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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Manning Marable1788360702|title=Malcolm XCharles, The Alternative Prince: A Life of Reinvention|rating=5|genre=An Unauthorised Biography|summary=People's preconceptions about Malcolm X are vast. This is no surprise given his dramatic life, untimely death, and subsequent increased fame through the likes of {{amazonurl|title=Spike Lee's 1992 film|isbn=B00005A7TO}}. {{amazonurl|title=His autobiography|isbn=0141185430}} is a must-read for anyone interested in his life, or the tumultuous race struggle in the US in the 1960s, but it must be viewed in context. It was completed after Malcolm X's death, by co-author Alex Haley, and many aspects were highlighted or played down, to suit Malcolm X's ends. Manning Marable's biography, years in the making, looks at his life with a new perspective.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0713998954</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Duncan Hamilton|title=The Unreliable Life of Harry the Valet: The Great Victorian Jewel ThiefEdzard Ernst|rating=4.5

|summary=For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''Charles, The story of Harry Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the Valet may not be particularly familiar to modern readersPrince's opinions, but he was something beliefs and aims against the background of a celebrity in the Victorian agescientific evidence. He achieved notoriety by stealing thousands There are few instances of pounds worth his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of jewels from the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland - much treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the delight reputation of many people a man who disliked the lady, which appears is proud of his refusal to have been pretty much everyone who ever met her. Having pulled off this audacious theftapply evidence-based, Harry seemed logical reasoning to be invincible - but he was brought down by his love for a Gaiety Girl, and ended up facing a trial which the papers fell over themselves to report onambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846058139</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1739805100|title=The Fetish RoomLoving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of war|author=Redmond O'Hanlon and Rudi RotthierAndrew March

|summary=An ongoing debate in our family has centred on ''Loving the value of biographies, particularly of writers. IEnemy''ve always loved tells the touchstone quite extraordinary story of the places people lived and wroteauthor Andrew March's grandparents, who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the banality early days of their lives, the detail, Nazi regime in the insight1930s. Fred, a sensitive and thoughtful man, had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the fact that it can tell you everything or nothing growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at all about the work. My Dad held that the work was what mattered; the rest is just social historytime. He said that almost disparagingly, which is odd, because if you presented it as social history rather than biography, heFred'd lap it up. I guess I just dons attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make the distinctionfriendships and connections that lasted for a lifetime. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684145</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=House of Exile: War, Love and Literature, from Berlin to Los AngelesWill Brooker|authortitle=Evelyn JuersThe Truth About Lisa Jewell

|summary=Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kröger-Mann were in a constant state Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of hazardous exile after the rise thousands of fascism in Germany in 1933less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. He became like Zola This book starts with the two meeting each other, his favourite authoras well, a socially committed novelist and political activist shows how 2021 drew the two closer and fierce critic of militarismcloser together. He The meeting was convivialsome unspecified combination, it seems, having a wide circle of friends that contained many creative artistsher anecdote about cup cakes, playwrightsthe words of her latest book she was reciting, socialists. He seemed drawn to the bohemians and the demiher being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-monde. This elegant and sometimes formal gentleman came from up never commonly worn at the Hanseatic town of Lubeck where his father belonged author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a renowned grain merchant family. These might be described as professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, down the hauterabbit-bourgeoisiehole that is Jewell's diverse output. There was an unusual degree of sibling rivalry between him and his less robust brother, Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a year in the famous published author of ''The Magic Mountain''s life, Thomas Mann. Hendrick possessed working to make a sensual nature success of the latest title, and fell passionately and easily struggling with the next in love with a number of womenline. Of these his relationship with Nelly, a fascinating woman, a seamstress and nightclub hostess Jewell, as full of contradictions as himselfdue diligence appropriately done, was the most successful and long lastingagrees. She followed him on the long painful journey into exile at first in Nice and later to And this is the United Statesresult.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846144612</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Simon StephensonMartha Leigh|title=Let Not The Waves of the SeaInvisible Ink: A Family Memoir|rating=45|genre=Biography|summary=The Martha Leigh begins her book opens after the catastrophic event and the narrator/author Simon is talking about a childhood spent in the local area of Phi Phia slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English family. He describes it in glowing terms (which may sound Her father is a little strange) Cambridge don, forever clacking away on his typewriter as he aims, on a rather arduous climbedits the complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, to be rewarded with a stunning view. And immediately I'm struck with Stephensonhis life's lilting style of writingwork. For example, ' Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day... an elderly lady carrying bags Neither parent is hugely interested in the practicalities of rice over each shoulder as if they were no more than foam guesthouse pillowslife.' How lovely and evocative There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that, I'm thinking to myselfa child does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848545584</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreview|author=Philip Norman|title=John Lennon: The Life|rating=5|genre=Entertainment|summary=For part of my formative years, John Lennon was one of the four most famous people in the world. All that we have learnt about him in the thirty years or so since his death has kept his name firmly in the public eye, if not always for the best of reasons. At over 800 pages, this is one of the lengthiest biographies written about the extraordinary life and times of the former Beatle. It's also surely one of the most impartial. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>000719742X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Hilary SpurlingPolly Barton|title=Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in ChinaFifty Sounds

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Peal BuckWhere do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the 5th of 7 children, was born in 1892 to American missionary parents working in China, where she was then brought up. She learned Chinese before she learned English, question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and only realised that she was considered a foreigner when anti foreigner riots known to as if the Boxer Rebellion in 1900 forced the family out of her childhood homeworld hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. Later she became famous for her novels and short stories set in ChinaI may get there later this year, especially The Good Earthbut I am not hopeful. She won AmericaAnd like Barton, I don's most famous literary prize, t know the answer to the Pulitzer, question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in 1932, and respect of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. Yet her work is mostly forgotten question in the US and Europefirst essay, and in which is on the country sound ''giro' '' – which she loveddescribes as being, among other things, her books were banned by Maothe sound of ''s regime after they came every party where you have to power in 1949introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1861978529</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Jeremy LewisFrederic Gros|title=Shades of Greene: One Generation A Philosophy of an English FamilyWalking|rating=4.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Graham Greene's father actually had six children, and his brother six I confess I picked this one up from the library in my pre-lockdown forage of his ownrandom stuff. (Well, there were nine in their generation for a start...) The surprising and joyous thing about this book is Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that it I can show that Graham Greene's remarkable life is by no means turn down the only standout pages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need to. Some books draw you in that whole generation of family historyslowly. It can continuously throw up surprises - we know Hugh Greene was high up This one had me in the BBCfirst two pages, but it wasnwherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport't him who helped found Canadian public service broadcasting. We are familiar with Graham himself traipsing around the world, reporting back in fact and fiction from unusual circumstances and exotic climes with dubious systems of government, but it wasn't he who was noted for being an ardently public supporter of pro-Communist China.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099551888</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Benjamin MandelkernSharon Blackie|title=Escape from the Nazis: The Incredible and Inspiring Saga of Two Young Jews on the Run in World War II PolandIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Do we all I normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have it in us? corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one I've borrowed. Would you as a Pole in 1940s Poland, who I want to avoid clichés like as not had been 'educatedpowerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' in – although it is definitely the horrendous evil of Jews by your church - would you ignore Nazi death threats first two and countless opportunities for the wrong thing to be said, for only time will tell about the truth to be let out, third – but clichés exist for betrayal - would you help a Jewish life survive?reason and I'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1550280554</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Lucas0241446732|title=Axis SallyOur House is on Fire: The American Voice Scenes of Nazi Germanya Family and a Planet in Crisis|ratingauthor=4|genre=History|summary=Take one personable failed actress, embittered by lack of success at home in the USA, and conspire to land her living in Germany as WW2 breaks out. What chance her becoming an American, female Lord Haw-HawMalena Ernman, being paid by Germany to broadcast entertaining, dissuasive propaganda worldwide on shortwave radio? Anybody could guess it would take innumerable factors, circumstances and eventsGreta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and they're all here in this entertaining, eye-opening and educational biography.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1935149431</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Anthony James|title=The Happy Passion: A Personal View of Jacob BronowskiSvante Thunberg|rating=4.5|genre=Popular SciencePolitics and Society|summary=Jacob Bronowski The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was a scientific administrator, poet, philosopher, dramatist, radio an opera singer and TV personality, best remembered for Svante Thunberg took on most of the series 'The Ascent parenting of Man'their two daughters. This short bookThen eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, about 90 pages longBeata, is partly biographical sketchthen nine years old, partly – in fact largely – an overview of his major published works, occupying about two-thirds of the bookstruggled with what was happening. In the authorsuch circumstances, it's words, it is intended as a personal view of Bronowski as a philosopher.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402200</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Patrick Lienhardt, Olivier Philipponnat and Euan Cameron|title=The Life of Irene Nemirovsky|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Irene Nemirovsky was born in Kiev in 1903 natural to seek a wealthy Jewish family. Even as a child she was used solution close to travel and regularly spent time in the South of Francehome, but eventually, it became clear to the family was forced to flee Russia when that they were threatened by the revolution. They lived for ''burned-out people on a time in Finland and Stockholm, eventually settling in Franceburned-out planet''. Nemirovsky's father was something of If they were to find a rough diamond and her mother selfish and unfaithful, vain and difficult – her mother, particularly way to live happily again their solution would form the basis for several characters in Nemirovsky's booksneed to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523981</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Giles Milton0648684806|title=WolframClara Colby: The Boy Who Went To War|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Giles Milton's daughter was set the task of designing an heraldic shield which represented the most important elements of her family's history. Aware that one of her grandparents is German she included the only German symbol which she knew: a Swastika. It was this incident, which was an awkward mixture of funny and disquieting which brought about 'Wolfram: The Boy Who Went To War'. It's the story of Giles' father-in-law, Wolfram Aïchele, who was nine years old when Hitler came to power and who found himself caught up in a situation which was none of his making and didn't accord with his own beliefs. He was a man who wanted to be a sculptor or to paint, but he was forced to become a soldier.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340837888</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewInternational Suffragist|author=Dudley Green|title=Patrick Bronte: Father of Genius|rating=4.5|genre=History|summary=There have been many biographies about Charlotte Brontë and her siblings, but very little about their father. It is tempting to speculate whether he would be quite so deserving of one if he had not been the father of such a famous family. Yet Dudley Green, a retired Classics teacher, has demonstrated here that he did lead an interesting life himself. Born in rural Ireland in 1777, he spent his early years there before arriving in England in 1802 and settled in Yorkshire seven years later, where he remained the rest of his days.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454455</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Donald Spoto|title=Possessed: The Life of Joan Crawford|rating=3.5|genre=Entertainment|summary=Thanks to the memoir 'Mommie Dearest' by her adopted daughter Christina, the enduring image of movie star Joan Crawford is one of an alcoholic, sadistic monster. Spoto clearly believes that this portrait is a gross exaggeration, and is at pains to rectify the balance. Having previously written biographies of Alfred Hitchcock and Marilyn Monroe among others, he clearly knows the subject of cinema inside out, and has written a very thorough chronicle of Crawford's career. The impression the reader is left with, however, is that in looking at her family life and art he has perhaps striven too far to present her as a person more sinned against than sinning, a legendary talent, beauty and above all a grossly maligned adoptive mother.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091931274</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Anderton|title=Christopher Lloyd: His Life at Great DixterJohn Holliday

|summary=When I first had a garden I did what I always do with a new project: I turned The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to books to see what help I could findthe USA. There were any number which told me how At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to do the basics sail with her parents and what I needed to know to make the right decisionsthree brothers. It was rather like cooking only Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a few more uncertainties thrown good education, both inand out of school. Then there were She was the books which didn't really bother about only child in the basics but provided limitless inspirationhousehold and her childhood was glorious. At By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the head mid-west of these writersthe United States and life was hard, if not way as Clara was to find out in frontwhen she and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, was Christopher Lloyd who gardened throughout his life at Great Dixterhad ten pregnancies, producing colour combinations which stunned seven surviving children and probably one of died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the greatest gardens of the twentieth centuryeldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950968</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Yangzom Brauen and Katy Darbyshire1789017977|title=Across Many Mountains: Three Daughters of Tibet|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Fleeing your home can never be easy but when you are six, your only shoes are roughly hand-sewn and stuffed with hay, Ronnie and your route is over the worldHilda's highest mountain range then it must be particularly challenging. This was the journey that Yangzom Brauen's mother took with her parents when they fled Tibet Romance: Towards a New Life after the Chinese invasion of 1959. They were leaving behind all that they knew and travelling to India in the hope that they could find sanctuary in the country where the Dalai Lama was in exile. 'Across Many Mountains' is their story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655344X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewWorld War II|author=John Ashdown-Hill|title=The Last Days of Richard IIIWendy Williams

|summary=The controversy surrounding King Richard III has meant that there Ronnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been far more biographies about him born in 1863, but he was already many years older than on any other preEthel and he might well have shaved a few years off his age. For a while, the family was quite well-Tudor monarch, some extremely partisan to-do but disaster struck in exonerating him of the crimes laid at 1929 Depression and five-year-old Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. One thing he did inherit from his father was his door, some (a minority, it seems) more than keen need to endorse be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the Shakespearean portrait of a fiend army at eighteen in human shape, and others steering a middle course1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454048</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edmund de WaalPatti Smith|title=The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary='The Hare with Amber Eyes' vibrates with that rush of desire to uncover family history that often follows the death of someone you love. It is also a meticulously researched book of wide ranging scope. When I first picked it up, it looked worryingly erudite, and I had visions of becoming lost in a sea Year of names, places and ideas. So I was amazed to find myself reading it in one sitting, completely absorbed, and losing a whole day in the process. Edmund De Waal had me hooked from the bottom of page one when he admits to kicking the gate of the Japanese language school he was attending in frustration at his lack of fluency. He then thinks sheepishly: 'what it was to be twenty-eight and kicking a school gate.' This funny, disarming comment put me on his side from the off.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539551</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Spicer|title=The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Alice, Countess de JanzeMonkey

|summary=Happy Valley in Kenya was an idyllic setting. The high altitude made for a benign climate and On the farms were owned by colonial settlers who became coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the 'White Mischief' set lunar year of the nineteen forties. They farmed their estatesmonkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, partied the night away and extra-marital affairs were the normunexpected moments. Author Paul SpicerIn a stranger's words, ''Anything is possible: after all, it's mother was loosely involved with the set and he uses year of the connection to good effect to tell monkey''. As Smith wanders the story coast of the life of AliceSanta Cruz in solitude, Countess de Janzé – she reflects on a beguiling year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and volatile woman who always thought more of her animals than of her childrenageing are faced head-on, as it the shifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1847399142</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jonny Steinberg1912242052|title=Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York CityO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=43|genre=BiographyArt|summary=South African Steinberg has won awards with previous non-fiction books and after reading ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the praise from various sources (New York Timesmountains alone, J M Coetzee) I came not because he had to the conclusion that I was in for work, as a serious and thoughtminer, quarryman, shepherd or pack-provoking read. The preface tells us that the two Liberian men - Rufus and the younger Jacob left Liberian soil in vastly different circumstances horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and for different reasonsadventure. But as they meet up years later His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and thousands its literary consequences, changed our view of miles away from their homeland, their the world''Little Liberia'' in New York City has a tall order: to contain and accommodate their big personalities and to a certain extent, their big egos. Can it cope?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085662</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Edward PearceGraff_Find|title=Pitt the Elder: Man of WarFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of Chatham, and Prime Minister handwritten notes from 1766 to 1768his journal, has come down to us through the ages as the great eighteenth century equivalent of Winston Churchill, one he didn't take much notice of it. At the great men age of the British Empire in its earlier days24, and the man who led England triumphantly through the Seven Years War of 1756-63. During Graff didn't realise the 'year gravity of victories' in 1759, Quebec was captured, the combined English and Prussian forces defeated the French at Minden, and the army won a famous victory at Quiberon Bay. For this, Pitt took – or pages he was accorded by generations of historians – much of the creditholding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951433</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tracy Kidder1789016304|title=Mountains Beyond MountainsWar and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and devotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Melanie Martin|rating=4.5

|summary=Dr Paul Farmer has dedicated his life Melanie Martin read about what happened to helping the poorest Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and neediest was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in society. He works tirelessly to help people less fortunate than him. ''Dedicated his life'' and ''works tirelessly'The Diary of Ann Frank' - phrases we've heard many times about many wonderful people, but when reading ''Mountains Beyond Mountains'', you'll realise therethen realised that her own family's not a shred of hyperbole about these claimsstories were equally fascinating. Farmer began working with tuberculosis A hundred and AIDS patients in Haitiseven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the war years, but only five thousand survived and then worked Martin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with them, and worked for them, and worked with them, and worked for them, and worked with themliberal values who were resistant to German occupation. In an area where treating Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the disease is just one part of Germans might reach the problemcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, where poverty is rifethat the Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, he has transformed but initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. It's an area, saved countless lives, and atrocity on a vast scale but made an incredible difference to many people. [http://www.pih.org/ Partners In Health], the healthcare organisation he set up with his colleagues, takes this work worldwideof tens of thousands of individual tragedies. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684315</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Molly Carr1786893452|title=In Search of Dr Watson - A Sherlockian InvestigationThe Ungrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri|rating=34.5

|summary=The old saying that behind every great man there is Here in the West, we see news reports about immigrants on a great woman has one major exception - Sherlock Holmesregular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. Behind him is the figure But all of Dr John Watsonthose stories are written by journalists – almost always western, his biographerand almost always, no matter how deep the man who shares his Baker St lodgingsinvestigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to the world and the man eternally flummoxed by his deductionssituations that refugees find themselves in. This biography successfully shows how It's rare that we find out the journeys from the superior Holmes walked over Watson refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that, in investigative skillsthis intelligent, powerful and also how Conan Doyle needed Watsonmoving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, if only fleeing to help us admire Holmes more by making him less insufferably smugAmerica as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907685766</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lindsay Reade0857058320|title=Mr Manchester and Lord Of All the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Lindsay WilsonAnne McLean (translator)

|summary=G''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death.KCercas is searching for the meaning behind his great uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. Chesterton (1874-1936)Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, best known as is the creator of figure who looms large over the clerical detective Father Brown, seems to have slipped a little among the general reading publicbook. He died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's estimation these daysforces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. This The question at the centre of this book is whether it is surely unmerited, possible for his great uncle to be a hero whilst having fought for he was just as versatile as and hardly less quotable than the Victorian enfant terriblewrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441179585</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rosamund Bartlett1788037812|title=TolstoyThe Fraternity of the Estranged: A Russian LifeThe Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson

|summary=Count Lev Tolstoy came from Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a privileged familycrime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. He was born Between 1891 and 1908, three books on 28 August 1828; unfailingly superstitious for the rest nature of his days, he therefore adopted 28 as his lucky numberhomosexuality appeared. Like most young They were written by two homosexual men from a similar background: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, he joined as well as the Russian armyheterosexual Havelock Ellis. The Crimean war proved to be Exploring the making margins of him in that it developed his social consciencesociety and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, opened his eyes to the conditions endured by those born to a less lofty position but barely talked about in the social order than himselfUK, and impressed on him so the fervent belief that everybody in Russia ought publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to have the chance to learn to read and write. As a result he became a born-again repentant nobleman in the light scientific understanding of having seen how the other half (or more than half) livedhomosexuality, he took a long hard look at and beginning the world around him, turning into a rebel against organized religion struggle for recognition and the authority of the state in the process. All this was exacerbated by his travels throughout Europe shortly afterwardsequality, in which he was impressed with the comparative freedom he saw in other countries and then found the return leading to his homeland thoroughly depressing in the few years before the emancipation milestone legalisation of the serfssame-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681383</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Valerie Benaim and Yves AzeroualBuckland_Zoo|title=Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni: The True Story|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=In November 2007 Man Who Ate the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy was newly divorced from his second wife and, despite his position and busy life, feeling rather lonely. He accepted an invitation to a dinner party from a friend and met supermodel and recording artist, Carla Bruni. The attraction between them was instant – she had already said that she wanted a man with nuclear power and he was smitten by the attentions of a beautiful, famous and intelligent woman. Within months they were married.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0907633145</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Roland Huntford|title=Race for the South PoleZoo: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=In 1910 two European ships set out for the Antarctic. 'Terra Nova' was carrying British explorers under the leadership of Captain Robert ScottFrank Buckland, while 'Fram' sailed with a rival Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen. The basic facts can be briefly summarized. Amundsen arrived at the South Pole on 14 December 1911 and returned home to a forgotten hero's welcome, while Scott reached the same destination 35 days later, only to perish with his men on the return journey. Their bodies were found by a search party some eight months after they had died.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441169822</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Charles Margerison|title=Amazing Women: Inspirational Stories|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=The cover of this book tells the reader that these short ''bioviews'' or biographies can be read in 10 mins or so. This is one of a series within ''The Amazing People Club'' courtesy of the ''Amazing People Team''. There is a rather fulsome ''Author's Note'' followed by a one-page introduction. I was immediately struck by the fact that, given the various feats of these women, I was anxious to read about them - and not about Dr Margerison. Less is more. He goes on to say (by now I'm getting a bit tired of the smiling Margerison) that 'The stories are inspirational and can help you achieve your ambitions in your own journey through life.' All of this and especially that last sentence sits rather uneasily with me, I'm afraid.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1921629940</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewnatural history|author=Selina Hastings|title=The Secret Lives of Somerset MaughamRichard Girling

|summary=These days, W. Somerset Maugham seems to be something of an anachronism. In his heyday, for much of As a career which lasted from the end of the conservationist in Victorian era to England before the 1950sterm existed, he Frank Buckland was one very much a man ahead of the most successful and widely read of all British writershis time. Surgeon, with his novelsnaturalist, short stories veterinarian and plays spawning more film adaptations than any other author. Yet over the last thirty years or so he seems to have slipped from favoureccentric sums him up perfectly, as if his preoccupation with the Edwardian England in which he grew up and his end-of-empire settings are deeply embedded in an age we would rather forget. Moreover, as this very comprehensive biography demonstrates, he was not the most pleasant of individuals. The unhappy child, orphaned by the time he was ten, afflicted any biographer is immediately presented with a lifelong stammer and brought up by an aunt and uncle who showed him no affection, grew up colourful tale to lead a long and unhappy lifetell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719565553</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Andrew McConnell StottWilliams_Captain|title=The Pantomime Life Captain Ronald Campbell of Joseph GrimaldiBombala Station, Cambalong: Laughter, Madness His Military Life and the Story of Britain's Greatest ComedianTimes|author=Ivor George Williams

|summary=This book has won several prestigious awards, so my expectations were raised before I'd even opened In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the book17th Regiment of Foot. And He was in command of all the plaudits given troops and convicts on the back cover, my favourite was Simon Callows' '(A) great big Christmas pudding of board a book ...' Stott has researched his subject thoroughly. First up, there's a Grimaldi family tree, a Prologue, an Introduction and all this before you get ship sailing from Plymouth to the story properSydney, so to speak.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677614</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martin Davidson|title=The Perfect NaziAustralia: Uncovering My SS Grandfather's Secret Past his wife and How Hitler Seduced a Generation|rating=4young son accompanied him.5|genre=History|summary=Meet Martin Davidson. Now, when I start my reviews like that, normally it means he's the main character, but he's He was not here. He's big in the world of BBC History documentariesdestined to live a long life, and grew up in dying suddenly at the UK, half Scottish and half German, knowing that many age of his older relatives lived through the Second World War. Foremost among them was his German grandfather34 at Bangalore, Bruno Langbehn, who would have been of fighting age - in leaving his 30s - during the Third Reichwidow to raise their two young sons. Nothing much was ever said about BrunoEdwards's own history during the war, except for many inflammatory, rising comments by Bruno himself. It took the old man to die for the truth to be admitted by Martin's mother - their forefather was death left his widow in the SS.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670916161</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Sjeng Scheijen|title=Diaghileva difficult position: A Life|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Sergey Diaghilev not only did she have their farm to manage, but she was one of also responsible for the towering figures in convicts who worked the artistic world of Russia, and indeed Europe, at the start of the 20th centuryland. Born in 1872 the ambitious son of a bankrupt vodka producer from Perm, and a mother who died a few days Two years later probably from puerperal fever, by his early twenties he was on close terms with such names as Tolstoy, Zola, Tchaikovsky and Brahms. He worked his way into the ranks of the cultural cognoscenti at St Petersburg and launched the itinerant troupe which she would become the Ballets Russes, playing to packed houses as far west as Britain and the United Statesmarry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681642</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David HowarthPeacock_mountain|title=We Die Alone|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Consider taking a five day sail in a small fishing boat the height of the North Sea from Shetland, to try and establish, train and supply some potentially vital anti-German resistance in the far, far north of occupied Norway, your homeland. Imagine the sight of heavy naval parades where you intended to land, as galling proof that your intel is ages out of date. Ponder too the fact that you get reported to the Nazis due to the most ridiculous slight of fortune. All your colleagues are dead or capturedInto The Mountain, your equipment blown up with your trawler to keep it safe from Jerry hands, half your big toe has been shot off, and you're forced to go on the run in one A Life of Europe's last, and coldest, wildernesses. And you have no idea whatsoever quite how bad this scenario is going to get.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847678459</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNan Shepherd|author=Janet Soskice|title=Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden GospelsCharlotte Peacock

|summary=Sisters of Sinai tells Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the story of two extraordinaryapproach, Victorian women who unearthed an important early copy of but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, and we sell the Gospels from a remote monastery in Egyptmyriad lesser-known authors short as well. It hardly seems possible that they organised So while, like most other people I have my favourite genres, and favoured authors, and executed such remarkable feats of unaccompanied travel during an age in which women's freedom was hidebound by their status as while, like most other people I read the inferior sex. Janet Soskice is wellreviews and follow up on what appeals, I also have a third-placed as a feminist philosopher and theologian string to explore their livesmy reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954654X</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Natasha McElhone|title=After You: Letters of Love, and Loss, to a Husband and Father|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=What would you do if, without warning, your brilliant, loving, superman partner died from a catastrophic heart event at the untimely age of 43, leaving you with two young boys and a third Move on the way? Most of us would probably reach for the Valium and book a very long course of counseling. But Natascha McElhone couldn't because she was already stretched, juggling a busy transatlantic career as an actress as well as caring for her sparky young family. Coping as a single parent left no spare time for self-indulgence; within months she had a new baby as well. So she found her own way, grabbing instead at odd moments to write in her well-established diary. These short entries … e-mails, almost … to her dead husband form the basis of 'After You'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919098</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Peter Firstbrook|title=The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=The book jacket states that this is 'the untold story of an African family' [[Newest Business and with a presidential photograph of Barack Obama, the book is certainly eye-catching. Along with, I'm sure, millions of others, I've read 'The Audacity Of Hope' and was charmed and blown away in almost equal measure, so I was keen to get started on this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092725</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]