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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> ==Autobiography== <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Barbara Sinatra0241636604|title=Lady Blue EyesThe Trading Game: My Life With Frank SinatraA Confession|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Barbara Blakeley, born If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in 1926your mind, was married firstly you're unlikely to Robert Oliver, an executivethink of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with whom she had a sonviolence, poverty and secondly to Zeppo Marxinjustice. But it There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the already thriceLondon School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright -married and thrice-divorced Francis Albert Sinatrahe has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, whom she had idolized this turned into permanent employment as a singer for trader.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1529395224|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=3.5|genre=Animals and Wildlife|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a long timeGP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with whom she would make her most enduring marriage, a family friend who was a vet and vice versawas convinced this was the job for him. They tied the knot in 1976Before long, and stayed together until he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his death in 1998dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091937248</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage|author=Edel Rodriguez|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey|rating=4|genre=Graphic Novels|summary=We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a 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 the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…|isbn=1474616720}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anna Burley1035025299|title=Bipolar ParentWent to London, Took the Dog|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=34
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Anna Burley keeps telling herself that she Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a responsible adult now and works on the idea that most people would see her as a normal, well-grounded personsabbatical after being away for twenty years. What people She's been at Victoria'dons smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't'' see is the story of her childhood. She wrote it down all that conducive to get rid of itwriting, to get it out her system and rid herself of those pockets of pain which live under her skin. Sheas there's decided that she's not going to run from it all any longeralways something smallholding happening - as you might expect. ''Bipolar Parent'' is The other side of the story decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of her childhood and the parent who had such an influence in making her into what she is todayDeborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1456775332</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian A GriffithsChristopher Fowler|title=DMD Life Art and MeWord Monkey
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ian Griffiths suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy - It's the first of August in the middle of a form cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the pool in favour of muscular dystrophy which causes muscle degenerationgoing to my beach hut. It begins The weather closed in early childhood with difficulty in walking , rain arrived, and progresses I decided not to cause problems with breathing and all the voluntary musclesdo that either. Ultimately When I finished reading this book, I realised it's fatal. Men was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and boys – it's linked (b) I did not want to the X chromosome do so affects only males – with the disease have a life expectancy of between the late teens and mid-twentiesanywhere near my shack. Ian's in his mid-twenties now and heNo spoiler alerts, the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 's written was'DMD Life: art – and me' to explain what it really feels like to live with the diseasehis first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. And when I say 'really feels like' I do mean There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and you know he actually is at thatpoint, because he does. Ian doesn't gloss over ''anything''He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907652337</amazonuk>0857529625
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bob Marshall-AndrewsKit De Waal|title=Off Message: The Complete Antidote to Political HumbugWithout Warning and Only Sometimes|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=Bob Marshall-Andrews entered Parliament in 1997As Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, rather too late your mum and dad/ They may not mean to be , but they do” Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of parenthood and the bonds that bind family. This book is a career politician (he was already memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the Caribbean and her mother is an established QC) Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and with marrying a profound distrust of authorityblack man. He had no aspirations towards office, which was perhaps as well for all concerned as he would become best known for being This intersectionality plays a dissidentlarge role in the autobiography. I occasionally enquired as Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to which party held his allegiance her race, her class and eventually concluded that he went her gender. Her parents loom large and are written with his conscience. The last three Labour administrations have spawned more political memoirs than any other – care, love, and I did wonder if this would be just one more to add the kind of anger only a child can express to the piletheir parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846684412</amazonuk>1472284852
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karen Blixen1638485216|title=Out Of AfricaBlack, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It's more than a quarter of a century since I first saw the film ''Out of Africa'' and it's one of the few that have stayed with me over the intervening yearsCorruption is not department, gender or race specific. It wasnhas everything to do with character. Period.'t just the story, but the personality of Karen Blixen and the wonderful landscape of the Ngong Hills, south of Nairobi, in Kenya's Rift Valley. I remember looking for this book at the time, but being unable to find it, so the opportunity to read it now was too good to miss.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951437</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian MathieBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=Bride PriceI May Be Wrong
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography|summary=When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'Bride Pricem inclined to think it doesn' has proved an even more absorbing t really matter how the rest of the world responds to your book than I anticipated from its Amazon write-up. I know, having read it the book in a single sitting; the issues question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it raised overwhelming my thoughts for matters very much how the next couple rest of days. In terms of its overall flavourthe world responds to this book, quality and impact valuebecause it tells the truth as it is, I'd bracket it with in the classic 'Walkabout' by James Vance Marshallearly 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1906852081</amazonuk>1526644827
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Isaiah Berlingareth_steel|title=Enlightening: Letters 1946 - 1960Never Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel
|rating=4
|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Isaiah Berlin wrote in tribute I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to the memory be appropriate. Stories of Dorothy de Rothschild of her personality, a vet'…overwhelming charm, great dignity, a very lively sense of humour, pleasure in the oddities of s life, an unconquerable vitality have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a kind of eternal youth and an eager responsiveness to all TV show the author would argue that passed…' Reading this second volume of letters'All Creatures'' lacked realism, now available in paperback, covering Berlinas do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's most creative periodwritten it to inform and provoke thought, these same characteristics might be aptly applied to Sir Isaiah himselfparticularly amongst aspiring vets. HoweverIt deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, as this most self-aware of intellectuals recognised, his loquacity although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and compulsive socialising were driven by a persistent need to escape a sense of unreality, an inner voideating. In these letters he writes, 'my quest for gaiety is a perpetual defence against the extreme sense of the abyss by which I have been affected ever since I can remember myself…'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844138348</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Bill LarkworthyDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Doctor LarkSpeedy: The Benefits of a Medical EducationHurled Through Havoc
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Bill Larkworthy is a pleasant fellow who has lead an eventful, but not world-shattering life. So at the outset it's probably worth saying that this self-deprecating tale won't light many literary fires. If fireworks are what you are looking for, search elsewhere. On How to summarise the other hand, I always find ordinary people's stories of everyday life fascinating, as well as providing useful background, or what used to be called 'general knowledge', about other parts of the world. Since my general knowledge of the Gulf States is more or less limited Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to Lawrence kick off a review of Arabia and current news reportshis memoir? Do you know, a little padding wonI really don't go amiss. So yes, I did enjoy this read, and think I imagine the Saga age group will borrow it in steady numbers from libraries (if they can find one open). It would make a good present for a man of a certain age, which is:|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852065</amazonuk>}}
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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
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eva Petulengro0571365884|title=The Girl My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in the Painted Caravan: Memories of a Romany ChildhoodAnxiety|author=Georgia Pritchett
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Eva Petulengro was born in Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a painted caravan in 1939child. Her Romany family She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of life where if she had travelled in Norfolk nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and Lincolnshire for generationsfar between. She has had On a very successful career as visit to a clairvoyanttherapist, writer of horoscope columns and publisher of magazinesas an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and her daughter ''My Mess is also a well known media astrologer. The Girl Bit of a Life: Adventures in the Painted Caravan Anxiety'' is a memoir of her childhood and youth, up until her marriage in her 20s and the beginning of her careerresult - or so we are given to believe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330519999</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Harry Leslie SmithDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=1923: A MemoirTattoo on my Brain|rating=43.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Harry Leslie Smith was born in 1923. If youAlzheimer're wondering about the title – s is a disease that's the explanation – slowly wears away your identity and although it's when Harry began his life it's not where his story began. He takes us back some years before to his father's family with its roots in mining and a sideline in running a pub which was to make them comfortable if not wealthysense of self. Harry's father was middle-aged when he got involved with LillianI have been directly affected by this cruel disease, a teenage girlas have many. Unsurprisingly his family were not impressed or welcoming when the pair married because Your memories and personality worn away like a child was on statue over time affected the wayelements. Albert Smith expected It seems as if nature wants that he would inherit the pub when his father died, but it passed to his uncle final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so began admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a life of disappointment for Albert neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and Lillianhas documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1450254136</amazonuk>1108838936
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Keith Richards1529109116|title=LifeCall Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey|author=Hannah Jackson
|rating=4.5
|genre=EntertainmentLifestyle|summary=Nearly forty years ago, Keith Richards was considered the next most likely rock'n'roll star to succumb to drugs. The man has defied all I want the odds in staying alive, and continuing image of a British farmer to do what he has been doing for almost half simply be that of a centuryperson who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. In the process, he has earned the sometimes grudging, sometimes unqualified respect of those who would once never given him the time of dayI don't think that is too much to ask.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297854399</amazonuk>}}''
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Christopher Isherwood0008333173|title=Diaries Volume 1|rating=4|genre=Autobiography|summary=In January 1939 Christopher Isherwood left England for America in the company of poet WH Auden. This hefty volume covers his diaries from that date until August 1960, when he celebrated his fifty-sixth birthday. Hungry: A 49-page introduction setting out the background leads us into the entries, which are divided into three sections – The Emigration, to the end of 1944; The Post-war Years, to 1956; and The Late Fifties. After these we have a chronology and glossary, or to put it more accurately a section of brief biographies Memoir of the main characters mentioned, these two sections comprising over a hundred pages altogether.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555824</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWanting More|author=John Burnside|title=Waking Up In ToytownGrace Dent
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=After years I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of alcoholism and borderline insanity, John Burnside decides to become normalthe judges on ''Masterchef''. This involves moving You know that you're going to Surrey, working in get an office and settling into a numbing daily routine he hopes will prevent him drifting back towards bad habitshonest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the time. These memoirs chronicle the failure You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of his bid for normality and subsequent disillusionment with the projecther. It I's a solipsistic account but ve often wondered about the woman behind the writing media image and ''Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is powerful a stunning read which will make you laugh and it draws you break your heart inequal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507838</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rhoda Janzen1504321383|title=Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Coming HomeSingle, Again, and Again, and Again|author=Louisa Pateman
|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Even although the obliging blurb on the back cover tells the reader a little about being Mennonite, I couldn''You can't resist looking it up in the dictionarybe happy and fulfilled on your own. I was intrigued to start reading. And emblazoned across the front cover is You are not complete until you find a man'No 1 In The US'. Great praise indeed, I thought. But how would it go down across the pond? Time to find out ...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085789031X</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Robert Leon DavisSakinu Ahronglong|title=Running Scared: For 22 Years He Was a Fugitive - The Corrupt Cop Busted by GodHunter School|rating=34.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Robert Davis was the eldest The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of nine children all living with their grandmother in New Orleans – on welfarefiction. That's possibly misleading. His grandmother was a good, honest woman and Davis loved and respected her, but money was so tight that he resorted to thieving to bring some extra food I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in for the family. He knew sense that she would be deeply upset about Ahronglong made itall up, but hunger is hunger. In your heart you can't blame him and or whether it seems that all is coming good when Davis becomes a respected police officer in as the mid nineteen-seventies. Heblurb goes on to say ''s living with a goodrecollections, decent woman folklore and looks set to have a good career. Great, you think, sometimes life ''isautobiographical stories'' fair and it works out.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854249932</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Denis O'Connor|title=Paw Tracks at Owl Cottage|rating=3 It feels like the latter.5|genre=Pets|summary='Paw Tracks at Owl Cottage' is It feels like the story of four pedigree Maine Coon cats which the author and stories he tells about his wife acquired after moving back to a cottage where they had previously lived. This is the sequel to experiences as a volume called 'Paw Tracks in the Moonlight'child, which I have not readas an adolescent, as an adult are real and which features their first cat Toby Jugtrue. Apparently, on his demise, they had sold the cottage; but now, But memory is a little more advanced in yearsfickle thing, they buy and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it again, fiction means that its safer and do extensive renovations before deciding that therefore more people will read it's ready for another cat. More people should.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1849016402</amazonuk>1999791282
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gervase Phinn1544641923|title=Twinkle, Twinkle, Little StarsAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Nicholas HaslamIt's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, interior designerbut family connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do so, columnistyou know), reviewerbut the diplomatic spouse, the man whom it was said would attend a lighted candleaccompanying baggage, let alone a partywell, socialite that's an entirely different matter. She (and name dropper - this it still usually is your lifea 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954623X</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gok Wan0241446732|title=Through Thick Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and Thina Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg|rating=45|genre=AutobiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Famous for his sensitivity The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and understanding with women, encouraging them talking and enabling them to accept themselvesher sister, and their bodiesBeata, as they arethen nine years old, Gok Wan's autobiography sadly tells a very different story struggled with regards to his own body acceptancewhat was happening. Having gained weight throughout his childhoodIn such circumstances, getting up it's natural to twenty one stone as seek a teenagersolution close to home, he loathed his body and ended up starving himselfbut eventually, becoming anorexic in it became clear to the family that they were ''burned-out people on a desperate effort to be thin and, therefore, successfulburned-out planet''. Perhaps this is where his empathy comes from? That when he stands If they were to find a woman in front of a wall of mirrors in her underwear, he actually truly understands what it is way to live happily again their solution would need to loathe your own bodybe radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091938392</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Wynn191280493X|title=Two Sons in a War Zone: Afghanistan: The True Story of a Father's Conflict|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=It's almost a nightly occurrence – that news item which contains the words '… has been killed in Afghanistan' and we think of a young life, or young lives cut tragically short. They're fresh-faced young men or women at what should have been the beginning of their adult life and now they are no more. You feel for them and their families, but what about the families who have people they love out in Afghanistan, who live each day 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 again. 'Two Sons in a War Zone' is his story Coming of how he copes with the unrelenting pressure.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570244</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAge|author=Don Mullan|title=The Boy Who Wanted to Fly|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=There is a Foreward by both Pele and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Names to make most of us sit up and notice. The title is certainly quirky and Mullan is probably hoping that prospective readers will be saying to themselves, what's this all about then. Good start, I thought. Then I realised that there's an awful lot of football in this book. Even although it's a slim, sliver of a book, there's no getting away from the subject matter. Football. I don't 'do' football. So, I counted to ten, put on what I hoped was a good reviewer's face and started to read ...|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907756019</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Megan Rix|title=The Puppy That Came For Christmas and Stayed ForeverDanny Ryan
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Along with most of my contemporaries I've never read 'The Lady' except once when looking for an au pair job in my student days, He began writing novels and that, it turns out, is poetry at the problem. Before Rachel Johnson was appointed in June 2009 the average age of the readership was 75twelve, the circulation but it was dropping and the magazine was haemorrhaging moneyto take him a further forty-eight years to realise that he wasn’t very good at either. The Budworth familyConsistently unpublished for all that time, proprietors he remains a shining example of hope over experience...'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 editor.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905490674</amazonuk>}}
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alan Davies190874572X|title=Teenage Revolution: Growing Up in the 80sLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Born in 1966, Alan Davies grew up in Essex, Back at the son beginning of the century, I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a staunchly Conservativewonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-voting father and a mother who died of cancer when he -friends. I can't remember if it was only sixon that holiday or a later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. It I do know that it was a childhood dominated at first by 'Citizen Smith' four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, and that I eagerly awaited the other TV sitcoms, 'Starsky and Hutch', Sort Of'Grease', Barry Sheene, translations of the Barron Knights, rest of Jansson's work and Debbie Harry. The book begins at 1978, ''the year devoured them as soon as 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 to do what he was toldget my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141041803</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark Oaten1908745819|title=Screwing UpSurfacing |author=Kathleen Jamie|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Like John Profumo and othersSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, Mark Oaten will probably be remembered for unless it turns out that we didn't like the wrong reasonsbook. It was the episode which made him for a while the countryThat's Noa rare experience. 1 paparazzi targetPeople who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, and which as he recounts in his Prologuerarely get it wrong. In this case, when his I was told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering 'world was crashing down' and it hardly needs recounting in detailan older, less tethered sense of herself. '' Yet when all is said and done, this is Older. Less tethered. That's not a very livelybad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, readable, sometimes quite poignant memoir from one of those aspects of the men whose career at Westminster began poetic and ended with the Blair lyrical that are about style not form, and Brown yearssubstance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. Throughout there is an admirable absence of self-pityIt 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>1849540071</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tony Fitzjohn1906852472|title=Born WildChild: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Passion for Lions and for Africa|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Maybe it's just my rock-chick nature but "Born Wild" feels Growing Up a little clunky as titles go. Surely it should have been "Born To Be Wild"? Perhaps that phrase has been copyrighted and wasn't available. Or maybe Fitzjohn was deliberately referencing Joy Adamson's book "Born Free" – since much of the early part of his own time in Africa was spent with her husband George. "Born To Be Wild" would have been more accurate as well. Many of the animals we meet weren't born wild at all – though a good few of them got to live out the remainder of their days and die that way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918911</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNomad|author=Judith Summers|title=The Badness of King GeorgeIan Mathie
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=People know how to get round me: they offer me a book For Ian Mathie fans there is good and then say 'It's about a dog' and like Pavlov's canine I say 'Oh, lovely'bad news. And so it was Ian has come up with The Badness the missing link in his narrative, the story of King George. George is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and I have to quibble with very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the title amazing man he became). The bad – superb as well it 's hardly news two years later – is – because George that the book is not badpublished posthumously. If anything heAs always, it's badly done by as Judith Summersbeautifully written, plagued by empty nest syndrome when her son goes to university, decides to foster rescue dogswith many exciting moments. Poor George has absolutely no idea what sheWhat I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathie's let him later books are answered in for''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. And nor has JudithSeemingly all that's now left in the drawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141046473</amazonuk>
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{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Kevin Lewis1999811402|title=The Kid: A True StoryPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley|rating=4.5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Kevin Lewis grew up 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 poverty-stricken London council estate in the sort of home that lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the neighbours complain aboutbest results. His mother – inadequate by any measure – hated him more than most The answer would be something along the lines of her six children 'try it and he was beaten see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and starved by both of his parentsis now an A&E consultant (part-time). You might think I found out that Social Services would have stepped there's an awful lot more to what goes on in and removed hima Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but any relief was that isn't really what the book's about. There's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be short-livedthe real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Eventually he was put into care but even then Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the support was inadequate and Kevin found himself caught up in a criminal underworld where he was known simply as hard way'? Yep - that'The Kids the one. It's an autobiography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014104859X</amazonuk>
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