Biography Recent Picks
February 2011
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Hero : the life and legend of Lawrence of Arabia / by Michael Korda.
"The story of an epic life on a grand scale: a revealing, in-depth biography of the extraordinary, mysterious, and dynamic Englishman whose daring exploits and romantic profile--including his blond, sun-burnished good looks and flowing white robes--made him an object of intense fascination, still famous the world over as "Lawrence of Arabia." An Oxford scholar and archaeologist, Lawrence was sent to Cairo as a young intelligence officer in 1916. He vanished into the desert in 1917 only to emerge later as one of the greatest--and certainly most colorful--figures of World War One. As Korda shows, Lawrence was not only a man of his times; he was a visionary whose accomplishments--farsighted diplomat and kingmaker, military strategist of genius, perhaps the first modern "media celebrity" (and one of the first victims of it), and an acclaimed writer--transcended his era." (From publisher description)
The woman who thought too much : a memoir / Joanne Limburg.
"For readers of "A Year of Magical Thinking" by Joan Didion and Bad Blood by Lorna Sage, here comes an intensely honest, riveting and surprisingly witty literary memoir of one woman's life as a sufferer of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Joanne Limburg suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: she thinks things she doesn't want to think, and she does things she doesn't want to do. As a small child, she would chew her hair all day and lie awake at night wondering if heaven had a ceiling; a few years later, when she should have been doing her homework, she was pacing her bedroom, agonising about the unfairness of life as a woman, and the shortness of her legs. By the time she was an adult, obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours had come to dominate her life. She knew that something was wrong with her, but it would take many years before she understood what that something was. "The Woman Who Thought Too Much" follows Limburg's quest to understand her predicament and to manage her symptoms." (Amazon.co.uk)
Howard Hughes, hell's angel / Darwin Porter.
"From his reckless pursuit of love as a rich teenager to his final days, Howard Hughes changed the worlds of aviation and entertainment forever. Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel reveals inside details about his destructive and usually scandalous associations with other hollywood players. Set amid descriptions of the unimaginable changes that affected American between 1905 and 1976, this critically acclaimed biography gives an insider's perspective of what money can buy - and what it can't." (Amazon.co.uk)
A book of secrets : illegitimate daughters, absent fathers / Michael Holroyd.
"On a hill above the Italian village of Ravello stands the Villa Cimbrone – a place of fantasy and make-believe. The characters that move through Michael Holroyd’s new book are destined never to meet – they lived through different eras and reside in different countries. Yet the Villa Cimbrone unites them all.
A Book of Secrets is a treasure-trove of hidden lives, uncelebrated achievements and family mysteries. Michael Holroyd peers into dusty corners to bring a company of unknown women into the light. Their lives are fluid and vulnerable – they play the role of mistress, fiancée, or muse – and always somehow illegitimate. From Alice Keppel, the mistress of both the second Lord Grimthorpe (owner of the Villa Cimbrone) and the Prince of Wales; Eve Fairfax, Lord Grimthorpe’s abandoned fiancée and sometime muse of Auguste Rodin; and finally, to the novelist Violet Trefusis, the lover of Vita Sackville-West in one of the most scandalous love affairs of the early twentieth-century: these women are always on the periphery of the respectable world." (Book Cover)
Women of consequence : heroines who shaped the world / Xavière Gauthier.
"Many of the worlds greatest pioneers, record- breakers, and achievers over the last century have been women. This anthology highlights some of the most accomplished women in the fields of sports, the arts, politics, social justice, and the sciences, in five accessible chapters. The work encompasses familiar names and unsung heroines alike, from Nobel prize-winning biologist Barbara McClintock to social activists Jane Addams and Aung San Suu Kyi, to the worlds first female president, Virdis Finnbogadottir, to modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan. Complete with color illustrations, this volume recounts the trials and triumphs these women faced in achieving their goals, and evaluates the impact they had on their respective fields." (Amazon.co.uk)
Pity for the Guy : a biography of Guy Fawkes / John Paul Davis.
"John Paul Davis, author of Robin Hood The Unknown Templar, presents a new biography of Guy Fawkes, the first to paint a fully-rounded portrait of the man behind the Gunpowder Plot. Fawkes is revealed as far more than a shadowy conspirator: husband, soldier, adventurer, spy and possibly the most misunderstood of English villains." (Product Description)
Lenin : a biography / Robert Service.
"Lenin is a colossal figure whose influence on twentieth-century history cannot be underestimated. Robert Service has written a calmly authoritative biography on this seemingly unknowable figure. Making use of recently opened archives, he has been able to piece together the private as well as the public life, giving the first complete picture of Lenin.
This biography simultaneously provides an account of one of the greatest turning points in modern history. Through the prism of Lenin's career, Service examines events such as the October Revolution and the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, the one-party state, economic modernisation, dictatorship, and the politics of inter-war Europe. In discovering the origins of the USSR, he casts light on the nature of the state and society which Lenin left behind and which have not entirely disappeared after the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991." (Amazon.co.uk)
Tolstoy : a Russian life / Rosamund Bartlett.
"A hundred years ago in November 1910 Count Leo Tolstoy died on a remote Russian railway station, attended by the world’s media, taken ill as he was finally attempting to escape his decadent (as he saw it), aristocratic family life. Tolstoy has been universally recognised as a colossus of world literature whether by his contemporaries or critics. In this exceptional biography Rosamund Bartlett draws extensively on the many fascinating new sources which have been published about Tolstoy since the collapse of Communism to write about one of the most compelling, maddening, brilliant and contrary people who has ever lived. She and we discover a remarkable and long life in one of the most fascinating and turbulent periods of Russian history, straddling the 19th and early 20th centuries. Tolstoy spent that life rebelling – not only against conventional ideas about literature and art but against traditional education and eventually against family life, organised religion and the state." (Amazon.co.uk)
The secret life of Houdini : the making of America's first superhero / William Kalush and Larry Sloman.
"Using exclusive access to newly uncovered archives, Kalush and Sloman reveal the clandestine agreements in which the British and Americans recruited Houdini to be an active secret agent. In exchange for his cooperation, the governments of these two countries facilitated his rise to the top of the world stage. The authors give thrilling accounts of his assignments, such as his participation in early aerial surveillance and his use of his own magic magazine to communicate espionage-related information. After the war, Houdini embarked upon what became his most dangerous mission when he took on the Spiritualist movement. Convinced that Spiritualist mediums were frauds, he became obsessed with exposing them. But the Spiritualists were a powerful adversary. An organized network of fanatics, led by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle, worked relentlessly to orchestrate a campaign that would silence Houdini forever. Grounded in solid research, but as exciting and dramatic as a good thriller, THE SECRET LIFE OF HOUDINI traces the magician's long and circuitous route from struggling vaudevillian to worldwide legend." (Amazon.co.uk)
Even silence has an end / Ingrid Betancourt.
"Ingrid Betancourt's story - her exemplary courage, spirit and resilience - has captured the world's imagination. A politician and presidential candidate celebrated for her determination to combat the corruption and climate of fear endemic in Colombia, in 2002 she was taken hostage by FARC, a terrorist guerrilla organisation. She was held captive in the depths of the jungle for six and a half years, chained day and night for much of that time, constantly on the move and enduring gruelling conditions. She was freed and reunited with her children and relatives in 2008. It is Betancourt's indomitable spirit that drives this important and deeply moving book, telling in her own words the extraordinary drama of her capture and eventual rescue, and describes her fight to survive, mentally and physically. As she confronts the horror of what she went through, her story also goes beyond the specifics of her own confinement to offer an intensely intelligent, thoughtful and compassionate reflection on what it means to be human." (Amazon.co.uk)
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