Changes

[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove --> <!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Bruce Hugman0241636604|title= Out of BoundsThe Trading Game: A Confession|author=Gary Stevenson|rating= 4.5|genre= Autobiography|summary= Author Bruce Hugman has been If you were to bring up an image of a school teachercity banker in your mind, probation officer, smallholder, university lectureryou're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, PR Professionalwhere he was familiar with violence, is an international communications consultant and teacher in healthcare poverty and patient safetyinjustice. Having nursed two partners through There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the final stages London School of AIDS, and survived the 2004 Asian TsunamiEconomics. A varied Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and interesting life then – and it is the first thirty years he has a facility with numbers which most of it us can only envy. He also realised that Hugman chooses most rich people expect poor people to concentrate on herebe stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1508423709</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison Pick1529395224|title=Between GodsLetting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet|author=Sion Rowlands|rating=43.5|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary= Alison PickSiôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP 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 paternal grandparents escaped Czechoslovakia just before life. When he was seventeen he took the Holocaust by bribing opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the Nazis job for visas to Canada; the rest of the family died in Auschwitzhim. They spent their whole lives trying to pass as Christians Before long, and Pickhe was at Liverpool University. It hadn's father, too, t - as with so many students - been his dream since he was reluctant to have a child. If anything , he'd wanted to do with Judaism. Pick only learned he was Jewish through be a conversation overheard when she was 11professional footballer.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1472225090</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy ClarkeEdel Rodriguez|title=Low LifeWorm: The Spectator ColumnsA Cuban American Odyssey

|genre=AutobiographyGraphic Novels|summary=There is a story that back We're in 1997 there were three deaths at about the same time childhood, and God had taken the shift at the pearly gates to do the paperworkwe're in Cuba. Princess Diana came The revolution has happened, and Castro, first and was quickly followed by Mother Teresa. Stories thought of as a saviour of their good works flowed out the country, has proven himself a Communist, and God hated not done nearly enough to admit it but he was little weariedcreate a level playing field for all. Still it was the end Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his shift... but then another soul appearedtime away. Jeffrey Bernard! It was with relief that God dashed to Our narrator's family weren't in the bar happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to get be the first round in... There might have been high jinx in heaven but back on earth ''Life'' was not so clear cut and even Taki Theodoracopulos was a little worried. He wrote ''High Life'' for good soldier the Spectator, but where country demanded (especially as he would that probably be without its counterpointshipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, ''Low Life'' which had been written and not liked for years by Bernard? his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. Fortunately there was an able replacement waiting in The mother gets 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 couple jobs with the end of Tom Sperlinger's first book, he says education can open people's eyes, making them aware 'that we make assumptions all party to ease some of the timeheat, without even knowing they are assumptions.' ''Romeo and Juliet but in Palestine: Teaching Under Occupation'' is a fine example of this belief in learningsultry island country, an assumption-shattering book that offers a new perspective on Palestinian life not seen on it remains the news or in kind of heat forcing you out of 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 harsh. 'You’re a failure,' it says. 'You’re a fat flabby mess.' And she agrees, she is both of those things. kitchen…|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1452121516</amazonuk>1474616720

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ingrid von Oelhafen and Tim Tate1035025299|title=Hitler's Forgotten Children: My Life Inside Went to London, Took the LebensbornDog|author=Nina Stibbe

|summary=You see that name that credits the author of this book? Forget it, it's not accurate. (I don't mean Tim Tate's workmanlike, journalistic ghost writing, more of which later.) The narrator of this book did change her name by deed poll Nina Stibbe is returning to something like Ingrid von Oelhafen some time ago, but not exactly how she wanted. She grew up as Ingrid von Oelhafen, although that was the name of her father, who was so desperately absent, in London for a sabbatical after being over a generation older than his wife, with whom he was separatedaway for twenty years. She might well have had her mother's maiden name if her parents had divorced – and indeed her mother did move on to have a second family, and was terribly distant herself – young Ingrid would plead and plead for her company while been at Victoria's smallholding in a remote childrenLeicestershire which isn's home, and a lot of family secrets were not passed down at opportune times. Oh, and legally, due t all that conducive to what little documentation was to be seenwriting, such as immunisation record cards, Ingrid was not Ingrid at all, but Erika Matko. Through this book, we find she was not blood-kin with her brother, her step-brother was to die, she was not blood-kin with her sister, but was her brotherthere's, – oh, and even in this day and age always something smallholding happening - as you can still find a changeling foundlingmight expect. Such incredibly convoluted family trees are The other side of the fault decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of the LebensbornDeborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783961201</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alistair McGuinnessChristopher Fowler|title=Half a World Away: Surviving the Move to a Land Down UnderWord Monkey|rating=4.5

|summary=Sometimes you read about It's the first of August in the middle of a particularly exciting time cool wet summer in an author's life but later you find yourself wondering how they're doing, how life worked out for themEast Anglia. Since I read [[Round decided not to swim at the Bend: From Luton pool in favour of going to Peru my beach hut. The weather closed in, rain arrived, and I decided not to Ningaloodo that either. When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a Search for Life After Redundancy by Alistair McGuinness]]about eighteen months ago ) I've often wondered how he and Fran were doing in Australia wanted to finish reading this book and (b) I was delighted when ''Half a World Away'' landed on did not want to do so anywhere near my deskshack. When we left Ali and Fran theyNo spoiler alerts, the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'd had an exciting and eventful year during which theywas'd travelled through Central – and South America and then on to Africa, but they were planning to settle down in Australiahis first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. Don't worry if There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you haven't read ''Round the Bend'' as both books read well as stand alones that he is dying, and you can always go back to the first book laterknow he actually is at that point, can't you?because he does. He did.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>B00XIVXB68</amazonuk>0857529625

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Ian McMillanKit De Waal|title=Neither Nowt Nor Summat: In search of the meaning of Yorkshire|rating=4|genre=Politics Without Warning and Society|summary=Ian McMillan, poet, radio presenter, poet in residence at Barnsley Football Club and professional Yorkshireman, is worried. It has crossed his mind that he might not be ''Yorkshire enough'', given that his father was not from God's Own County, but was a Scot by birth. In a series of discursions on the subject of Yorkshire he attempts to distil the essence of the county and to understand what being a Yorkshireman means. To this end we accompany him through towns and cities, the Cudworth Probus Club, Ilkley Moor and elicit contributions from Mad Geoff the barber, a kazoo-playing train guard and four Saddleworth council workers in search of a mattress. Amongst others. All of Yorkshire life is here. Including Yorkshire puddings.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091959950</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Mary Hazard|title= Sixty Years a NurseOnly Sometimes|rating= 4.5

|summary=“Sixty Years 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 Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of parenthood and the bonds that bind family. This book is a Nurse” is memoir focussing on the remarkable true story of Mary Hazard, who travelled from Ireland author’s formative years as a naïve teenager living in 1952 to start life as a nurse lower class area of Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the Caribbean and her mother is an NHS hospitalIrish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. From This intersectionality plays a strict Catholic background, Mary's lifestyle choice had alienated her family, her mother large role in particular, who viewed the whole decision as doomed autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to failure. Howeverher race, Mary proved her mother wrong class and her gender. Her parents loom large and went on to become one of the longest serving nurses in the NHS are written with an interesting care, love, and varied careerthe kind of anger only a child can express to their parents.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>000811837X</amazonuk>1472284852

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Elizabeth Swados1638485216|title=My Depression Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Picture BookBlack Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement|author=Frederick Reynolds|rating=45

|summary=If you have ever suffered from depression you'll find it very difficult to explain to other people how you're feelingCorruption is not department, gender or race specific. YouIt has everything to do with character. Period.'re not feeling ' ''One more body just a little bit downwouldn't matter''. The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. A treat or We rarely see pictures of a dollop of positive thinking will not miraculously cure youmurder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. YouThe image of Chauvin kneeling on George're definitely s neck is not swinging one which I'll ever forget and the lead, but suffering from a legitimate illness protests which deserves to be recognisedfollowed cannot have been unexpected. Elizabeth Swados is There was a longbacklash against the police -term sufferer from severe depressionand not just in Minneapolis: shewhatever their colour or creed they were ''s also a talented storyteller and has told her all'' tarred by the story of how depression feels for her - complete with drawings, which fill in those gaps which words can never fill for any sufferer from depressionChauvin brush.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1609806042</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Red SzellBjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)|title=The Blind Man of Hoy: A True StoryI May Be Wrong|rating=3.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=Redmond Széll was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) at age 19. ItWhen the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn's now 26 years since he got t really matter how the life-changing news. Although not completely sightless – he sees shadows and shapes – he is registered blind and walks with rest of the stereotypical white stickworld responds to your book. This hasn't stopped him from pursuing his hobby of rock-climbing I know, thoughhaving read the book in question, both indoors on climbing walls that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and on Britain's cliffs. The culmination at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of his climbing obsession came in 2013, when he became the first blind person world responds to climb this book, because it tells the Old Man of Hoytruth as it is, in the 449-foot cliff off the Orkney Islands of Scotlandearly 21st century.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1910124222</amazonuk>1526644827

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Vesna Goldsworthygareth_steel|title=Chernobyl StrawberriesNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel

|genre=AutobiographyAnimals and Wildlife|summary=A book about I don't often begin my reviews with a woman from warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a war-shredded country, who discovers she has breast cancer…Not vet's life 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 bundle of laughs, one would assume. One TV show the author would be wrong. argue that ''Chernobyl StrawberriesAll Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book isnot suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst other thingsaspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, very funnyalthough there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908524472</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=John KempDave Letterfly Knoderer|title=Caring for ShirleySpeedy: Hurled Through Havoc

|summary=John Kemp's wife, Shirley, suffered from dementia and loss How to summarise the life of coordination and for eight years he was her full-time carer as she was unable Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to walk unaided (wellkick off a review of his memoir? Do you know, she I really don''could'' - but it was likely to result in t think I can.  Dave is an author and an artist. An inspirational speaker and a professional horseman. And a serious fall) and took care of all her most personal needsrecovering alcoholic. Probably the most heart-breaking part The son of this is that Shirley didn't recognise John as her husband - apart from 'give us a kiss'Lutheran minister, the question 'wherehe's John?' was usually struggled with a controlling father, run away to join the first which sprang to her lips in any situation. Although she could often have quite an affable disposition she was capable of kicking circus (not a metaphor), trained horses, painted caravans, designed and painted theatre sets, and biting hit rock bottom when she was being 'encouraged' to do something which she didn't want to dothe bottle took over.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1479374245</amazonuk>B0965V3LLN

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Michael Pronko0008350388|title=Beauty and Chaos: Slices and Morsels of Tokyo Life|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=Adapting a Buddhist metaphor, Michael Pronko declares that 'writing about [Tokyo] is like catching fish with a hollow gourd.' In other words, it is an elusive and contradictory place that resists easy conclusions. Anyone who has seen the Bill Murray film ''Lost in Translation'' will retain the sense of a glittering, bewildering place that Westerners wander through in a daze. A long-term resident but still a perpetual outsider, Pronko is perfectly placed We Need to notice the many odd and wonderful aspects of Tokyo life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00PDH4KVA</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewTalk About Money|author=Derek Niemann|title=A Nazi in the Family: The Hidden Story of an SS Family in Wartime GermanyOtegha Uwagba

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=I'm sure someone somewhere has rewritten The Devil's Dictionary 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 include the following – Talk About Money''family: noun; place where the greatest secrets are keptby 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 Niemann family is no exceptionBookseller'' 29 June 2021 Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was long known that grandfather Karl was in Germany during the Second World Warher mother who came first, people could easily work that out from the family biographywith her father joining them later. Yet little The family was spoken of, apart from him being an officehard-bound worker, either in logistics or finance. Since the War two of three surviving siblings had relocated to the Glasgow environsworking, principled and there was even a family quip concerning Goebbels and Gorbals (''family: noun; place where the worst things are spoken in determined that their children would have the best way'')education possible. What There was always a surprise to our author, and many painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of his relatives, anything: it was that things were a lot closer to the former than had been expected, for Karl simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was such an office worker – for ten the SSfamily acquired a car. With For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a lot of family history finally out of the closet of silent mouths, private school in London and with incriminating photographic evidence revealed in unlikely waysthen a place at New College, the whole truth can be knownOxford. But this is certainly not just of interest to that one small family.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780722222</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Erwin Mortier and Paul Vincent (translator)0571365884|title=Stammered Songbook: A Mother's Book of Hours|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=A chateau in the country. So far, My Mess is a fine life behind you. Just 65 years Bit of age. A happy collection of three successful children. Alzheimer's. You work out what's the one bummer Life: Adventures in that circumstance.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782270213</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewAnxiety|author=Lena Mukhina and Amanda Love Darragh (translator)|title=The Diary of Lena Mukhina: A Girl's Life in the Siege of LeningradGeorgia Pritchett

|summary=If life Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a girl of school-leaving age is hard enough, think about it when you're stuck in a great city under a horrendous siegechild. Lena Mukhina's diary only covers half She would worry about whether the 800-odd days monsters under the nightmare in Leningrad lasted, but so palpably singular bed were the circumstances that it feels like one is given the clearest insight into what comfortable: it was like, courtesy of these pages. I've been there and never felt the ghost sort of the siege in the modern St Petersburg, anything like (for example) the ruination of Warsaw life where if she had lived onnothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. But On a visit to a dreadful time this therapist, as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was. At the peak times of Nazi oppression suggested that she should write it down and aerial bombing, the city lost 2 or 3 residents' lives ''every minuteMy Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' of the day on average. The city was desperate for fuel, and food – and this is a place where it can – and does here – snow in June. Without giving too much of the diet away, it's notable that later on Lena dreams of having a menagerie of small animals result - or so we are given to live with – but no dogs or catsbelieve.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>144726987X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Margery Kempe and Anthony Bale (editor)Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=The Book of Margery KempeA Tattoo on my Brain

|summary=Born around 1373, Margery Kempe grew up in Alzheimer's is a family disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of good standing - her Father serving self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a mayor, statue over time affected the elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and as a member of parliamentyour dignity. Whilst no records remain of her childhood, it This is unlikely that Margery would have received any kind of formal educationwhat makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. She Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was, however, taught religious texts, which may well have set the way for the visions she would encounter later diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in life''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0199686645</amazonuk>1108838936

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Esterly1529109116|title=The Lost CarvingCall 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 Heart determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0008333173|title=Hungry: A Memoir of MakingWanting More|author=Grace Dent|rating=45

|summary=Bouncing between his studio in upstate New York and I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the sites of various English sojourns, woodcarver David Esterlyjudges on ''Masterchef''s seems to be an idyllic existence. Yet it You know that you's not all cosy cottages in the snow and watching geese and coyotes when he looks up from his workbench. There is re going to get an element of hard-won retreat honest opinion from the trials someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of life in this memoir, but at the same time there is an argument for . You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of her. I've often wondered about the essential difficulty of woman behind the artistmedia image and 's life. 'Carvers are starvers,Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' a wizened English carver once told him. Certainly there is no great fortune to be won from a profession as obscure as limewood carving, but the rewards outweigh the hard graft for Esterlystunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0715649191</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edzard Ernst1504321383|title=A Scientist in Wonderland: A Memoir of Searching for Truth Single, Again, and Finding TroubleAgain, and Again|author=Louisa Pateman

|summary=Professor Edzard Ernst ''You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a man''. This was born in Germany not long after the end of World War II and grew up with guilt about what had happened in the years before he Louisa Pateman was born as well as an insatiable curiosity - with the two not being entirely entirely unconnected. He also developed an attitude of speaking his mind - as an early challenge brought up to his step-father about the death of six million Jews in the course of the war provedbelieve. In his teens he It wasn't determined to become a doctor - he had a hankering unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be a musician - despite best for her. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the fact that it was girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the family business, handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough to speak, but came round to be brought up ''without'' the idea expectation that they will marry and have children. It was a belief and practiced in various countries it would be many years before settling in Exeter as Professor of Complementary Medicine at the universityLouisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845407776</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Alan KennedySakinu Ahronglong|title=Oscar & LucyHunter School

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=With The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of fiction. That's possibly misleading. I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in the film about Alan Turingsense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as the blurb goes on to say ''The Imitation Gamerecollections, folklore and autobiographical stories'' getting rave reviews and award nominations right. It feels like the latter. It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, as an adolescent, left as an adult are real and centre, the sterling work done by the Bletchley Park cryptographers during WWII is quite high in our mindstrue. But Enigma wasn't the only code broken memory is a fickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and Turing wasn't the only one doing secret but heroic worktherefore more people will read it. More people should. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>095646968X</amazonuk>1999791282

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andy Miller1544641923|title=The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books Saved My LifeAmbassadors Do It After Dinner|author=Sandra Aragona

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Andy Miller and his wife both worked It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and they had a three-year-old sonluxurious. Despite the fact It might be privileged, but family connections tell me that Miller was an editor for a London publisher he felt that heit is far from luxurious. Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''d diplomatic'lost' reading from his life. He seemed to acquire a lot of booksdo so, you know), but making time for reading them was the diplomatic spouse, the accompanying baggage, well, that's an entirely different matter. With the help She (and it still usually is a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=0241446732|title=Our House is on Fire: Scenes of his wife he developed a 'list 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. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of bettermenttheir 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' - initially s natural to seek a limited number of great books which he determined solution close to read home, but eventually , it became fifty great books and two not so great, which he was going clear to master over the space of family that they were ''burned-out people on a yearburned-out planet''. He was re-integrating books into everyday lifeIf they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00QJV7OAI</amazonuk>

Jane Hawking, the first wife of acclaimed scientist Stephen Hawking, reveals the inner-workings of their life together. Reflecting on the meteoric rise of her husband alongside his physical deterioration, she charts the path of their marriage and family throughout the highs and lows of their circumstance. As asserted by the author herself this story could indeed belong to any English family of the era. What sets this one apart, however, is the fame and publicity of one family member, the widely celebrated, Stephen Hawking.{{Frontpage|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846883660</amazonuk>}}{{newreview191280493X|authortitle=Paul Forkan and Rob ForkanComing of Age|titleauthor=Tsunami Kids: Our journey from survival to success Danny Ryan

|summary=On Boxing Day 2004, when many of us were celebrating the Christmas holidays with our families, eating leftover turkey, reading books ''He began writing novels and enjoying time with loved ones, a huge tragedy was unfolding on poetry at the other side age of the world. The Boxing Day Tsunami killed over 230twelve,000 people, and caused widespread devastation but it was to take him a further forty-eight years to large parts of Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, the Maldives and Somaliarealise that he wasn’t very good at either. The Forkan family - Mum, Dad, and four of their children, were in Sri LankaConsistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a spur shining example of the moment choice of destination that ultimately proved to be tragichope over experience.. The parents, Kevin and Sandra, were killed in the flood. The children, orphaned, injured and without any possessions, traveled the 200 kilometres back to ''  ''This a city, where they contacted elder siblings and were swiftly flown back to the UKmemoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782433570</amazonuk>''

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Macdonald190874572X|title=H is for HawkLetters from Tove|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)

|summary=When I saw Helen Macdonald speak Back at a nature conferencethe beginning of the century, she recounted I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a conversation with wonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of-friends. I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a Samuel Johnson Prize judgelater one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. S/he had remarked I do know that Macdonald's it was three books in one: a memoir of grief after her father's unexpected death, a biography four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of T. H. WhiteThe Summer Book, and an account that I eagerly awaited the ''Sort Of'' translations of falconry experiments with Mabel the goshawk. Macdonald quipped that the description made her book sound like washing powder, but itrest of Jansson's accurate nonetheless, work and explains why the book won the Samuel Johnson Prize (the first memoir to do so) and is shortlisted for the Costa Biography awarddevoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224097008</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Dylan Thomas and Peter Bailey1908745819|title=A Child’s Christmas in Wales|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction|summary=Christmas time growing up in a Welsh seaside town was magical for Dylan Thomas, always snowy and full of adventure. From attempting to extinguish house fires with snowballs to hippo footprints in the snow his childhood in the snow was a time of wonder and pure joy.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444013467</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewSurfacing |author=Henry Marsh|title=Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain SurgeryKathleen Jamie

|summary=WeSometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you 've all heard the phrase 'this one has your name on it's '. Mostly we take them at their word, or not brain surgery' , but what is rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it really turns out that we didn't like to operate on someonethe book. That's brain in the frightening knowledge that a small sliprare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, a slight error can have rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the most devastating consequences for the patientauthor considering ''an older, with death probably less tethered sense of herself.'' Older. Less tethered. That's not being the worst? a bad description of where I am. Henry Marsh is a Fellow Add to that my love of the Royal College natural world, of Surgeons those aspects of the poetic and Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley/St George'slyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of 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. If anyone knows what I am pleased to have it's like then Henry Marsh is the man to tell youfall onto my path so quickly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178022592X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jennifer Klinec1906852472|title=The Temporary BrideWild Child: A Memoir of Love and Food in IranGrowing Up a Nomad|author=Ian Mathie|rating=3.5

|summary=Jennifer Klinec For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the daughter of Hungarian immigrant parents who ran an automotive factory missing link in southwest Ontario. She learned early on to be self-sufficienthis narrative, even enrolling herself in boarding schools in Switzerland and Dublin. After graduation she moved to Londonthe story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made a pile as an investment banker, and opened her own cookery schoolhim the amazing man he became). At age 31, though, she decided to travel to The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the Iranian city of Yazd to learn Persian dishesbook is published posthumously. She met VahidAs always, 25it's beautifully written, a military veteran with an engineering background, many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a park and he introduced her to his mother for cooking lessonssatisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is unpublishable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844088235</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marion Coutts1999811402|title=The Iceberg: A MemoirPainting Snails|author=Stephen John Hartley|rating=4.5

|summary=It'Something has happeneds 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, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. A piece The answer would be something along the lines of news'try it and see'. We have had Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a diagnosis busker, finally got into medical school and is now an A&E consultant (part-time). I found out that has the status of there's an event. The news makes awful lot more to what goes on in a rupture with Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what went beforethe book's about. There' With these plains a lot about rock & roll, unsentimental words Coutts begins her devastating yet mysteriously gorgeous account which seems to be the real passion of her husband Tom LubbockHartley's decline and death from life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a brain tumour. Shortlisted category for 'doing the Costa Biography award and longlisted for impossible the hard way'? Yep - that'Guardians the one. It'' First Book Award, it was also a finalist for the Samuel Johnson Prizes an autobiography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1782393501</amazonuk>