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Home>MyLibrary Welcome>Biography Recent Picks
Biography Recent Picks
January 2003 
The title-underlined links will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.
The hidden life of Otto Frank by Carol Ann Lee. (2002)
"Otto Frank was the father of the most famous young girl of the twentieth century. The publication of Anne Frank's diary turned this quietly heroic man into a legend. Yet until now, apart from a few basic facts, almost nothing has been written about Otto's own extraordinary life. Born a month before Adolf Hitler, Otto Frank grew up in a wealthy German Jewish household. In the First World War he fought as a German officer in the trenches of the Somme... It reveals the full story behind Otto's first, cruelly thwarted love affair, as well as the truth about his subsequent arranged marriage to Anne's mother... And then, of course, came their period in hiding, their eventual betrayal and their internment in the death camps of Poland and Germany. For the first time, Otto's experiences during and after Auschwitz are told in full, drawing upon excerpts from a previously unknown journal Otto kept from the day of his liberation until his return to Amsterdam where, wholly destitute, he had lost everything 'except life'. The subsequent discovery of his daughter's diary, and the publishing phenonmenon that ensued, helped him begin to recover." (Book Jacket)
The library also holds copies of Carol Ann Lee's acclaimed Roses from the earth : a biography of Anne Frank, which includes new material on her life in the camps until her death.
| Napoleon : his wives and women by Christopher Hibbert. (2002)
"Modern history has produced one single myth on a heroic scale to rival those of Alexander and Caesar - that of Napoleon. The continuing fascination of this gifted man is reflected in the number of books published each year on various aspects of the Napoleonic legend: some 250,000 volumes in all since Napoleon's mysterious death in 1821. This biography offers an authoritative up-to-date account of Napoleon, concentrating especially on his private life. It examines: all stages of his developing and extraordinary career; his character, interests and tastes; his friendships, enmities and love affairs; his relations with the members of his family; the impressions he made on his contemporaries away from the council chamber and the battlefield; his personal life at war; his life in exile and as emperor in peacetime; and the mystery surrounding his death. In short, it reveals the man behind the soldier, statesman and legend" (Amazon.co.uk)
| Rosamond Lehmann by Selina Hastings. (2002)
"The life of Rosamond Lehmann (1901-1990) was as romantic and harrowing as that of any of her fictional heroines. She enjoyed an idyllic childhood in the Thames valley, and she was much pursued while at Cambridge, but an early marriage to Leslie Runciman was wretchedly unhappy. The phenomenal success of her shocking, first novel, Dusty Answer gave her the means to run off with and eventually marry the glamorous maverick, Wogan Philipps. They lived an apparently charmed existence in Oxfordshire, the golden couple at the very heart of Bloomsbury society... The Biography of Rosamond Lehmann conjures up with warmth and wit the intimate world of a woman whose dramatic life, work and relationships criss-crossed the cultural, literary and political landscape of England in the middle of the twentieth century." (Amazon.co.uk)
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Looking for the phoenix : a memoir by W.H. Oliver. (2002)
The author, a central figure in New Zealand's intellectual landscape, reflects on his own life and the history that has shaped him.
The life of Matthew Flinders by Miriam Estensen. (2002)
The great British navy man and explorer is examined here.
Home truths : life around my father by Penny Junor. (2002)
John Junor was a brilliant newspaperman. As Editor of the Sunday Express for thirty-two years, he wielded more power than many of the politicians he wrote about, mixing with prime ministers, princes, captains of industry and film stars. He was witty, charismatic and flirtatious; he could also be difficult and bad-tempered. Like him or loathe him, no one could ignore him, and his public life flourished. Yet his family life was far from idyllic.
Life on air : memoirs of a broadcaster by David Attenborough. (2002)
The great British naturalist recalls his many adventures and his life as a television personality.
Just for the record by Geri Halliwell. (2002)
The former Spice Girl tells the story of her life and career to date. Previous autobiography If only also available.
The little princesses : the story of the Queen's childhood by her governess by Marion Crawford. (new edition) (2002)
The Scottish nanny of the Queen and Princess Margaret shares her reminisences.
Samuel Pepys : the unequalled self by Claire Tomalin. (2002)
A new critically acclaimed biography of England's great man of letters.
Alec Guinness : a life by Garry O'Connor. (2002)
This book contains a lot of new material on the forces which shaped Guinness's career including his illegitimacy, his strained relationship with his mother, his secret relationships and his search for stability through the Roman Catholic church.
Previous Biography Recent Pick edition.
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