Difference between revisions of "Newest Autobiography Reviews"

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[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
 
[[Category:Autobiography|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Autobiography]]
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{{Frontpage
==Autobiography==
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|author=Mary McCarthy
 
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|title=Memories of a Catholic Girlhood
{{newreview
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|rating=4
|author=Michael Jago
 
|title=The Man Who Was George Smiley: The Life of John Bingham
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris, volunteered to serve in the army at the outbreak of the Second World War, but his sight prevented front-line service and he joined MI5. Prior to this he’d been a journalist, working on the '’Hull Daily Mail’’ before moving to Fleet Street.  He found a natural home in MI5 and a considerable talent for interrogation.  At a time when spies are thought of as being flamboyant, he was the opposite - a small, bespectacled man who could easily blend into the background. His greatest skill was that he was a patient listener.  [[:Category:John Le Carre|John Le Carre]] has said that nobody who knew John and the work he was doing could have missed the description of Smiley in his [[Call for the Dead by John le Carre|first novel]]. Le Carre was a junior colleague in MI5.
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|summary=Mary McCarthy describes herself as an ''amateur architect'', obsessively digging into the past to piece together the broken mosaic of her life. She attributes her ''burning interest in the past'' to her orphanhood, as she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who died in the 1918 flu epidemic. This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived under the harsh guardianship of her late father's Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and Aunt Margaret. Later, she moved to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a different kind of upbringing.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849545138</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1804271659
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Virginie Despentes
|author=William Nicolson
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|title=King Kong Theory
|title=The Romantic Economist: A Story of Love and Market Forces
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Autobiography
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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
 +
|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
 +
|title=You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here
 +
|author=Benji Waterhouse
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Popular Science
 +
|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
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|title=The Trading Game: A Confession
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|author=Gary Stevenson
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=William Nicolson was a student - well a student of economics, to be accurateHe had an uncanny knack of losing girlfriends far too quickly, the last one having departed in a personal best time of six weeksActually I don't think that was too bad - I've encountered a lot of men who only ever managed about thirty minutes - but it worried Will and he considered applying what he had learned as an economist to his relationships with the fair sexGirls were something of a mystery to him but he was sure that if he used his ability to reduce a complex world to a set of rational principles then he should be on to a winnerOr two.
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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 StevensonA 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 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 CitibankEventually, this turned into permanent employment as a trader.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780721021</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529395224
|author=Susannah Cahalan
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|title=Letting the Cat Out of the Bag: The Secret Life of a Vet
|title=Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
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|author=Sion Rowlands
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|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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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author=Edel Rodriguez
 +
|title=Worm: A Cuban American Odyssey
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
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|genre=Graphic Novels
|summary=One day Susannah Cahalan was a bright, outgoing tabloid reporter in New York, with a promising career ahead of her. Within weeks a mysterious illness reduced her to an incoherent shadow of her former self, struggling with basic tasks, and left doctors at one of the world's top medical centres baffled. In ''Brain on Fire'', Cahalan – now in the 'post-recovery' stage of her life – attempts to recapture the memories and events from the her 'month of madness' before diagnosis and cure.
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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>1846147395</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1474616720
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1035025299
|author=Pam Weaver
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|title=Went to London, Took the Dog
|title=Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes
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|author=Nina Stibbe
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In 1961, a young 16 year old girl called Pam Weaver embarks on a career path that will change her life. Fed up with the tedium of working on the broken biscuit counter at Woolworths, she decides to train for her NNEB. ''Bath Times and Nursery Rhymes'' sees Pam progress from a shy and awkward teenager to a competent and caring nursery nurse. Reluctant to stay too long in any position, Pam tries her hand at a variety of jobs, including her initial employment in a Council-run children’s home, working as a private nanny to a rich young widow and an eventful but emotional stint in a premature baby ward.
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|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 expect.  The other side of the decision was sealed when a room became available (courtesy of Deborah Moggach) at a very reasonable rent.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007488440</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Christopher Fowler
|author=Selina Guinness
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|title=Word Monkey
|title=The Crocodile by the Door: The Story of a House, a Farm and a Family
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Selina Guinness lived at Tibradden as a child and in 2002 she and her husband-to-be, Colin Graham, moved back to the house when her elderly uncle Charles became frail.  The surname might lead you to suspect that there were brewery millions in the background but this wasn't the caseThe couple were young academics and doing what needed to be done at Tibradden would need to be done in addition to full-time jobsThe house was on the outskirts of Dublin - 'derelict fields' if you were a property developer or the last defence against the encroaching city if you were not.
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|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 eitherWhen 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 shackNo 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>1844881571</amazonuk>
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|isbn=0857529625
 
}}
 
}}
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{{Frontpage
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|author= Kit De Waal
 +
|title= Without Warning and Only Sometimes
 +
|rating= 4
 +
|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.
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|isbn=1472284852
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}}
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1638485216
 +
|title=Black, White, and Gray All Over: A Black Man's Odyssey in Life and Law Enforcement
 +
|author=Frederick Reynolds
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Autobiography
 +
|summary=''Corruption is not department, gender or race specific.  It has everything to do with character. Period.''
  
{{newreview
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''One more body just wouldn't matter''.
|author=Rod Stewart
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|title=Rod: The autobiography
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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.
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=There is only one RodOne of the first things I noticed about this book was that his surname did not appear on the spine or the front cover of the dust jacket – only on the inside flapsHowever, as someone whose career has kept him a household name for over four decades, it is probably superfluous anyway.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780890524</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad, Caroline Bankeler, Navid Modiiri and  Agnes Bromme (Translator)
|author=Salman Rushdie
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|title=I May Be Wrong
|title=Joseph Anton
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 +
|genre= Autobiography
 +
|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
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|title=Never Work With Animals
 +
|author=Gareth Steel
 +
|rating=4
 +
|genre=Animals and Wildlife
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|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=Salman Rushdie's memoir of, predominantly, the fatwa years is completely gripping - albeit not necessarily in the way the author intended I suspect. For any lover of literature it's a fascinating insight into the man. People write memoirs largely to put their side of the story. Rushdie is of course supremely intelligent and a gifted wordsmith and yet while aspects of the story remain shocking and induce both anger and incredulity that the situation was allowed to go as far as it did and for so long, it's probably not a book that will change your views of Rushdie the man, not least as he displays many of the traits that the press ascribed to him. Oh why do our heroes always have to be so imperfect?
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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>0224093975</amazonuk>
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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.
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|isbn=B0965V3LLN
 
}}
 
}}
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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
 +
|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=Stephen Roche
 
|title=Born to Ride: The Autobiography of Stephen Roche
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Sport
 
|summary=With all the revelations about the systemised doping culture surrounding Lance Armstrong's team in the 1990s, it was interesting to read a story of a time before cycling was embroiled in one drugs scandal after another. Although perhaps not as memorable as Armstrong's career, Stephen Roche's will hold a place in cycling history for 1987, when he became only the second man to win the Tour de France, the Giro D'Italia and the World Championships in the same season. A quarter of a century after that remarkable feat, Roche has produced his autobiography, ''Born to Ride''.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224091905</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 nineIt 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=Patricia Malcolmson and Robert Malcolmson (Editors)
 
|title=The Diaries of Nella Last: Writing in War and Peace
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=History
 
|summary=This work brings together a selection of some of Nella Last's diary entries from the 1940's and 1950'sShe wrote from her home in Barrow-in-Furness as part of the Mass Observation project, writing a huge amount of material, some of which has already been published as ''Nella Last's War'', [[Nella Last's Peace: The Post-war Diaries of Housewife 49 by Patricia Malcolmson (Editor), Robert Malcolmson (Editor)|Nella Last's Peace]] and [[Nella Last in the 1950s: The Further Diaries of Housewife, 49 by Patricia Malcolmson and Robert Malcolmson (Editors)|Nella Last in the 1950s]] This volume brings together the three previous collections, with new material too, taking the reader through the war years and on into post-war Britain.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668546X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Antonio Caluccio
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|isbn=0571365884
|title=A Recipe for Life
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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=Antonio Carluccio is a name you know well if you've any interest in food and particularly Italian food.  He's well known as a cook, restaurateur, deli owner, television personality and authorIn everything he's done he's concentrated on the flavour of the food - this isn't the man to turn to if you're interested in fine dining as there's a lack of frills and ostentation - and he has his own phrase to describe his vision.  'Mof mof' stands for 'maximum of flavour and minimum of fuss'He's a man after my own heart but when I thought about it I realised that I knew little, beyond the occasional news item, of Carluccio the man.  His autobiography came at just the right time.
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|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 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>1742703925</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Daniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker
|author=Halina Wagowska
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|title=A Tattoo on my Brain
|title=The Testimony
 
 
|rating=3.5
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=The Holocaust must have been particularly horrendous for the young survivor. Halina here says how she had barely three years of schooling before the events of the Final Solution took over, and her life was changed for ever.  It was a life a little different to those around her – a nanny who took her to a cathedral and brought her home full of the Catholic anti-Semitic sentiment. Religion and its effects were of little consequence – she was more worried that those seeing a photo of her and a dog had more admiration for the look of the dog than of her.  But things were only to change for the worst – existence in the Lodz ghetto, and later, the death camps. This book is just not arch enough to be too structured and self-aware, so when Halina sees those by tram travelling through the ghetto and wonders what the life of the gentiles on it is like, this only provides one small glimpse of how her life turned into one of those thinking of and helping others, with special affinity for those in minorities everywhere.
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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>1742703577</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
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|author=Hannah Jackson
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|rating=4.5
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|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=Clare Balding
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}}
|title=My Animals and Other Family
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=0008333173
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|title=Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More
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|author=Grace Dent
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Clare Balding was born into a racing family - her father, Ian, was the trainer of Mill Reef who won the Derby in 1971, the same year that Clare was bornWhilst her father would never forget the year that his horse won the Derby he would usually fail to remember that it was also the year of his daughter's birth. Horses came first and they were the priority in Ian Balding's life: the family had to adjust accordingly. He was a gifted and successful trainer who understood the animals in his care and his record, including Mill Reef's Derby success speaks for itself.  Clare's childhood was separate from the life of the racing stable but she inherited her family's love of animals.
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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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670921467</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1504321383
|author=Nick Coleman
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|title=Single, Again, and Again, and Again
|title=The Train in the Night: A Story of Music and Loss
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|author=Louisa Pateman
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Picture the scenario.  You have always been passionate about music, with a catholic taste which embraces classical, soul and heavy rock with a bit of everything in between, and your job is that of an arts and music journalistIn your mid-forties you wake up one morning to find your whole world changed overnight by Sudden Neursosensory Hearing Loss.  It has a devastating effect on your balance when subjected to any kind of sound, whether it is an aeroplane overhead, the roar of the crowd at a football match, or the music which you once adored with every fibre of your beingYour head is filled with tinnitus, like a very poorly-tuned radio which lacks an off switch.
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|summary=''You can't be happy and fulfilled on your ownYou are not complete until you find a man''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224093576</amazonuk>
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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 childrenIt was a belief and it would be many years before Louisa would conclude that ''a belief is a choice''.
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|author=Sakinu Ahronglong
|author=Prue Leith
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|title=Hunter School
|title=Relish: My Life on a Plate
 
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Prue Leith was born in South Africa, the daughter of a prominent actress who was considered 'dangerously liberal' in her views on race. Prue was largely unaware of the horrors of apartheid and had a privileged lifestyle. She came to London in the early sixties but still retains an awareness of colour as a legacy of her childhoodWhat didn't come from her childhood was her love of cooking - she drifted into catering almost accidentally but went on to set up a very successful catering company and then to open Leith's Restaurant Her cookery school and regular food columns in national newspapers followed soon after.
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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 trueBut 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 itMore people should.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857384058</amazonuk>
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|isbn=1999791282
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1544641923
|author=Grant Morrison
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|title=Ambassadors Do It After Dinner
|title=Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero
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|author=Sandra Aragona
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Graphic Novels
 
|summary=Consider the super-hero comic.  Borne out of a need to create cheap and franchise-friendly content for newspapers in America, it's grown into a billion-dollar industry, with Hollywood jumping on the bandwagon of several major characters now their FX have finally caught up with the printed page.  Disposable? - once upon a time, yet now collectable to the tune of a million dollars or more.  Frivolous? - probably, yet not exclusively now, if ever so.  At one point here, they are just one product of the infinitely powerful imaginary system each of us carries in our brain, and at the other 'ethereal, paper-thin constructs of unfettered imagination'.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546671</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Ian Mathie
 
|title=Dust of the Danakil
 
|rating=4.5
 
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I enjoyed all three of Ian Mathie’s previous books so it’s probably no surprise to find me praising this one tooAlready, for me, this writer has set a high bar with his pared, modest prose and authentic descriptions of life as an educated white man with unsophisticated mid-African tribes in the middle of the twentieth centuryHis everyday life in this book is a perilous adventure – modern travel memoirs seem banal by comparison.
+
|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 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 matterShe (and it still usually is a 'she') can tell us exactly what goes on.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906852138</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241446732
|author=Beth Raymer
+
|title=Our House is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis
|title=Lay the Favourite: A True Story about Playing to Win in the Gambling Underworld
+
|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg
|rating=4.5
+
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Politics and Society
|summary=It was a dream which brought Beth Raymer to Las Vegas, but the reality was that she ended up waiting tables in a low-end diner and living in a distinctly unsavoury motelA chance meeting brought her into contact with Dink, the self-styled king of the city's sports betting and she moved into what was very much a man's world - of high-stakes gambling and a lot of people you wouldn't necessarily want your daughter to know.  This is the story of how Beth learned the trade and moved into the world of the big money where gambling regulations don't applyBeing sharp was what it was all about.
+
|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 happeningIn 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099555395</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Melissa Kite
+
|isbn=191280493X
|title=Real Life: One Woman's Guide to Love, Men and Other Everyday Disasters
+
|title=Coming of Age
 +
|author=Danny Ryan
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=We're used to thinking about career women who have it all: the high-flyer who goes home to her husband, children and immaculate house to plan their next holiday and their social life.  We might not know these people - but everything seems to tell us that they're ''there''. What, though, of the single woman, no longer in the first flush of youth (that's probably nineteen, these days) who struggles just to keep going?  What of the woman who struggles to keep the ''boiler'' going and who is tempted to kidnap the television repairman and tie him to the bed because she's convinced that the television will stop working the moment he goes?
+
|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...''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780331916</amazonuk>
+
 
 +
 
 +
''This a memoir from someone you have never heard of - but will feel like you have.''
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=190874572X
|author=Agatha Christie and Mathew Prichard (editor)
+
|title=Letters from Tove
|title=The Grand Tour: Letters and photographs from the British Empire expedition
+
|author=Tove Jansson (Author), Boel Westin (Editor), Helen Svensson (Editor), Sarah Death (Translator)
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Travel
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=In 1922 Agatha Christie, already the author of three very successful books, was happily married with a small daughter, and her heart's desire was to continue writing while she led a quiet life in the countryHowever her husband Archie was becoming increasingly restless and disenchanted with working in the City, and his longing for a change was suddenly to be fulfilled in a most unexpected way.  An old friend, Major Belcher, 'blessed with great powers of bluff', presented them both with the opportunity of a lifetime – to join him on a trip to several imperial outposts in preparation for the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition to be staged at Wembley.  Archie would be his financial adviser, and Agatha was cordially invited for the trip, as his wife.  (Two-year-old Rosalind would have to stay at home, a decision which involved some soul-searching).
+
|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>000744768X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1908745819
|author=Tessa Hainsworth
+
|title=Surfacing
|title=Home to Roost
+
|author=Kathleen Jamie
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=There seems to be a plethora of books about people who have moved to unusual places, or changed lifestyle in middle age for a variety of reasons. This book features a London family who have moved to Cornwall, and is the third (so far) in a series about their transition.  
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848093756</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1906852472
|author=Jill Abramson
+
|title=Wild Child: Growing Up a Nomad
|title=The Puppy Diaries: Living with a Dog Named Scout
+
|author=Ian Mathie
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
|genre=Pets
+
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Jill Abramson had a dog whom she adored - a White West Highland by the name of Buddy - and after his death she wasn't certain that she wanted another dog. Would she bond with the newcomer?  Would she always be comparing the pup with his predecessor?  But - times change - and in 2009 Jill and her husband Henry brought home a Golden Retriever by the name of Scout. Over the following year Abramson wrote a column about raising Scout for the New York Times website and it's this column which forms the basis for 'The Puppy Diaries: Living With a Dog Named Scout'.
+
|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>1444720635</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1999811402
|author=Mary Beard
+
|title=Painting Snails
|title=All in a Don's Day
+
|author=Stephen John Hartley
|rating=4
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Mary Beard's latest collection, 'All in a Don's Day', of her assembled blog pieces from 2009 until the end of 2011, covers similar concerns to her previous selection, [[It's A Don's Life by Mary Beard|It's a Don's Life]]. Professor Beard is a fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge and became Classics Professor at there in 2004. She is also an expert in Roman laughter, an interest which she fully indulges in the pages of her TLS blog. In her latest collection she bemoans the parlous current state of both Education and the Academy, and makes witty observations on matters as various as television chefs, what and how to visit in Rome and the art and worth of completing references in an age when only positive things may be said about postgraduate job-seekers.
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685362</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Biography Reviews]]
|author=Clare Peake
 
|title=Under a Canvas Sky: Living Outside Gormenghast
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=To many of us, the very name Peake on the cover of a book will immediately suggest the creator of 'Gormenghast' and his family.  We have had the occasional biography of Mervyn Peake from others, plus the recollections of his widow Maeve, and to join them, here is the story from another perspective altogether – that of their youngest child, daughter Clare.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780333854</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 14:14, 16 December 2024

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Review of

Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy

4star.jpg Autobiography

Mary McCarthy describes herself as an amateur architect, obsessively digging into the past to piece together the broken mosaic of her life. She attributes her burning interest in the past to her orphanhood, as she lacked any second-hand memories from her parents, who died in the 1918 flu epidemic. This memoir chronicles her early years, beginning with her orphanhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she lived under the harsh guardianship of her late father's Irish Catholic parents and her abusive Uncle Myers and Aunt Margaret. Later, she moved to Seattle to live with her maternal grandparents—her grandmother being Jewish and her grandfather Presbyterian—who provided her with a different kind of upbringing. Full Review

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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

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

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