Tag: Biography
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The Outrun, by Amy Liptrot
Hardback, Canongate, £14.99, out now A young woman flies back into Orkney with her newborn baby – pausing at the airport to introduce the baby to her husband, who is being flown out, in a straitjacket, to a psychiatric hospital. Amy Liptrot, the author of this engaging addition to the nature/memoir selection, was the baby…
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Jeremy Hutchinson’s Case Histories, by Thomas Grant
John Murray, out now, £25 A child of the Bloomsbury group, Jeremy Hutchinson became a leading QC at the criminal bar in postwar Britain. Fellow lawyer Thomas Grant has written Hutchinson’s life in an unusual style – a shortish biographical sketch, followed by in depth accounts of Hutchinson’s most famous cases. This approach successfully illuminates…
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Patrick Leigh Fermor – An Adventure: Artemis Cooper
Paperback now available Like any worthwhile biographical subject, the travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor was a bundle of contradictions. A garrulous, worldly adventurer who secluded himself in French monasteries; an urbane clubman who yearned for the Greek countryside; and a bon vivant and seducer who built his life around one loyal woman. The excitable young…
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Kurt Vonnegut: A Man Without A Country
A bitter and poignant account of a wise old man who asks questions about human responsibility for the fate of the world but knows how hypocritical the answers would be so he doesn’t even want to wait to hear them. “Man without a country” is a mosaic of simple thoughts, perceptions and sharp reflections on…
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Artur Domos?awski: Ryszard Kapu?ci?ski: A Life
There are not many as disappointing things in life as finding out that someone whose work you’ve always admired was not an impeccable, godlike figure, but a deeply flawed human being. Suddenly it’s down to us to judge if we can overlook these flaws or if we find them utterly unforgivable. This is a decision…
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Elizabeth the Queen: Alison Weir
Without doubt the definitive biography of the era-defining monarch. Weir’s patient (but never torpid) detail is ideal in reconstructing the life and Court of a woman about whom [too] much is assumed, exaggerated and scandalised. A wonderful read that leaves you with an indelible portrait.
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Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
This account of what happened to a Syrian-American man and his family after Hurricane Katrina is a powerful indictment of Bush-era policies. Good Samaritan Abdulrahman Zeitoun has stayed on the city using his canoe to navigate the deeply flooded streets, rescuing survivors and feeding trapped dogs. When the National Guard arrive and arrest Zeitoun the…
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The Hare with the Amber Eyes
Edmund De Waal, £8.99 De Waal’s Costa Winning bestseller (Biography) traces the history of an inherited collection of netsuke in what was one of 2010’s most warmly received titles.