Biography Books > I Biography Books > 5 GBP to 9 GBP

Advantages: A beautifully grafted story which makes for a riveting read
Disadvantages: It ends too soon

...at their home, Thrumpton Hall in Nottinghamshire. His obsessive love of this 400 year old, rose brick, mansion came to dominate his life. Even at seven , in a school essay, he wrote, “When I am the squire of Thrumpton Hall, I shall look after my people and I shall preach to them on Sundays” and this desire never left him. The author is at pains to discover the roots of and reasons for this house becoming her father’s ‘raison d’etre’. Maybe it was ...
...career and job in banking This is accounted for by the fact he was “ an insufferable little prig” ridiculously spoilt and indulged by his mother, father and aunt alike. Maybe his loneliness and frequent isolation from his mother and father made him regard the house as a security blanket. More likely it grew from his own pretentious nature. From his very early years, he demonstrated all the attributes of a sanctimonious snob. He never failed to mention ... Read review

Advantages: clear
Disadvantages: too long

This is an inspired collection of essays on a range of great thinkers who have grace the last few centuries. This is an interesting reference work. If you happen to come across a particular author or thinker who you are reading you can dip into this book to find a new angle, but it is a little too complex to read if you are unfamiliar with the thinker and his works before. The great insight is into the private lives of the thinkers themselves, Johnson ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent read, great source of information of the subject and his time
Disadvantages: Not everyone might know or be interested in Isherwood

Christopher Isherwood is one of those writers who is interesting for what he did as much as for what he wrote. In particular he was identified with a coterie of writers and artists who if they did not "dominate the century" as has somewhat pompously and inaccurately been claimed certainly contributed to the development of literature particularly during the decade of the thirties. For the casual reader it is pertinent to point out that Isherwood's ...
...they are rarely revived, know Isherwood co-wrote three plays with WH Auden. Isherwood also wrote a string of other novels with varying success but perhaps a biography of this nature was required to establish Isherwood's place in contemporary literature. Who then was Christopher Isherwood? The question is less obvious, and so is the answer, than may appear on face value. Much of Peter Parker's excellent, indeed seminal, biography is concerned with ... Read review

Advantages: great book and a great insight into Geri Halliwell
Disadvantages: none

When I first bought this book I didnt really know what to expect but I never thought it would be as brilliant as it is! I strated reading the book and couldnt put it down - its so engaging - it tells us of all the problems Geri had when she was younger, her family, her weight problems and she even describes her time working as a dancer in Spain. Its the kind of book that makes you see that pop stars are actually real people with real lives and real ...
...emotions and feelings that can be hurt. I never thought of Geri Halliwell as a deep person until I read this book, in fact I never really liked her but after reading her biography I feel like I actually know her. In the book she reveals the truth about everything the spice girls went through and her true feelings about the other girls and also why she left. Its a great read and once I started reading it I couldnt put it down! Cant wait to read her ... Read review

Advantages: True, first half of book is amazing, educational as well
Disadvantages: Heartbreaking, and the second half of the book is nearly unreadable

...hours.) Boring Stuff Title: Tim: An Ordinary Boy Author: Colin and Wendy Parry (although the book seems to be from Colin's perspective) Genre: Biography Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd; New Ed edition (3 Aug 1995) ISBN-13: 978-0340617908 Price: Amazon: from £.0.01 at time of writing, Background Colin and Wendy Parry are two remarkable figures who did a great deal of work towards the IRA ceasefire and eventual peace in 1994. However, ...
...these two people did not have every reason to be filled with hatred and bitterness towards the people they were trying to help...and being able to turn that bitterness into an instinct to bring together the very people who have hurt you really is remarkable. You see, their son, Tim Parry, was one of the people killed in the IRA bombing of Warrington in 1993, in fact one of only two people killed, and to make it worse - two children. Tim was only ... Read review