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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]==Biography==__NOTOC__{{newreview|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!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Donald Spoto1788360702|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 outCharles, 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>}} {{newreviewAlternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Stephen Anderton|title=Christopher Lloyd: His Life at Great DixterEdzard Ernst

|summary=When I first had a garden I did what I always do with a new project: I turned to books to see what help I could findFor over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. There were any number which told me how to do ''Charles, The Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the basics Prince's opinions, beliefs and what I needed to know to make aims against the background of the right decisionsscientific evidence. It was rather like cooking only with a There are few more uncertainties thrown in. Then there were the books instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which didn't really bother about the basics but provided limitless inspiration. At have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the head reputation of these writers, if not way out in front, was Christopher Lloyd a man who gardened throughout is proud of his life at Great Dixterrefusal to apply evidence-based, producing colour combinations which stunned and probably one of the greatest gardens of the twentieth centurylogical reasoning to his ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845950968</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Yangzom Brauen and Katy Darbyshire1739805100|title=Across Many MountainsLoving the Enemy: Three Daughters Building bridges in a time of Tibetwar|author=Andrew March|rating=4.5

|summary=Fleeing your home can never be easy but when you are six, your only shoes are roughly hand-sewn and stuffed with hay, and your route is over ''Loving the worldEnemy''s highest mountain range then it must be particularly challenging. This was tells the journey that Yangzom Brauenquite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's mother took with her parents grandparents, who first met when they fled Tibet after grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the Chinese invasion early days of 1959. They were leaving behind all that they knew and travelling to India in the hope that they could find sanctuary Nazi regime in the country where the Dalai Lama was in exile1930s. 'Across Many Mountains' is their story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655344X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=John Ashdown-Hill|title=The Last Days of Richard III|rating=4|genre=History|summary=The controversy surrounding King Richard III has meant that there have been far more biographies about him than on any other pre-Tudor monarchFred, a sensitive and thoughtful man, had some extremely partisan in exonerating him vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the crimes laid growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at his door, some (a minority, it seems) more than keen the time. Fred's attempts to endorse the Shakespearean portrait of a fiend in human shape, separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships and others steering connections that lasted for a middle courselifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752454048</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edmund de WaalWill Brooker|title=The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden InheritanceTruth About Lisa Jewell

|summary=Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I'The Hare with Amber Eyes' vibrates with that rush ve never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of desire to uncover family history that often follows the death thousands of someone you loveless successful authors I quite confidently never have read. It is also a meticulously researched This book of wide ranging scope. When I first picked it upstarts with the two meeting each other, it looked worryingly eruditeas well, and I had visions of becoming lost in a sea of names, places shows how 2021 drew the two closer and ideascloser together. So I The meeting was amazed to find myself reading some unspecified combination, it in one sittingseems, completely absorbedof her anecdote about cup cakes, and losing a whole day in the process. Edmund De Waal had me hooked from the bottom words of page one when he admits to kicking the gate of the Japanese language school he her latest book she was attending reciting, and her being in frustration at his lack of fluency. He then thinks sheepishly: a ''what it was to be twentyblack lace mini-eight and kicking dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a school gate.' This funny, disarming comment put me on his side from get-up never commonly worn at the off.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099539551</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Spicer|title=The Temptress: The Scandalous Life of Aliceevents I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, Countess de Janze|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=Happy Valley in Kenya was an idyllic setting. The high altitude made for a benign climate and the farms were owned by colonial settlers professor of cultural studies who became the 'White Mischief' set of the nineteen forties. They farmed their estateshas swallowed Roland Barthes, partied down the night away and extrarabbit-marital affairs were the normhole that is Jewell's diverse output. Author Paul SpicerBrooker decides he's mother was loosely involved with the set and he uses the connection to good effect to tell the story of the life of Alice, Countess de Janzé – a beguiling and volatile woman who always thought d like nothing more of her animals than of to follow her children.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847399142</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Jonny Steinberg|title=Little Liberia: An African Odyssey through a year in New York City|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=South African Steinberg has won awards with previous non-fiction books and after reading the praise from various sources (New York Timespublished author's life, J M Coetzee) I came working to the conclusion that I was in for make a serious and thought-provoking read. The preface tells us that success of the two Liberian men - Rufus latest title, and struggling with the younger Jacob left Liberian soil next in vastly different circumstances and for different reasonsline. But as they meet up years later and thousands of miles away from their homelandJewell, their ''Little Liberia'' in New York City has a tall order: to contain and accommodate their big personalities and to a certain extentdue diligence appropriately done, their big egosagrees. Can it cope?And this is the result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0224085662</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Edward PearceMartha Leigh|title=Pitt the ElderInvisible Ink: Man of WarA Family Memoir|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=William Pitt the Elder Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, 1st Earl of Chathamimmediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, and Prime Minister from 1766 to 1768, has come down to us through the ages forever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the great eighteenth century equivalent of Winston Churchill, one complete correspondence of the great men of the British Empire in its earlier daysphilosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the man his life's work. Her mother is a concert pianist who led England triumphantly through practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the Seven Years War practicalities of 1756-63life. During the 'year of victories' There is love in 1759, Quebec was captured, the combined English and Prussian forces defeated the French at Minden, and the army won house but also darker undercurrents that a famous victory at Quiberon Bay. For this, Pitt took – or was accorded by generations of historians – much of the creditchild does not fully understand but knows is there.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1845951433</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Tracy KidderPolly Barton|title=Mountains Beyond MountainsFifty Sounds

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Dr Paul Farmer has dedicated his life to helping Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the poorest and neediest in society. He works tirelessly to help people less fortunate than him. question ''Dedicated his lifeWhy Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a while and if the world hadn''works tirelessly'' t gone into melt- phrases we've heard many times about many wonderful peopledown I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but when reading I am not hopeful. And like Barton, I don't know the answer to the question 'Mountains Beyond Mountains'why Japan?', you'll realise there's not a shred She explains her feelings in respect of hyperbole about these claims. Farmer began working with tuberculosis and AIDS patients the question in Haitithe first essay, and then worked with themwhich is on the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being, and worked for themamong other things, and worked with them, and worked for them, and worked with them. In an area where treating the disease is just one part sound of the problem, ''every party where poverty is rife, he has transformed an area, saved countless lives, and made an incredible difference you have to many people. [http://www.pih.org/ Partners In Health], the healthcare organisation he set up with his colleagues, takes this work worldwideintroduce yourself''. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846684315</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Molly CarrFrederic Gros|title=In Search A Philosophy of Dr Watson - A Sherlockian InvestigationWalking|rating=3.5|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=The old saying that behind every great man there is a great woman has I confess I picked this one major exception up from the library in my pre- Sherlock Holmeslockdown forage of random stuff. Behind him is Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the figure of Dr John Watson, his biographer, the man who shares his Baker St lodgings, pages I have marked and the man eternally flummoxed by his deductionsreturn to its varying wisdom when I need to. Some books draw you in slowly. This biography successfully shows how one had me in the superior Holmes walked over Watson in investigative skillsfirst two pages, and also how Conan Doyle needed Watson, if only to help us admire Holmes more by making him less insufferably smugwherein Gros explains why ''walking is not a sport''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1907685766</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lindsay ReadeSharon Blackie|title=Mr Manchester and the Factory Girl: The Story of Tony and Lindsay WilsonIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=45|genre=EntertainmentBiography|summary=Mr Manchester, as Tony Wilson came I normally say that you can tell how much a book means to be known, could me by how many pages have been the next John Humphryscorners turned down. Instead he ended up becoming Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the next Malcolm McLaren – or, perhaps, a far less successful version of Richard Bransonone I've borrowed. After graduating from Cambridge University with a degree in English he became a trainee news reporter for ITN, and for much of his I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life he worked as an anchorman for regional evening news programmes. Yet he -changing' – although it is less remembered for this than for his championship of alternative music and punk rock, founding of Factory Records and involvement with definitely the Hacienda Club. Although he loved the Beatles first two and folk music in general, he disliked much of only time will tell about the contemporary music scene until he saw the Sex Pistols live in the summer of 1976.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859654567</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bevis Hillier|title=The Wit third – but clichés exist for a reason and Wisdom of G K Chesterton|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), best known as the creator of the clerical detective Father Brown, seems to have slipped a little among the general reading publicI's estimation these days. This is surely unmerited, for he was just as versatile as and hardly less quotable than the Victorian enfant terriblem not sure I can succinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1441179585</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Rosamund Bartlett0241446732|title=TolstoyOur House is on Fire: A Russian LifeScenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=Count Lev Tolstoy came from a privileged The Ernman / Thunberg familyseemed perfectly normal. He Malena Ernman was born an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on 28 August 1828; unfailingly superstitious for most of the rest parenting of his days, he therefore adopted 28 as his lucky numbertheir two daughters. Like most young men from a similar background, he joined the Russian army. The Crimean war proved to be the making of him in that it developed his social conscience, opened his eyes to the conditions endured by those born to a less lofty position in the social order than himself, Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and impressed on him the fervent belief that everybody in Russia ought to have the chance to learn to read talking and write. As a result he became a born-again repentant nobleman in the light of having seen how the other half (or more than half) livedher sister, he took a long hard look at the world around himBeata, turning into a rebel against organized religion and the authority of the state in the process. All this was exacerbated by his travels throughout Europe shortly afterwards, in which he was impressed with the comparative freedom he saw in other countries and then found the return to his homeland thoroughly depressing in the few nine years before the emancipation of the serfs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681383</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Valerie Benaim and Yves Azeroual|title=Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni: The True Story|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=In November 2007 the French Presidentold, Nicolas Sarkozy struggled with what was newly divorced from his second wife and, despite his position and busy life, feeling rather lonelyhappening. He accepted an invitation In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a dinner party from a friend and met supermodel and recording artistsolution close to home, but eventually, Carla Bruni. The attraction between them was instant – she had already said it became clear to the family that she wanted they were ''burned-out people on a man with nuclear power and he was smitten by the attentions of a beautiful, famous and intelligent womanburned-out planet''. Within months If they were marriedto find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0907633145</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roland Huntford0648684806|title=Race for the South PoleClara Colby: The Expedition Diaries of Scott and AmundsenInternational Suffragist|author=John Holliday

|summary=In 1910 two European ships set out for The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the AntarcticUSA. 'Terra Nova' At the time she was carrying British explorers under the leadership just three-years-old but because of Captain Robert Scottsome childhood ailment, while she wasn'Fram' sailed t allowed to sail with a rival Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsenher parents and three brothers. The basic facts can be briefly summarizedInstead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, both in and out of school. Amundsen arrived at She was the only child in the South Pole on 14 December 1911 household and returned home to a hero's welcomeher childhood was glorious. By contrast, while Scott reached her family had become pioneer farmers in the same destination 35 days latermid-west of the United States and life was hard, only as Clara was to find out when she and her grandparents eventually went to perish with his men on join the return journeyfamily. Their bodies were found by Clara would only know her mother for a search party some eight few months after they : she was married for fifteen years, had ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and diedin childbirth not long after Clara arrived. As the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and Wisconsin was a rude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1441169822</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Charles Margerison1789017977|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 ''AuthorRonnie and Hilda's Note'' followed by Romance: Towards 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>}} {{newreview|author=Selina Hastings|title=The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=These days, W. Somerset Maugham seems to be something of an anachronism. In his heyday, for much of a career which lasted from the end of the Victorian era to the 1950s, he was one of the most successful and widely read of all British writers, with his novels, short stories and plays spawning more film adaptations than any other author. Yet over the last thirty years or so he seems to have slipped from favour, 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 with a lifelong stammer and brought up by an aunt and uncle who showed him no affection, grew up to lead a long and unhappy life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0719565553</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNew Life after World War II|author=Andrew McConnell Stott|title=The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi: Laughter, Madness and the Story of Britain's Greatest ComedianWendy Williams

|summary=Meet Martin DavidsonRonnie Williams was the son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and Ethel Wall. Now, when I start my reviews like that, normally it means he's the main character, but heThere's some doubt as to whether or not here. Hethey were ever married or even Harry's big birthdate: he claimed to have been born in the world of BBC History documentaries1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and grew up in the UK, half Scottish and half German, knowing that many of he might well have shaved a few years off his older relatives lived through the Second World Warage. Foremost among them For a while, the family was his German grandfather, Bruno Langbehn, who would have been of fighting age quite well-to- do but disaster struck in his 30s the 1929 Depression and five-year- during the Third Reichold Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. Nothing much One thing he did inherit from his father was ever said about Bruno's own history during the war, except for many inflammatory, rising comments by Bruno himselfhis need to be well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. It took the old man to die for He joined the truth to be admitted by Martin's mother - their forefather was army at eighteen in the SS1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670916161</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Sjeng ScheijenPatti Smith|title=Diaghilev: A LifeYear of the Monkey|rating=4.5

|summary=Sergey Diaghilev was one On the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the towering figures in lunar year of the artistic world of Russiamonkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, and indeed Europeunexpected moments. In a stranger's words, at ''Anything is possible: after all, it's the start year of the 20th centurymonkey''. Born in 1872 As Smith wanders the ambitious son coast of Santa Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a bankrupt vodka producer from Perm, year that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and a mother who died a few days later probably from puerperal fever, by his early twenties he was ageing are faced head-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 would become the Ballets Russes, playing to packed houses as far west as Britain and it the United Statesshifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1846681642</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Howarth1912242052|title=We Die AloneO Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating=53|genre=BiographyArt|summary=Consider taking a five day sail in a small fishing boat ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the height of first person to walk the North Sea from Shetlandmountains alone, not because he had to try and establishfor work, train and supply some potentially vital anti-German resistance in the faras a miner, far north of occupied Norwayquarryman, your homeland. Imagine the sight of heavy naval parades where you intended to landshepherd or pack-horse driver, as galling proof that your intel is ages out of date. Ponder too the fact that you get reported but because he wanted to the Nazis due to the most ridiculous slight of fortunefor pleasure and adventure. All your colleagues are dead or captured, your equipment blown up His rapturous encounters with your trawler to keep it safe from Jerry hands, half your big toe has been shot offtheir natural beauty, and you're forced to go on the run in one of Europe's last, and coldestits literary consequences, wildernesses. And you have no idea whatsoever quite how bad this scenario is going to get.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847678459</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Janet Soskice|title=Sisters changed our view of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Sisters of Sinai tells the story of two extraordinary, Victorian women who unearthed an important early copy of the Gospels from a remote monastery in Egypt. It hardly seems possible that they organised and executed such remarkable feats of unaccompanied travel during an age in which womenworld''s freedom was hidebound by their status as the inferior sex. Janet Soskice is well-placed as a feminist philosopher and theologian to explore their lives.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954654X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Natasha McElhoneGraff_Find|title=After You: Letters of Love, and Loss, to a Husband and FatherFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff

|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=What would you do if, without warning, your brilliant, loving, superman partner died from When Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a catastrophic heart event at the untimely age plastic folder of 43handwritten notes from his journal, leaving you with two young boys and a third on the way? Most he didn't take much notice of us would probably reach for it. At the Valium and book a very long course age of counseling. But Natascha McElhone couldn24, Graff didn'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 realise the basis gravity of 'After You'the pages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919098</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Peter Firstbrook1789016304|title=The ObamasWar and Love: 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 A family' and with a presidential photograph s testament of Barack Obamaanguish, the book is certainly eye-catching. Along with, I'm sure, millions of others, I've read 'The Audacity Of Hope' and was charmed endurance and blown away devotion in almost equal measure, so I was keen to get started on this book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092725</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewoccupied Amsterdam|author=Stefan Klein|title=Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reinvented the WorldMelanie Martin

|summary=This excellent combination Melanie Martin read about what happened to Dutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, particularly in ''The Diary of science history Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and biography starts with seven thousand Jews were deported from the city during the most populist war years, but only five thousand survived and some of the most awkwardly scientificMartin could not understand how this could be allowed to happen in a country with liberal values who were resistant to German occupation. Basically it throws modern-day science at Most people believed that the occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Mona Lisa, which you Germans might think is a little unfair – can she cope with being analysedreach the city were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, and that the neuroscience we now know used Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in interpreting her? Of course she can – she’s the world’s best-known masterpiece of Italian artway that it did, and she’s survived much worsebut initial protests melted away as the organisers became more circumspect. Klein’s approach fully works, when we see also the science da Vinci did know and that he worked It's an atrocity on himself, which all helps us know partly why the truths a vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of La Gioconda are still unknowableindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818256</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Valerie Grove1786893452|title=So Much To TellThe Ungrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri

|summary=Kaye Webb’s career would be Here in the envy of many West, we see news reports about immigrants on a young bookwormregular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. From 1961 But all of those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, outsiders to 1978 she ran Puffin Books, the children’s division of Penguinworld and the situations that refugees find themselves in. I still have some paperbacks It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to do that time with “Kaye Webb – Editor” on , in this intelligent, powerful and moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the first page inside the front covermiddle of a revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142008</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Matt MacAllester0857058320|title=Bittersweet: Lessons from my Mother's KitchenLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=Matt MacAllester ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, used journey to covering the horrors of war, but nothing prepared him for his investigation into uncover the author's lost ancestor's life and death of . Cercas is searching for the meaning behind his mother Annegreat uncle's death in the Spanish Civil War. In May 2005 Ann MacAllester Manuel Mena, Cercas' great uncle, is the figure who looms large over the book. He died suddenly of a heart attack and her son was overwhelmed by griefrelatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. This might not sound unusual, but Cercas ruminates on why his mother had been largely absent from him uncle fought for about a quarter of a century, trapped in her own private world of madnessthis dictator. His earliest memories were of an idyllic childhood, where wonderful food was always The question at the centre of family life and with the help of Elizabeth David, this book is whether it is possible for his mother’s favourite cookery writer he sought great uncle to find his mother through be a hero whilst having fought for the food she cookedwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408800942</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Chris Welch and Lucian Randall1788037812|title=Ginger GeezerThe Fraternity of the Estranged: The Life of Vivian StanshallFight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Brian Anderson

|summary=RedheadsOriginally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, they sayrestrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, feel more pain than three books on the rest nature of ushomosexuality appeared. They may even have a layer were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of skin too few. However literally true this might besociety and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, it certainly seems so the publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to be the case for Vivian Stanshall. As his second wife says in this excellent bookscientific understanding of homosexuality, 'There's nothing between him and all beginning the sensations struggle for recognition and equality, leading to the world has to give us'milestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1841156795</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Donald SpotoBuckland_Zoo|title=High SocietyThe Man Who Ate the Zoo: Grace Kelly and HollywoodFrank Buckland, forgotten hero of natural history|author=Richard Girling|rating=34.5

|summary=In his defenceAs a conservationist in Victorian England before the term existed, we must acknowledge Spoto's subtitle. It underlines that this does not in any way shape or form claim to be Frank Buckland was very much a biography man ahead of the American actress who become Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monacohis time. It Surgeon, naturalist, veterinarian and eccentric sums him up perfectly, and any biographer is an analysis of her film career: immediately presented with a consideration of the "Hollywood years"colourful tale to tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099515377</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison MaloneyWilliams_Captain|title=St George: Let's Hear it for England!|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=I was a bit Captain Ronald Campbell of a patriotBombala Station, even when it wasn't as fashionable as it is now becoming. Perhaps this is due to my once having played St. George in a Cub Scout celebration Cambalong: His Military Life and getting the chance to personally slay the dragon in knitted chain mail with a plastic sword. In a world where being English has become synonymous with football violence and the flag of St. George is being used by a political party condemned as racist, it's perhaps unsurprising that more people celebrate St. Patrick's Day than St. George's Day.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848092628</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewTimes|author=Douglas Rogers|title=The Last Resort|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=Author Douglas Rogers is a Zimbabwean who moved awayfrom the country many years ago, but has never been able to persuadehis parents – two white farmers, Lyn and Roz – to follow him out oftheir homeland, despite the resettlement policies of Robert Mugabe,the hyper-inflation, and the corruption in the country. Instead, thepair just wanted to stay on the farm welcoming people to Drifters,their backpackers' lodge.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906021910</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tracy Kidder|title=Strength in What RemainsIvor George Williams

|summary='Strength in What Remains' is In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the inspirational account 17th Regiment of Deogratias, a man who has fled from the genocide and civil war Foot. He was in Burundi (just south command of the equator in East Central Africatroops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, bordering Rwanda)Australia: his wife and young son accompanied him. He escapes was not destined to New Yorklive a long life, out of fear and want dying suddenly at the age of 34 at Bangalore, leaving his widow to raise their two young sons. Edwards' death left his widow in a safer life; difficult position: not only his new found American life isn't quite what it promiseddid she have their farm to manage, but she was also responsible for the convicts who worked the land. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186197857X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catrine ClayPeacock_mountain|title=Trautmann's Journey: From Hitler Youth to FA Cup LegendInto The Mountain, A Life of Nan Shepherd|author=Charlotte Peacock

|summary='You have Mostly we choose what books to learn to be hard menread because there is so little time and so many books… I can understand the approach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it, to accept sacrifice without ever succumbing'. Such did Hitler say at and we sell the Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies in the 1930smyriad lesser-known authors short as well. He probably did not So while, like most other people I have in mind playing in goal at a FA Cup final with a broken neckmy favourite genres, such is the lifetime of difference between the two references. But that lifetimeand favoured authors, as packed and varied as it waswhile, is in like most other people I read the pages of this ever-interesting reviews and swiftlyfollow up on what appeals, I also have a third-devoured bookstring to my reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224082884</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Angela Thirlwell|title=Into The Frame: The Four Loves of Ford Madox Brown |rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Ford Madox Brown, born in 1821 in Calais of a Scottish family, raised in France Move on to [[Newest Business and Belgium before settling in England, was one of the foremost Victorian artists. Throughout his career he was closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelites, and shared many of their same ideals, style and subject matter, though he never officially became a member of the group.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701179023</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]