[[Category:Biography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->
{{newreview
|title=The Mystery of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Rebellious Daughter
|author=Lucinda Hawksley
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|summary=As a previous biographer once called her, Princess Louise was Queen Victoria’s unconventional daughter. Always popular with the public for her comparatively easygoing manner (though, being royal, she was not averse to pulling rank), her forward-looking views on social issues, notably education and votes for women, and her artistic interests, she was certainly one of the most interesting of her family.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951549</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=The Frood
|summary=Prince Alfred was the second son of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. At the time of his birth he was second in line to the throne after his brother, the Prince of Wales and was generally known within the family as Affie. In his early teens he joined the Royal Navy - at his own request - and whilst his family and status was undoubtedly no disadvantage to him, he worked hard and had a genuine talent for the navy, eventually receiving his Admiral's baton and visiting all five continents in the course of his service. He was created Duke of Edinburgh (along with various other titles) by the queen. His marriage - to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia - was not a happy union, with his wife being not well-liked in society and obsessed by her precedence. They had six children (one of whom was stillborn) but only one son - 'young Affie' who committed suicide at the age of twenty four.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>178155319X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|title=The Trip to Echo Spring: Why Writers Drink
|author=Olivia Laing
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=Coming from a family with an alcoholic background, Olivia Laing became fascinated by the idea of why and how some of the greatest works of twentieth-century literature were written by those with a drink problem. The list soon became a long one – Dylan Thomas, Raymond Chandler, Jack London, Jean Rhys, to name but a few, instantly came to mind. In the spring of 2011 she crossed the Atlantic to take a trip across the USA, from New York City and New Orleans to Chicago and Seattle by hired car and train, in the course of which she took a close look at the link between creativity and alcohol which inspired the work of six authors, namely F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver. Taking her title from a character in Williams’s play ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ who says he is taking a trip to echo spring, an euphemism for the liquor cabinet, she travels to the places which were pivotal in their often overlapping lives and work.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677940</amazonuk>
}}