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 ]
Verso has acquired Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests and the Pursuit of Freedom, a memoir by Derecka Purnell. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-05 20:05:47 UTC ]
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Williams Collins has pre-empted a memoir by political columnist and commentator Daniel Finkelstein uncovering his family’s devastating experiences of persecution during the Second World War. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-05 16:01:10 UTC ]
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A contributing editor for British Vogue, Paris Lees made her name as the UKs first high-profile transgender woman to break into the mainstream when she was named top of the Pink List of the most influential LGBT people in Britain, and became the first “out” transgender woman to appear on BBC... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-05-01 02:56:30 UTC ]
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Headline Publishing Group will publish The Queen Bee, the first memoir from Grammy-award winning rapper Lil’ Kim. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-29 09:26:52 UTC ]
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“Collision of Power” will be part memoir and part investigation into what’s ahead for the free press. Continue reading at The Washington Post
[ The Washington Post | 2021-04-28 16:45:36 UTC ]
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"Philip Roth: The Biography" and the memoir "The Splendid Things We Planned" are axed as Blake Bailey's publisher plans to donate to charities. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-04-27 21:01:25 UTC ]
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W.W Norton announced that it will cease publication of the newly released edition of Blake Bailey’s 'Philip Roth: The Biography,' as well as Bailey’s 2014 memoir 'The Splendid Things We Planned,' and take both works out of print. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-27 04:00:00 UTC ]
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She was a respected translator from French and a writer on astrology, but her magnum opus was a memoir of her time with Kerouac and the Beats. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-26 17:55:15 UTC ]
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“Second Place” borrows its story line from a 1930s-era memoir about D.H. Lawrence, but its themes are quintessential Cusk. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-26 17:28:26 UTC ]
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In an excerpt from her memoir Negative Space, Lilly Dancyger writes about moving back to New York City as a teenager and grappling with her father's death. Continue reading at Guernica
[ Guernica | 2021-04-26 13:00:05 UTC ]
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A memoir of life in Silicon Valley, a capitalist satire, a novel that envisions a better future, and more: Your weekly guide to the best in books Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2021-04-23 14:30:00 UTC ]
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In Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner—also known as the indie-pop musician Japanese Breakfast—writes of her mother’s battle with terminal cancer and the caretaking process. The mother-daughter relationship is the beating pulse of this memoir, presented in all of its uncomfortable complexities.... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2021-04-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster president Jonathan Karp says seven-figure book deal will go ahead, after open letter from employees accuses publisher of being ‘on the wrong side of justice’Simon & Schuster has said it will not pull out of a seven-figure book deal with Mike Pence after some of its... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-04-21 12:05:44 UTC ]
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In “I Am a Girl From Africa,” the former U.N. adviser Elizabeth Nyamayaro retraces her life story from childhood starvation to NGOs. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-04-20 09:00:07 UTC ]
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Sheridan Smith has written her first memoir, Honestly, to be published by Ebury Spotlight this autumn. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-04-20 02:37:35 UTC ]
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Culture Street mural for Grenfell Tower, with poem by Ben Okri, North Kensington, London, image courtesy of IranWire and #PaintTheChange. London-based writer Malu Halasa canvasses the Middle Eastern and North African culture scene in London,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-04-19 19:22:28 UTC ]
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The author of the memoir Blow Your House Down talks about secrecy, accountability, and resisting happy endings. Continue reading at Guernica
[ Guernica | 2021-04-19 13:00:21 UTC ]
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What am I supposed to do with autofiction? Where is it shelved, literally and mentally? Is it memoir or fiction? Pick a lane. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-04-16 10:36:00 UTC ]
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Pamela Dorman buys a debut novel by a longtime Knopf editor, Holt signs a memoir by Ronnie Spector, Hanya Yanagihara re-ups with Doubleday, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Manga makes its mark: 'My Hero Academia, Vol. 27' by Kohei Horikoshi is the #6 book in the country. Plus chef Erin French's memoir finds its way onto our hardcover nonfiction list, and we spy Flynn Berry in hardcover fiction. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-04-16 04:00:00 UTC ]
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