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[[Category:Biography|*]]

[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__

{{newreview

|author=Laura Thompson

|title=A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord Lucan

|rating=5

|genre=True Crime

|summary=It's difficult to believe that it's forty years since the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett and the subsequent disappearance of Lord Lucan, not least because there have been numerous theories about what happened on November the 7th 1974 - and what became of Lucan. It might also be thought that - short of the Earl turning up with an explanation - there's not a great deal ''new'' which can be added to the pile of published material on the subject, so I began reading ''A Different Class of Murder'' with the thought that there would be no great surprises.

|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781855366</amazonuk>

}}

{{newreview

|title=Effie Gray

|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 on the Knox brothers, these included two Oxford pastors (one of whom, Ronald Knox, converted to Catholicism, was famous as a biblical translator and whilst chaplain at Trinity College became a mentor to the future prime minister, Harold Macmillan), a top Bletchley cryptographic analyst and Penelope's own eminent father, 'Evoe' who was editor of Punch. Fitzgerald wrote prolifically from childhood and fulfilled some of these high expectations by gaining a brilliant First at Somerville. Graduating in 1938, she was already known for her membership of the smart set, for her student journalism and a reticent, indeed peremptory manner. Women could not actually graduate at Oxford until a statute was passed in 1920. Hence she was amongst Oxford's early women graduates. Her striking appearance within the smart set earned her the nickname of the ''blonde bombshell''.

~~|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184957</amazonuk>~~

}}

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