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 ]
Back in January 2018, freelance journalist Mason began work on a new novel in the little shed in her back garden in Sydney. She already had two books under her belt with HarperCollins Australia, a memoir of early motherhood—the brilliantly titled Say it Again in a Nice Voice—and her début novel... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-12 23:02:14 UTC ]
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Walker Books is to publish Sticky McStickstick, a new personal memoir picture book from Michael Rosen, illustrated by Tony Ross, exploring Rosen's personal experience of illness and recovery from Covid-19. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-12 15:54:55 UTC ]
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A few months ago my friend Nick Lyons, long admired for books about his passion for fishing, published a beautiful memoir, Fire in the Straw. Reading the book has underscored, in a personal way, the gap between life and literature that so many of us take for granted. I’m familiar with quite a... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-03-12 09:48:56 UTC ]
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But “Between Two Kingdoms,” her memoir of cancer and its aftermath, is striking a chord with readers who are enduring ordeals of their own. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-11 10:00:03 UTC ]
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Interviews Photo by Sonette Watt Stephanie McKenzie is a poet and scholar who works for the English Programme at Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her scholarly work has traced the flourishing of Indigenous literature in... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-03-09 21:39:45 UTC ]
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In the memoir “Model Citizen,” Joshua Mohr recounts a life of substance abuse, real love and “cheery nihilism.” Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-09 10:00:09 UTC ]
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He took his British brand of satire to nightclubs, TV, film (“This Is Spinal Tap”) and National Lampoon. But a memoir led to a sex-abuse accusation. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-05 19:48:46 UTC ]
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Ecco goes big on a debut novel, Kal Penn sells a memoir to Gallery, Brittney Cooper sells seven for seven figures to Scholastic, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-03-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Comedy writer and actor Daisy May Cooper has written a "wonderful and ultimately uplifting" memoir, Don't Laugh, It Will Only Encourage Her, to be released by Penguin Michael Joseph. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-02 18:28:11 UTC ]
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In “Amoralman,” the sleight-of-hand artist Derek DelGaudio turns to philosophy in an attempt to understand the nature of reality and deception. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-03-02 16:45:00 UTC ]
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This new play based on Martin McKenna’s memoir tells a difficult story with theatrical skill and artistic heart. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-03-01 05:56:16 UTC ]
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Mrabet was friends with Paul Bowles—and, it’s assumed, lovers, too—and they were artistic collaborators. But his memoir begins long before they met. Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2021-02-26 14:00:30 UTC ]
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Allen & Unwin to publish How to be a Rock Star by Shaun Ryder, a memoir that promises to lift the lid on what it's like to be a rock star. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 01:13:37 UTC ]
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The bestselling novelist, subject of an upcoming HBO Max biopic and author of the new memoir 'The Soul of a Woman' discusses aging, feminism and home. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-24 17:00:12 UTC ]
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Two Roads will publish Billy Connolly's first autobiography, titled Windswept and Interesting. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-24 15:35:50 UTC ]
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A memoir by Where the Crawdads Sing author Delia Owens and her husband Mark Owens, titled Cry of the Kalahari, will be reissued by Corsair in October, 36 years after its first release. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-23 09:02:09 UTC ]
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Skyhorse Publishing, the imprint behind director Woody Allen's memoir, is considering suing HBO for sampling its audiobook for a documentary series. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-02-22 22:46:48 UTC ]
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John Murray Press imprint Two Roads has acquired Devorgilla Days: A Memoir of Hope and Healing by Kathleen Hart, a "heart-warming and deeply moving" memoir about recovery, resilience and starting over. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-22 09:27:36 UTC ]
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Cassell will publish the “hilarious and unflinching” memoir from award-winning author and journalist Emma John about "what it means to be alone when everyone else isn't". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-22 00:54:33 UTC ]
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WHAT WOULD YOU DO if the person who hurt you most refused to say they were sorry? Could you forgive anyway? Best-selling author Susan Shapiro explores this universal question in her intriguing, insightful, all-too-relatable new book The Forgiveness Tour, out this past January. In her... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2021-02-21 18:00:04 UTC ]
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