The combative broadcaster’s memoir mixes engaging snapshots of his early career with some score-settling and a robust defence of his interviewing styleJohn Humphrys is the first to admit he doesn’t deal well with authority. He inherited it from his father, who refused to use the service entrance at the grand houses where he worked as a French polisher and, as a child, once watched his aunt get a humiliating dressing-down from the vicar for missing church. Humphrys had his own brush with condescending authority figures when he was in hospital with a cyst on his spine at 13, and an “arrogant posh bastard consultant” told his retinue of trainees it was because he didn’t wash regularly. “I don’t like being defined or told what to do, whoever is in charge,” he notes, a stance that has proved useful for grilling politicians (he has interviewed eight prime ministers), though it has also landed him in hot water.His memoir mixes engaging snapshots of his early career and analysis of the evolution of broadcasting with diatribes and petty score-settling. The early chapters tell of his passage from teen lackey on the Penarth Times in Wales, where his main task was standing outside the local church taking the names of those attending weddings and funerals, to being the first journalist on the scene at the Aberfan disaster, near Merthyr Tydfil, in which 116 children and 28 adults died after a colliery tip collapsed. Later he became a BBC foreign correspondent, reporting on the 1971 war... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-10-10 06:30:10 UTC ]
The veteran tech journalist is promoting her memoir with tech bros like Sam Altman. Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2024-03-06 10:50:00 UTC ]
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A new mystery from the Queen of Irish detective fiction, a memoir by RuPaul, and a trippy, shifting narrative set in Prague all round out today's new releases. Which ones are you thinking of picking up? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-03-05 12:30:00 UTC ]
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Chronicling the high-heeled path to drag-queen superstardom, the new memoir also reveals a celebrity infatuated with his sense of a special destiny. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-03-05 10:00:18 UTC ]
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Lily Meyer recommends books that recollect personal experience without being prescriptive. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2024-03-01 17:00:00 UTC ]
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“These girls thought themselves saints of something, and I nodded and kneeled.” Emmeline Cline on eating disorder memoirs and the contagion of identification. | Lit Hub Memoir Steven W. Thrasher on the murder of journalists in Gaza and the loss of critical American voices in journalism: “What... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-28 11:30:35 UTC ]
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Today's new releases include a follow up to Tommy Orange's THERE THERE, a memoir of grief, a secret, anti-Confederacy spy society, and more. Which ones will you TBR? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-02-27 13:00:00 UTC ]
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“I was still reporting to my father, the things I had read and all that I had remembered.” Amitava Kumar on family, loss, and resonating with the words of other writers. | Lit Hub Memoir “Even in the worst of times, humans have a way of coming together to lighten the load and provide hope […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-27 11:30:51 UTC ]
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What’s Aisha Sabatini Sloan reading? Diana Arterian on the author’s nightstand. | Lit Hub Criticism “The intimacy I feel with what my home once was cannot be reconciled with what downtown has become.” Emma Dries reflects on her childhood home and how 9/11 changed downtown Manhattan forever. |... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-22 11:30:18 UTC ]
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“I’ve been prank-calling Justin Torres for like two decades,” says the poet and performer, whose new book is called “Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt: A Memoir in Verse.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-22 10:00:27 UTC ]
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In today's new releases, there's an epic story of a conjuror-made safe haven in 1830s St. Louis, a feminist retelling of Zorro, a Cambodian food-based memoir of survival, and more. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-02-20 13:30:00 UTC ]
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It’s another Tuesday, and that means that a bevy of beautiful new books are out. And it’s a brilliant bevy indeed: below, you’ll find twenty-three new titles to consider that span an incredible range, including a raw new memoir from Leslie Jamison on motherhood and the self; the esteemed... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-20 09:46:58 UTC ]
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Kate Sidley on writing in the aftermath of a home robbery: “When bad things happen, they happen off-page, out of sight, and with a certain delicacy.” | Lit Hub Memoir Lockdown may be over, but what did it to to our collective sense of balance? How the pandemic ruined our understanding of “free”... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-19 11:30:44 UTC ]
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As his own life unfolds, an artist reconsiders his reaction to Joan Didion’s memoir about loss. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-17 10:04:10 UTC ]
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Silicon Valley’s top pundit dishes on her memoir Burn Book, immature billionaires, and whether she’s actually mean. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-02-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Britney Spears is perfect and her nasal voice with a Southern accent and just the right touch of vocal fry is perfect. Which is why I was so surprised to hear Michelle Williams, an actress who is also perfect, read the audio version of Britney’s memoir with a bit of a drawl but mostly very […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-02-15 09:55:31 UTC ]
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In her memoir “I Heard Her Call My Name,” the author reflects on her life and embarking on a gender transition in her late 60s. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-14 10:02:14 UTC ]
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His charming memoir “What Have We Here?” traces the path from a Harlem childhood to “Star Wars,” while lamenting the roles that never came his way. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-13 10:00:45 UTC ]
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Murder at a school reunion, a memoir on motherhood, disaster bisexuals in love, and more of today's best book deals! Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-02-05 17:04:05 UTC ]
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Lucy Sante recounts the trials and joys of her gender transition in the memoir “I Heard Her Call My Name.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-03 10:14:55 UTC ]
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The actor reads “Collision of Power,” a new memoir by the famed former editor of The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-02 10:00:17 UTC ]
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