Biography Books > C Biography Books > less than 5 GBP

Advantages: Well written, you felt you knew them all a little better when finished
Disadvantages: None

...(Cathy Glass) with an extremely damaged young girl that came into her care was truly harrowing. I was in tears after the first few chapters as the story unfolded, the mental damage that had been done to this young child was portrayed perfectly through the excellent writing of this book. Life is really put into perspective when you read about the awful things that this young girl had been subjected to from a young age. Cathy and her family had some ... Read review

Advantages: It tells you something about Moyles
Disadvantages: It jumps around, badly written, not much information

...listen to Chris Moyles in the morning before I had kids and gave up working, now I just sit and watch kids cartoons until it's time to get dressed (but that is a different story), and I used to really enjoy listening to him. I remember Chris talking about his book on air quite a bit, but then forgot about it until I read a review on another site, the review did say that the book wasn't really that good and to borrow it from a library rather than ...
...the library and return with the book. I was really interested to get started so I sat down to enjoy the book. It was so bad that I almost took the book back before finishing the first chapter. It is written in a really over familiar way, the way you might write a letter to a close friend, not in a typical bookish type of way. Some may find this appealing, but I didn't. Each of the chapters are actually quite long but they are usually split up into ... 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

Advantages: Informative, Brings a remote war to life
Disadvantages: Harrowing

...who lied to their children when they asked “When’s Pa coming home?” Yet a lot of people were in denial, up until the point where a news channel shows footage of human skulls resting on top of one another. My sister visited the Killing Fields last year, and was shown around with a guide and she vividly described to me the pain which showed in his eyes. She also took those very shots which were first released in the news in the early 1980’s. They begged ...
...only four years of age when the Viet Cong invaded Cambodia. Her parents, who had 10 children, had married young. Despite early challenges, were successful in what they did, by the still relatively young age of 25. Her father worked for the government in Phnom Penh and was quite an entrepreneur on the side. What strikes you about this account, even in the first few pages, is how the minds of a young child are so astute. Chanrithy talks about being ... Read review

Advantages: Detail, detail, detail
Disadvantages: Ditto

'Very well written, critical and thoroughly researched' it says on the back. Well, two out of three ain't bad, as some other popster had it. The other quote is 'Rigorously researched and thoroughly readable'. Notably these quotes are for the author and not attributed to this particular book. I cannot fault the research - and 'critically' Sandford is honest and portrays as many sides as he can find. 'Well written' only applies in a technical sense, ...
...take on this book, you possibly need to know my starting point. "Bruce Springsteen" is the backdrop to my own Glory Days. I can't pretend to have ever come close to the remotest possibility of meeting the man in person - unless the jogger outside St James' in '84 were he (the bandanna suggests little Stevie as a more likely possibility) - or maybe if the chap we took to be a scamster at the last gig were for real, I might just have..! I came across ... Read review