journey. Their bodies were found by a search party some eight months after they had died.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441169822</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Charles Margerison|title=Amazing Women: Inspirational Stories|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=The cover of this book tells the reader that these short ''bioviews'' or biographies can be read in 10 mins or so. This is one of a series within ''The Amazing People Club'' courtesy of the ''Amazing People Team''. There is a rather fulsome ''Author's Note'' followed by a one-page introduction. I was immediately struck by the fact that, given the various feats of these women, I was anxious to read about them - and not about Dr Margerison. Less is more. He goes on to say (by now I'm getting a bit tired of the smiling Margerison) that 'The stories are inspirational and can help you achieve your ambitions in your own journey through life.' All of this and especially that last sentence sits rather uneasily with me, I'm afraid.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1921629940</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Selina HastingsPolly Barton|title=The Secret Lives of Somerset MaughamFifty Sounds

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=These days, W. Somerset Maugham seems to be something of an anachronism. In his heydayWhere do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for much of a career which lasted from the end of the Victorian era to the 1950s, he was one of the most successful and widely read of all British writers, with his novels, short stories while and plays spawning more film adaptations than any other author. Yet over the last thirty years or so he seems to have slipped from favour, as if his preoccupation with the Edwardian England in which he grew up and his endworld hadn't gone into melt-of-empire settings are deeply embedded in an age we down I would rather forgethave visited by now. Moreover, as I may get there later this very comprehensive biography demonstratesyear, he was but I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the most pleasant question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of individuals. The unhappy childthe question in the first essay, orphaned by which is on the time he was tensound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, afflicted with a lifelong stammer and brought up by an aunt and uncle who showed him no affectionamong other things, grew up the sound of ''every party where you have to lead a long and unhappy lifeintroduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0719565553</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew McConnell StottFrederic Gros|title=The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi: Laughter, Madness and the Story A Philosophy of Britain's Greatest ComedianWalking|rating=45|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=This book has won several prestigious awards, I confess I picked this one up from the library in my pre-lockdown forage of random stuff. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so my expectations were raised before that I'd even opened can turn down the bookpages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need to. Some books draw you in slowly. And of all the plaudits given on This one had me in the back coverfirst two pages, my favourite was Simon Callowswherein Gros explains why ' '(A) great big Christmas pudding of walking is not a book ...sport' Stott has researched his subject thoroughly. First up, there's a Grimaldi family tree, a Prologue, an Introduction and all this before you get to the story proper, so to speak.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847677614</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Martin DavidsonSharon Blackie|title=The Perfect Nazi: Uncovering My SS Grandfather's Secret Past and How Hitler Seduced a GenerationIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=4.5|genre=HistoryBiography|summary=Meet Martin DavidsonI normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. Now, when Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I start my reviews like that, normally it means he's ve finished reading the main character, but heone I's not hereve borrowed. HeI want to avoid clichés like 's big in powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is definitely the world of BBC History documentaries, first two and grew up in the UK, half Scottish and half German, knowing that many of his older relatives lived through the Second World War. Foremost among them was his German grandfather, Bruno Langbehn, who would have been of fighting age - in his 30s - during the Third Reich. Nothing much was ever said only time will tell about Bruno's own history during the war, except third – but clichés exist for many inflammatory, rising comments by Bruno himself. It took the old man to die for the truth to be admitted by Martina reason and I's mother - their forefather was in the SSm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670916161</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sjeng Scheijen0241446732|title=DiaghilevOur House is on Fire: A Life|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Sergey Diaghilev was one of the towering figures in the artistic world of Russia, and indeed Europe, at the start of the 20th century. Born in 1872 the ambitious son Scenes of a bankrupt vodka producer from Perm, Family and a mother who died a few days later probably from puerperal fever, by his early twenties he was on close terms with such names as Tolstoy, Zola, Tchaikovsky and Brahms. He worked his way into the ranks of the cultural cognoscenti at St Petersburg and launched the itinerant troupe which would become the Ballets Russes, playing to packed houses as far west as Britain and the United States.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681642</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewPlanet in Crisis|author=David Howarth|title=We Die AloneMalena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Consider taking a five day sail in a small fishing boat The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the height parenting of the North Sea from Shetland, to try their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and establishher sister, train and supply some potentially vital anti-German resistance in the farBeata, far north of occupied Norwaythen nine years old, your homelandstruggled with what was happening. Imagine the sight of heavy naval parades where you intended to landIn such circumstances, as galling proof that your intel is ages out of date. Ponder too the fact that you get reported it's natural to the Nazis due seek a solution close to the most ridiculous slight of fortune. All your colleagues are dead or capturedhome, but eventually, your equipment blown up with your trawler it became clear to keep it safe from Jerry hands, half your big toe has been shot off, and youthe family that they were ''re forced to go burned-out people on the run in one of Europea burned-out planet''s last, and coldest, wildernesses. And you have no idea whatsoever quite how bad this scenario is going If they were to getfind a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847678459</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Janet Soskice0648684806|title=Sisters of SinaiClara Colby: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden GospelsThe International Suffragist|author=John Holliday|rating=4.5

|summary=Sisters The path of Sinai tells Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the story time she was just three-years-old but because of two extraordinarysome childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, Victorian women who unearthed an important early copy doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out of school. She was the Gospels from a remote monastery only child in Egyptthe household and her childhood was glorious. It hardly seems possible that they organised By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and executed such remarkable feats of unaccompanied travel during an age in which women's freedom life was hidebound by their status hard, as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to join the inferior sexfamily. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. Janet Soskice is well-placed as As the eldest girl, a feminist philosopher heavy burden would fall on Clara and theologian to explore their livesWisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954654X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Natasha McElhone1789017977|title=After You: Letters of Love, and Loss, to a Husband Ronnie and Father|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=What would you do if, without warning, your brilliant, loving, superman partner died from a catastrophic heart event at the untimely age of 43, leaving you with two young boys and a third on the way? Most of us would probably reach for the Valium and book a very long course of counseling. But Natascha McElhone couldnHilda't because she was already stretched, juggling s Romance: Towards a busy transatlantic career as an actress as well as caring for her sparky young family. Coping as a single parent left no spare time for self-indulgence; within months she had a new baby as well. So she found her own way, grabbing instead at odd moments to write in her well-established diary. These short entries … e-mails, almost … to her dead husband form the basis of 'After You'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919098</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNew Life after World War II|author=Peter Firstbrook|title=The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African FamilyWendy Williams

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=The book jacket states that this is 'Ronnie Williams was the untold story son of an African family' Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and with a presidential photograph of Barack Obama, the book is certainly eye-catchingEthel Wall. Along with, IThere'm sure, millions of others, Is some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry've read 'The Audacity Of Hope' and was charmed and blown away s birthdate: he claimed to have been born in almost equal measure1863, so I but he was keen to get started on this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092725</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stefan Klein|title=Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reinvented the World|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=This excellent combination of science history already many years older than Ethel and biography starts with the most populist and some of the most awkwardly scientifiche might well have shaved a few years off his age. Basically it throws modern-day science at the Mona Lisa, which you might think is For a little unfair – can she cope with being analysedwhile, and the neuroscience we now know used family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in interpreting her? Of course she can – she’s the world’s best1929 Depression and five-known masterpiece of Italian art, and she’s survived much worseyear-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. Klein’s approach fully works, when we see also the science da Vinci One thing he did know inherit from his father was his need to be well-turned-out and that he worked on himself, which all helps us know partly why this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the truths of La Gioconda are still unknowablearmy at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818256</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Valerie GrovePatti Smith|title=So Much To Tell|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Kaye Webb’s career would be the envy Year of many a young bookworm. From 1961 to 1978 she ran Puffin Books, the children’s division of Penguin. I still have some paperbacks from that time with “Kaye Webb – Editor” on the first page inside the front cover.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142008</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Matt MacAllester|title=Bittersweet: Lessons from my Mother's KitchenMonkey

|summary=Matt MacAllester is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalistOn the coast of Santa Cruz, used to covering Patti Smith enters the horrors lunar year of warthe monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, but nothing prepared him for his investigation into the life and death of his mother Anneunexpected moments. In May 2005 Ann MacAllester died suddenly of a heart attack and her son was overwhelmed by grief. This might not sound unusualstranger's words, but his mother had been largely absent from him for about a quarter of a century''Anything is possible: after all, trapped in her own private world it's the year of madnessthe monkey''. His earliest memories were As Smith wanders the coast of an idyllic childhoodSanta Cruz in solitude, where wonderful food was always at the centre of family she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and with the help of Elizabeth Davidageing are faced head-on, his mother’s favourite cookery writer he sought to find his mother through as it the food she cookedshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1408800942</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Welch and Lucian Randall1912242052|title=Ginger Geezer: The Life of Vivian Stanshall|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Redheads, they say, feel more pain than the rest of us. They may even have a layer of skin too few. However literally true this might be, it certainly seems to be the case O Joy for Vivian Stanshall. As his second wife says in this excellent book, 'There's nothing between him and all the sensations the world has to give us'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841156795</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewme!|author=Donald Spoto|title=High Society: Grace Kelly and HollywoodKeir Davidson

|genre=BiographyArt|summary=In his defence''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, we must acknowledge Spoto's subtitle. It underlines that this does not in any way shape because he had to for work, as a miner, quarryman, shepherd or form claim pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to be a biography of the American actress who become Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monacofor pleasure and adventure. It is an analysis of her film career: a consideration His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its literary consequences, changed our view of the "Hollywood years"world''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515377</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison MaloneyGraff_Find|title=St George: Let's Hear it for England!Find Another Place|author=Ben Graff

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=I was When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a bit plastic folder of a patriothandwritten notes from his journal, even when it wasnhe didn't as fashionable as take much notice of it is now becoming. Perhaps this is due to my once having played St. George in a Cub Scout celebration and getting At the chance to personally slay the dragon in knitted chain mail with a plastic sword. In a world where being English has become synonymous with football violence and the flag age of St. George is being used by a political party condemned as racist24, itGraff didn's perhaps unsurprising that more people celebrate St. Patrick's Day than St. George's Dayt realise the gravity of the pages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092628</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Douglas Rogers1789016304|title=The Last ResortWar and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin

|summary=Author Douglas Rogers is a Zimbabwean who moved awayMelanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the country many city during the war years ago, but has never been able only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to persuadehis parents – two white farmers, Lyn and Roz – happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to follow him out oftheir homeland, despite German occupation. Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the resettlement policies of Robert Mugabe,Germans might reach the hyper-inflationcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, and that the corruption Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the country. Insteadway that it did, but initial protests melted away as thepair just wanted to stay organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on the farm welcoming people to Drifters,their backpackers' lodgea vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906021910</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tracy Kidder1786893452|title=Strength in What RemainsThe Ungrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri|rating=4.5

|summary='Strength Here in What Remains' is the inspirational account West, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of Deogratiasthose stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, a man who has fled from outsiders to the genocide world and civil war in Burundi (just south of the equator situations that refugees find themselves in East Central Africa, bordering Rwanda). He escapes It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to New Yorkdo that, out of fear in this intelligent, powerful and want moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a safer life; only his new found American life isn't quite what it promisedrevolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186197857X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catrine Clay0857058320|title=Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup LegendLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating=4.5

|summary='You have 'Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to learn to be hard men, to accept sacrifice without ever succumbinguncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death. Such did Hitler say at Cercas is searching for the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies meaning behind his great uncle's death in the 1930sSpanish Civil War. He probably did not have in mind playing in goal at a FA Cup final with a broken neckManuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, such is the lifetime of difference between figure who looms large over the two referencesbook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. But that lifetime, as packed and varied as it was, is in The question at the pages centre of this ever-interesting and swiftly-devoured bookis whether it is possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Angela Thirlwell1788037812|title=Into The FrameFraternity of the Estranged: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson|rating=4.5

|summary=Ford Madox BrownOriginally passed in 1885, born the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in 1821 in Calais of a Scottish familyplace for 82 years. But during this time, raised in France restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and Belgium before settling in England1908, was one three books on the nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the foremost Victorian artistsheterosexual Havelock Ellis. Throughout his career he Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was closely associated with common on the Pre-RaphaelitesEuropean Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, and shared many so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the scientific understanding of their same idealshomosexuality, style and subject matterbeginning the struggle for recognition and equality, though he never officially became a member leading to the milestone legalisation of the groupsame-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701179023</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris SkidmoreBuckland_Zoo|title=Death and The Man Who Ate the VirginZoo: ElizabethFrank Buckland, Dudley and the Mysterious Fate forgotten hero of Amy Robsart natural history|author=Richard Girling

|summary=When Elizabeth I ascended As a conservationist in Victorian England before the throne in November 1558term existed, everyone's dominant concern Frank Buckland was the matter very much a man ahead of her taking an appropriate husband his time. Surgeon, naturalist, veterinarian and securing the succession. The man most likely to become her husband was Robert Dudleyeccentric sums him up perfectly, whom she made her Master of the Horse and entrusted any biographer is immediately presented with considerable responsibility for her coronation festivities. The fact that he was already married a colourful tale to Amy Robsart did little to quell the speculation, especially since she was believed to be dying of breast cancertell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297846507</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jad AdamsWilliams_Captain|title=GandhiCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: Naked AmbitionHis Military Life and Times|author=Ivor George Williams

|summary=Until I read this bookIn March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the 17th Regiment of Foot. He was in command of the troops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Mohandas Karamchand (or Mahatma for short) Gandhi had always been a very shadowy figureAustralia: his wife and young son accompanied him. I He was familiar with not destined to live a long life, dying suddenly at the picture age of the loincloth-clad man who fell victim 34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to an assassinraise their two young sons. Edwards's bullet shortly after Indian independencedeath left his widow in a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to manage, but knew little moreshe was also responsible for the convicts who worked the land. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849162107</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sue ShephardPeacock_mountain|title=Into The Surprising Mountain, A Life of Constance SpryNan Shepherd|author=Charlotte Peacock

|summary=The very mention of Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the name Constance Spry conjures up thoughts of flower arranging approach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and books of recipes from a bygone erawe sell the myriad lesser-known authors short as well. Perhaps it was her misfortune that she died just before television could So while, like most other people I have made a celebrity of hermy favourite genres, as it did of the likes of Fanny Cradock and Nigella Lawsonfavoured authors, to name but two. Even so, she enjoyed a remarkably successful careerand while, like most other people I read the reviews and the woman behind the public face was no ordinary career womanfollow up on what appeals, but quite an unconventional personalityI also have a third-string to my reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230741819</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Rob Chapman|title=Syd Barrett: A Very Irregular Head |rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Roger Barrett, who later acquired the moniker 'Syd' (let's make him Syd from now Move on) was born in Cambridge in 1946. The fourth of five children, he was the only one to inherit any lasting artistic talent, which came from his father Max. The latter was a senior pathologist, member of the local Philharmonic Society, gifted singer, pianist [[Newest Business and watercolour painter.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571238548</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Frances Stonor Saunders|title=The Woman Who Shot Mussolini|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=Most British titled families of the 19th and 20th centuries have produced their fair share of rebels. Yet few came as close to changing the course of European history as the Honourable Violet Gibson, one of eight children of Baron Ashbourne, a Protestant Anglo-Irish peer and MP in Disraeli's government during the 1870s.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571239773</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Josephine Wilkinson|title=The Early Loves of Anne Boleyn|rating=3.5|genre=History|summary=Before her marriage to King Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn had already been courted by three suitors, any of whom might have become her husband - and possibly saved her from her eventual end on the scaffold. The first was her Irish cousin James Butler, later Earl of Ormond, whom she was at one time intended to marry in order to settle a family dispute over the title and estates of the Earldom of Ormond. After their marriage negotiations came to an end in the face of legal obstacles, she became betrothed to Henry Percy, heir to the Duke of Northumberland. With a little help from the scheming Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke, who had little time for his son, insisted that any idea of marriage between them should be dismissed forthwith. Soon after this the poet Thomas Wyatt became enamoured of her, but by this time there was fierce competition from his sovereign, and her destiny was sealed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848684304</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Michele Monro|title=Matt Monro: The Singer's Singer|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=In terms of British chart statistics and record sales, Matt Monro never quite fulfilled his full potential. When measured against the achievements of contemporary ballad singers like Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck, he fell some way short. Yet the former Terry Parsons was a regular fixture on the light entertainment circuit, and overseas, particularly in Latin America and the Philippines, he was undoubtedly one of Britain's most successful exports ever, and at one point he was the biggest selling artist in Spain. His idol Frank Sinatra, to whom he was often compared, often said that Matt was the only British singer he ever really listened to.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848566182</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Caroline Moorehead |title=Dancing to the Precipice : Lucie De La Tour Du Pin and the French Revolution|rating=4|genre=History|summary=Two hundred years ago, with the fall of the monarchy and the Napoleonic wars, France underwent one cataclysmic change after another. There were many who witnessed and experienced the volatile age at first hand, but few left a more detailed record than the subject of this biography, Lucie-Henriette Dillon, Marquise Marchioness de La Tour du Pin.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099490528</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=A.Roger Ekirch |title=Birthright: The True Story That Inspired Kidnapped|rating=4|genre=History|summary=They say truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and it is not unusual for novels to be based partly on fact. So it was in the case of Robert Louis Stevenson's ''Kidnapped'', Sir Walter Scott's ''Guy Mannering'', and at least three others, all of which can point to the saga of James Annesley for inspiration.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393066150</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Van der Kiste|title=William and Mary: Heroes of the Glorious Revolution|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=At school I remember spending a lot of time on the Tudors and the early Stuarts – obviously great favourites of the history teacher and then galloping unceremoniously through the intervening years until we reached another ''meaningful'' period – the Victorian era. The importance of William and Mary was completely overlooked in favour of a quick mention of the fact that William wasn't in direct line of succession to the throne and Mary had never wanted to marry him in the first place. Their successor, Queen Anne I remember simply as 'tables'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075094577X</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]