Basic Biography.

Advantages: OK read, interesting in parts
Disadvantages: Nothing special, leaves more out than it reveals I guess.

...For those of you just arrived from the planet Mars ,Paul O'Grady has become pretty well known in recent years. Paul is a much loved English comedian. His fame, especially on television, is established now but I would not have thought that he was really famous enough for a biography. Still, in common with many other celebrities and comedians Paul has published a biography which has been a best seller in the UK. It was one of the books on my husband?s Christmas list so, now that he has finished reading it, I have done the same. I found that although I enjoyed this book it was nothing very special. Written by Neil Simpson with presumably accurate quotes, and the like, from O?Grady it just somehow lacked sparkle. A little background. Paul O?Grady was born on 14th June 1955. Paul O?Grady first gained popular success as Lily Savage...

grafter123 10.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Paul O'Grady: The Biography - Neil Simpson

A Banoffee Pie Biography

Advantages: It's about Jeremy Clarkson
Disadvantages: Spelling mistakes, poor grammar, repetition, bad prose - they all destroy a good read

..., a piece about Major Robert Cain from the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. It might be a salient point that she was referring to the research Clarkson was doing on the story of Cain and the Victoria Cross or that the Major himself was an ancestor of Clarkson's wife, but six pages of copy lifted straight from a free Internet resource is hardly inspired writing. Having wanted so much to read this book, I found "Jeremy Clarkson - The Biography" 265 pages of tedium and I was glad when I got to the end. I think I'll stick to watching Clarkson on the telly and reading his Sunday Times and The Sun columns. Considering how accomplished a writer he is, if I were the man himself I'd liken this book to the Banoffee Pie once slammed in his face by protestor Rebecca Lush when he received an honorary degree from Oxford Brookes University. As he...

markd_uk 03.11.2006 · Read review
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Review of Jeremy Clarkson: The Biography - Gwen Russell

A Double Fantasy of a biography!

Advantages: Excellent, partly written from personal experience, covers pretty much everything
Disadvantages: Could've chosen a better cover photo, I want more!

...details included - from the fact that the only childhood illness Lennon suffered from was chicken pox to how he would play his guitar in the porch because of the good acoustics. I would've loved more, although other people would maybe find it boring to have too many trivial details included. Like all accounts of Lennon's life, this biography is a little dismissive of the final five years of his life, where he stayed at home to raise his second son, Sean. I would have liked more details on this, although I am aware that they may not have been available or important. To be honest, his songs on the Double Fantasy album give you more information on that time than this book. This biography does answer a lot of questions; from Lennon's early musical influences to why he left Cynthia to be with Yoko. I was surprised by a lot of it...

DoubleFantasy11 17.08.2005 · Read review
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Review of Lennon: The definitive Biography - Ray Coleman

Oscar Wilde's obsession with books

Advantages: Full of fascinating information about Wilde's life and love of books
Disadvantages: None really, except maybe best enjoyed by those with some prior knowledge of Wilde

...from two biographies in his library. And we mean literally made up, the vandal. He had taken a pair of scissors to the relevant texts from his books and pasted them into his handwritten notes. In his defence, it must be remembered that one did not have a photocopier or scanner in 1886. Even so, shame on him? I found this biography fascinating. It is in part a cradle-to-grave account, but the life story is fully integrated with observations about his reading and writing, his likes and dislikes. When he was only three, his father asked him to fetch him a book from his personal library. Needless to say, it took him little time to retrieve the required volume from the book-lined room. He took not only after his father but also his mother, who was happiest with a good book and a good fire. When his little sister Isola died at 11, he sought...

JOHNV 24.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Oscar's Books - Thomas Wright

10 books that changed my world

Advantages: loads
Disadvantages: none

...with a difference. You see, Slater defines his life through food experiences. An example? He tells the reader about the toast his mum used to make, always burning it as she did so. He then wanders off into a childhood experience or memory, always related to food, that has some pertinence or sentimental value to him. Sometimes funny, sometimes painfully emotional, every major part of his life is related to the food he loved or hated. From childhood to early adulthood, we follow him on his life journey. As Lynne Truss wrote 'Toast connects emotions, memory and taste buds. Genius.' And so it is. Winning the British Book Awards biography of the year when it was released, Toast is 250 pages of strangely intoxicating memories. The book is very accessible to a range of ages, although there is some sexual content, so take that as a warning. Having said...

bruffyboy 16.04.2009 · Read review
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Review of Top Ten Biographies

A Book Lover

Advantages: Well-drawn characters. Creative use of words.
Disadvantages: A little difficult to adjust to the changing style of writing

...War, it is difficult to imagine that a new novel could be unusual ? yet ?The Book Thief? manages to be just that. It is unusual and unique. The narrator of the story is death. Other books have used death as a narrator before ? Terry Pratchett springs to mind for one however I can think of none for the subject of World War. Zusak said recently at the Hay Festival that War and Death are like best friends so to find death hanging around during World War II would not be unusual. Death is omnipresent and throughout the novel Zusak gives us odd glimpses of the universal tragedies of the War. On the whole though, Zusak remains focused on Liesel and her fellow occupants of Himmel Street. Zusak states that he has approached the book from a personal angle. He recalls two main stories told by his mother: one about the bombing of Munich and how...

MAFARRIMOND 03.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

Tweenies Book

Advantages: children will enjoy it
Disadvantages: none unless your child wants you to read it about 10 times a day

..., Doodles be red and yellow'. Dotman (Jake) comes to the rescue. You then pull the picture of doodles out and his colours have returned. Turn over the page and Jakes teddy has losts its colours too. Dotman to the rescue 'Lovely colours where are you? Teddy be brown and blue' and of course when you pull the teddy from the page it turns brown and blue. The book goes on in a similar way Bella's dragon has no colours so Dotman comes to the rescue and then he rescues Fizz's butterfly. He thinks he has rescued all the colours until they look out of the window and the garden has no colours - so one last rescue. The pull outs are quite cleverly done there is an outline of each picture on clear plastic, underneath that is the coloured picture and the clear plastic slots over plain white card but when you pull it out the plain card stays behind...

rojm 26.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Tweenies: Come Back Colours - BBC Books

Look Out, He's Behind You! - not a pantomine

Advantages: Offers interaction with a familiar story
Disadvantages: None

...Look out he?s behind you! is a book I took out of the library a few weeks ago for my grandchildren to read while visiting me for the day. They thoroughly enjoyed it inspite of there agea of 2 and 3 years which has led ne to write this review. RRP - £5.99 Publisher - Frances Lincoln Books ISBN - 978-1-84507-734-1 Format - 20page paperback Ages - 4 -8 years The front cover of the book features a young girl in a bright red coat and hat holding a basket with a wolf watching from behind a tree. On the back cover the wolf is more prominent and appears to be saying ?sssssh!? as the young girl disappears into the distance. The story is obviously the tale of Red Riding Hood who is on her way to visit her sick grandmother with a basket full of goodies. The story starts by introducing the different characters in the book , Little Red Riding...

colliedog2 19.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Look Out, He's Behind You! - Tony Bradman

He started it all. (Well almost!)

Advantages: Surprising and revealing
Disadvantages: Quite a hard read

...truly anchored on the ground. Hunter Davis does an excellent job with his research. Wainwright was a very private man and he certainly did not see himself as public property. I feel, and this is what I derive from the biographer, a man with a twinkle in his eye and a quiet pride in his achievements. There is certainly a wry sense of humour there about some of the circumstances he found himself in. There is little doubt that he was achingly shy when faced with public acclaim. Alfred Wainwright was born in Blackburn on the 17th January in 1907, the youngest child of a drunken stonemason. Very competent at school he loved maths and facts and figures. He absorbed himself with list making. The young Alfred already drew and sketched. The book shows some of his work that he produced when he was still at school. Although asked to stay on he was...

jolmartyn 09.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Wainwright: The Biography - Hunter Davies

A Saintly Biography!

Advantages: First time his life has ever been told!
Disadvantages: Emotional and upsetting in parts.

...The title of this book is called My Word is My Bond, and I think that the title is spot on for the person we are reading about. When it was announced the book was to be written I was extremely curious as to how Moore would approach the telling of his life. So you can imagine I was absolutely ecstatic to receive this book at Christmas; to give him his full name. Roger George Moore is one of my favourite actors and to have a published an official biography was a rare treat as the actor prefers to keep his private life to himself. The style of writing is consistent with the manner that Moore would speak to people in normal life, basically as if he was telling a story, and throughout you tend to pick up on the unique way in which the renowned actor has embraced life whether it is a knock back from not receiving a part or the realisation...

Timbo3107 25.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of My Word Is My Bond: The Autobiography - Roger Moore