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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> ==Autobiography== <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gok Wan0241636604|title=Through Thick and ThinThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Famous for his sensitivity and understanding with women, encouraging them and enabling them If you were to accept themselvesbring up an image of a city banker in your mind, and their bodies, as they are, Gok Wanyou's autobiography sadly tells a very different story with regards re unlikely to his own body acceptancethink of someone like Gary Stevenson. Having gained weight throughout A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his childhoodbackground is the East End, getting up to twenty one stone as a teenagerwhere he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he loathed his body had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and ended up starving himself, becoming anorexic in he has a desperate effort facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be thin andstupid. It was his ability at what was, thereforeessentially, successfula card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Perhaps Eventually, this is where his empathy comes from? That when he stands a woman in front of turned into permanent employment as a wall of mirrors in her underwear, he actually truly understands what it is to loathe your own bodytrader.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091938392</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Wynn1529395224|title=Two Sons in a War Zone: AfghanistanLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The True Story Secret Life of a Father's ConflictVet|author=Sion Rowlands
|rating=3.5
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=It's almost Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a nightly occurrence – that news item which contains the words GP and Rowlands didn'… has been killed t want to follow in Afghanistanhis footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father' and we think of a young s life, or young lives cut tragically short. They're fresh-faced young men or women at what should have been When he was seventeen he took the beginning opportunity of their adult life doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and now they are no morewas convinced this was the job for him. You feel for them and their familiesBefore long, but what about the families who have people they love out in Afghanistan, who live each day he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with the worry that the knock will be coming to their door? Stephen Wynn has two sons who have done tours of duty in Afghanistan and who are likely to do so againmany students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'Two Sons in d wanted to be a War Zone' is his story of how he copes with the unrelenting pressureprofessional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570244</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Don MullanEdel Rodriguez|title=The Boy Who Wanted to FlyWorm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=3.54|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=There is a Foreward by both Pele We're in childhood, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Names to make most of us sit up and noticewe're in Cuba. The title is certainly quirky revolution has happened, and Mullan is probably hoping that prospective readers will be saying to themselves, what's this all about then. Good startCastro, I first thought. Then I realised that there's an awful lot of football in this book. Even although it's as a slimsaviour of the country, sliver of has proven himself a bookCommunist, there's no getting away from the subject matterand not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. FootballWell, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. I donOur narrator's family weren't 'do' football. Soin the happiest of places here, I counted an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to tensome minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, put on what I hoped was a good reviewer's face and started not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to read ...ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907756019</amazonuk>1474616720
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Megan Rix1035025299|title=The Puppy That Came For Christmas and Stayed ForeverWent to London, Took the Dog|author=Nina Stibbe
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Along with most of my contemporaries INina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years. She've never read s been at Victoria'The Ladys smallholding in Leicestershire which isn' except once when looking for an au pair job in my student days, and t all thatconducive to writing, it turns out, is the problemas there's always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. Before Rachel Johnson was appointed in June 2009 the average age The other side of the readership decision was 75, the circulation was dropping and the magazine was haemorrhaging money. The Budworth family, proprietors sealed when a room became available (courtesy of 'The Lady' since it was founded 125 years ago, chose son and heir Ben Budworth to turn the magazine's fortunes around before it folded. He asked Rachel Johnson to be editorDeborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905490674</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jo BrandChristopher Fowler|title=Can't Stand Up For Sitting DownWord Monkey|rating=35
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I am a big fan It's the first of Jo Brand and I love her inimitable droll style August in the middle of comedya cool wet summer in East Anglia. I always enjoy her stand up performances as well as her appearances on decided not to swim at the pool in favour of going to my favourite panel programme QIbeach hut. As a consequence The weather closed in, rain arrived, and I was really interested decided not to read her second autobiographical do that either. When I finished reading this book – Can't Stand Up for Sitting Down. As she states at the beginning though, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this is book and (b) I did not really an autobiography but a collection of thoughts and experiences that have resulted due want to her life as a stand up comediando so anywhere near my shack. The book covers No spoiler alerts, the period from her dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and his first professional gig up chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to the present daylaugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and you know he actually is at that point, because he does. Her early life and career in psychiatric nursing are covered in her earlier book [[Look Back in Hunger by Jo Brand|Look Back in Hunger]] He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0755355261</amazonuk>0857529625
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ellen MacArthurKit De Waal|title=Full CircleWithout Warning and Only Sometimes|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=It's some years since I read [[Taking on the World As Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad/ They may not mean to, but they do” Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Ellen MacArthur|Taking Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of parenthood and the World]] and – against all expectations thoroughly enjoyed itbonds that bind family. I'm not This book is a sailor and don't have memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a great deal of interest teenager living in yacht racing – but what appealed to me immediately was the character a lower class area of someone who was determined not to let ''anything'' stand Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the way of Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her ambitionsfamily for becoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. My only disappointment came later as I felt that This intersectionality plays a large role in the book had been written too soon – I really wanted autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to know about '''that''' big her race , her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and what you do are written with care, love, and the future when you've done everythingkind of anger only a child can express to their parents. How lucky did I feel when ''Full Circle'' landed on my desk?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0718148630</amazonuk>1472284852
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Davies1638485216|title=Teenage RevolutionBlack, White, and Gray All Over: Growing Up A Black Man's Odyssey in the 80sLife and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Born in 1966, Alan Davies grew up in Essex, the son of a staunchly Conservative-voting father and a mother who died of cancer when he was only six. It was a childhood dominated at first by 'Citizen Smith' and the other TV sitcoms, 'Starsky and Hutch', 'Grease', Barry Sheene, the Barron KnightsCorruption is not department, and Debbie Harrygender or race specific. The book begins at 1978, ''the year I started venturing out more'', and finishes at 1988, when he graduated from Kent University to find that stand-up comedy could be an alternative to finding a job where he would have It has everything to do what he was toldwith character. Period.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141041803</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Judith SummersBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=The Badness of King GeorgeI May Be Wrong
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography|summary=People know how When the Dalai Lama adds his words to get round me: they offer me a book and then say 'It's about a dog' and like Pavlov's canine your frontispiece, I say 'Oh, lovelym inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds to your book. And so it was I know, having read the book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with The Badness of King Georgethat thought. George is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel He knows (and at core so do I have ) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to quibble with this book, because it tells the title – superb truth as it is – because George is not bad. If anything he's badly done by as Judith Summers, plagued by empty nest syndrome when her son goes to university, decides to foster rescue dogs. Poor George has absolutely no idea what she's let him in for. And nor has Judiththe early 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141046473</amazonuk>1526644827
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin Lewisgareth_steel|title=The Kid: A True StoryNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Kevin Lewis grew up on I don't often begin my reviews with a poverty-stricken London council estate in the sort of home that the neighbours complain aboutwarning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. His mother – inadequate by any measure – hated him more than most Stories of her six children a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and he was beaten and starved by both of his parentsSmall'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. You might think As a TV show the author would argue that Social Services would have stepped in and removed him''All Creatures'' lacked realism, but any relief was to be short-livedas do other similar programmes. Eventually he was put into care but even then Gareth Steel says that the support was inadequate book is not suitable for younger readers and Kevin found himself caught up in a criminal underworld where - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he was known simply as 'The Kids written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014104859X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Dai HenleyDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=B PositiveSpeedy: Hurled Through Havoc
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Dai Henley counts himself lucky How to have been born summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to loving and nurturing parents. When they discovered that kick off a review of his blood group was B positive they gave him his motto in lifememoir? Do you know, I really don't think I can. Dave is an author and coincidentally, the title of this bookan artist. As he explains, it's not An inspirational speaker and a celebrity autobiography (you might be selling yourself professional horseman. And a little short there, Dai) and nor is it a misery memoirrecovering alcoholic. It's the story The son of a man who has made the most of every opportunity Lutheran minister, he's been given – and struggled with a few mistakes along controlling father, run away to join the way – but he's won through despite circus (not a metaphor), trained horses, painted caravans, designed and painted theatre sets, and hit rock bottom when the difficulties and played a fair amount of sport toobottle took over.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907499180</amazonuk>B0965V3LLN
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{{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 be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...'' ''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 a woman.'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steve Duno0571365884|title=Last Dog On The HillMy Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett|rating=54|genre=PetsAutobiography|summary=Driving through northern California Steve Duno found Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a puppy by child. She would worry about whether the side of monsters under the road. He bed were comfortable: it was flea-bitten, tic infested, emaciated the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and suffering from an infectionfar between. His father was On a Rottweiler and his mother visit to a German Shepherd - both were guard dogs at the local marijuana farm. therapist, as an adult, When Steve whistled the dog came when she was completely unable to him and speak about what was wrong with her it's no exaggeration to say was suggested that in that moment his life changed. Heshe should write it down and 'd always wanted a dog, but hadn't been able to have one as My Mess is a child. There was Bit of a momentLife: Adventures in Anxiety''s indecision at is the side of the road – and then Lou became Steve's dogresult - or so we are given to believe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330520024</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jim PerrinDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of LossTattoo on my Brain
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Where would you go if the love of Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your life, identity and your son, both died within a short few months sense of each other? Jim Perrin headed West - to the scraggly patches of land off Irelandself. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, closer to the setting sun, nearer to the further horizon, beyond the noise, information as have many. Your memories and opinion of humanity. Of course, that question could also be answered in personality worn away like a more metaphoric way. Jim went inward, before coming outward. He suffered - "involuntarily, statue over time affected the tears have comeelements. Who would have thought It seems as if nature wants that death would release final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so manyadmirable.." He also, although he would probably hate me for saying it, went on Daniel Gibbs is a "psycho-geographical ramble" - both in life, neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in making this book''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1843546116</amazonuk>1108838936
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1529109116
|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
|author=Hannah Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.''
The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where ''his'' family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a farmer. It's not always the case though. 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 deep love of animals. Her original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District. She saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to be a shepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=G Willow Wilson0008333173|title=The Butterfly MosqueHungry: A Young Woman's Journey to Love and IslamMemoir of Wanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=This memoir I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is told in one of the first person so straight away there is a connection with the reader. The story starts - not in Egypt - but in the USA. Willow (lovely name) says she's judges on ''in the market for a philosophy.Masterchef'' And in this search she is extremely thorough. She looks at mainstream religions - Christianity, Buddhism You know that you're going to name but two and puts them under get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the microscope, so to speaktime. She dismisses all of them before settling You also ponder on Islam. It appears to offer what how she is after, what she is looking for, can look so elegant with all that enigmatic thinggood food in front of her. But also, thereI's some little twist which helps make her mind up. But not before she digs deep ve often wondered about the woman behind the media image and seeks answers to complex and awkward questions. She reads and researches Islam and finds out surprising facts, which she shares with the reader. Willow ''Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is well-a stunning read which will make you laugh and well-educated. She seems set for a good career of her choice on American soil. Why not settle for that? But she's set on travel to the Middle East come what maybreak your heart in equal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1843548283</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anna Del Conte1504321383|title=Risotto with NettlesSingle, Again, and Again, and Again|author=Louisa Pateman|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary= People who are serious about food will know the name of Anna Del Conte. She's a serious writer about Italian food but not someone who has courted fame via the television screen'You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. Youare not complete until you find a man'll have met her in places like 'Sainsbury's Magazine' or read some of her brilliant writing about the food of her native Italy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099505991</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Greg BaxterSakinu Ahronglong|title=A Preparation for DeathHunter School|rating=34.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of fiction. That's possibly misleading. Iam not sure whether it is "fiction" in the sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as the blurb goes on to say ''recollections, folklore and autobiographical stories''ve always been slightly wary of autobiographies which . It feels like the latter. It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, as an adolescent, as an adult are written whilst the subject is still relatively youngreal and true. They can often feel incompleteBut memory is a fickle thing, particularly when you know the author is still successful in their chosen careerand maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more people will read it. Frequently they are also written from an immediate perspective which time can alter thanks to hindsightMore people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0141048433</amazonuk>1999791282
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Frances Woodsford1544641923|title=Dear Mr Bigelow: A Transatlantic FriendshipAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Meet Mister Bigelow. HeIt's elderly, living alone on Long Island, New York, with some health problems but more than enough family and friends tempting to get him by, and still a very active interest in yachting, regattas think that the diplomatic life is privileged and moreluxurious. MeetIt might be privileged, too, Frances Woodsfordbut family connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. SheNow you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's reaching middle-agenot ''diplomatic'' to do so, living with her brother and mum in Bournemouthyou know), but the diplomatic spouse, and working for the local baths as organiser of eventsaccompanying baggage, office lackey and more. I suggest you do meet themwell, although neither ever met the otherthat's an entirely different matter. Despite this they kept up a brisk She (and lively conversation about all aspects of life, from the late 1940s until his death at the beginning of the 60s. And as it still usually is a result comes this book, of heavily edited highlights, which opens up a world of social history and entertaining diary-style comment'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099542293</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Beaumont0241446732|title=The Secret Life Our House is on Fire: Scenes of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg
|rating=5
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=Peter Beaumont is the Foreign Affairs editor at The ObserverErnman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. He joined the paper in 1989 Malena Ernman was an opera singer and has spent much Svante Thunberg took on most of the intervening time dealing parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the kind of 'foreign affairs' family that is better described as they were 'war reporting'. burned-out people on a burned-out planet'The Secret Life of War' is a distillation of his years in the field. It is If they were to find a book ill-served by both its title and its cover, except maybe insofar as both might serve way to sneak it onto the bookshelves of those who really live happily again their solution would need to read it, but probably wouldn't choose to do so were it more accurately wrappedbe radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520982</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gary Younge191280493X|title=Who Are We - And Should It Matter in the 21st Century?|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Journalist Gary Younge’s book draws heavily on his articles for the Guardian newspaper, as he mentions in his acknowledgements, but it isn’t just a collection of his journalism. Who Are We? is partly a memoir and partly a thoughtful and incisive exploration of the politics and political impact Coming of identity, including race, gender, language groups, religion, sexuality in various countries around the world. He sets out to explore 'To what extent can our various identities be mobilized to accentuate our universal humanity as opposed to separating us off into various, antagonistic camps?'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917036</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAge|author=Michael Jackson|title=MoonwalkDanny Ryan
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Michael Jackson's autobiography, based on tape-recorded conversations with his editor Shaye Ereheart, was first published in 1988. This new edition has an introduction by Berry Gordy, founder 'He began writing novels and poetry at the age of Motown Records and his original mentortwelve, and an afterword by Areheart about how the book but it was written. The main part of the book is to take him a straight reprint of the original, with no updating further forty-eight years to realise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all. Intriguingly, although Gordy's four pages refer to is protégé in the past tense, calling him ''the greatest entertainer that ever lived'time, Areheart's writing, and also the cover, refer to him in the presenthe remains a shining example of hope over experience.. No reference anywhere is made to his untimely death.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099547953</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Olga Alexandrovna, Paul Kulikovsky, Sue Woolmans and Karen Roth-Nicholls190874572X|title=25 Chapters of My Life: The Memoirs of Grand Duchess Olga AlexandrovnaLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was born in 1882Back at the beginning of the century, youngest child of Tsar Alexander III of Russia I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a wonderful Finnish woman and thus sister we became sort-of the ill-fated Tsar Nicholas IIfriends. I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. Her first marriage to Prince Peter Oldenburg, who I do know that it was probably gay, ended in four years later that I finally acquired an amicable divorceEnglish translation of The Summer Book, and in 1916 she married Colonel Nicholas Kulikovsky. They escaped from Russia after that I eagerly awaited the ''Sort Of'' translations of the revolution, rest of Jansson's work and settled in Denmark for nearly thirty years until, feeling threatened by Stalin’s regime, they moved to Canada. She outlived him by two years, dying in 1960devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906775168</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Stewart1908745819|title=Three Ways to Capsize a Boat: An Optimist AfloatSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Books about sailing fall into two sorts: those written by authors who know what they are talking aboutSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, (though sometimes they dontell you 't convey 'this one has your name on it too well) and those who don't have a clue'. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to think they dohearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. WellAdd to that my love of the natural world, Chris Stewart may have started of those aspects of the book with a light poetic and frothy touch as a novice sailorlyrical that are about style not form, but he ends up with the credentials and substance most of an Ancient Marinerall, 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>0956003842</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Wolff1906852472|title=The Man Who Owns the NewsWild Child: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch|rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=There can be few people who are unaware of the name of Rupert Murdoch. Over four decades he's built News International into Growing Up a seventy billion dollar corporation from its original Australian base. His position in the UK media is such that he's courted by politicians and has what many believe to be an excessive amount of power for someone who is not elected and is not even a UK citizen. He's now expanding into Southeast Asia and in his eightieth year it's still difficult to imagine when – or where – he will stop.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523523</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNomad|author=Neil MacFarquhar|title=The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday|rating=4.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=''What are the chances of change in the Middle East?'' is the question central to this book. Since Neil MacFarquhar spent thirteen years wandering the length and breadth of the Islamic stronghold of the Middle East, I feel inclined to believe his in-depth assessment. In descriptive and reasoned terms, he identifies conservative forces which predominate in the region, primarily the religious and political machinery which condemns liberalization and modernization. This discussion of attempts to promote change, for example by individual dissidents or the media, is strengthened in the second half of the book by detailed case studies of six nations with particular reference to their readiness and motivation for change. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1586488112</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ronald Skirth and Duncan Barrett|title=The Reluctant Tommy: An Extraordinary Memoir of the First World WarIan Mathie|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ronald Skirth was one of many young Englishmen of nineteen caught For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up in the First World War. He joined with the Royal Garrison Artillery missing link in 1916, was promoted to Corporal, and sent to the western front. Like most of his contemporariesnarrative, when he went he was an unquestioning servant of King and country, fighting for what he believed was right. On the battlefields story of Flandersa very unusual childhood (yes, one day he came across the body of Hans, a German soldier very years that made him the same age, if not youngeramazing man he became). The dead manbad – well it's hand was clutching a photograph of his girlfriend, who could almost have been hardly news two years later – is that the twin sister of Ellabook is published posthumously. As always, Skirthit's own sweetheartbeautifully written, with many exciting moments. Like two What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of his friends who had just been killed, Hans had died as the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a result of satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the stupidity of othersdrawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>023074673X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lisa Lynch1999811402|title=The C-WordPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In the beginning was the wordIt'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 lifestyle book, closely followed by but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the internetbest results. The two combined to form answer would be something along the wonder that is blogginglines of 'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, and when that took off and people wanted became a more concrete busker, finally got into medical school and permanent record, books quickly followedis now an A&E consultant (part-time). Perhaps I found out thatthere's not an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''exactlyCasualty'' how the quote goes, but itthat isn't really what the book's close enoughabout. Breast cancer at twenty eight is not just scary and unusual. For journalist Lisa, it There's downright inconvenient. But, when a stage three tumour bulges out of her booblot about rock & roll, she decides which seems to document her subsequent fight against be the big C (orreal passion of Hartley's life, as she affectionately calls but it, didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a category for 'The Bullshitdoing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that') online for all to sees the one. The [http://alrighttit.blogspot.com/ blog] was a success, it garnered some famous fans ([[:Category:Stephen Fry|Stephen Fry]], among others) and a book offer followed. This is the result It's an autobiography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099547546</amazonuk>
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