Biography Books > B Biography Books > 5 GBP to 9 GBP

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: will make you cry

Broken by Shy Keenan is not a book for the faint hearted to read. It is one of the most disturbing stories of child abuse ever written. It is unbelievable to think that there are perverts out there who get their kicks out of treating young children like sex objects, but it happens and Shy Keenan is a survivor of such abuse. Shy Keenan was let down by the social services and the police and made to believe that she was a bad person who attracted ...
...and also extreme sadness that there are people out there who have suffered such terrible childhoods at the hands of the people who were meant to look after them and protect them. Broken is available from various bookshops. I paid £9 for the hardback from Amazon. ... Read review

Advantages: Interesting, humorous, factual, serious, it has the lot.
Disadvantages: None for me.

I have read a number of biographies and auto biographies over the years, although, despite being a retired police officer, never one relating to the job I held for 30 years. This book, however, was bought and read on the recommendation of an officer from the City of London, whom I had befriended as a Federation rep at conferences. My friend's recommendation that it was a good read was certainly true and I found myself transported back in time to ...
...title suggests, it is the story of the author's life, briefly from his childhood days from his birth in 1944, to his retirement from the police in 1999, the bulk of the book being his police service. To set the scene of Bob's start in life, the first 3 chapters chronicle his childhood and his first jobs prior to joining the police. To say his early childhood was bizarre is, to say the least, an understatement. He tells of how, before he was born, ... Read review

Advantages: Great story
Disadvantages: I guess you have to like Steele or Sarf London

...Tommy Hicks was born in Bermondsey in 1936. There is some history of Bermondsey and the London borough of Southwark, and in the tradition of the best memoirs this is also a biography of the wider family. Steele includes considerable details of his parents' early poverty, jobs and bereavements. His grandmother was an illegal bookie's runner, father Darbo was a racing tipster, tic-tac man and doorman at a dodgy 'nightclub', and his mother was a tin-basher ...
...account of growing up in Bermondsey before and during the war with its dangers, and the fatal illnesses of three small siblings. A couple of odd, quasi-supernatural encounters are related in a matter-of-fact manner, so the reader can take or leave them. Steele was a bright lad, and admits he always liked being the centre of attention, entertaining his family, sending off 'thrillers' for Enid Blyton's advice, and performing Danny Kaye-ish routines ... Read review

Advantages: Will leave you feeling good!
Disadvantages: One for the girls only!

Now, I'm not one for celebrity Biography\'s or autobiography\'s especially by so called celebs who bring out a book after being in the limelight for a couple of years or just because they have been on BB (which Teri isn\'t)!! This book however seemed to scream at me from the shelf. I have always liked Teri Hatcher and having seen her in the press for various bad things happening to her I was intreagued to say the least to hear things from her point ...
...I loved it and couldn't put it down. She is very funny! You fall for her story like that of a blockbuster movie. The book is very personal and she talks very frankly about everything that has happened to her and how she coped, or didn\'t cope as the case may be. You find yourself relating to certain aspects of her story which only helps you be captivated even more. The way this book is written is like you personally, are having a conversation with ... Read review

Advantages: Highly entertaining
Disadvantages: Can't think of any

This is one of the best autobiographies that I have read - and I have read quite a few (Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Mo Mowlam to name but a few!). I was fortunate enough to pick my (battered but still readable) copy at a church fayre for 10p! Charting the career of this lovable and aristocratic actor through his career, starting with how he got into acting, his life in the USA, his life in the RAF during the war and how he got back into acting ...
...friendships, particularly with Errol Flynn, and contains approximately 20-25 balc and white photographs of him, his friends and his family. I don't want to give too much away, as I whole heartedly recommend that you buy and read the book (even if it is a little old) but ...... The title of the book derives its name from the director of the 'Charge of the Light Brigade'. One of the scenes required some horses to run across the battlefield after ... Read review