Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris McIvor0241636604|title=The World is ElsewhereTrading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5

|summary=As If you were to bring up an image of a Country Directorcity banker in your mind, Chris McIvor has worked for a number you're unlikely to think of years at Save someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the Children. 'The World pin-stripe suit and his background is Elsewhere' covers his time there the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and, injustice. There was no posh public school on his journeys across a number CV - but he had been to the London School of countriesEconomics. It Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a beautiful mix facility with numbers which most of autobiography and travelus can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It also captures was his philosophical thoughts on international aid. He reflects on both the good and the bad with a very easyability at what was, conversational writing style that makes the book truly captivating. I read from cover to cover in a single sittingessentially, unusual for a reviewercard game which got him an internship with Citibank. Such was the draw Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as he laid himself barea trader. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910124346</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Violet Prater1529395224|title=My Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life from the Beginningof a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=23.5|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Violet Prater is 83 Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and sheRowlands didn's decided t want to tell us her story. She knows that there are grammar and spelling errorsfollow in his footsteps, but she wants to tell particularly when he considered the story strain that being on-call put on his father''her'' way without any interference from an editors life. I can understand that When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and I recognise was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn''honesty'' behind her wordst - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. Her storyIf anything, he's important because it illustrates that child abuse can extend beyond beatings and sexual abused wanted to be a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524636738</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Mara WilsonEdel Rodriguez|title= Where Am I Now?Worm: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental FameA Cuban American Odyssey|rating= 54|genre= AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary= Mara Wilson We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has always felt a little young happened, and a little out Castro, first thought of place: as the only child on a film set full saviour of adults, the first daughter in a house full of boyscountry, the sole clinically depressed member of has proven himself a cheerleading squadCommunist, a valley girl in New York and not done nearly enough to create a neurotic level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in Californiathe happiest of places here, and an adult uncle refusing to be the good soldier the world still remembers country demanded (especially as a little girl. Tackling everything from how she first learned about sex on the set of ''Melrose Place,'' he would probably be shipped off to losing her mother at a young agesome minor pro-Communism skirmish, to getting her first kiss (or was it kisses?such as Angola) on a celebrity canoe tripand the father being watched and watched, to and not liked for his successful photography business, success being cute enough frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to make it ease some of the heat, but in Hollywoodthis sultry island country, these essays tell it remains the story kind of one young woman's journey from accidental fame to relative obscurity, but also illuminate a universal struggle: learning to accept yourself, and figuring heat forcing you out who you are and where you belong. of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0143128221</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= John Lydon1035025299|title= Rotten: No IrishWent to London, No Blacks, No DogsTook the Dog|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=3.54|genre=EntertainmentAutobiography|summary= Picking up this book immediately makes you wonder what exactly you make of John LydonNina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years. She's been at Victoria's smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writing, the man who became notorious in the late 1970s as there'Johnny Rotten' of the Sex Pistolss always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. Was he the iconoclast who if some The other side of the tabloids were to be believed decision was about to destroy western civilization almost single-handed? Had he really come to destroy, or merely to use the showbusiness system and end up becoming part sealed when a room became available (courtesy of what he had set out to fight, or both – or what?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859653412</amazonuk>Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Nev SchulmanChristopher Fowler|title= In Real Life: Love, Lies & Identity in the Digital AgeWord Monkey|rating= 4|genre= Reference|summary= Nev (it's pronounced Neev) is a man who knows about the darker side of online dating. Known for his documentary ''Catfish'' – a film which showed an online flirtation going sour, Nev then began making a tv show of the same name, travelling America to offer advice to those in online relationships, and possibly being catfished (which means being lured into a relationship by someone adopting a fictional online persona). Now the go-to expert in online relationships for millenials, a generation who have never known a world without Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other online places where interactions can form. Here, he takes his investigation to the page – exploring relationships in the era of social media, delving deeply into the complexities of dating in a digital age, and continuing the dialogue his show has begun about how we interact with each other online – as well as sharing insights from his own story. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1473608066</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Julie Barton|title=Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself|rating=3.5

|summary=It was 1996 and Julie Barton was twenty-two years old and one year into her job in publishing 's the first of August in New York when she collapsed on the kitchen floor middle of her apartment a cool wet summer in ManhattanEast Anglia. She was severely depressed, an illness provoked, on I decided not to swim at the face pool in favour of it, but the end of a destructive romantic relationship - or was it the end? going to my beach hut. Will kept coming back, The weather closed in the early hours of the morning, sleeping with herrain arrived, then leaving againand I decided not to do that either. When Julie collapsed all she could think to do I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to ring her mother who drove from Ohio finish reading this book and (b) I did not want to New York and took her homedo so anywhere near my shack. Despite No spoiler alerts, the best intentions of her parents dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and therapists, Julie seemed unable to break out of the depression, until she finally his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made just one positive decision - to adopt laugh by a Golden Retriever puppy whom she called Bunker Hillman who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and you know he actually is at that point, because he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1509834486</amazonuk>0857529625

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Sue PerkinsKit De Waal|title= SpectaclesWithout Warning and Only Sometimes

|summary= A dash of dramaAs Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad/ They may not mean to, a sprinkling but they do” Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of gossip parenthood and the bonds that bind family. This book is a smattering memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of laugh-out-loud funny make Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a large role in the autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and are written with care, love, and the best sort kind of memoiranger only a child can express to their parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1405918551</amazonuk>1472284852

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Amy Krouse Rosenthal1638485216|title= Textbook Amy Krouse RosenthalBlack, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= I wasn't sure what to expect when I asked for this book to review'Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It claims on the front cover has everything to be do with character. Period.''not exactly a memoir '', and it isnOne more body just wouldn'tmatter''. Yet The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, alsoon 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, it kind a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of isMinneapolis sent shock waves around the world. In fact, I would struggle to describe or decipher exactly what it isWe rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. It The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is so unlike any book not one which I've ll ever read beforeforget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1101984546</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alastair Fraser|title=Forestry Flavours of the Month: The Changing Face of World Forestry|rating=4.5|genre=Business and Finance|summary=Alastair Fraser's experience of forestry spans more than five decades and having the benefit of the long view he's ideally placed to consider the changes which have occurred over the course of his career. He also has the abilityBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, not as common as it ought to be amongst professionalsCaroline Bankeler, of being able to look at what he does both from the point of view of the business ''and'' the people who work in it Navid Modiiri and are affected by it. There's a lack of tunnel vision too: he sees what's happening in forestry both in the narrow focus and where it sits globally so far as economics and politics are concerned.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524628921</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Gerald DurrellAgnes Bromme (Translator)|title= My Family and Other AnimalsI May Be Wrong|rating= 5

|summary=Meet When the Durrells, a quintessentially eccentric English Family. We have LarryDalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the lazy and pompous eldest; Leslie, who loves hunting and rest of the outdoors; Margoworld responds to your book. I know, a sulky teenage girl at having read the mercy of her hormones; Mother, who seems unflappable, even book in the most extreme situations; Roger the loyal family dog and finally Gerryquestion, who is 10 years old and has an obsession that Lindeblad would disagree with the natural worldthat thought. “My Family He knows (and Other Animals” is Gerry's story at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of what happened when the family decided world responds to uproot to escape this book, because it tells the drab monotony of England for truth as it is, in the sunnier climes of Corfuearly 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141321873</amazonuk>1526644827

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= P J Kavanaghgareth_steel|title= The Perfect StrangerNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating= 54|genre= AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with 'The Perfect Stranger'Never Work With Animals' was originally published in 1966, this edition 50 years on hasn't lost any it seems to be appropriate. Stories of its charm or appeal. Intended as a memorial, vet's life have proved popular since ''...made out of bits All Creatures Great and pieces lying around me, bits of myself, all I had to bring her. Or rather itSmall'' but ''Never Work With Animals's part of it', in is definitely not the foreward added to the 1991 edition Kavanagh is appalled that his book should have companion volume you've been so widely categorised as an autobiography and states that if he had known that would happen he would have stopped writing at oncelooking for. To me this attitude is an early indication to As a TV show the personality and character of Kavanagh. His journey highlights how disaffected, withdrawn, and isolated he is from the world around him, with an arrogance and cynicism author would argue that goes beyond the petulance of his teenage years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910463299</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Liam Klenk|title= Paralian: Not Just Transgender|rating= 4.5|genre= Autobiography|summary= Paralian is an Ancient Greek word, meaning ''one who lives by the seaAll Creatures''lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Here, we follow Gareth Steel says that the authorbook is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's journey through life, narrated by his relationship to water – the river he grew up near, the oceans he crosses, and the water that later becomes his place of work. A tumultuous journey, we follow the author in his quest written it to find authentic self inform and happinessprovoke thought, against an incredible array of adversitiesparticularly amongst aspiring vets. At five months old, Liam was adopted from an orphanage – It deals with some uncomfortable and thus began a journey to conquer childhood disability, distressing issues with parents, marriages, divorcesbut it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and gender dysphoriaeating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785891200</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Amanda LeaskDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=MiracleSpeedy: The extraordinary dog that refused to dieHurled Through Havoc

|summary=Amanda Leask has been obsessed with dogs all her How to summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to kick off a review of his memoir? Do you know, I really don't think I can.  Dave is an author and it's been an obsession which needs the world artist. An inspirational speaker and a lot professional horseman. And a recovering alcoholic. The son of ita Lutheran minister, he's attitudes struggled with a controlling father, run away to dogs join the circus (not a metaphor), trained horses, painted caravans, designed and painted theatre sets, and hit rock bottom when the bottle took over.|isbn=B0965V3LLN}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008350388|title=We Need to Talk About Money|author=Otegha Uwagba|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to change for the betterbe seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts... '' She's not daunted 'We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba ''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by the obstacles: shea woman.'' ''The Bookseller''s simply determined 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to do all that the UK from Kenya when she possibly can to make the world a better place for dogswas five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. Amanda lives It was her mother who came first, with her husband Tobiasfather joining them later. The family was hard-working, son Kyle principled and more than twenty rescue and sled dogs near Invernessdetermined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. Very nice, you're probably thinkingWhen Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. Wouldn't we all like For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to have that sort of lifestyle? But hold on a minuteprivate school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1785032550</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Kalanithi0571365884|title=When Breath Becomes AirMy Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=4.5

|summary=At Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the age sort of thirty six Paul Kalanithi seemed life where if she had nothing to have a glittering career - worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and life - ahead of himfar between. He had degrees in English literatureOn a visit to a therapist, human biology and history and philosophy of science and medicine from Stanford and Cambridge universitiesas an adult, as well as the American Academy of Neurological Surgery's top award for research. His reflections on medicine had been published in the when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and ''New York Times''. The ''Washington PostMy Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' as well as is the ''Paris Review Daily''. It had been hinted, as he came result - or so we are given to the end of ten years training to be a neurosurgeon, that he'd have the pick of the jobs on offer. There was just one nagging problem. Well there was more than one. He had severe back pain and he knew that he was unwell. He had stage four (terminal) lung cancerbelieve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847923674</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edith MorleyDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=Before and After: Reminiscences of a Working LifeA Tattoo on my Brain|rating=43.5

|summary=Edith Morley was born in Bayswater in 1875 and wasnAlzheimer't overly keen on being s is a girldisease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, although she found as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the late Victorian conventions restrictive rather than repressiveelements. Her descriptions of the life which young women (or even women of any age) were expected to lead is exceptional in the way It seems as if nature wants that it shows the tedium final victory over you and the limitationsyour dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. She had one great good fortune in that her father (Daniel Gibbs is a surgeon-dentist) neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and well-read mother believed has documented his journey in the benefits of a good education for boys ''and'' girls. After spending two years in Germany as part of her education she went A Tattoo on to get an my Brain'equivalent' degree from Oxford University (which is all that was available to women at the time) and then to become the first female professor in England in 1908, at Reading University.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909747165</amazonuk>1108838936

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margaret Forster1529109116|title=My Life in HousesCall Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah Jackson

|genre=AutobiographyLifestyle|summary=Love them or loathe them, ''I want the houses we live in have image of a way British farmer to simply be that of defining our lives. Author Margaret Forster decided to take this idea a stage further when writing her autobiographyperson who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. Instead of putting herself centre-stage, she allows the houses I don't think that she has lived in is too much to tell her story insteadask. From humble beginnings in a council-house '' The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the notorious Raffles estate, we see Margaretland where ''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's fortunes improve probably grown up without giving much thought as her writing career blossomsto what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a farmer. It's not always the case though. Student digs in Oxford, Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a shared house on Hampstead Heathdeep love of animals. Her original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, a villa in the Algarve whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a remote cottage in family holiday to the Lake District all have their time in . She saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the spotlight; but it soon becomes clear kudos of her original intention, she knew that only one very special house can earn she wanted to be a shepherd. With the most precious title: HOMEdetermination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099593971</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jim Quillen0008333173|title=Inside AlcatrazHungry: My Life on the RockA Memoir of Wanting More|author=Grace Dent

|summary=It sounds like something from a Hollywood movie. A group I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of young prisoners make a daring escape from prison and go the judges on the run, cleverly evading capture thanks to quick wits and creative thinking. After managing to cover some distance, the men began to feel ''smart, confident and quite comfortable,Masterchef'' thinking . You know that they had managed you're going to outwit get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the policetime. A rude awakening You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with gun to the head one morning proved otherwise. The circumstances of their escape meant all that their capture would lead to a long incarceration good food in one front of her. I've often wondered about the most notorious prisons in woman behind the world: Alcatraz. media image and ''Inside AlcatrazHungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is the story of one of those men, Jim Quillen, a stunning read which will make you laugh and his long road to redemptionbreak your heart in equal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1784750662</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Malala Yousafzai1504321383|title= I Am Malala|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= ''She's a phenomenon'' is my OH's response to any mention of Malala. I can't disagree on some levelSingle, but what this book proves is that on another she is just a girl. One voice among many. It's just that she decided to speak louder than most. We know about Malala because she got lucky. She got lucky because when she got shot by the Taliban there were people nearby, doctors who got her to a hospitalAgain, and then luckier still because when her condition worsenedAgain, nearby there were western doctors with access to western facilities and she was flown to the UK for treatment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780622163</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewAgain|author= Guy Martin|title= When You Dead, You DeadLouisa Pateman|rating= 4.5|genre= Autobiography|summary= It's a little depressing when a 34 year old is publishing his second autobiography, but that's what this book is, and Martin proves he's certainly not short on material. The author, for those of you who don't know, is a mechanic who dabbles in TV presenting and motorcycle racing, though it's the latter for which we he will be most well-known.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753556669</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Bee Rowlatt|title=In Search of Mary: The Mother of all Journeys|rating=3.5

|summary=As a university student at Glasgow, Bee Rowlatt first encountered the proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft through her epistolary travel narrative, ''Letters from NorwayYou can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a man''.  This book is was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her homage to Wollstonecraft as well as an attempt to pinpoint why this particular work has meant so much to what they thought would be best for her over . It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the years and helped girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her form her own ideas about feminism and motherhoodso that they can live happily ever after. From Norway Few girls are lucky enough to Paris and then San Francisco, Rowlatt follows in Wollstonecraftbe brought up ''without''s footsteps the expectation that they will marry and asks everyone she meets how modern feminism have children. It was a belief and motherhood can coincide. By using it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a Dictaphone, she belief is able to recreate her dialogues exactly, making for lively, conversational prosea choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883784</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Diana MellySakinu Ahronglong|title=Strictly Ballroom: Tales from the DancefloorHunter School

|summary=The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of fiction. That''Crosswords and Sudoku will help but s possibly misleading. I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in the best way to avoid dementia sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as the blurb goes on to take up ballroom dancing.say ''recollections, folklore and autobiographical stories'' Diana Melly heard these words at a conference organized by . It feels like the Alzheimer's Societylatter. It was feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a subject close to her heartchild, as an adolescent, as she had recently lost her dear husband George to lung cancer an adult are real and vascular dementiatrue. The reason that ballroom dancing is so effective at warning off the ageing process But memory is because it requires a form of coordination that effectively rewires the brain; activating the cerebral cortex fickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and hippocampus. The lecture piqued Diana's interest there and soon she was signing up for lessons at a local dance class. Little did she know maybe calling it fiction means that this would open up a whole new world to her; a world of sequins, heels, glitterballs its safer and lifelong friendstherefore more people will read it. More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1780722540</amazonuk>1999791282

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=A P McCoy1544641923|title=Winner: My Racing LifeAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona

|summary=In any walk of It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life there are people who are universally known by their first names aloneis privileged and luxurious. In It might be privileged, but family connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. flat racing, everyone knows who Now you'Frankie' is and in National Hunt re not going to get many ambassadors telling you need say no more than what it'A.P.s really like (it' Legend is an over-used word but s not when it comes ''diplomatic'' to do so, you know), but the diplomatic spouse, the achievements of Tony accompanying baggage, well, that'As an entirely different matter.P She (and it still usually is a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.' McCoy}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241446732|title=Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. He's been champion jockey Malena Ernman was an unprecedented twenty times opera singer and his career record Svante Thunberg took on most of 4the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister,348 wins may never be beatenBeata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In factsuch circumstances, it's tempting natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to say the family that it will they were ''neverburned-out people on a burned-out planet'' be beaten. He's won the Grand National, the Irish Grand National, two Cheltenham Gold Cups and won the Champion Hurdle three times. Unusually for If they were to find a jockey he's also been BBC Sports Personality of the Yearway to live happily again their solution would need to be radical. He achieved all this by the age of forty one when he retired from racing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409162397</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lucie Brownlee191280493X|title=Life After YouComing of Age|author=Danny Ryan

|summary= It was February 2012 when Brownlee's husband Mark, 'He began writing novels and poetry at the age 37, dropped dead in the middle of sex. They were staying at her mother's house in advance of her grandmother's funeral and trying to conceive their second child. Four years earlier Mark had suffered an aortic dissectiontwelve, but his health had been stable since. Although there it was little doubt in her mind to take him a further forty-eight years to realise that Mark died instantly, she performed CPR while her three-year-old watched from the doorway, then called the policehe wasn’t very good at either. Almost before she knew itConsistently unpublished for all that time, they were all in the midst he remains a shining example of planning hope over experience...''  ''This a second family funeral: discussing flower arrangements, cremation and charity donationsmemoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have. How did it come to this?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753555840</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dan Marshall190874572X|title=Home Is Burning: A MemoirLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)|rating=35

|summary=Dan Marshall thought he had Back at the beginning of the century, I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a perfect lifewonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of-friends. He lived in Los Angeles, where he worked for I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a cutting-edge public relations firm and later one that Paula told me I really had an attractive girlfriendto read Tove Jansson. Sure, his mother, Debi, had non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but she had been living with I do know that it for 14 was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, and seemed no worse than ever. Cancer was normal for their family; it didnthat I eagerly awaited the 't interfere with Marshall's favourite activity, Sort Of'acting like a spoiled white asshole.' When his father, Bob, was diagnosed with ALS, however, it was a different story. All five siblings in this Sedaris-like clan would have to pull together to help Bob cope with translations of the ravages rest of Lou GehrigJansson's diseasework and devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00Z70VHXM</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Phyll MacDonald-Ross and I D Roberts1908745819|title=Bandaging the BlitzSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie

|summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''Why would anyone want to know about me, dear?this one has your name on it'' she said. Everyone has an interesting story to tell. Yet how many life stories actually make it into printed formMostly we take them at their word, perhaps because the individuals involved did or not feel , but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that anyone would be interested in their lives? This was almost we didn't like the case for Phyllis Macdonald-Ross, book. That's a rare experience. People who served as are sensitive to hearing a nurse in a busy London hospital during the Blitzbook calling your name, rarely get it wrong. It In this case, I was only thanks to her determined grandson and devoted husband that she finally decided to put her memoirs down on paper and submit them for publicationtold why. The result is blurb speaks of the author considering ''an exciting and emotional coming-older, less tethered sense of-age story about herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a young nurse entering her training during one bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most turbulent times in British historyof all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0751559911</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Bruce Hugman1906852472|title= Out of Bounds|rating= 4|genre= Autobiography|summary= Author Bruce Hugman has been Wild Child: Growing Up a school teacher, probation officer, smallholder, university lecturer, PR Professional, is an international communications consultant and teacher in healthcare and patient safety. Having nursed two partners through the final stages of AIDS, and survived the 2004 Asian Tsunami. A varied and interesting life then – and it is the first thirty years of it that Hugman chooses to concentrate on here. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1508423709</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewNomad|author=Alison Pick|title=Between GodsIan Mathie|rating=45

|summary= Alison Pick's paternal grandparents escaped Czechoslovakia just before For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, the Holocaust by bribing story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the Nazis for visas to Canada; very years that made him the rest of amazing man he became). The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the family died in Auschwitzbook is published posthumously. They spent their whole lives trying to pass as ChristiansAs always, and Pickit's fatherbeautifully written, too, was reluctant to have anything to do with Judaismmany exciting moments. Pick only learned he What I most enjoyed was Jewish through the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a conversation overheard when she was 11satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472225090</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy Clarke1999811402|title=Low Life: The Spectator ColumnsPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley|rating=4.5

|summary=There is It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a story that back in 1997 there were three deaths at about the same time lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and God had taken where for the shift at the pearly gates to do the paperworkbest results. Princess Diana came first and was quickly followed by Mother Teresa. Stories The answer would be something along the lines of their good works flowed out 'try it and God hated to admit it but he was little weariedsee'. Still it was the end of Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his shift... but then another soul appearedA levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and is now an A&E consultant (part-time). Jeffrey Bernard! It was with relief I found out that God dashed there's an awful lot more to the bar to get the first round what goes on in... There might have been high jinx in heaven but back on earth ''Life'a Major Trauma Centre than you' was not so clear cut and even Taki Theodoracopulos was a little worried. He wrote ll ever glean from ''High LifeCasualty'' for the Spectator, but where would that be without its counterpoint, isn't really what the book'Low Life's about. There' s a lot about rock & roll, which had been written for years by Bernard? Fortunately there was an able replacement waiting in seems to be the wings.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373912</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Tom Sperlinger|title= Romeo and Juliet in Palestine: Teaching Under Occupation|rating= 4.5|genre= Autobiography|summary= Towards the end real passion of Tom SperlingerHartley's first booklife, he says education can open peoplebut it didn's eyes, making them aware 'that we make assumptions all of t actually fit into the time, without even knowing they are assumptionsentertainment genre either. Did we have a category for ' doing the impossible the hard way''Romeo and Juliet in Palestine: Teaching Under Occupation'' is a fine example of this belief in learning, an assumption? Yep -shattering book that offers a new perspective on Palestinian life not seen on the news or in 's the papers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782796371</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Elena Dunkle and Clare B Dunkle|title= Elena Vanishing|rating= 5|genre= Autobiography|summary= There’s a voice in Elena’s head, and it’s harshone. It'You’re a failure,' it says. 'You’re a fat flabby mess.' And she agrees, she is both of those thingss an autobiography. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1452121516</amazonuk>