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

|summary=For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''Charles, The Kennedy dynasty is mainly known for the men who have come to political prominence: Jack Kennedy, Alternative Prince'' critically assesses the president who was assassinated in November 1963, his brother, Bobby, JackPrince's Attorney General who would be assassinated in June 1968 opinions, beliefs and Senator Edward Kennedy aims against the youngest of the nine children - the only one background of the brothers who would, as they say, live to comb grey hairscientific evidence. Not quite so much is known about the women who were brave enough to marry into the family There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and Amber Hunt and David Batcher his relentless promotion of treatments which have set out no scientific support has done considerable damage to give us some background on five of these women: Rose Kennedy the matriarch reputation of the family and wife a man who is proud of Joe Kennedyhis refusal to apply evidence-based, Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of Jack, Ethel, wife of Bobby and Joan and Vicki, the first and second wives of Teddy Kennedylogical reasoning to his ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0762796340</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1739805100|title=The Mystery Loving the Enemy: Building bridges in a time of Princess Louise: Queen Victoria's Rebellious Daughterwar|author=Lucinda HawksleyAndrew March

|summary=As a previous biographer once called her, Princess Louise was Queen Victoria’s unconventional daughter. Always popular with ''Loving the Enemy'' tells the public for her comparatively easygoing manner (thoughquite extraordinary story of author Andrew March's grandparents, being royal, she was not averse who first met when grandfather Fred Clayton went to Dresden to pulling rank), her forward-looking views on social issues, notably education and votes for womenteach in the early days of the Nazi regime in the 1930s. Fred, a sensitive and her artistic intereststhoughtful man, she was certainly one had some vague ideas of "building bridges" which may guard against the growing hostilities between nations unfolding in Europe at the most interesting of her familytime. Fred's attempts to separate individual people from ideology weren't universally successful but he did make friendships and connections that lasted for a lifetime.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951549</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|title=The Frood|author=Jem Roberts|rating=4|genre=Biography|summary=They say that you should never meet your heroes. After reading 'The Authorised and Very Official History of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' a.k.a. ''the Frood'' I understand why. I never heard the original radio series and I have quite deliberately shied away from the Americanised film version (even if it does sell itself well by having Stephen Fry as 'the voice of the book' - I mean, really, in this day and age, who else?!).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184809437X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Laura ThompsonWill Brooker|title=A Different Class of Murder: The Story of Lord LucanTruth About Lisa Jewell

|summary=Effie Gray Meet [[:Category:Lisa Jewell|Lisa Jewell]], one of the most successful British authors I've never knowingly read. Now meet Will Brooker, one of the thousands of less successful authors I quite confidently never have read. This book starts with the two meeting each other, as well, and shows how 2021 drew the two closer and closer together. The meeting was some unspecified combination, it seems, of her anecdote about cup cakes, the words of her latest book she was born reciting, and her being in Perth in 1828a ''black lace mini-dress with gold brocade'' (certainly a get-up never commonly worn at the author events I get to attend), but pulled Brooker, a professor of cultural studies who has swallowed Roland Barthes, and knew art critic John Ruskin from an early agedown the rabbit-hole that is Jewell's diverse output. When Brooker decides he finally decided 'd like nothing more than to ask follow her through a year in the published author's life, working to be his wifemake a success of the latest title, she called off an engagement and happily acceptedstruggling with the next in line. Jewell, due diligence appropriately done, agrees. And this is the result.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0715648578</amazonuk>1529136024

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Victoria: A LifeMartha Leigh|authortitle=Invisible Ink: A N WilsonFamily Memoir|rating=4.5|genre=Biography|summary=Every few years Martha Leigh begins her book talking about a childhood spent in a slightly eccentric, it seemsimmediately recognisable upper middle class English family. Her father is a Cambridge don, we are presented with another generouslyforever clacking away on his typewriter as he edits the complete correspondence of the philosopher Jean-sized biography Jacques Rousseau, his life's work. Her mother is a concert pianist who practises for hours every day. Neither parent is hugely interested in the practicalities of Queen Victorialife. How many times can another author follow Elizabeth Longford, Stanley Weintraub, or Christopher Hibbert to name There is love in the house but three, produce 500 pages or more and still say something new about her? Can the blurb’s claim also darker undercurrents that this shows us the sovereign ‘as she’s never been seen before’ really be justified? Fortunately it can, for even more than a century after her death, child does not fully understand but knows is there is still new material from previously unseen sources to add to what we already know about her.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1848879563</amazonuk>1800460384

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Lives of the Famous and the Infamous: Everything You Need To Know About Everyone Who MatteredPolly Barton|authortitle=The WeekFifty Sounds

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=To describe Where do I start? I could start with where Barton herself starts, with the question ''Why Japan?'' Japan has been on my radar for a book as unputdownable is a pretty bold claim to makewhile and if the world hadn't gone into melt-down I would have visited by now. I may get there later this year, but I am not hopeful. Jeremy OAnd like Barton, I don'Grady, editor-in-chief of The Week does just that in t know the foreword answer to The Lives the question ''why Japan?'' She explains her feelings in respect of the Famous and the Infamous, a collection of obituaries from question in the weekly magazine. Thankfullyfirst essay, his bold judgement which is largely spot on. For those unfamiliar, the sound ''giro'The Week'' collates the best offerings from print media outlets around the world– which she describes as being, condenses them into smaller chunksamong other things, adds a little the sound of its own commentary and creates a highly concise and entertaining look at the news''every party where you have to introduce yourself''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091958660</amazonuk>1913097501

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Golden ParasolFrederic Gros|authortitle=Wendy Law-YoneA Philosophy of Walking

|genre=HistoryPolitics and Society|summary=If you look her I confess I picked this one up Wendy Lawfrom the library in my pre-Yone is described as a Burmese-born American authorlockdown forage of random stuff. Now I have to go out an buy my own copy so that I can turn down the pages I have marked and return to its varying wisdom when I need to. Some books draw you in slowly. That This one had me in the first two pages, wherein Gros explains why ''Burmese-born American'walking is not a sport' might be an accurate description of her current citizenship, but it barely hints at the ethnic mix of her heritage, nor of her personal closeness (through her father) to her original homeland's struggle for freedom and democracy.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0099555999</amazonuk>1781688370

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=The Art of Neil GaimanSharon Blackie|authortitle=Hayley CampbellIf Women Rose Rooted|rating=4.5|genre=Graphic NovelsBiography|summary=An early [[:Category:Neil Gaiman|Neil Gaiman]] book was all about Douglas Adams, and came out at the time he had a success with I normally say that you can tell how much a book of his own regarding definitions of concepts that had previously not had a specific word attachedmeans to me by how many pages have corners turned down. Gaiman himself Perhaps an even greater measure of impact is setting out to buy my own copy before I've finished reading the one of those conceptsI've borrowed. I know what a polyglot want to avoid clichés like 'powerful' 'inspiring' 'life-changing' – although it is, definitely the first two and a polymath only time will tell about the third – but there should be a word clichés exist for someone like Gaiman, who can write anything and everything he seems to want – a whimsical family-friendly picture book, a behemoth of modern fantasy, an all-ages horror story, something with a soupcon of sci-fi or with a factor of the fable. He can cross genres – reason and to some extent just leave them behind as unnecessary, as well as cross format – he was mastering the lengthy, literary graphic novel just as I'real' books were festering in his creativity, and songs and poems were just appearing here and there. So he is pretty much who you think of as regards someone who m not sure I can turn his hands to anything he wishes. He is a poly-something, then, or just omni-something elsesuccinctly put it any better.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781571392</amazonuk>1912836017

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Thompson0241446732|title=A Corner Our House is on Fire: Scenes of Paradise: A love story (with the usual reservations)a Family and a Planet in Crisis|author=Malena Ernman, Greta Thunberg, Beata Thunberg and Svante Thunberg

|genre=BiographyPolitics and Society|summary=In the early seventies Brian Thompson met Elizabeth North, both of them part of failing marriages which would have died without any intervention on their partsThe Ernman / Thunberg family seemed perfectly normal. They became friends, they fell in love but they never felt the need to marry Malena Ernman was an opera singer and would be together until Liz's death in 2010 at Svante Thunberg took on most of the age parenting of seventy eighttheir two daughters. Both are authors Then eleven-year- Thompson would maintain that North 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 better writer - and North would perhaps have said family that they were ''sheburned-out people on a burned-out planet'' should have made that clear. ''A Corner of Paradise'' tells the story - not of the homes If they lived in - but of the joy of were to find a way to live happily again their relationshipsolution would need to be radical.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099581868</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0648684806|title=Grace: Her Lives - Her LovesClara Colby: The startling royal exposéInternational Suffragist|author=Robert LaceyJohn Holliday

|summary=TwentyThe path of Clara Dorothy Bewick's life was probably determined when her family emigrated to the USA. At the time she was just three-five years before another so-called fairytale royal romance which turned out old but because of some childhood ailment, she wasn't allowed to be anything butsail with her parents and three brothers. Instead, she remained with her grandparents, who doted on her and saw that she received a good education, one of America’s most beloved screen goddesses crossed the Atlantic both in and married into the principality out of Monacoschool. The ceremony in 1956 She was hailed as the wedding of only child in the year, but like the later household and similar event, it her childhood was not the happiest of unionsglorious.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>191016738X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=One River: Explorations and Discoveries By contrast, her family had become pioneer farmers in the Amazon Rainforest|author=Wade Davis|rating=4.5|genre=Travel|summary=As someone who has always enjoyed learning about mid-west of the AmazonUnited States and life was hard, as Clara was to find out when she and with plans her grandparents eventually went to travel to South America next year, this book practically screamed at me to be reviewedjoin the family. And, although Clara would only know her mother for a little tough going and long-winded in partsfew months: she was married for fifteen years, I'm glad I had the opportunity to get lost ten pregnancies, seven surviving children and died in Davis' incredible work of non-fictionchildbirth not long after Clara arrived. Difficult to describe in terms of genre As the eldest girl, this book combines history, politics, science, botany and culture. It is delivered through a biographical account of Davis' own travels heavy burden would fall on Clara and as Wisconsin was a memoir to Richard Evans Schultes, an ethnobotanist well known for his work and travels in the Amazon and Wade Davis' highly regarded mentorrude awakening.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099592967</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789017977|title=Angela MerkelRonnie and Hilda's Romance: The Chancellor and Her Towards a New Life after WorldWar II|author=Stefan KorneliusWendy Williams

|genre=BiographyHistory|summary=You have to admire Ronnie Williams was the lady, this rather awkward son of Thomas Henry Williams (known as Harry) and shy daughter of a staunch Lutheran pastor who himself had Ethel Wall. There's some doubt as to whether or not they were ever married or even Harry's birthdate: he claimed to have been born as in 1863, but he was already many years older than Ethel and he might well have shaved a Polish Catholicfew years off his age. His daughter studied with such intelligence and application that soon brought her academic success particularly For a while, the family was quite well-to-do but disaster struck in Russian and finally in Quantum Chemistry. At the age of 26, she obtained her doctorate 1929 Depression and five- in passing, it rather seems year- her first husband, the physicist Ulrike Merkelold Ronnie had to adjust to a very different lifestyle. Her rise One thing he did inherit from his father was his need to power was rapid be well-turned-out and took place through the period in which the DDR collapsed as Russian policy under Gorbachev changedthis would stay with him throughout his life. Along with a wry and dry sense of humour Angela Merkel’s personality is the embodiment of He joined the characteristic known army at eighteen in German as ''fleissig'' - hardworking, sedulous, diligent and assiduous1942.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846883180</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Blazing Star: The Life and Times of John Wilmot, Earl of RochesterPatti Smith|authortitle=Alexander LarmanYear of the Monkey

|summary=John Wilmot, 2nd Earl On the coast of RochesterSanta Cruz, was Patti Smith enters the ultimate 'live fast, die young' icon lunar year of the Stuart agemonkey - one packed with mischief, the seventeenth-century embodiment of 'Hope I die before I get old'. Restoration dandysorrow, satirist and pornographic poet, he died unexpected moments. In a lingering death at the age of 33stranger's words, racked by venereal disease and alcoholism. If he ''Anything is remembered at possible: after all these days, except by those familiar with it's the history or literature year of the age, it is as the James Dean or monkey''. As Smith wanders the Keith Moon coast of his daySanta Cruz in solitude, she reflects on a hellraiser whose poetry was heavily suppressed for many years by the censors. In fact much of his verse was not published under his name until long after his deathyear that brings huge shifts in her life - loss and ageing are faced head-on, and as most of it was only circulated the shifting political waters in manuscript form during his lifetime and a good deal destroyed by his mother after his death, it is uncertain how much does still surviveAmerica.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781851093</amazonuk>1526614758

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1912242052|title=Dirty Bertie: An English King Made in FranceO Joy for me!|author=Stephen ClarkeKeir Davidson|rating=43|genre=BiographyArt|summary=Although ''Oh Joy for me!'' gives Coleridge credit for being ''the first person to walk the mountains alone, not because he was Anglo-German by birth, so Stephen Clarke suggestshad to for work, King Edward VII was very much as a Parisian by nature. As we would expect from the author of several lighthearted books on our Gallic neighboursminer, including ‘1000 Years of Annoying the French’quarryman, this is not the most weighty shepherd or solemn biography of the King you will ever findpack-horse driver, but it is certainly an entertainingbecause he wanted to for pleasure and adventure. His rapturous encounters with their natural beauty, racy gallop through and its literary consequences, changed our view of the life of its subjectworld''.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780890346</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Graff_Find|title=Josephine: Desire, Ambition, NapoleonFind Another Place|author=Kate WilliamsBen Graff|rating=43.5|genre=BiographyAutobiography|summary=Until reading this biographyWhen Ben Graff's grandfather Martin handed him a plastic folder of handwritten notes from his journal, he didn't take much notice of it had never really occurred to me just how shadowy a figure . At the first wife age of Napoleon Bonaparte24, one of Graff didn't realise the best-known European rulers gravity of the age, really pages he washolding. It may be common knowledge that her name was Josephine, but few of us perhaps really know anything of the woman behind the name.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955142X</amazonuk>

{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1789016304|title=The DevonshiresWar and Love: The Story A family's testament of a Family anguish, endurance and a Nationdevotion in occupied Amsterdam|author=Roy HattersleyMelanie Martin|rating=45

|summary=According Melanie Martin read about what happened to the back of this bookDutch Jews in occupied Amsterdam during World War II and was entranced by what she discovered, ‘the story particularly in ''The Diary of Ann Frank'' but then realised that her own family's stories were equally fascinating. A hundred and seven thousand Jews were deported from the Devonshires is city during the story of Britain’. That’s an extravagant claimwar years, but it contains more than a germ of truth. Certainly one would only five thousand survived and Martin could not understand how this could be hard-pushed allowed to find an aristocratic, non-royal British family happen in a country with liberal values who has more consistently been central were resistant to our history since medieval times, as this detailed chronicle demonstratesGerman occupation. From Most people believed that the dissolution of occupation could never happen: even those who thought that the Germans might reach the monasteries under Henry VIII presided over in part by Sir William Cavendishcity were convinced that they would soon be pushed back, father of that the first Earl, Amsterdammers would never allow what happened to escalate in the big business way that their ancestral home Chatsworth House in Derbyshire has now becomeit did, but initial protests melted away as the somewhat inaccurately geographically-named Devonshires have often been, or helped to, contribute to, part organisers became more circumspect. It's an atrocity on a vast scale but made up of tens of the fabric thousands of Britain’s past and presentindividual tragedies.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099554399</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1786893452|title=The Life of Rebecca JonesUngrateful Refugee|author=Angharad PriceDina Nayeri|rating=4.5

|summary=A newly-married couple make their way home from Here in the chapelWest, riding we see news reports about immigrants on a horse-drawn cart as it winds its way round familiar country lanes towards the beautiful valley regular basis – some media welcoming them, some scaremongering about them. But all of Maesglasau. The horse pauses atop a hill those stories are written by journalists – almost always western, and almost always, no matter how deep the valley spreads investigative journalism they carry out before them: ', outsiders to the world and the vessel of their marriagesituations that refugees find themselves in. It'. The centuries-old stone farmhouse in s rare that we find out the crook of journeys from the mountain refugees themselves – and this is a rare opportunity to be their homestead; a sturdydo that, in this intelligent, silent witness to the tragedy powerful and joy that is an intrinsic part of moving work by Dina Nayeri -someone who was born in the fabric middle of family lifea revolution in Iran, fleeing to America as a ten-year-old.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085738712X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0857058320|title=Wilkie Collins: A Life of SensationLord Of All the Dead|author=Andrew LycettJavier Cercas and Anne McLean (translator)

|summary=Wilkie Collins has come down ''Lord Of All the Dead'' is a journey to us as uncover the chief exponent of author's lost ancestor's life and death. Cercas is searching for the Victorian ‘sensation novel’. This was meaning behind his great uncle's death in the genre of story written specifically to expose deep-rooted domestic or family secrets, uncovering illegitimacy, bigamy or other irregular activities by supposedly respectable citizens leading outwardly normal, uneventful livesSpanish Civil War. There were mysteriesManuel Mena, deceptionsCercas' great uncle, betrayals, evil characters and good innocent onesis the figure who looms large over the book. Measured by these standards, he led a ‘sensational’ life himselfHe died relatively young whilst fighting for Francisco Franco's forces. When not writing novels, short stories, plays or articles Cercas ruminates on why his uncle fought for journals in order to earn a living, this apparently fine upstanding bachelor maintained two households, two mistresses, and children dictator. The question at the same time – and managed centre of this book is whether it is possible for his great uncle to keep them be a secret from the public who would doubtless have been scandalized to know hero whilst having fought for the truthwrong side.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099557347</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1788037812|title=Four Sisters:The Lost Lives Fraternity of the Romanov Grand DuchessesEstranged: The Fight for Homosexual Rights in England, 1891-1908|author=Helen RappaportBrian Anderson

|summary=A few Originally passed in 1885, the law that had made homosexual relations a crime remained in place for 82 years ago. But during this time, Helen Rappaport wrote restrictions on same-sex relationships did not go unchallenged. Between 1891 and published [[Ekaterinburg: The Last Days 1908, three books on the nature of the Romanovs homosexuality appeared. They were written by Helen Rappaport|Ekaterinburgtwo homosexual men: The Last Days Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds, as well as the heterosexual Havelock Ellis. Exploring the margins of society and studying homosexuality was common on the Romanovs]]European Continent, a painstakingbut barely talked about in the UK, chilling account of so the final days and death publications of these men were hugely significant – contributing to the last Tsar scientific understanding of Russia homosexuality, and his family. To a certain extent this biography is a prequel to that volume, an account of beginning the short lives of OTMAstruggle for recognition and equality, as they referred leading to themselves – the Tsar’s daughters Olga, Tatiana, Marie and Anastasiamilestone legalisation of same-sex relationships in 1967.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0230768172</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Buckland_Zoo|title=The Holy FoxMan Who Ate the Zoo: The Life Frank Buckland, forgotten hero of Lord Halifaxnatural history|author=Andrew RobertsRichard Girling

|summary=Of all As a conservationist in Victorian England before the British nearly-Prime Ministers Edward Woodterm existed, 1st Earl Frank Buckland was very much a man ahead of Halifaxhis time. Surgeon, must be unique. He was the one who came closest to assuming the mantle only to find the job denied himnaturalist, veterinarian and had he done so, on eccentric sums him Britain’s destiny would have depended. For he was the man whom several confidently expectedup perfectly, and many wanted, any biographer is immediately presented with a colourful tale to take over after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain during the dark days of May 1940tell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781856974</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Williams_Captain|title=The Boys In The BoatCaptain Ronald Campbell of Bombala Station, Cambalong: An Epic Journey to the Heart of Hitler's BerlinHis Military Life and Times|author=Daniel James BrownIvor George Williams|rating=4.5

|summary=You see, Jesse Owens had it easy – all he had to do In March 1829 Ann Parker married Captain J A Edwards of the 17th Regiment of Foot. He was run fast. Alright, he did have in command of the troops and convicts on board a ship sailing from Plymouth to face unknown hardshipSydney, heinous prejudice at home Australia: his wife and abroad, and make sure he young son accompanied him. He was fast enough not destined to outdo live a long life, dying suddenly at the rest age of his compatriots then the world's best to win gold 34 at the 1936 Berlin OlympicsBangalore, but others who wished to do the same had leaving his widow to do more. People such as those rowers in the coxed eights squad – people such as raise their two young Joe Rantzsons. He certainly had to face hardship, the prejudice borne by those Edwards' death left his widow in the moneyed east coast yacht clubs against an upstart from the NW USA, and when he got to compete he had a difficult position: not only did she have their farm to use so many more musclesmanage, and operate at varying tempi, with but she was also responsible for the temperament of convicts who worked the weather and water against him, all in perfect synchronicity with seven other beefcakesland. Despite rowing being the second greatest ticket at those Games, Joe's story is a lot less well known, and probably a lot more entertainingTwo years later she would marry Captain Ronald Campbell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447210980</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert A CaroPeacock_mountain|title=Into The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent|rating=5|genre=Autobiography|summary=It's only a matter of days since I finished listening to [[The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power by Robert A Caro|The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power]]Mountain, the first part of Robert A Caro's definitive work on the President and despite having just spent over forty hours on the book I wanted to learn more. I was torn though - the second book in a series is not often as good as the first and it struck me that these might not be the most exciting years in Johnson's life. Was this book going to be the link which took us on to the more exciting times? Not a bit Life of it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GSHD0U6</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNan Shepherd|author=Robert A Caro|title=The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to PowerCharlotte Peacock|rating=4.5

|summary=Lyndon Baines Johnson was the 36th President of the United States, preceded by John F Kennedy Mostly we choose what books to read because there is so little time and succeeded by Richard Nixon, with both being remembered most for so many books… I can understand the way they left office. His five-year term in office was overshadowed at the start by the Kennedy assassination and increasingly blighted by the debacle which was Vietnamapproach, but there was something about Johnson which always intrigued me: how does a poor boy from Texas hill country without an exceptional (or even 'good') education become president of the United States? 'The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power' tells you all that you need to know.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00GSHTJZQ</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Born in Siberia|author=Tamara Astafieva, Michael Darlow and Debbie Slater|rating=4.5|genre=Autobiography|summary=I tend to shy away from reviewing book titles, but this time it seems appropriate – here also think we sell ourselves short by it's a title that doesn't tell you the half of the story. As much as Tamara Astafieva was born in Siberia, and returned there several times, for many different reasons and with many very different outcomes, this is much more of a picture of we sell the Soviet Union myriad lesser-known authors short as we in Britain think of it – Moscowwell. So while, a bit of Saint Petersburglike most other people I have my favourite genres, and little else. That's not a fault – and again it's not half of the story. The story here is so complexfavoured authors, so rich with detail and incidentwhile, like most other people I read the reviews and itself came about in such an unusual wayfollow up on what appeals, that any summary of the book has its work cut out in defining its many qualitiesI also have a third-string to my reading bow: randomness.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0704373343</amazonuk>

{{newreview|title=The Pike: Gabriele D'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War|author=Lucy Hughes-Hallett|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=Gabriele d’Annunzio was a strange and perhaps fortunately unique character, a kind of 20th century Renaissance man who almost defies posterity to pigeonhole him. At various times he was a poet, novelist, dramatist, journalist, adventurer, self-styled demagogue and philanderer. Although he lost several friends during the First World War, as well as the sight of one eye when his plane was shot down, he had a passion for war, seeing bloodshed as manly and death in battle as glorious self-sacrifice. He had the dodgiest of moral compasses, and yet was hardly the Adonis he believed himself Move on to be. One French courtesan who firmly rebuffed his physical advances later called him ‘a frightful gnome with red-rimmed eyes and no eyelashes, no hair, greenish teeth, bad breath and the manners of a mountebank’. Had he been alive today, he would have probably been an instant celebrity [[Newest Business and media personality with a very short shelf-life. One half Jeremy Clarkson, one half Russell Brand, one might say.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007213964</amazonuk>}}Finance Reviews]]