Biography Books > P Biography Books > 5 GBP to 9 GBP

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: Fantastic writing, amazing story
Disadvantages: You will probably cry (I did!)

...we would ever see him on tv again, would he be the same person? The first television appearance was on Jonathan Ross, and I tuned in eagerly, to see if the Hamster we all loved was still there. It seemed yes he was, apart from a new love for celery, and an uncanny ability to recall everyone's phone number! What relief. During this time we had been watching the media storm against the BBC and more specifically Top Gear, claims it was dangerous, it ...
...I had found Hammonds interview on Ross fascinating. Being stingy however, I waited until I could pick it up at two books for £7 in the supermarket! (In all fairness, it's only now Mia's reaching one that I get chance to read anyway!). To be honest, I didn't expect a talented writer when I thought of Hammond, which in hindsight, was silly, he is a journalist after all. I was shocked by the unique and direct writing style he used. Somehow, there ... Read review

Advantages: Excellent read
Disadvantages: None

Russell Watson first came to my attention when I heard him sing at the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. He sang 'Where my Heart Will Take me' (one of mine and my hubbies all time favourite songs) and I suddenly realised what an amazing voice he had. When I knew he was writing his biography I could not wait to get a copy and read it. Russell starts the book in October 2007 at the time of his collapsed and when he was told he needed ...
...We are then taken back to his childhood where he tells about how he grew up in Sunningdale Drive in Irlam, Manchester. He lived there with his mother and father and his younger sister Hayley. He openly talks about how he had a happy childhood due to the fact that his father always worked his hardest and his Mother always had her radiogram playing, he believes this is where his love for classical music came from. He tells us about the group of friends ... Read review

Advantages: Cheap, fun and easy to read
Disadvantages: I want her life

I bought this book on a spur of the moment shopping trip, basically because I was interested to see how Coleen went from being a schoolgirl to a WAG in such a short space of time. I was amazed to read her story and see how down to earth she really was, even after being catapulted at amazing speed into the limelight. She was even thoughtful enough to come back to her book and update it with her wedding plans for the release of the paperback edition. ...
...quick life update, within which she includes girly pages with tips on make-up, fashion, nights out and quizzes, making it so much more like a diary. It is really easy to read and highly enjoyable to learn how down to earth she is and how she enjoys nothing more than snuggling on her sofa watching the soaps just like the rest of us. ... Read review