Biography Books > S Biography Books > R > less than 5 GBP

Advantages: Well-rounded, objective picture of the man and his times
Disadvantages: Lacks index

Ian Dury was a complete one-off. Stricken with polio in childhood, born in middle-class Harrow but determined to shake off such origins to the extent of acquiring a real Cockney accent, he became an art school rebel whose early pub-rock experiences, as front man of Kilburn & the High Roads, led to one frustrating move after another. But he came out smiling, briefly, with the music sea change that was punk and new wave from the end of 1976 onwards ...
...to take Britain by the scruff of the neck, hitting the Top 10 with "What A Waste" and going all the way to No. 1 with "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick". After that it went pear-shaped, and a short career in films and associated avenues beckoned, before he started working for children's and cancer charities, and returning to the music scene as a much-beloved elder statesman of rock. Few will forget those moving last appearances on record and TV with ... Read review

Advantages: Introductory essay, clear and concise, beautiful illustrations
Disadvantages: None

...the poet and historian, Robert Southey in 1813. It has been revived and edited by Richard Holmes in a series of biographical books, Flamingo Classic Biographies series, released by HarperCollins on 17th September 2001. The book retails for £7.99. I attended a talk given by Richard Holmes promoting this set of short books (The Life of Nelson is just 300 pages) whilst at the Hay Festival this year. For the Talk, Holmes focused on another biography, ...
...At the time when Southey wrote Nelson’s biography, he was the Poet Laureate. The Life of Nelson was acclaimed as his greatest prose work. Southey meticulously researched his subject to avoid making any technical mistakes. The book is beautifully illustrated with 12 glossy prints of paints including the Battles of The Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar and the Death of Nelson. The front cover is a portrait of Nelson by Hopwood. Richard Holmes embarked ... Read review

Advantages: you dont have to read to understand his carrer
Disadvantages: nothing

today i will be reviewing shane warnes official illustrated carrer. the book is about the amazing and eventful carrer pictures taking you it also has him as a baby right through until he is a adult from his first ball he ever bowled to this day each picture has captions of what the picture is about. this book is the sort of thing that you can sit down and read time after time and never get bord. after all shane warnes carrer was anything but ...
...back on the times when shane warne was at his best this book provides great infomation about his amazing carrer if you can get this book under £15.00 then you have got an excellant bargin my opinion love this book such a good book always worth looking at thanks for reading this review ... Read review

Advantages: Well written, easy to read
Disadvantages: Nothing new, its all been written before

Madonna - love her or loathe her, it seems that everyone has an opinion about her. With a career that now spans over 25 years her rise to fame from the early days when she first arrived in New York, penniless but with huge ambitions has been well documented many times. Madonna - Queen of the world by Douglas Thompson could at first glance quite easily be dismissed as yet another regurgitated account of Madonna's rise to fame but from the sleeve notes ...
...that everyone claims to already know everything there is to know about. Madonna has given many interviews throughout her life. Usually these interviews are carefully timed to coincide with her latest project, be it a new album, movie, book or other project and the new image that compliments the project is always flaunted to its maximum effect. When it comes to being interviewed Madonna always calls the shots, so how can anyone really expect to know ... Read review

Advantages: A true life account of a terrible accident.
Disadvantages: You don't always get a happy ending in real life.

The book I will now review contains probably one of the worst nightmares any parent could anticipate, the fact is a biography detailing the entire scenario makes it even more difficult and heart wrenching to read. The book I will now review is "Shattered", by Mavis Marsh and ghost written by Andrew Crofts. The book starts with the awful words of the doctor that has done the pre assessment on Mavis's son Mathew - "Your son will be a cabbage for ...
...a vegetable, or what-ever you want to call him". From that awful statement the story goes back to Mavis's ( the mother, writer and teller of this somewhat frightening story), childhood, first detailing her parents life, from jobs and home life, through to her father serving in the war and the untold horrors he had witnessed. From this she went on to her school life, until reading further into the book I never quite understood the purpose for all ... Read review