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 ]
THIS PAST APRIL, the Cleveland-based indie press Belt Publishing released The Last Children of Mill Creek, a memoir by Vivian Gibson. At just 150 pages, the book is a spare, elegant jewel of a work, chronicling the author’s childhood growing up in segregated St. Louis in the 1950s. In 1959, when... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-09-17 12:30:03 UTC ]
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The former president’s publisher plans to release the book after the 2020 election and has ordered a first U.S. printing of 3 million copies. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-09-17 10:00:08 UTC ]
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Virago has acquired Golem Girl, a memoir by artist Riva Lehrer who was born with spina bifilda, which has already won acclaim from writers including David Mitchell heralding it "a hymn to life". Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 22:53:10 UTC ]
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It’s rare for President Trump to appear on networks that aren’t Fox, and even rarer for him to engage with Americans who aren’t already aboard the Trump train, but last night he did both, traveling to Philadelphia to participate in an ABC News town hall with undecided voters. Their questions, at... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review
[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-09-16 12:20:16 UTC ]
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Jonathan Cape has acquired Swedish musician Neneh Cherry’s memoir, A Thousand Threads, in a 14-way auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-16 11:56:22 UTC ]
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As she publishes a moving memoir, the Corrie, Dinnerladies and West End star talks about her three-decade battle with typecasting – and almost dying of Covid-19 Shobna Gulati is speaking about this past horrendous year in surprisingly serene tones. Her mother died last autumn, and a few months... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-09-16 05:00:14 UTC ]
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Hodder & Stoughton has pre-empted a "unique" and "meticulously researched" family memoir, The Lost Café Schindler by Meriel Schindler, centred on a family business and spanning two centuries and two world wars. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-15 04:29:57 UTC ]
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Interviews Harlan Margaret Van Cao and Lan Cao / Courtesy of Penguin Random House Family in Six Tones: A Refugee Mother, an American Daughter (Viking, 2020) is a memoir written in alternating narrative chapters between Lan Cao and Harlan... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-09-14 19:40:45 UTC ]
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The countess who wanted to be the most photographed woman in the world: Nathalie Léger on Virginia Oldoïni of Castiglione. | Lit Hub History Sophia Chang on entering the Wu-Tang Clan’s inner circle: “She’s down with Wu-Tang! And that’s all you need to know!” | Lit Hub Memoir “American authors... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-14 10:30:25 UTC ]
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Even when the ice recedes, writes Vicki Laveau-Harvie, it still shapes the landscape Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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That’s right. HarperCollins is suing Lindsay Lohan for breach of contract after she failed to deliver a manuscript for the memoir they acquired from her back in 2014. The publishing company is asking for their $365,000 back—ostensibly the first third of the reported $1 million purchase price.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-09-11 15:12:50 UTC ]
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Simon & Schuster is to publish a political memoir by Jess Phillips, secured in a two book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-11 10:32:36 UTC ]
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Even when the ice recedes, writes Vicki Laveau-Harvie, it still shapes the landscape Continue reading at The Economist
[ The Economist | 2020-09-10 14:56:44 UTC ]
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Headline Publishing Group will publish a memoir by Cliff Todd, the former head of the Forensics Explosive Laboratory. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-10 14:02:33 UTC ]
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Michael Cohen's tell-all memoir makes the case that President Donald Trump is “guilty of the same crimes” that landed his former fixer in federal prison, offering a blow-by-blow account of Trump's... To view the full story, click the title link. Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2020-09-08 11:45:00 UTC ]
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Michael Cohen's tell-all memoir makes the case that U.S. President Donald Trump is "guilty of the same crimes" that landed his former fixer in federal prison, offering a blow-by-blow account of Trump's alleged role in a hush money scandal that... Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2020-09-06 04:12:05 UTC ]
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William Collins has landed an '"extraordinary” memoir by Indian writer and commentator Ramachandra Guha, detailing his love affair with cricket. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-05 02:04:46 UTC ]
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Kendra Atleework's memoir Miracle Country embraces a dangerous, and endangered, land. Continue reading at Guernica
[ Guernica | 2020-09-03 13:00:15 UTC ]
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As 500,000 copies of Michael Cohen's memoir head to stores and other outlets, Skyhorse publisher Tony Lyons said the book is likely to be the bestselling title in the indie publisher's history. He also sees its publication as part of his approach to being what he calls "a free speech publisher." Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-09-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Nine years after the C.I.A. blacked out parts of Ali Soufan’s book, the agency has finally allowed a more complete version of his story to be published. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2020-08-29 16:58:43 UTC ]
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