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 ]
It was raining the day I met Elizabeth Wurtzel. She arrived at our offices wrapped in a wool scarf. I was a newly minted editor at Houghton Mifflin, and we were considering her memoir on depression, then titled “I Feel So Down I Want to Die.” She apologized for being late. She fished in her […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-10-02 08:55:10 UTC ]
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Is it Andrew Cuomo’s time to shine?The former governor, who resigned in disgrace in 2021, is strongly considering a run for mayor, now that Eric Adams has been indicted. If Adams resigns, a special election will be triggered, and many think Cuomo is sure to enter it. This might be his best... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2024-10-01 16:45:16 UTC ]
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This year’s contenders for the main prizes also include Percival Everett, Hisham Matar and Kaveh AkbarSalman Rushdie, Miranda July and Percival Everett are among this year’s finalists for the National Book awards.Rushdie, who is receiving his first nomination, is competing in the non-fiction... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-10-01 14:15:10 UTC ]
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Kim Porter's children take aim at a purported memoir detailing her relationship with Sean 'Diddy' Combs: 'Claims that our mom wrote a book are simply untrue.' Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-09-25 18:22:50 UTC ]
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I was young when I first started using words to avoid reality. The earliest examples can be found in my teenage journals which, while not quite fiction, display a decidedly ambivalent relationship with the truth. I wrote around the subjects of my sexual orientation and gender identity as if I... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-25 08:57:01 UTC ]
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In 2016, Game of Thrones fans online went wild when they found out the meaning of Hodor’s name. In this excerpt from his memoir Beyond the Throne, Kristian Nairn tells the surprising story of what happened while he filmed it. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2024-09-24 10:30:00 UTC ]
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Searches, as our publisher first described to me, is an artful essay collection exploring the nature of artificial intelligence and our complicity with technological capitalism. Through a blend of memoir and cultural criticism, the author Vauhini Vara uses the tools of Big Tech (namely ChatGPT)... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-20 08:56:45 UTC ]
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Plus cover reveals, the Booker Prize shortlist, and the trailer for HEARTSTOPPER Season 3 . Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-09-19 14:30:00 UTC ]
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Myself and Other Animals draws on an unfinished memoir and a book from a trip to Australia in 1969, and will coincide with what would have been the author’s 100th birthdayA final posthumous work of autobiography by Gerald Durrell is set to come out at the end of the year, publisher Penguin... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-09-18 14:36:23 UTC ]
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This story was co-published by the journalism non-profit the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. “Poor people” are “my people” Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance has said. In his best-selling 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, he claimed a similar possessiveness, while at the same time... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-18 11:31:11 UTC ]
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These new books include a fantastical dark academia set on a secret campus, the memoir of an Indigenous climate activist, a drag queen romance, and more. Which ones are you adding to your TBR? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-09-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Eric Roberts' memoir isn't a Hollywood reclamation job designed to kick-start a once-buzzy career. Roberts knows all too well that his erratic behavior damaged his relationships with friends and family, including his sister Julia Roberts. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-09-17 10:00:30 UTC ]
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Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers on consent, power, and age gaps in queer relationships. | Lit Hub Memoir Tracking the ongoing fight against creeping fascism in American schools: “The ultimate goal is to justify a takeover of the institutions, transforming them into weapons in the war against the very... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-16 10:30:01 UTC ]
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In his memoir “Frighten the Horses,” Oliver Radclyffe recalls his gradual awakening to the sexuality and gender identity he spent 40 years denying. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-09-14 09:00:06 UTC ]
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WARNING: This article contains details of abuse. In his new memoir Just Say Yes, Quirks and Quarks host Bob McDonald charts his path from an unhappy and sometimes abusive home to Canada's foremost explainer of all things scientific. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2024-09-13 14:31:59 UTC ]
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Tracy O’Neill’s Woman of Interest is a quest memoir: a voyage there and back, out and in. The book recounts the author’s search for her birth mother during the frightening heights of covid, “a pandemic that had miniaturized life.” Enlisting the help of a PI named Joe, a former CIA operative,... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-09-13 11:00:00 UTC ]
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In the years since this memoir was first published, readers have asked me a number of questions: What does your family think of the book? How did you start writing a memoir in essays? Is the book available in Spanish? The question that took me by surprise, though, came in 2020 on the eve of […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-13 08:55:35 UTC ]
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With a memoir, a Broadway turn in 'Moulin Rouge!,' a planned tour and new music, Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque is back in control of her career. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-09-12 10:00:34 UTC ]
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Questlove, best known as one of the more famous drummers to ever live and co-founder of The Roots, released a memoir this month called Hip-Hop is History. Co-written with his regular collaborator, Ben Greenman, this personal narrative builds on a growing canon of hip-hop lit. Fans will be... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-11 17:25:37 UTC ]
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“I’ve never felt the presence of my own death so close to me,” writes Nahil Mohana while chronicling the toll of living with endless displacement and fear in Gaza. | Lit Hub Memoir Shannon Bowring asks, “How do you create a written world that honors the spirit of the place that inspired it while... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-09-05 10:30:24 UTC ]
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