Difference between revisions of "Newest Autobiography Reviews"

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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
 
[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]
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{{Frontpage
 
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|author=Virginie Despentes
==Autobiography==
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|title=King Kong Theory
{{newreview
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|rating=4
|author=Amy Chua
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|genre=Autobiography  
|title=Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
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|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.
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|isbn=191309734X
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Joan Didion
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|title=The Year of Magical Thinking
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|rating=4.5
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|genre=Autobiography
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|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.
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|isbn=0007216858
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1787333175
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|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
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|author=Benji Waterhouse
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Popular Science
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|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.
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0241636604
 +
|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
 +
|author=Gary Stevenson
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Amy Chua has firm beliefs about parenting. She brought up her two daughters, Sophia and Lulu, using a strict set of rules – including no sleepovers, no playdates, no school plays, no choice of extra curricular activity, no grades less than an A, and no being less than the number 1 student in any 'academic' subject. Then there's the piano and violin practice… On hearing she called her
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|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 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.
daughter Sophia 'garbage', an acquaintance of hers burst into tears. The thought of praising one of the girls for getting a B, as many American parents do, would no doubt have a similar affect on Chua. Mother – or monster?
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}}
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408812673</amazonuk>
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1529395224
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|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet
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|author=Sion Rowlands
 +
|rating=3.5
 +
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
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|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 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.
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Edel Rodriguez
|author=Eva Petulengro
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|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
|title=The Girl in the Painted Caravan: Memories of a Romany Childhood
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
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|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=Eva Petulengro was born in a painted caravan in 1939. Her Romany family had travelled in Norfolk and Lincolnshire for generations. She has had a very successful career as a clairvoyant, writer of horoscope columns and publisher of magazines, and her daughter is also a well known media astrologer. The Girl in the Painted Caravan is a memoir of her childhood and youth, up until her marriage in her 20s and the beginning of her career.
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|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>0330519999</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1474616720
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1035025299
|author=Harry Leslie Smith
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|title=Went to London, Took the Dog
|title=1923: A Memoir
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|author=Nina Stibbe
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Harry Leslie Smith was born in 1923If you're wondering about the title – that's the explanation – and although it's when Harry began his life it's not where his story began.  He takes us back some years before to his father's family with its roots in mining and a sideline in running a pub which was to make them comfortable if not wealthy.  Harry's father was middle-aged when he got involved with Lillian, a teenage girlUnsurprisingly his family were not impressed or welcoming when the pair married because a child was on the way.  Albert Smith expected that he would inherit the pub when his father died, but it passed to his uncle and so began a life of disappointment for Albert and Lillian.
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|summary=Nina Stibbe is returning to London for a sabbatical after being away for twenty yearsShe'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>1450254136</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Keith Richards
 
|title=Life
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Entertainment
 
|summary=Nearly forty years ago, Keith Richards was considered the next most likely rock'n'roll star to succumb to drugs.  The man has defied all the odds in staying alive, and continuing to do what he has been doing for almost half a century.  In the process, he has earned the sometimes grudging, sometimes unqualified respect of those who would once never given him the time of day.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0297854399</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christopher Fowler
|author=Jane Shilling
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|title=Word Monkey
|title=The Stranger in the Mirror: A Memoir of Middle Age
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Middle-aged women disappearThey are not see on television, their lives do not appear in newspapers, the legions of novels that are written each year rarely feature them. At least, that is what the author Jane Shilling believes as she wakes up aged 47 to find the narrative of her contemporaries and their lives which she has been reading about and living in parallel with since leaving university has vanished. She looks in the mirror and sees a face she does not recogniseEven with a punishing regime of early bed, no alcohol and litres of water, it refuses to regain its youthful bloomSo she decides to take a magnifying glass to this particular moment in time, this journey between youth and old age.
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|summary= It's the first of August in the middle of a cool wet summer in East AngliaI 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 diagnosisThere 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 doesHe did.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701181001</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0857529625
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author= Kit De Waal
|author=Christopher Isherwood
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|title= Without Warning and Only Sometimes
|title=Diaries Volume 1
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|rating= 4
|rating=4
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|genre= Autobiography
|genre=Autobiography
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|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=In January 1939 Christopher Isherwood left England for America in the company of poet WH Auden. This hefty volume covers his diaries from that date until August 1960, when he celebrated his fifty-sixth birthday. A 49-page introduction setting out the background leads us into the entries, which are divided into three sections – The Emigration, to the end of 1944; The Post-war Years, to 1956; and The Late Fifties. After these we have a chronology and glossary, or to put it more accurately a section of brief biographies of the main characters mentioned, these two sections comprising over a hundred pages altogether.
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|isbn=1472284852
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555824</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1638485216
|author=John Burnside
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|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
|title=Waking Up In Toytown
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|author=Frederick Reynolds
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=After years of alcoholism and borderline insanity, John Burnside decides to become normal. This involves moving to Surrey, working in an office and settling into a numbing daily routine he hopes will prevent him drifting back towards bad habits. These memoirs chronicle the failure of his bid for normality and subsequent disillusionment with the project. It's a solipsistic account but the writing is powerful and it draws you in.
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|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific. It has everything to do with character. Period.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507838</amazonuk>
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}}
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''One more body just wouldn't matter''.
  
{{newreview
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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 worldWe 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 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=Rhoda Janzen
 
|title=Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Coming Home
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Even although the obliging blurb on the back cover tells the reader a little about being Mennonite, I couldn't resist looking it up in the dictionaryI was intrigued to start readingAnd emblazoned across the front cover is 'No 1 In The US'.  Great praise indeed, I thoughtBut how would it go down across the pond?  Time to find out ...
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085789031X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and  Agnes Bromme (Translator)
|author=Tony Judt
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|title=I May Be Wrong
|title=The Memory Chalet
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 +
|genre= Autobiography
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|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 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.
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|isbn=1526644827
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=gareth_steel
 +
|title=Never Work With Animals
 +
|author=Gareth Steel
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
 +
|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.
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Dave Letterfly Knoderer
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|title=Speedy: Hurled Through Havoc
 +
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In 2008 the historian Tony Judt was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disorder that eventually results in complete paralysis for the sufferer. Unable to jot down ideas as they came to him, Judt had to rely on his memory to hold them until he had the chance to dictate his words to somebody else. His memory, which was already good, became exceptional. The progress of the disorder left Judt unable to move, but no mental deterioration or lack of sensation occurred, which he describes as a mixed blessing. He had to endure whole nights lying in the same position, unable to roll over or even to scratch an itch, a prisoner in his own body. To preserve his sanity during these tortuous nights he focussed on events from his own past, linking then with other events and ideas it had never occurred to him were connected. It was during these reveries that the essays in The Memory Chalet were not only conceived, but also developed in their entirety.
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|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>0434020966</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
 
|author=Robert Leon Davis
 
|title=Running Scared: For 22 Years He Was a Fugitive - The Corrupt Cop Busted by God
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Robert Davis was the eldest of nine children all living with their grandmother in New Orleans – on welfare.  His grandmother was a good, honest woman and Davis loved and respected her, but money was so tight that he resorted to thieving to bring some extra food in for the family.  He knew that she would be deeply upset about it, but hunger is hunger.  In your heart you can't blame him and it seems that all is coming good when Davis becomes a respected police officer in the mid nineteen-seventies.  He's living with a good, decent woman and looks set to have a good career.  Great, you think, sometimes life ''is'' fair and it works out.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854249932</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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=Denis O'Connor
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|isbn=B0965V3LLN
|title=Paw Tracks at Owl Cottage
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Pets
 
|summary='Paw Tracks at Owl Cottage' is the story of four pedigree Maine Coon cats which the author and his wife acquired after moving back to a cottage where they had previously lived. This is the sequel to a volume called 'Paw Tracks in the Moonlight', which I have not read, and which features their first cat Toby Jug.  Apparently, on his demise, they had sold the cottage; but now, a little more advanced in years, they buy it again, and do extensive renovations before deciding that it's ready for another cat.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849016402</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0008350388
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|title=We Need to Talk About Money
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|author=Otegha Uwagba
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|rating=5
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|genre=Politics and Society
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|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
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''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=Gervase Phinn
 
|title=Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Stars
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Humour
 
|summary=I spent many of my teenage years reading James Herriot's books, and I found that this collection of anecdotes and poems by Gervase Phinn had a real flavour of Herriot about it.  Perhaps it was just the setting, for Phinn was a school inspector in the Dales for many years, but I think he also has that knack of capturing a situation, and a character, and bringing out the humour without making the person appear ridiculousHere he collates stories from his other books, some Christmassy and others not, and he relates them with several of his own poems interspersed between.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141036435</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
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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=Nicky Haslam
 
|title=Redeeming Features
 
|rating=3
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Nicholas Haslam, interior designer, columnist, reviewer, the man whom it was said would attend a lighted candle, let alone a party, socialite and name dropper - this is your life.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009954623X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Gok Wan
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|isbn=0571365884
|title=Through Thick and Thin
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|title=My Mess is a Bit of Life: Adventures in Anxiety
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|author=Georgia Pritchett
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Famous for his sensitivity and understanding with women, encouraging them and enabling them to accept themselves, and their bodies, as they are, Gok Wan's autobiography sadly tells a very different story with regards to his own body acceptanceHaving gained weight throughout his childhood, getting up to twenty one stone as a teenager, he loathed his body and ended up starving himself, becoming anorexic in a desperate effort to be thin and, therefore, successful.  Perhaps this is where his empathy comes from?  That when he stands a woman in front of a wall of mirrors in her underwear, he actually truly understands what it is to loathe your own body.
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|summary=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 betweenOn 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>0091938392</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker
|author=Stephen Wynn
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|title=A Tattoo on my Brain
|title=Two Sons in a War Zone: Afghanistan: The True Story of a Father's Conflict
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=It's almost a nightly occurrence – that news item which contains the words '… has been killed in Afghanistan' and we think of a young life, or young lives cut tragically short. They're fresh-faced young men or women at what should have been the beginning of their adult life and now they are no more. You feel for them and their families, but what about the families who have people they love out in Afghanistan, who live each day with the worry that the knock will be coming to their door?  Stephen Wynn has two sons who have done tours of duty in Afghanistan and who are likely to do so again.  'Two Sons in a War Zone' is his story of how he copes with the unrelenting pressure.
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|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>1905570244</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1108838936
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1529109116
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|title=Call Me Red: A Shepherd's Journey
 +
|author=Hannah Jackson
 +
|rating=4.5
 +
|genre=Lifestyle
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|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
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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.
|author=Don Mullan
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}}
|title=The Boy Who Wanted to Fly
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{{Frontpage
|rating=3.5
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|isbn=0008333173
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|title=Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More
 +
|author=Grace Dent
 +
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=There is a Foreward by both Pele and Archbishop Desmond TutuNames to make most of us sit up and noticeThe title is certainly quirky and Mullan is probably hoping that prospective readers will be saying to themselves, what's this all about then.  Good start, I thought.  Then I realised that there's an awful lot of football in this bookEven although it's a slim, sliver of a book, there's no getting away from the subject matter.  Football.  I don't 'do' football.  So, I counted to ten, put on what I hoped was a good reviewer's face and started to read ...
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|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>1907756019</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1504321383
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|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
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This was what Louisa Pateman was brought up to believeIt 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 afterFew girls are lucky enough to be brought up ''without'' the expectation that they will marry and have childrenIt was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.
|author=Megan Rix
 
|title=The Puppy That Came For Christmas and Stayed Forever
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Pets
 
|summary=Megan Rix and husband Ian took on two massive challenges at the same timeTheir failure to conceive a child became something of an issue with Megan being, as she herself said 'north of forty'.  Time was passing quickly and it looked as though IVF was the only option if they were to have the long-for child.  It's time-consuming and traumaticAt the same time the couple became involved with a charity which provides helper dogs for people with disabilitiesPuppies come to a family for six months to do their basic training and then move on.  And that was how Emma, a soft, sweet-natured, adorable puppy came into their lives.  Predictably, they fell in love with her.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951062</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sakinu Ahronglong
|author=Rachel Johnson
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|title=Hunter School
|title=A Diary of The Lady: My First Year as Editor
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|rating=4.5
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Along with most of my contemporaries I've never read 'The Lady' except once when looking for an au pair job in my student days, and that, it turns out, is the problem. Before Rachel Johnson was appointed in June 2009 the average age of the readership was 75, the circulation was dropping and the magazine was haemorrhaging money. The Budworth family, proprietors of 'The  Lady' since it was founded 125 years ago, chose son and heir Ben Budworth to turn the magazine's fortunes around before it foldedHe asked Rachel Johnson to be editor.
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|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>1905490674</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1999791282
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1544641923
|author=Jo Brand
+
|title=Ambassadors Do It After Dinner
|title=Can't Stand Up For Sitting Down
+
|author=Sandra Aragona
|rating=3
+
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I am a big fan of Jo Brand and I love her inimitable droll style of comedy. I always enjoy her stand up performances as well as her appearances on my favourite panel programme QI. As a consequence I was really interested to read her second autobiographical book – Can't Stand Up for Sitting Down. As she states at the beginning though, this is not really an autobiography but a collection of thoughts and experiences that have resulted due to her life as a stand up comedian. The book covers the period from her first professional gig up to the present day. Her early life and career in psychiatric nursing are covered in her earlier book [[Look Back in Hunger by Jo Brand|Look Back in Hunger]].
+
|summary=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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0755355261</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 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.
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Ellen MacArthur
+
|isbn=191280493X
|title=Full Circle
+
|title=Coming of Age
 +
|author=Danny Ryan
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=
+
|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...''
It's some years since I read [[Taking on the World by Ellen MacArthur|Taking on the World]] and – against all expectations thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm not a sailor and don't have a great deal of interest in yacht racing – but what appealed to me immediately was the character of someone who was determined not to let ''anything'' stand in the way of her ambitions. My only disappointment came later as I felt that the book had been written too soon – I really wanted to know about '''that''' big race and what you do with the future when you've done everything. How lucky did I feel when ''Full Circle'' landed on my desk?
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718148630</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
 
|author=Alan Davies
 
|title=Teenage Revolution: Growing Up in the 80s
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Born in 1966, Alan Davies grew up in Essex, the son of a staunchly Conservative-voting father and a mother who died of cancer when he was only six.  It was a childhood dominated at first by 'Citizen Smith' and the other TV sitcoms, 'Starsky and Hutch', 'Grease', Barry Sheene, the Barron Knights, and Debbie Harry.  The book begins at 1978, ''the year I started venturing out more'', and finishes at 1988, when he graduated from Kent University to find that stand-up comedy could be an alternative to finding a job where he would have to do what he was told.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141041803</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
''This a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have.''
|author=Mark Oaten
 
|title=Screwing Up
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Like John Profumo and others, Mark Oaten will probably be remembered for the wrong reasons.  It was the episode which made him for a while the country's No. 1 paparazzi target, and which as he recounts in his Prologue, when his 'world was crashing down' and it hardly needs recounting in detail.  Yet when all is said and done, this is a very lively, readable, sometimes quite poignant memoir from one of the men whose career at Westminster began and ended with the Blair and Brown years.  Throughout there is an admirable absence of self-pity.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849540071</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=190874572X
|author=Tony Fitzjohn
+
|title=Letters from Tove
|title=Born Wild: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Passion for Lions and for Africa
+
|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Maybe it's just my rock-chick nature but "Born Wild" feels a little clunky as titles goSurely it should have been "Born To Be Wild"?  Perhaps that phrase has been copyrighted and wasn't available.  Or maybe Fitzjohn was deliberately referencing Joy Adamson's book "Born Free" – since much of the early part of his own time in Africa was spent with her husband George. "Born To Be Wild" would have been more accurate as well.  Many of the animals we meet weren't born wild at all – though a good few of them got to live out the remainder of their days and die that way.
+
|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 JanssonI 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>0670918911</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1908745819
|author=Judith Summers
+
|title=Surfacing
|title=The Badness of King George
+
|author=Kathleen Jamie
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=People know how to get round me: they offer me a book and then say 'It's about a dog' and like Pavlov's canine I say 'Oh, lovely'And so it was with The Badness of King GeorgeGeorge is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and I have to quibble with the title – superb as it is – because George is not bad. If anything he's badly done by as Judith Summers, plagued by empty nest syndrome when her son goes to university, decides to foster rescue dogsPoor George has absolutely no idea what she's let him in for.  And nor has Judith.
+
|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 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 itIt 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>0141046473</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1906852472
|author=Kevin Lewis
+
|title=Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad
|title=The Kid: A True Story
+
|author=Ian Mathie
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Kevin Lewis grew up on a poverty-stricken London council estate in the sort of home that the neighbours complain about. His mother inadequate by any measure hated him more than most of her six children and he was beaten and starved by both of his parents. You might think that Social Services would have stepped in and removed him, but any relief was to be short-lived. Eventually he was put into care but even then the support was inadequate and Kevin found himself caught up in a criminal underworld where he was known simply as 'The Kid'.
+
|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>014104859X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1999811402
|author=Dai Henley
+
|title=Painting Snails
|title=B Positive
+
|author=Stephen John Hartley
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Dai Henley counts himself lucky to have been born to loving and nurturing parentsWhen they discovered that his blood group was B positive they gave him his motto in life, and coincidentally, the title of this bookAs he explains, it's not a celebrity autobiography (you might be selling yourself a little short there, Dai) and nor is it a misery memoirIt's the story of a man who has made the most of every opportunity he's been given – and a few mistakes along the way – but he's won through despite the difficulties and played a fair amount of sport too.
+
|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 either.  Did we have a category for 'doing the impossible the hard way'?  Yep - that's the one.  It's an autobiography.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907499180</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Biography Reviews]]
|author=Malalai Joya
 
|title=Raising My Voice: The Extraordinary Story of the Afghan Woman Who Dares to Speak Out
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Politics and Society
 
|summary=Forget entertainment – this is a book to read if you have any interest in the war in Afghanistan. My particular view has developed from a British armchair, comprising part emotional reaction, a smidgeon of history and an over-reliance on British media sources. In a war zone where truth has been a casualty throughout, this book gives the general reader an authentic view of conditions in Afghanistan over the past twenty five years of continual warfare. Written by a young and hot-headed, wildly patriotic 'ordinary' woman, this is no more reliable than any other partisan view, but its value is to help put official news sources into their proper context. I found it educative in several senses.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846041503</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Steve Duno
 
|title=Last Dog On The Hill
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Pets
 
|summary=Driving through northern California Steve Duno found a puppy by the side of the road.  He was flea-bitten, tic infested, emaciated and suffering from an infection.  His father was a Rottweiler and his mother a German Shepherd - both were guard dogs at the local marijuana farm.  When Steve whistled the dog came to him and it's no exaggeration to say that in that moment his life changed.  He'd always wanted a dog, but hadn't been able to have one as a child.  There was a moment's indecision at the side of the road – and then Lou became Steve's dog.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330520024</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:49, 29 September 2024

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Review of

Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie

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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

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Review of

Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad by Ian Mathie

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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

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Review of

Painting Snails by Stephen John Hartley

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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

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