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Category: Biography & Memoir, Diaries

December 16, 2020

I Don’t Want to Go to the Taj Mahal: Stories of a Birmingham Boy by Charlie Hill

Review by Eleanor Updegraff It can be difficult to get other people interested in your life. Many authors have tried, many have failed –…

December 10, 2020

The Fragments of My Father by Sam Mills

Reviewed by Harriet Sam Mills’ ‘memoir of madness, love, and being a carer’ starts on a Friday night in early 2016. Sam’s father has been…

December 9, 2020

Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel, by Rachel Holmes

Reviewed by Rob Spence I recently watched the Ethiopia episode of Afua Hirsch’s excellent series African Renaissance, in which I was startled to see…

November 12, 2020

Michael Tippett, The Biography by Oliver Soden

Reviewed by Peter Hobson This is a very long, extensively referenced account of the life and music of Michael Tippett, a composer who is…

September 21, 2020

Journey through a Tragicomic Century: The Absurd Life of Hasso Grabner by Francis Nenik

Translated by Katy Derbyshire Reviewed by Eleanor Updegraff This September sees the launch of V&Q Books, a brand-new publishing imprint with the mission of…

September 17, 2020

Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal by Sarah Maslin Nir

Review by Liz Dexter Sarah Maslin Nir is a staff reporter for the New York Times who, by her own admission, has sought out…

August 4, 2020

Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by Natasha Trethewey

Reviewed by Rebecca Foster Natasha Trethewey is an English professor and former U.S. Poet Laureate familiar to me from Native Guard (2006), her third…

July 30, 2020

Grayson Perry by Jacky Klein & Grayson Perry

Reviewed by Liz Dexter This sumptuous book, that has a lot of content, in terms of both text and image, is a real treat…

July 28, 2020

Three Wainwright Prize Nominees: Books by Patrick Barkham, Patrick Laurie & Jini Reddy

Reviewed by Rebecca Foster The Wainwright Prize longlists for writing on UK nature and global conservation themes were announced in early June and will…

DIARY OF A YOUNG NATURALIST
July 2, 2020

Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty

Reviewed by Rebecca Foster When the Wainwright Prize longlists (for writing on UK nature and global conservation themes) were announced in early June, Dara…

June 23, 2020

I Remember by Georges Perec

Introduced, Translated, Annotated, Edited and Indexed by Philip Terry and David Bellos Reviewed by Karen Langley Regular readers of Shiny New Books may recall…

June 16, 2020

James and Nora: A Portrait of a Marriage by Edna O’Brien

Review by Rob Spence Last year, Weidenfeld and Nicholson reissued Edna O’Brien’s 1999 biography of Joyce, an entertainingly idiosyncratic volume, which is reviewed here….

Well-kept Secrets: The Story of William Wordsworth by Andrew Wordsworth
May 21, 2020

Well-kept Secrets: The Story of William Wordsworth by Andrew Wordsworth

Reviewed by Harriet As I’m sure you’ve noticed, this year marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wordsworth, one of England’s most celebrated…

May 19, 2020

Diary Of A Foreigner In Paris, by Curzio Malaparte

Translated by Stephen Twilley Reviewed by Basil Ransome-Davies An adjective frequently applied to Curzio Malaparte is ‘colourful’. To the Cambridge dictionary it means ‘vivid,…

March 17, 2020

James Joyce by Edna O’Brien

Review by Rob Spence Edna O’Brien’s position as one of the most significant modern Irish writers is undisputed, and here, in this reissue of…

February 13, 2020

Veronica by Veronica Lake

Reviewed by Harriet I wonder how many people today have even heard of Veronica Lake. There was a time, though a relatively brief one,…

Home Work Julie Andrews
October 29, 2019

Home Work by Julie Andrews

with Emma Walton Hamilton Review by Annabel Julie Andrews’s first volume of memoir, Home, told us of her childhood, growing up during the war, and…

gloucester Crescent william miller
October 15, 2019

Gloucester Crescent by William Miller

Review by Annabel Nestled between Primrose Hill and Camden Town in NW1, it’s hard to believe that Gloucester Crescent (and Regents Park Terrace which…

October 10, 2019

Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie

Review by Peter Reason Kathleen Jamie is primarily known as a poet, but her prose writing is eagerly anticipated and widely acclaimed. Surfacing is…

confessions bookseller shaun bythell profile
October 1, 2019

Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

Review by Simon As the cover of Confessions of a Bookseller tells us, Bythell is an international bestseller. A couple of years ago, The…

September 17, 2019

Rough Magic: Riding the World’s Wildest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer

Review by Liz Dexter Lara is by her own account a bit scatter-brained. She’s been described as away with the fairies, didn’t see the…

This Really Isn't About You Jean Hannah Edelstein
July 30, 2019

This Really Isn’t About You by Jean Hannah Edelstein

Review by Max Dunbar There’s a common British anecdote that goes: ‘We had some American friends here on holiday, and on the third day…

Way home mark boyle
May 21, 2019

The Way Home: Tales from a life without technology by Mark Boyle

Reviewed by Rebecca Foster It’s common practice nowadays, when publicizing a book review published in an online venue, to tag the author on social…

Little boy lawrence ferlinghetti
May 9, 2019

Little Boy by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Review by Karen Langley American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti is perhaps more regularly acknowledged nowadays for his pivotal role in pioneering the Beat Generation; from…

So Much Longing edvard munch knausgaard
May 7, 2019

So Much Longing in So Little Space: The Art of Edvard Munch by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Translated by Ingvild Burkey Reviewed by Jean Morris This is a book for fans of Karl Ove Knausgaard who also love the work of…

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