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Situation comedy's favourite senior citizen

Advantages: Touching portrait of the actor and his family
Disadvantages: The mix of biography and memoir can be a little blurred and disjointed at times

‘Godfrey’s Ghost’ is part biography, part memoir. As the author explains in his Prologue, it is a book written about his father Arnold mainly with his own young son in mind. Arnold Ridley (1896-1984) was well known before the Second World War as the dra ...

JOHNV 27.10.2010 · Read full review
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Review of Godfrey's Ghost: From Father to Son - Nicolas Ridley

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The man they couldn't stop

Advantages: Compelling story, well told.
Disadvantages: None

...The mystery man threw off his disguise and started to run. Furious stewards gave chase. The crowd roared. A legend was born. Soon the world would know him as "the ghost runner". Bill Jones first heard of the "ghost runner" in 1984, nine years after Joh ...

sheri3004 11.11.2011 · Read full review
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Review of The Ghost Runner: The Tragedy of the Man They Couldn't Stop - Bill Jones

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'Gandhi, where's your trousers?'

Advantages: Objective biography of his good and less wonderful sides
Disadvantages: None really for anybody interested in the subject

...Until I read this book, Mohandas Karamchand (better known to us as Mahatma) Gandhi had always been a very shadowy figure. I was familiar enough with the picture of the loincloth-clad man who fell victim to the bullets of an assassin shortly after the proc ...

JOHNV 20.07.2010 · Read full review
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Review of Gandhi - Jad Adams

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Perhaps the wittiest man that ever lived

Advantages: Witty, funny and insightful
Disadvantages: None, other than it is obviously very subjective, but what do you expect?

...Julius Henry Marx, most famously known as Groucho Marx, is perhaps the wittiest comedy actor I have ever had the pleasure of hearing or watching. It's a skill he perfected with his four brothers, Chico, Harpo, Gummo and Zeppo, through the hard graft of th ...

BlackSwan 02.02.2010 · Read full review
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Review of Groucho and Me - Groucho Marx

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"...A great king, and perhaps a very great king"

Advantages: Well written, appropriate tone, fascinating insight into George VI
Disadvantages: Photos should be on proper photo paper

Sarah Bradford's biography of George VI deals with a king who faced a great deal of adversity in his short reign. The second son of George V, he ascended to the throne on the abdication of his older brother, Edward VIII, who chose marriage to Wallis Simps ...

eilidhcatriona 17.12.2012 · Read full review
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Review of George VI - Sarah Bradford

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