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[[Category:New Reviews|Biography]]__NOTOC__<!-- Remove INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Kieron Moore Claire Dederer|title=Monsters: What Do We Do with Great Art by Bad People?|rating=3|genre=Politics and Rajesh NagulakondaSociety|summary=Dederer sets out to unveil what she calls a ''biography of the audience'' in a deconstructed, thoroughly nitpicked, exploration of the old aphorism of separating the art from the artist in the context of contemporary ''cancel culture''. Dederer's work is original and expressive. The reader gets the impression that the thoughts simply sprang and leapt from her brilliant mind and onto the page. In particular, the prologue packs a punch: she simultaneously condemns and exalts the director Roman Polanski, an artist she personally admires for his art, and yet despises for his actions. This model of ''monstrous men'' as she calls them, is consistent for the first few chapters, interrogating the likes of Woody Allen, Michael Jackson and Pablo Picasso. Her critical voice is acutely present throughout, never slipping into anonymity and maintaining her own subjectivity, as she holds it so dearly, and a personal, rather than collective voice.|isbn=1399715070}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1788360702|title=BuddhaCharles, The Alternative Prince: An Enlightened Life (Campfire Graphic Novels)Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|genre=Graphic NovelsBiography|summary=I donFor over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''Charles, The Alternative Prince't do religion' critically assesses the Prince's opinions, but still there was something that drew me beliefs and aims against the background of the scientific evidence. There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to this comic book. For one, the whole Buddhist faith reputation of a man who is still a little unknown proud of his refusal to meapply evidence-based, and this was certainly going logical reasoning to be educationalhis ambitions. Yes}}{{Frontpage|isbn=1739805100|title=Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of war|author=Andrew March|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary= ''Loving the Enemy'' tells the quite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, I knew some who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to teach in the early days of the terms it ends up usingNazi regime in the 1930s. Fred, but not othersa sensitive and thoughtful man, such as bhikshu, and had never really come across some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the mantime. Fred's life story. Yes, I knew he found enlightenment and taught a very pacifist kind of faith, attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but where did he come from? What failings did he have on his path, make friendships and who were the ones connections that joined him along the way?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>9381182299</amazonuk>lasted for a lifetime.

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Joanna Arman Will Brooker|title= The Warrior Queen: The Life and Legend of Aethelflaed, Daughter of Alfred the Great Truth About Lisa Jewell|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= AethelflaedMeet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I'Lady ve never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the Mercians'two meeting each other, as well, was and shows how 2021 drew the daughter two closer and eldest child closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of King Alfred. Considering her anecdote about cup cakes, the scanty details words of her life which have been handed down to posteritylatest book she was reciting, and her being in a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who has done swallowed Roland Barthes, down the rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. Brooker decides he'd like nothing more than to follow her through a very good job year in presenting us with the published author's life, working to make a portrait success of her life the latest title, and timesstruggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445662043</amazonuk>1529136024

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Kathryn WarnerMartha Leigh|title= Edward IIInvisible Ink: The Unconventional KingA Family Memoir

|summary= Edward II has come down to us as one of the worst Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, immediately recognisable upper middle class English kings of allfamily. With Her father is a reign filled by reliance Cambridge don, forever clacking away on male favourites, constant threats his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of civil warsthe philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, endless quarrels with his barons, unsuccessful military campaigns (including what was perhaps the worst English military defeat ever to take place on British soil), abdication and – so we are led to believe – life's work. Her mother is a brutal death concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in captivity - the balance sheet practicalities of life. There is love in the house but also darker undercurrents that a pretty poor onechild does not fully understand but knows is there. But is it the full story?|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445666723</amazonuk>1800460384

{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Adrian MourbyPolly Barton|title=Rooms of One's Own: 50 Places That Made Literary HistoryFifty Sounds

|genre=Entertainment Politics and Society|summary=The debate is never-ending about how much of Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the authorquestion 's life we can find in their pages, and what bearing every circumstance of their lot had 'Why Japan?'' Japan has been on their output. Things perhaps are heightened when they do my radar for a Hemingway or a Greene while and travel if the worldhadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but so often they have had a cause to stay in one place and writeI am not hopeful. Does that creative spirit survive in the walls and air of the room they worked inAnd like Barton, and do those four walls, or I don't know the view, feature in answer to the booksquestion ''why Japan? And does any '' She explains her feelings in respect of this really matter the question in admiring the great works of literature? Wellfirst essay, this volume itself kind of relies which is on that the sound ''giro' '' – which she describes as being , among other things, the case, but either way itsound of ''every party where you have to introduce yourself''s a real pleasure.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1785781855</amazonuk>1913097501

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Adam FedermanFrederic Gros|title= Fasting and Feasting - The Life A Philosophy of Visionary Food Writer Patience GrayWalking|rating= 45|genre= Biography Politics and Society|summary= For more than thirty years, Patience Gray--author of I confess I picked this one up from the celebrated cookbook Honey from a Weedlibrary in my pre--lived in a remote area lockdown forage of Puglia in southernmost Italyrandom stuff. She lived without electricity, modern plumbing, or a telephone, grew much of her Now I have to go out an buy my own food, and gathered and ate wild plants alongside her neighbours in this economically impoverished region. She was fond of saying copy so that she wrote only for herself I can turn down the pages I have marked and her friends, yet her growing reputation brought a steady stream of international visitors return to her door. This simple and isolated life she chose for herself may help explain her relative obscurity its varying wisdom when compared I need to the other great food writers of her time: M. F Some books draw you in slowly. K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, and Julia Child. So it is not surprising that when Gray died This one had me in 2005the first two pages, the BBC described her as an wherein Gros explains why ''almost forgotten culinary star.walking is not a sport'' Yet her influence, particularly among chefs and other food writers, has had a lasting and profound effect on the way we view and celebrate good food and regional cuisines. Gray's prescience was unrivalled: She wrote about what today we would call the Slow Food movement--from foraging to eating locally--long before it became part of the cultural mainstream. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1603587527</amazonuk>1781688370

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Gill BlanchardSharon Blackie|title= Lawson Lies Still in the Thames: The Extraordinary Life of Vice-Admiral Sir John LawsonIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Twice within three centuries, England was convulsed by internal armed struggle. During the Lancastrian-Yorkist hostilities, several powerful figures changed sides at least once. Two hundred years later, when the roundheads and cavaliers were at odds, it was not uncommon for some of their protagonists to do likewise. This book tells the life of one of the major Stuart era changelings, one who as the author says played a pivotal role in the death throes of the republican cause for which he fought hard over seventeen years.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445661233</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Janet Todd|title= Aphra Behn: A Secret Life|rating= 4

|summary= In view I normally say that you can tell how much a book means to me by how many pages have corners turned down. Perhaps an even greater measure of her unique status, Aphra Behn seems impact is setting out to have been largely forgotten – if ever really acknowledged at all buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one I've borrowed. I want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – by history. The preface states although it loud and clear; she was is definitely the first Englishwoman to earn her living solely by writing, as the most prolific dramatist of her two and only time as well as an innovative writer of fiction, poetry and translator of science and French romance. It seems remarkable that will tell about the daughter of third – but clichés exist for a barber reason and a wet-nurse should have achieved such statusI'm not sure I can succinctly put it any better. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1909572063</amazonuk>1912836017

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Marian Veevers0241446732|title=Jane and DorothyOur House is on Fire: A True Tale Scenes of Sense a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and SensibilitySvante Thunberg|rating= 45|genre= BiographyPolitics and Society|summary= The idea Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of a dual biography the parenting of their two contemporaries who never met throughout their lives is an intriguing onedaughters. However Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, there were several unifying factorsstruggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, which makes it seem logical enough. Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth were both renowned writers though one was much more famous than the other's natural to seek a solution close to home, and both were born just four years apartbut eventually, in it became clear to the 1770sfamily that they were ''burned-out people on a burned-out planet''. If they were to find a way to live happily again their solution would need to be radical. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910985775</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Richard Askwith0648684806|title= Today We Die a LittleClara Colby: Emil Zatopek, Olympic Legend to Cold War HeroThe International Suffragist|author=John Holliday|rating= 4|genre= Sport Biography|summary= As The path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-years-old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to sail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a runner myselfgood education, I often look for sources both in and out of inspirationschool. She was the only child in the household and her childhood was glorious. Training is rewarding By contrast, but every so often a day comes along her family had become pioneer farmers in the mid-west of the United States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when I question whether it is all worth it or notshe and her grandparents eventually went to join the family. Zatopek proves that is Clara would only know her mother for a few months: she was married for fifteen years, indeedhad ten pregnancies, all worth itseven surviving children and died in childbirth not long after Clara arrived. He put copious amounts of effort into his training As the eldest girl, a heavy burden would fall on Clara and the number of races he won over his career as Wisconsin was a professional athlete clearly shows the results of itrude awakening. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224100351</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jill Armitage1789017977|title= Arbella StuartRonnie and Hilda's Romance: The Uncrowned Queen Towards a New Life after World War II|author=Wendy Williams|rating= 4.5|genre= BiographyHistory|summary= Lady Arbella Stuart, cousin to both Elizabeth I of England and James VI of Scotland, Ronnie Williams was one of the unfortunate figures son of English history who might 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 Queen – born in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and who, like the even more tragic Lady Jane Grey, he might well have paid the ultimate priceshaved a few years off his age. This is For a sad while, the family was quite well-to-do but engrossing story of one whose only crime disaster struck in the 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 need to have royal blood coursing through her veinsbe well-turned-out and this would stay with him throughout his life. He joined the army at eighteen in 1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1445650193</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|author= Amy LicencePatti Smith|title= The Six Wives & Many Mistresses Year of Henry VIII: The Women's Storiesthe Monkey|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= According to popular wisdomOn the coast of Santa Cruz, Patti Smith enters the lunar year of the monkey - one packed with mischief, sorrow, Henry VIII had six wives and only two mistressesunexpected moments. The former statement In a stranger's words, ''Anything is correctpossible: after all, but it's the latter only tells part year of the storymonkey''. Even while he was married to his first wife, Catherine As Smith wanders the coast of AragonSanta Cruz in solitude, there were many more ladies she reflects on a year that brings huge shifts in his her life- loss and ageing are faced head-on, as it the shifting political waters in America.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1445660393</amazonuk>1526614758

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Dan Ropek1912242052|title= Tragic Magic: The Life of Traffic's Chris Wood O Joy for me!|author=Keir Davidson|rating= 4.53|genre= EntertainmentArt|summary= Chris Wood was a member of Traffic''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, the group formed by Steve Winwood in 1967 after not because he left The Spencer Davis Group. A gifted musician best known had to for his flute and saxophone work, he also played keyboards, bass guitar and contributed backing vocals as well as having a hand in writing several of the songs miner, quarryman, shepherd or pack-horse driver, but because he wanted to for pleasure and one or two instrumentalsadventure. This biography takes His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, and its title from literary consequences, changed our view of the name of one of his compositions for their fifth albumworld''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1910773190</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Sarah FraserGraff_Find|title= The Prince Who Would Be King: The Life and Death of Henry StuartFind Another Place|author=Ben Graff|rating= 43.5|genre= Biography Autobiography|summary= Henry StuartWhen Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, eldest child he didn't take much notice of King James VI and I, was not it. At the only eldest son age of a monarch who did not live long enough to succeed to 24, Graff didn't realise the throne. The list also included Arthur (son gravity of Henry VII) and Albert Victor (Edward VII). Of the three, Henry undoubtedly showed the most promisepages he was holding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007548087</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=1789016304|title=Elena Favilli War and Love: A family's testament of anguish, endurance and Francesca Cavallodevotion in occupied Amsterdam|titleauthor=Good Night Stories for Rebel GirlsMelanie Martin|rating=4.5|genre=Children's Non-Fiction Biography|summary=ItMelanie 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 Ann Frank''s been said very often but then realised that her own family'history is told by s stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the winners'. Well, too often history, city during the news and even destinies are written by menwar years, but only five thousand survived and the proof is between these covers. I didn't know anything about Martin could not understand how this before reading it, even if it has become the most richly-backed crowd-funded book ever. I'd never heard of the Hollow Flashlight, powered purely by body warmth – which is rich if you're old enough could be allowed to remember the brou-ha-ha when happen in a maverick British bloke did a wind-up radio. I'd never read about the Niger female country with liberal values who has successfully made a stand against forced, arranged marriage, rejecting a cousin for a fate she wishes were resistant to write for herselfGerman occupation. My ignorance may, perhaps, show me up to be a chauvinist of sorts, but I think it is further evidence Most people believed that 'the gaze is male' and occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the media are phallocentric. I hope too Germans might reach the city were convinced that this book doesn't turn any of its readers into a feministthey would soon be pushed back, for that the Amsterdammers would be as bad never allow what happened to escalate in the way that it did, but initial protests melted away as the chauvinist charge against meorganisers became more circumspect. If anything it is designed to create equals, and that is as it should be, even if there is still It's an atrocity on a long way to go…|amazonuk=<amazonuk>014198600X</amazonuk>vast scale but made up of tens of thousands of individual tragedies.

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Catherine Fletcher1786893452|title= The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' MediciUngrateful Refugee|author=Dina Nayeri

|summary= Most of Here in the MedicisWest, we see news reports about immigrants on a regular basis – some media welcoming them, who had ruled Florence for much some scaremongering about them. But all of the fifteenth centurythose stories are written by journalists – almost always western, led colourful and violent livesalmost always, but few more so than Alessandrono matter how deep the investigative journalism they carry out, Duke of Florenceoutsiders to the world and the situations that refugees find themselves in. In It's rare that we find out the journeys from the refugees themselves – and this is a world of political drama and intriguerare opportunity to do that, disputed parentagein this intelligent, family rivalry powerful and violent death at an early agemoving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the middle of a revolution in Iran, his short life encompassed everythingfleeing to America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099586940</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Mark Aylwin Thomas0857058320|title= Blades of GrassLord Of All the Dead|author=Javier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)|rating= 4.5|genre= Biography|summary= Any book that has me in tears at ''Lord Of All the end has been worth my time. Any book that has me hoping it will end differently Dead'' is a journey to uncover the way I know it must author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is worth searching for the reading. Any book that convinces me that maybe there is still hope meaning behind his great uncle's death in the world – that for all the mistakes made thus farSpanish Civil War. Manuel Mena, still being made right nowCercas' great uncle, there is a common humanity which ultimately, eventually, must do some good – that is worth the writing and the reading and figure who looms large over the time. Blades of Grass is one such book. ItHe died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's a forgotten story, an unknown story to most peopleforces. Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for this dictator. It The question at the centre of this book is whether it is one that should possible for his great uncle to be told – and reflected upona hero whilst having fought for the wrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524676969</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Zachary Leader1788037812|title=The Life Fraternity of Saul Bellowthe Estranged: To Fame and Fortune 1915The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1964 1908|author=Brian Anderson

|summary=At over eight hundred pagesOriginally passed in 1885, 'The Life of Saul Bellow' is the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years. But during this time, restrictions on same-sex relationships did not a light bookgo unchallenged. Between 1891 and 1908, but it is three books on the most complete account nature of homosexuality appeared. They were written by two homosexual men: Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the life and work of America's most honoured literary figureheterosexual Havelock Ellis. During Exploring the course margins of his lifesociety and studying homosexuality was common on the European Continent, but barely talked about in the UK, a number so the publications of notable attempts these men were made hugely significant – contributing to capture the essence scientific understanding of homosexuality, and beginning the man in biographical form. Zachary Leader benefits from this groundwork; he also has the advantage that his work has been compiled since Bellow's death in 2005. As a result, he has had access to sourcesstruggle for recognition and equality, manuscripts and letters denied leading to previous biographers. Leader's research is exemplary and incredibly detailed. He not only looks at the life milestone legalisation of the man but at the creative process that made him the colossus that he became and it's all written with a genuine passion, love and respect for his subjectsame-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520931</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John PrestonBuckland_Zoo|title=A Very English ScandalThe Man Who Ate the Zoo: Sex, Lies and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishment|rating=5|genre=True Crime|summary=Jeremy Thorpe was the sort of person who was generally liked by others. He was flamboyant and gregarious but could give the impression that meeting someone had made his day. He never seemed to forget a name and he was witty, charismatic and very charming. He appeared to be a decent man, with views with which I would have agreed on race, capital punishment and membership of the Common MarketFrank Buckland, as the European Union was then known. For this was the nineteen sixties and Thorpe had entered Parliament at the age forgotten hero of thirty and by 1967 he would be party leader. On the surface he was a man who had everything going for him.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241973740</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewnatural history|author=Tony Benn and Ruth Winstone (editor)|title=The Benn Diaries: The Definitive CollectionRichard Girling|rating=4.5

|summary=Tony Benn must be one of the most famous diarists of the modern age. He kept As a diary from his schooldays conservationist in Victorian England before the nineteen forties until he made his last entry in 2009term existed, five years before his death. Benn Frank Buckland was also very much a particularly charismatic politician: since my teens I've found myself listening to him believing that I disagreed with what he was saying and then realising that perhaps we weren't so far apart after allman ahead of his time. Whatever he spoke about always gave food for thought. Of course the ideal way to enjoy the diaries would be to read the individual volumesSurgeon, beginning with {{amazonurl|isbn=0099497719|title=Years Of Hope: Diariesnaturalist,Letters veterinarian and Papers 1940-1962}}eccentric sums him up perfectly, but that's a lengthy undertaking and ''The Benn Diaries: The Definitive Collection'' edited by Ruth Winstone gives you the opportunity to sample the best of the diaries in a mere seven hundred or so pages. Be warned though: there has been any biographer is immediately presented with a previous {{amazonurl|isbn=0099634112|title=composite volume}}, also called ''The Benn Diaries'' and published in 1996. The current volume goes colourful tale to 2009tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1786330768</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Jeremy LewisWilliams_Captain|title=David AstorCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: His Military Life and Times|author=Ivor George Williams

|summary=The name 'David Astor' is familiar to a lot In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of people: some will remember him as being the middle child 17th Regiment of Nancy and Waldorf AstorFoot. Others will know He was in command of the troops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to Sydney, Australia: his family homewife and young son accompanied him. He was not destined to live a long life, Clivedendying suddenly at the age of 34 at Bangalore, either from its influence in the second world war or its notoriety during the Profumo affair in the sixtiesleaving his widow to raise their two young sons. I remember him best for Edwards' death left his work as the editor of ''The Observer'', but despite being widow in a quietly understated man many will remember the causes he espoused, difficult position: not all of whichonly did she have their farm to manage, such as his support but she was also responsible for the release of moors murderer Myra Hindley, brought him admirationconvicts who worked the land. Two years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099552124</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn= Keiron PimPeacock_mountain|title= Jumpin' Jack Flash: David Litvinoff and the Rock'n'Roll Underworld|rating=3.5|genre= Biography|summary= Each decade throws up its misfitsInto The Mountain, mavericks and anti-heroes, its icons of what might be loosely termed social estrangement and disillusion. In the 1950s it was James Dean, and in the 1970s it was Sid Vicious. In between them, although admittedly a good few years older, was one David Litvinoff.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099584441</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Tony Fletcher|title= In the Midnight Hour: The A Life & Soul of Wilson Pickett|rating= 4.5|genre= Entertainment|summary= Tamla Motown groups and singers apart, in the mid-sixties there were three major names in the soul music field who mattered above all. James Brown was something of a cult name who rarely bothered about or troubled the singles charts, and Otis Redding was on the verge of shooting into the stratosphere when he died in an aeroplane crash. The other was the man from Alabama, 'the wicked Pickett'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0190252944</amazonuk>}}{{newreviewNan Shepherd|author= Juliet Nicolson|title= A House Full of DaughtersCharlotte Peacock|rating= 4.5

|summary= With grandparents who were distinguished writers Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and a father who co-founded a major publishing houseso many books… I can understand the approach, but I also think we sell ourselves short by it was inevitable that Juliet Nicolson would follow in , and we sell the family’s literary tradition. Already myriad lesser-known for two works of social history, here she tells her family story through seven generationsauthors short as well. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099598035</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Philip Valentine Coates|title= Sarah ValentineSo while, No Great Expectations Part 1|rating=4|genre= Biography|summary= Sarah was the first of several children born in dire poverty to Jim and Sarah Valentine, and these pages tell her story from birth in December 1819 to her eighteenth birthday. Everything is vividly conveyed, from the poorly-clothed barefoot children in crowded living quarters in the Whitechapel Road arealike most other people I have my favourite genres, without a lock on the door and with no possessions worth stealing except for the occasional shillingfavoured authors, to the noisy public houses with their fist-fights and the dirtywhile, evil-smelling streets with sewage overflowing down like most other people I read the alleys reviews and where epidemics spread all too rapidly.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1524665428</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=Laura Cumming|title= The Vanishing Man - In Search of Velazquez|rating=5|genre=Art|summary=Pitching follow up at an auction and picking up a lost masterpiece for a pittance is the dream for most art lovers. That seemingly happy circumstance happened to bookseller John Snare at a sale in 1845 and is the centrepiece to Laura Cumming's excellent ''The Vanishing Man – In Pursuit of Velazquez''. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099587041</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author=G A Jones|title=The Cruise of Naromis: August in the Baltic 1939|rating=4|genre=Travel|summary=There's braveon what appeals, and there is brave. I may well also have been born in a coastal county but certainly would baulk at the idea of setting out to sea with four colleagues in a 37'third-long boat. Boats string to me are like planes – the bigger the better, and the safer I feel as a result. But luckily for the purpose of this book, George Jones was born with a much different pair of sea-legs to mine, and took to the waters of the English Channel, the North Sea and beyond in ''Naromis'' with brio. But – and this is where the further definition of bravery comes in – he did it in August 1939, knowing full well that he would be sailing full tilt into the teeth of war.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1899262334</amazonuk>}}{{newreview|author= Julian Palacios|title= Syd Barrett & Pink Floydmy reading bow: Dark Globe|rating= 4|genre= Entertainment|summary= There were few sadder casualties of the sixties music scene than Syd (real name Roger) Barrett. The original songwriting genius and front man of Pink Floyd, he burnt out all too soon. A few months in the spotlight were followed all too soon by a pathetic postscript of a stuttering solo career, and over three decades as a largely housebound recluserandomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0859655482</amazonuk>