Difference between revisions of "Newest Autobiography Reviews"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
(387 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
 
[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]
+
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
__NOTOC__
+
{{Frontpage
 
+
|author=Virginie Despentes
==Autobiography==
+
|title=King Kong Theory
{{newreview
 
|author=Phil Daniels
 
|title=Phil Daniels: Class Actor
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Autobiography  
|summary=If we were asked to nominate the archetypal Cockney actor on large or small screen over the last twenty years or so, Phil Daniels would undoubtedly come high on the list.  Born in Islington in 1958 and raised in Kings Cross, he was a graduate of the Anna Scher Theatre in the 1970s.
+
|summary=''King Kong Theory'' is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376207</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=191309734X
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Nicole Dryburgh
 
|title=Talk to the Hand
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=We first met Nicole Dryburgh in her book ''The Way I See It'', which she wrote at eighteen, and which detailed her battles with cancer and the loss of her sight. We loved the warts-and-all picture of her life that she gave us then, and so we were really pleased to see that she's written a second book.  
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340996978</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ian Mathie
 
|title=The Man of Passage
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Ian Mathie's association with Africa began when his father was posted to what was then Northern Rhodesia when Mathie was just four years old.  School was in a convent and was run by German and Italian nuns and for a while he was the only white child amongst a couple of hundred Africans.  Even when he was joined by others he was still part of an ethnic minority although he didn't realise it!  He was taught in the local language and grew up with the local children.  It was his home and was to be the centre of his life for decades to come.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0955312418</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Carole White and Sian Williams
 
|title=Struggle or Starve
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Struggle or Starve is a collection of autobiographical writings about girls' and women's lives in South Wales between the wars. This is a new edition of a book first published in 1998 by Honno, an independent publisher set up to encourage Welsh women writers. Most of the contributors in this book came from miners' families and grew up in real poverty and economic insecurity.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784094</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Joan Didion
|author=Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit
+
|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
|title=Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=In early 2005, a BBC journalist emails an Iraqi woman to confirm and prepare for a telephone interview about day to day life in Baghdad, and about her thoughts on the forthcoming elections there. May's detailed and frank responses prompt more curiosity and questions from Bee, and a friendship develops between the two women. They tell each other about their work, relationships and family lives.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141038535</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Chinua Achebe
 
|title=The Education of a British-Protected Child
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=This book is a collection of autobiographical essays by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe, whose best known work is the novel Things Fall Apart, published in 1958. Topics covered include Nigerian, Biafran and Igbo history and culture, African literature and the legacy of colonialism in his country and the rest of Africa. Some of the essays are taken from guest lectures at universities around the world and conference papers, and others are written for this book, particularly many of the more personal pieces about Achebe's family.
+
|summary=This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a human face to wear.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846142598</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0007216858
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1787333175
|author=Gabriel Weston
+
|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
|title=Direct Red
+
|author=Benji Waterhouse
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Popular Science
|summary=Few people have the ability to convey the minutiae of their profession in ways which engage the reader, answer your unspoken questions and talk in such a way that you're neither patronised nor overburdened with jargonGabriel Weston is one such – and ''Direct Red'' held me as though I was hypnotised for several hours.  She's a surgeon and we're pulled into the intricacies of her world without the need to don mask and gown.
+
|summary=I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography.  ''You Don't Have to be Mad...'' promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist.  I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.  
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099520699</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241636604
|author=Dana Fowley
+
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
|title=How Could She?
+
|author=Gary Stevenson
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=From the age of five Dana Fowley was subjected to unimaginable sexual abuse and before long her sister would be subjected to more of the same.  She was raped by her mother's partner and taken to the homes of her grandparents where she was abused by them and others.  At other times she was forced to go to the homes of other men where she was raped and abused.  Did her mother not know what was going on?  Did she turn a blind eye?  It was neither of those.
 
 
 
Her mother was a willing participant in the abuse and organised much of it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009952225X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Val Doonican
 
|title=My Story, My Life: Val Doonican - The Complete Autobiography
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In the 1960s, if Harold Wilson was the personification of politics and the Beatles the collective icon of youth culture, Val Doonican was similarly at the very apex of light entertainmentHe may no longer have such a high profile – but he's outlasted them bothOver four decades he has refused to bow to passing fads and fashions, remained true to himself, and in the process he has never really put a foot wrongAs he says towards the end, 'When you find out what it is you do best, and what the public wants from you, then stick with it, and do it as well as you can.' With the possible exception of his contemporary and long-time professional and personal friend Rolf Harris, it's difficult to think of another person in showbiz who comes across as more genuinely likeable, and more a genuine case of 'what you see is what you get'.
+
|summary=If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson.  A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injusticeThere was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of EconomicsStevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envyHe also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid.  It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with CitibankEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906779619</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1529395224
|author=Aeronwy Thomas
+
|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet
|title=My Father's Places: A portrait of childhood by Dylan Thomas' daughter
+
|author=Sion Rowlands
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|summary=Aeronwy Thomas was six years old when she and her family came to settle after a nomadic existence at Laugharne, on the Welsh coast, in 1949Dylan used to broadcast regularly on the BBC, and while he continued to travel to London regularly for the purpose (as well as to carouse with friends in his old haunts), somewhere off the beaten track was a more suitable working environment.
+
|summary=Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally.  His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for himBefore long, he was at Liverpool University.  It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child.  If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849010056</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Edel Rodriguez
|author=Michael Palin
+
|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|title=Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=''Never meet your heroes,'' goes the old adage. ''Never read their diaries'' might be equally sage advice. That's probably why I didn't tackle Michael Palin's collected daily journals until now. Along with the rest of the Monty Python team, he was without doubt a hero of my teenage years.
+
|summary=We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba.  The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen…
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>075382177X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1474616720
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Shirley Williams
 
|title=Climbing the Bookshelves: The Autobiography of Shirley Williams
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Who could resist a title like that?  And is this some lesser-known Shirley Williams, recalling a life spent in libraries? The answer to the latter is no.
 
 
 
Shirley Catlin, as she was born, tells us in the early pages of this memoir that during her childhood her father encouraged her to climb the bookshelves in their Chelsea house, right up to the ceiling.  It was a secret between the two of them, as her mother, Testament of Youth Author Vera Brittain, would have immediately anticipated cracked skulls and broken arms.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844084760</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1035025299
|author=Jose Saramago
+
|title=Went to London, Took the Dog
|title=Small Memories
+
|author=Nina Stibbe
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Having been born in 1922 and lived through so much of the twentieth century, with an author's view of change and people, Jose Saramago has certainly experienced a lot.  Civil Wars in the neighbouring Spain; the growth of his country - which still left it as western Europe's poorestHere he allows us witness to his mind drifting through his childhood, in the country and in Lisbon, and provides a subtle and gentle memoir.
+
|summary=Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years.  She's been at Victoria's smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writing, as there's always something smallholding happening - as you might expectThe other side of the decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184655148X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Christopher Fowler
|author=John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft
+
|title=Word Monkey
|title=Margrave of the Marshes
+
|rating=5
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=John Peel was without doubt one of the most important disc jockeys of all time.  Born in Merseyside in 1939, he began his career in mid-60s America before returning home to join Radio London and then become one of the original Radio 1 team, where he stayed until his death 37 years later.  I admired the man for his passion for playing the music nobody else would give the time of day (even if I didn't always enjoy it myself) and his readiness to say exactly what he thought, even if it was not what his employers at the BBC wanted to hear, and I always enjoyed reading his columns in the music weeklies and later Radio Times.  Nevertheless I found much of his show unlistenable towards the end, recall some of his rather curmudgeonly remarks on air (guest slots on Radio 1's Round Table review programme come to mind), and thought his build-'em-up, knock-'em-down stance rather irritating after a while.  So I approached this book with an open mind as a fan, but not an uncritical one.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0552551198</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jo Brand
 
|title=Look Back in Hunger
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=Born in Hastings in May 1957, after leaving Brunel University with a degree in social sciences, Jo Brand unsuccessfully applied for a research job with Channel 4 on a series about racism, then worked for a time as a psychiatric nurse at the South London Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital.  But the lure of showbiz proved too strong, and stardom in stand-up comedy soon beckoned.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755355237</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Anita Thompson (Editor)
 
|title=Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S Thompson
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It is almost 40 years since Dr Hunter S Thompson's seminal work ''Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas'' first graced the shelves. His gonzo style, putting himself at the centre of the story, should tell readers as much about the person doing the writing as the event he is describing. If that's the case then what is to be learned from a selection of interviews with the main man himself then? The answer is plenty.
+
|summary= It's the first of August in the middle of a cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the pool in favour of going to my beach hut.  The weather closed in, rain arrived, and I decided not to do that either.  When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and (b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shack.  No spoiler alerts, the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and you know he actually is at that point, because he does.  He did.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330510711</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0857529625
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author= Kit De Waal
|author=Keith Floyd
+
|title= Without Warning and Only Sometimes
|title=Stirred But Not Shaken: The Autobiography
+
|rating= 4
|rating=4
+
|genre= Autobiography
|genre=Autobiography
+
|summary= As Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad/ They may not mean to, but they do” Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of parenthood and the bonds that bind family. This book is a memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a large role in the autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and are written with care, love, and the kind of anger only a child can express to their parents.
|summary=I grew up with television cookery programmes and still have some recipes in my childish handwriting, which begin ''4oz SR fl 2oz marg 2oz C sug…'' as I battled to copy what was on the screen before we retuned to the presenter. Programmes stagnated as the cook spoke to camera and lectured the viewer on how to make sponge cake or a fish dish.  Then we were shocked awake. There was a man, quite good-looking in a raffish, slightly dangerous sort of way, who cooked on the deck of a trawler or wherever the whim took him, always glass in hand and who was quite capable of berating the cameraman about how he was doing his job. Like him, or hate him – you could not help but know that he was Keith Floyd, or Floydy to millions.
+
|isbn=1472284852
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071052</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1638485216
|author=Brian Johnson
+
|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
|title=Rockers and Rollers: An Automotive Autobiography
+
|author=Frederick Reynolds
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Brian Johnson will probably go down as one of the luckiest men in showbizHe had a brief moment of glory in the early 70s as vocalist with Geordie, a Tyneside version of Slade, who had three Top 40 hits and then fell on hard times. After going back to the day job, a chance call invited him to go and audition for AC/DC, whose vocalist Bon Scott had suddenly died. Three decades later, not only have the group held on to their loyal fanbase, but one of their albums, according to an online source, is second only to Michael Jackson's ''Thriller'' in terms of global sales.
+
|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specificIt has everything to do with character. Period.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718155424</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
''One more body just wouldn't matter''.
|author=Susan Hill
 
|title=Howards End is on the Landing
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Esteemed author, Susan Hill challenges herself to a year of not buying books, and re-reading  some of her vast collection: not a terribly original idea, but an intriguing one nonetheless. Most avid readers will no doubt have made similar vows at some point in their lives (I know I have…) Early in the memoir, Ms Hill does admit that for professional purposes she will continue to review books sent to her - but buying/obtaining for pleasure, is to be out of bounds. In the course of guiding us through her vast and eclectic collection, scattered throughout her home, she also sets herself the task of choosing her top 40 books - and comes up with a very erudite selection.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682657</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world.  We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exceptionThe image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpectedThere was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were ''all'' tarred by the Chauvin brush.
|author=Brian Keenan
 
|title=I'll Tell Me Ma: A Childhood Memoir
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Keenan memorably told the story of his years as a hostage in Beirut in ''An Evil Cradling''.  Now he turns to his childhood. Anyone who had an urban upbringing in the 1950's will find themselves saying ''I remember that!'' at intervals throughout this bookSenior Service cigarettes, Pontefract cakes, the rag and bone man, the Lone Ranger, family photographs kept in an old biscuit tin, Dad polishing everyone's shoes, the realisation that there was a wider world beyond the city streets…These are some of the things that brought back my own memories – what can you find?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224062166</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and  Agnes Bromme (Translator)
|author=Alan Bennett
+
|title=I May Be Wrong
|title=A Life Like Other People's
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre= Autobiography
|summary=It was his mother's illness which triggered Alan Bennett's excursions into his family background.  The bout of depression hadn't cleared as the family had hoped and admission to hospital was the next step in the treatmentAsked if there had been anything like this before, Bennett said not, failing to notice his father's hand gently touch his kneeThe son was educated at Oxford and had even been seen on the television.  He did the talking rather than the father, reluctant butcher and a man not given to putting himself forward.
+
|summary= When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds to your bookI know, having read the book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thoughtHe knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to this book, because it tells the truth as it is, in the early 21st century.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571248128</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1526644827
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=gareth_steel
|author=Elliott J Gorn
+
|title=Never Work With Animals
|title=Dillinger's Wild Ride: The Year That Made America's Public Enemy Number One
+
|author=Gareth Steel
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=History
+
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
|summary=John Dillinger was born and brought up in Indiana.  His childhood was no better and no worse than most but the early part of his adult life was to be blighted by a spell in prison when he was convicted of an attack on a man in a botched hold-up. Hoping for leniency he pleaded guilty but was sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment, whilst the man with him pleaded not guilty and when convicted received a shorter sentence. It's easy to see where Dillinger's contempt for the law was spawned.
+
|summary=I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures'' lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0195304837</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Dave Letterfly Knoderer
|author=Joaquin 'Jack' Garcia
+
|title=Speedy: Hurled Through Havoc
|title=Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Joaquin 'Jack' Garcia worked for the FBI.  That might sound rather glamorous but Jack had a special claim to fame.  He was one of those rare people who always worked undercover – not just for hours or days at a time but sometimes for years.  In ''Making Jack Falcone'' he tells the story of how he came to infiltrate the Mafia in New York and was responsible for a string of arrests which crippled the organised crime families.  If that doesn't sound impressive enough, then just consider that Jack Garcia was a Cuban-born American and he went undercover as an Italian amongst Italians.
+
|summary=How to summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to kick off a review of his memoir? Do you know, I really don't think I can.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847393942</amazonuk>
+
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
Dave is an author and an artist. An inspirational speaker and a professional horseman. And a recovering alcoholic. The son of a Lutheran minister, he's struggled with a controlling father, run away to join the circus (not a metaphor), trained horses, painted caravans, designed and painted theatre sets, and hit rock bottom when the bottle took over.
|author=Lucy Mangan
+
|isbn=B0965V3LLN
|title=My Family and Other Disasters
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Not living in the UK means that we don't have British newspapers. Even when we lived in England, we never bought ''The Guardian'', so I had never actually heard of Lucy Mangan before being sent this book. That's probably not a bad thing, since I began the book - a collection of her Guardian columns - without any preconceptions.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0852651244</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=0008350388
 +
|title=We Need to Talk About Money
 +
|author=Otegha Uwagba
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Politics and Society
 +
|summary=''To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts...''  ''We Need to Talk About Money'' by Otegha Uwagba
  
{{newreview
+
''0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman.'' ''The Bookseller'' 29 June 2021
|author=Buzz Aldrin
 
|title=Magnificent Desolation
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=It seems the first thing one does when one lands on the moon is go through all but the final steps in the process of flying straight back up - just in case.  The first thing one does when one steps down on to the moon is to make sure you can step back up into your lunar module - just in case there's a panic somewhere.  The first thing one does when land back on earth - you would think - would be to have the same urgency to get back up and out there, but life has a habit of getting in the way.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408804026</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old.  Her sisters were seven and nine.  It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later.  The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested.  When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford.
|author=Bernard P Morgan
 
|title=Memories of the Rare Old Times: Through The Eyes of a Dubliner
 
|rating=2
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=This is the story of Bernard Morgan, one of nine children growing up in Dublin in the 50s. As a boy Bernard tells us about his love of football and boxing. He played truant from school, preferring to smoke cigarettes instead and, as he got older, he hung around in gangs with his brothers and friends. We hear of the wars they had, and how the Irish stick by one another. Finally we see him go to England where he tries to find work, sleeping rough and living on nothing. Along the way we meet the street people of Dublin and above all Bernard's family.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312454</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Vicky Jaggers
+
|isbn=0571365884
|title=Silenced
+
|title=My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Georgia Pritchett
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Vicky Jaggers had a dreadful childhoodOne sister was in a home following an accident which made her violent and her elder brother, David, was obviously her mother's favourite. He was very intelligent, but disliking any sort of work his abilities were directed towards getting what he wanted without making any effort. The family moved house regularly as Vicky's father looked for work and schooling soon became an option which wasn't always chosen. Sexually mature at the age of nine and looking much older than her years she took to spending much of her time in the pubs her parents ran and it was whilst her parents were serving in the bar that David raped her – on three successive nights – when she was only twelve.  Her pregnancy wasn't evident for six months.
+
|summary=Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a childShe would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. On a visit to a therapist, as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and ''My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety'' is the result - or so we are given to believe.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340976772</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|author=Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker
|author=Ruth Merry and Steve Emecz 
+
|title=A Tattoo on my Brain
|title=Enabled: One Disabled Woman's Incredible Story of Tackling Her Disability in Pursuit of a Lifelong Dream
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Ruth Merry has never been your common-or-garden young lady. Born with no ability to move her legs, and more, due to a condition called arthrogryposis, she still became an avid equestrian, downhill skier, competitive swimmer, fund-raiser and more. At the beginning of this book a flippant comment inspires another, future dream - that of going down in a four-man bobsleigh.
+
|summary=Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312322</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1108838936
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1529109116
 +
|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
 +
|author=Hannah Jackson
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Lifestyle
 +
|summary=''I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation.  I don't think that is too much to ask.''
  
{{newreview
+
The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where ''his'' family have farmed for generations.  He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a farmer.  It's not always the case though.  Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animalsHer original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District.  She saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to be a shepherd.  With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition.
|author=Lucy Wadham
 
|title=The Secret Life of France
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=I'm rather at a loss to describe this book for you, and I'm still uncertain how to categorise it.  It's part personal memoir and part analyticalWhether you regard this particular mix as brilliant or irritating is down, I suppose, to personal taste and intellectual curiosity.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571236111</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008333173
|author=Lynn Barber
+
|title=Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More
|title=An Education
+
|author=Grace Dent
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Lynn Barber comes from the ''lower, unremembered, orders on both sides''.  There is no ancestral home or village – just parents who were determined that she should work hard and make something of herselfWell, they were – until Simon proposed and it was explained to her that Oxford didn't really matter, that being married to a good man would be more important.  Simon was much older – older in fact than he would admit to – and he picked Lynn up (quite literally) at a bus stop when she was just sixteenSurprisingly her parents were unworried by this and threw them together, despite the fact that Simon, who was in the property business, had some strange friends.  In the nineteen fifties it wasn't every sixteen year old girl who had a passing acquaintance with the evil slum landlord, Peter Rachman.
+
|summary=I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the judges on ''Masterchef''.  You know that you're going to get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the timeYou also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of herI've often wondered about the woman behind the media image and ''Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141039558</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1504321383
 +
|title=Single, Again, and Again, and Again
 +
|author=Louisa Pateman
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Autobiography
 +
|summary=''You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own.  You are not complete until you find a man''.
  
{{newreview
+
This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe.  It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her.  It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after.  Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will marry and have children.  It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.
|author=Stan Cattermole
+
}}
|title=Bete de Jour
+
{{Frontpage
 +
|author=Sakinu Ahronglong
 +
|title=Hunter School
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=''Something's just come in that might appeal to you'', said Sue from The Bookbag, having just taken delivery of ''Bête de Jour''. Pleased to be thought of, I never mustered the courage to ask whether this thought was motivated by a previous liking for bloke lit, or by the book's subtitle: ''The Intimate Adventures of an Ugly Man''.
+
|summary= The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of fiction. That's possibly misleading.  I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in the sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as the blurb goes on to say ''recollections, folklore and autobiographical stories''.   It feels like the latter. It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, as an adolescent, as an adult are real and true.  But memory is a fickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more people will read it.  More people should.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007312741</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1999791282
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1544641923
|author=Joe Queenan
+
|title=Ambassadors Do It After Dinner
|title=Closing Time
+
|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Joe Queenan made good despite a deprived and neglected childhoodHis world was a far cry from the middle class background of most aspiring writers of his generationHe grew up in Philadelphia, born to parents so immersed in their own problems that they made little attempt to love or care for their four childrenPractically the only way his father provided a role model was in his love of readingOtherwise, he was an alcoholic, frequently beating his young children.
+
|summary=It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and luxuriousIt might be privileged, but family connections tell me that it is far from luxuriousNow you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not ''diplomatic'' to do so, you know), but the diplomatic spouse, the accompanying baggage, well, that's an entirely different matterShe (and it still usually is a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330458272</amazonuk>
+
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=0241446732
 +
|title=Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis
 +
|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Politics and Society
 +
|summary=The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal.  Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughtersThen eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening.  In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family 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.
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=David Carr
+
|isbn=191280493X
|title=The Night of the Gun
+
|title=Coming of Age
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Danny Ryan
|genre=Autobiography  
+
|rating=4
|summary=When you decide to take drugs for the first time, according to most, it's rarely a class 'A' variety - usually it's kids messing around with cannabis.  This is how David Carr began his love affair with illicit substances, clearly not even for one second imagining what it would eventually do to him and everyone around him.
+
|genre=Autobiography
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847396283</amazonuk>
+
|summary=''He began writing novels and poetry at the age of twelve, but it was to take him a further forty-eight years to realise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a shining example of hope over experience...''
}}
 
  
{{newreview
 
|author=Cylin Busby and John Busby
 
|title=The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Business and Finance
 
|summary=''When my dad dies, his body will go to the Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston'', ''though I suspect they are mostly interested in his head... His was in an interesting case - the lower half of his jaw'' ''was removed when he was shot in the head with a shotgun. His tongue was torn in half, his teeth and gums blown'' ''away, leaving a bit of bone that was once his chin connected with dangling flesh at the front of his face.''
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408802015</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
''This a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have.''
|author=Ronan Smith
 
|title=Lord of the Rams: The Greatest Story Never Told
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=When you read ''Lord of the Rams'' you could be forgiven for thinking that you're hearing about someone with a split personality.  Our author, Ronan Smith, is a true gentleman and a real delight when you're exchanging pleasantries.  He's good to his mother and not just because he doesn't get home that often.  Then we have the subject of his autobiography – ''Rambo'', ''Lord of the Rams'' or, more usually, simply ''the Rams''. You'll find it unnerving that the author speaks of his other self in the third person - and that's before we get to the strange nicknames which people acquire, the fact that there's nothing which can't be made into a joke and the drinking…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1425164846</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=190874572X
|author=Coleen Nolan
+
|title=Letters from Tove
|title=Upfront and Personal: The Autobiography
+
|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=As a child, I was a huge fan of the Nolan Sisters. When ''I'm in the Mood for Dancing'' hit the charts in 1979, I was ten years old. Bernie was my favourite Nolan at the time and in recent years, I have enjoyed watching her acting in shows like ''The Bill''.
+
|summary=Back at the beginning of the century, I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a wonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of-friends. I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, and that I eagerly awaited the ''Sort Of'' translations of the rest of Jansson's work and devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283070889</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1908745819
|author=Rick Wakeman
+
|title=Surfacing
|title=Grumpy Old Rock Star
+
|author=Kathleen Jamie
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Rick Wakeman wrote and published a more conventional autobiography, ''Say Yes!'' in 1985, and it has so far never been updatedThis, written with the aid of ghost-writer Martin Roach, takes a totally different approach, being a selection of episodes from his sixty years in more or less random orderIn theory it might seem rather disjointed, but in practice it works brilliantly.
+
|summary=Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you ''this one has your name on it''. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why.  The blurb speaks of the author considering ''an older, less tethered sense of herself.''  Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I amAdd to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it.  It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventuallyI am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090056</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1906852472
|author=Belle de Jour
+
|title=Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad
|title=The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl
+
|author=Ian Mathie
|rating=3.5
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Following the recent success with ITV2's highly-publicised TV version of Belle de Jour's online blog, starring Billie Piper, it comes as no surprise that sales for her 2005 book, ''The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl'', sky-rocketed. After all, who doesn't want to hear all the profound details of working in the London sex trade?
+
|summary=For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, the story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumously. As always, it's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in ''Wild Child'' with a satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is unpublishable.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753819236</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1999811402
|author=Emma Charles
+
|title=Painting Snails
|title=How Could He Do It?
+
|author=Stephen John Hartley
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Emma Charles was on the edge of thinking that she and her family were doing quite well.  They were an ordinary family – mum, dad, two daughters, three dogs, a rabbit and a couple of guinea pigsSprinkle in an Open University course for Mum, private schooling for the girls, a nice car in the drive of the nice house, good clothes and fun holidays – and you can understand why she might be rather pleased with the way that life was going.
+
|summary=It's very difficult to classify ''Painting Snails'': originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best resultsThe answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and is now an A&E consultant (part-time).  I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from ''Casualty'', but that isn't really what the book's aboutThere's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre eitherDid we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'?  Yep - that's the oneIt's an autobiography.
 
 
Then her fifteen year old daughter, Tamsin, gave her a note, couched in graphic terms, saying that her father had been sexually abusing her for the past five years.
 
In moments the family's life fell apart.  Gone were all the certainties, the hopes and the expectationsIn came the police, Social Services and Child Protection Officers.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848090005</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jacqueline Walker
 
|title=Pilgrim State
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=I was intrigued and touched by Jacqueline Walker's beautiful memoir of her childhood in Jamaica and London in the 1960's.  This is a book inevitably compared with Andrea Levy's ''Small Island''.  It follows similar ground, but the main difference and great strength, is that it's the real narrative of mother and daughterAs a girl I was familiar with areas of London where Jackie Walker lived and heard some members of my family denigrate Caribbean immigrantsFrom this memoir, I've garnered much about the lived experience of my less advantaged contemporaries.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340960809</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Biography Reviews]]
|author=Alice Taylor
 
|title=The Parish
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Ours are hard times for humanity - for a number of reasons. Firstly, we don't talk to each other much. Second, we don't care about each other much - or at least enough to outwardly show it.
 
 
 
We would rather walk a mile when it's raining cats and dogs than knock on a neighbours' door asking for a cup of sugar. Maybe that's just me, but look around you - pregnant women struggle to get a seat on the train, 12-year olds get accidentally shot in a supermarket lane, and it's  acceptable to throw a tantrum over wrong hair colour.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0863223974</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:49, 29 September 2024

191309734X.jpg

Review of

King Kong Theory by Virginie Despentes

4star.jpg Autobiography

King Kong Theory is a hard-hitting memoir and feminist manifesto, which can be seen as a call to arms for women in a phallocentric society broken at its core. Originally written in French, the book is a collection of essays in which Virginie Despentes explores her experiences as a woman through the complex prism of her varied life: from rape to sex work and pornography. Though these discussions are intertwined, their placement within the book can feel somewhat disjointed, a reflection of their original form as independent essays. Full Review

0007216858.jpg

Review of

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

This book is Joan Didion's heartbreaking autobiographical account of the grief she endured following her husband's sudden death. Books that shed light on taboo topics like death are such a beautiful and necessary resource to help people feel less alone. Didion unpicks unpleasant feelings surrounding death like self-pity, denial and delusion and makes them utterly normal, lends them a human face to wear. Full Review

1787333175.jpg

Review of

You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here by Benji Waterhouse

5star.jpg Popular Science

I was tempted to read You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here after enjoying Adam Kay's first book This is Going to Hurt, a glorious mixture of insight into the workings of the NHS, humour and autobiography. You Don't Have to be Mad... promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding. Full Review

0241636604.jpg

Review of

The Trading Game: A Confession by Gary Stevenson

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

If you were to bring up an image of a city banker in your mind, you're unlikely to think of someone like Gary Stevenson. A hoodie and jeans replaces the pin-stripe suit and his background is the East End, where he was familiar with violence, poverty and injustice. There was no posh public school on his CV - but he had been to the London School of Economics. Stevenson is bright - extremely bright - and he has a facility with numbers which most of us can only envy. He also realised that most rich people expect poor people to be stupid. It was his ability at what was, essentially, a card game which got him an internship with Citibank. Eventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader. Full Review

1529395224.jpg

Review of

Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet by Sion Rowlands

3.5star.jpg Animals and Wildlife

Siôn Rowlands fell into veterinary science accidentally. His father was a GP and Rowlands didn't want to follow in his footsteps, particularly when he considered the strain that being on-call put on his father's life. When he was seventeen he took the opportunity of doing work experience with a family friend who was a vet and was convinced this was the job for him. Before long, he was at Liverpool University. It hadn't - as with so many students - been his dream since he was a child. If anything, he'd wanted to be a professional footballer. Full Review

1474616720.jpg

Review of

Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey by Edel Rodriguez

4star.jpg Graphic Novels

We're in childhood, and we're in Cuba. The revolution has happened, and Castro, first thought of as a saviour of the country, has proven himself a Communist, and not done nearly enough to create a level playing field for all. Well, those hours-long speeches of his were kind of taking his time away. Our narrator's family weren't in the happiest of places here, an uncle refusing to be the good soldier the country demanded (especially as he would probably be shipped off to some minor pro-Communism skirmish, such as Angola) and the father being watched and watched, and not liked for his successful photography business, success being frowned upon. The mother gets the couple jobs with the party to ease some of the heat, but in this sultry island country, it remains the kind of heat forcing you out of the kitchen… Full Review

1035025299.jpg

Review of

Went to London, Took the Dog by Nina Stibbe

4star.jpg Autobiography

Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty years. She's been at Victoria's smallholding in Leicestershire which isn't all that conducive to writing, as there's always something smallholding happening - as you might expect. The other side of the decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent. Full Review

0857529625.jpg

Review of

Word Monkey by Christopher Fowler

5star.jpg Autobiography

It's the first of August in the middle of a cool wet summer in East Anglia. I decided not to swim at the pool in favour of going to my beach hut. The weather closed in, rain arrived, and I decided not to do that either. When I finished reading this book, I realised it was because (a) I wanted to finish reading this book and (b) I did not want to do so anywhere near my shack. No spoiler alerts, the dust jacket tells us who Christopher Fowler 'was' – and his first chapter tells us about his terminal diagnosis. There is something very strange about being made to laugh by a man who repeatedly reminds you that he is dying, and you know he actually is at that point, because he does. He did. Full Review

1472284852.jpg

Review of

Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal

4star.jpg Autobiography

As Philip Larkin so eloquently put it, “They f*** you up, your mum and dad/ They may not mean to, but they do” Without Warning and Only Sometimes by Kit De Waal focuses on this idea of parenthood and the bonds that bind family. This book is a memoir focussing on the author’s formative years as a teenager living in a lower class area of Birmingham. Her father is from St. Kitts in the Caribbean and her mother is an Irish woman ostracized by her family for becoming pregnant by and marrying a black man. This intersectionality plays a large role in the autobiography. Kit De Waal faces multiple hurdles due to her race, her class and her gender. Her parents loom large and are written with care, love, and the kind of anger only a child can express to their parents. Full Review

1638485216.jpg

Review of

Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement by Frederick Reynolds

5star.jpg Autobiography

Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.

One more body just wouldn't matter.

The murder of George Floyd, a forty-six-year-old black man, on 25 May 2020 by Derek Chauvin, a forty-four-year-old police officer, in the US city of Minneapolis sent shock waves around the world. We rarely see pictures of a murder taking place but Floyd's death was an exception. The image of Chauvin kneeling on George's neck is not one which I'll ever forget and the protests which followed cannot have been unexpected. There was a backlash against the police - and not just in Minneapolis: whatever their colour or creed they were all tarred by the Chauvin brush. Full Review

1526644827.jpg

Review of

I May Be Wrong by Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and Agnes Bromme (Translator)

5star.jpg Autobiography

When the Dalai Lama adds his words to your frontispiece, I'm inclined to think it doesn't really matter how the rest of the world responds to your book. I know, having read the book in question, that Lindeblad would disagree with that thought. He knows (and at core so do I) that it matters very much how the rest of the world responds to this book, because it tells the truth as it is, in the early 21st century. Full Review

Gareth steel.jpg

Review of

Never Work With Animals by Gareth Steel

4star.jpg Animals and Wildlife

I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with Never Work With Animals it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since All Creatures Great and Small but Never Work With Animals is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that All Creatures lacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. He says that he's written it to inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating. Full Review

B0965V3LLN.jpg

Review of

Speedy: Hurled Through Havoc by Dave Letterfly Knoderer

4star.jpg Autobiography

How to summarise the life of Dave Letterfly Knodererv in a pithy sentence to kick off a review of his memoir? Do you know, I really don't think I can.


Dave is an author and an artist. An inspirational speaker and a professional horseman. And a recovering alcoholic. The son of a Lutheran minister, he's struggled with a controlling father, run away to join the circus (not a metaphor), trained horses, painted caravans, designed and painted theatre sets, and hit rock bottom when the bottle took over. Full Review

0008350388.jpg

Review of

We Need to Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba

5star.jpg Politics and Society

To be a dark-skinned Black woman is to be seen as less desirable, less hireable, less intelligent and ultimately less valuable than my light-skinned counterparts... We Need to Talk About Money by Otegha Uwagba

0.7% of English Literature GCSE students in England study a book by a writer of colour while only 7% study a book by a woman. The Bookseller 29 June 2021

Otegha Uwagba came to the UK from Kenya when she was five years old. Her sisters were seven and nine. It was her mother who came first, with her father joining them later. The family was hard-working, principled and determined that their children would have the best education possible. There was always a painful awareness of money although this did not translate into a shortage of anything: it was simply carefully harvested. When Otegha was ten the family acquired a car. For Otegha, education meant a scholarship to a private school in London and then a place at New College, Oxford. Full Review

0571365884.jpg

Review of

My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety by Georgia Pritchett

4star.jpg Autobiography

Georgia Pritchett has always been anxious, even as a child. She would worry about whether the monsters under the bed were comfortable: it was the sort of life where if she had nothing to worry about she would become anxious but such occasions were few and far between. On a visit to a therapist, as an adult, when she was completely unable to speak about what was wrong with her it was suggested that she should write it down and My Mess is a Bit of a Life: Adventures in Anxiety is the result - or so we are given to believe. Full Review

1108838936.jpg

Review of

A Tattoo on my Brain by Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker

3.5star.jpg Autobiography

Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a statue over time affected the elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in A Tattoo on my Brain. Full Review

1529109116.jpg

Review of

Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey by Hannah Jackson

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

I want the image of a British farmer to simply be that of a person who is proudly employed in feeding the nation. I don't think that is too much to ask.

The stereotypical farmer was probably born on the land where his family have farmed for generations. He's probably grown up without giving much thought as to what he really wants to do: he knows that he'll be a farmer. It's not always the case though. Hannah Jackson was born and brought up on the Wirral: she'd never set foot on a commercial farm until she was twenty although she'd always had a deep love of animals. Her original intention was that she would become 'Dr Jackson, whale scientist' and she was well on her way to achieving this when her life changed on a family holiday to the Lake District. She saw a lamb being born and, although 'Hannah Jackson, farmer' lacked the kudos of her original intention, she knew that she wanted to be a shepherd. With the determination that you'll soon realise is an essential part of her, she set about achieving her ambition. Full Review

0008333173.jpg

Review of

Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More by Grace Dent

5star.jpg Autobiography

I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the judges on Masterchef. You know that you're going to get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the time. You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of her. I've often wondered about the woman behind the media image and Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures. Full Review

1504321383.jpg

Review of

Single, Again, and Again, and Again by Louisa Pateman

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

You can't be happy and fulfilled on your own. You are not complete until you find a man.

This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believe. It wasn't unkind: it was simply the adults in her life advising her as to what they thought would be best for her. It was reinforced by all those fairy tales where the girl (she's usually fairly young) is rescued by the handsome prince who then marries her so that they can live happily ever after. Few girls are lucky enough to be brought up without the expectation that they will marry and have children. It was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that a belief is a choice. Full Review

1999791282.jpg

Review of

Hunter School by Sakinu Ahronglong

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

The flyleaf to this little collection tells us that it is a work of fiction. That's possibly misleading. I am not sure whether it is "fiction" in the sense that Ahronglong made it all up, or whether it is as the blurb goes on to say recollections, folklore and autobiographical stories. It feels like the latter. It feels like the stories he tells about his experiences as a child, as an adolescent, as an adult are real and true. But memory is a fickle thing, and maybe poetic licence has taken over here and there and maybe calling it fiction means that its safer and therefore more people will read it. More people should. Full Review

1544641923.jpg

Review of

Ambassadors Do It After Dinner by Sandra Aragona

4star.jpg Autobiography

It's tempting to think that the diplomatic life is privileged and luxurious. It might be privileged, but family connections tell me that it is far from luxurious. Now you're not going to get many ambassadors telling you what it's really like (it's not diplomatic to do so, you know), but the diplomatic spouse, the accompanying baggage, well, that's an entirely different matter. She (and it still usually is a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on. Full Review

0241446732.jpg

Review of

Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis by Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg

5star.jpg Politics and Society

The Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. Malena Ernman was an opera singer and Svante Thunberg took on most of the parenting of their two daughters. Then eleven-year-old Greta stopped eating and talking and her sister, Beata, then nine years old, struggled with what was happening. In such circumstances, it's natural to seek a solution close to home, but eventually, it became clear to the family 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. Full Review

191280493X.jpg

Review of

Coming of Age by Danny Ryan

4star.jpg Autobiography

He began writing novels and poetry at the age of twelve, but it was to take him a further forty-eight years to realise that he wasn’t very good at either. Consistently unpublished for all that time, he remains a shining example of hope over experience...


This a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have. Full Review

190874572X.jpg

Review of

Letters from Tove by Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)

5star.jpg Autobiography

Back at the beginning of the century, I went on holiday to Nepal. I met a wonderful Finnish woman and we became sort-of-friends. I can't remember if it was on that holiday or a later one that Paula told me I really had to read Tove Jansson. I do know that it was four years later that I finally acquired an English translation of The Summer Book, and that I eagerly awaited the Sort Of translations of the rest of Jansson's work and devoured them as soon as I could get my hands on them. Full Review

1908745819.jpg

Review of

Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie

5star.jpg Autobiography

Sometimes when people suggest that you read a certain book, they tell you this one has your name on it. Mostly we take them at their word, or not, but rarely do we ask them why they thought so, unless it turns out that we didn't like the book. That's a rare experience. People who are sensitive to hearing a book calling your name, rarely get it wrong. In this case, I was told why. The blurb speaks of the author considering an older, less tethered sense of herself. Older. Less tethered. That's not a bad description of where I am. Add to that my love of the natural world, of those aspects of the poetic and lyrical that are about style not form, and substance most of all, about connection. Of course, this book had my name on it. It was written for me. It would have found its way to me eventually. I am pleased to have it fall onto my path so quickly. Full Review

1906852472.jpg

Review of

Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie

5star.jpg Autobiography

For Ian Mathie fans there is good and bad news. Ian has come up with the missing link in his narrative, the story of a very unusual childhood (yes, the very years that made him the amazing man he became). The bad – well it's hardly news two years later – is that the book is published posthumously. As always, it's beautifully written, with many exciting moments. What I most enjoyed was the feeling that many of the questions in Ian Mathie's later books are answered in Wild Child with a satisfying clunk. Seemingly all that's now left in the drawer is unpublishable. Full Review

1999811402.jpg

Review of

Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley

4.5star.jpg Autobiography

It's very difficult to classify Painting Snails: originally I thought that as it's loosely based around a year on an allotment it would be a lifestyle book, but you're not going to get advice on what to plant when and where for the best results. The answer would be something along the lines of 'try it and see'. Then I considered popular science as Stephen Hartley failed his A levels, did an engineering apprenticeship, became a busker, finally got into medical school and is now an A&E consultant (part-time). I found out that there's an awful lot more to what goes on in a Major Trauma Centre than you'll ever glean from Casualty, but that isn't really what the book's about. There's a lot about rock & roll, which seems to be the real passion of Hartley's life, but it didn't actually fit into the entertainment genre either. Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'? Yep - that's the one. It's an autobiography. Full Review

Move on to Newest Biography Reviews