Not even published, already damned – why are people running scared of Prince Harry’s memoir? | Catherine Bennett

With the help of a brilliant co-writer, a fully rounded picture may now emerge of the much-maligned royalNot since criminals were barred from profiting in this way can a publisher’s announcement of a memoir have united the British press in such disgust. Before that, even the gangster turned memoirist, “Mad” Frankie Fraser, was not, in his literary pomp, faulted for bringing shame upon his family. If, as a torturer for the Krays, Mr Fraser pulled out his victims’ teeth with pliers, well, he never came close to embarrassing the Queen – and doing so, yet more barbarously, in a jubilee year.Nothing, for the royal-watching guild, not even its professional interest in the benefits, can excuse Prince Harry’s decision to publish, with the help of an award-winning US author JR Moehringer, an “intimate and heartfelt” memoir. Defenders of cancel culture might, in fact, want to welcome this overdue acknowledgment from traditional media adversaries that free speech must have its limits. Unseen, the book has been damned as self-indulgent, superfluous, greedy, hurtful, biased, perfidious, overprivileged, hypocritical and premature. Did the 36-year-old émigré not check the UK guidelines for memoir writing? Who did he think he was – Malala? Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-07-25 07:00:45 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "Not even published, already damned – why are people running scared of Prince Harry’s memoir? | Catherine Bennett"


'Strong' first-day sales of Obama memoir online, says Waterstones

Waterstones has seen "strong" online orders for A Promised Land (Viking), with the title also at number one in Amazon's bestseller charts. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-18 06:17:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Barack Obama’s complicated media-criticism tour

As you may have noticed, Barack Obama has a book out today. It’s a memoir, titled A Promised Land, that runs to more than seven-hundred pages and is still only a first volume—covering the period from Obama’s childhood to the raid, in 2011, that killed Osama bin Laden. Originally, Obama planned... Continue reading at Columbia Journalism Review

[ Columbia Journalism Review | 2020-11-17 13:29:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this


“Hillbilly Elegy” Is the Last Thing America Needs in 2020

My first novel was released within six months of Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance’s memoir of Appalachian roots and a youth spent in a Rust Belt community with a dearth of jobs and resources. Vance’s book came out just before the 2016 election; mine was released just after. Donald Trump’s victory had... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2020-11-17 12:01:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


An Epic Week for the Books Desk

In the coming days, the team will cover two major awards and reveal two year-end lists. There’s also a certain presidential memoir coming out. Two editors discuss an industry that hasn’t slowed down. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-17 10:00:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this


How the Problem of ‘Waste’ Affects the Rural Poor

Catherine Coleman Flowers’s memoir chronicles her advocacy for improved sanitation systems in rural America and her own education as an activist. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-17 10:00:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Obama Bio Selling Briskly at Indies

Independent booksellers reported solid first-day sales of former President Barak Obama's 'A Promised Land.' There was a downside, however, as many store owners reported some cartons of the memoir arrived damaged. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-17 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Transworld buys doctor's memoir of 'unwavering resilience'

Transworld has bought a memoir by Dr Waheed Arian, billed as "the powerful story of a boy who dreamed about helping others, a tale of courage, ambition and unwavering resilience against all odds". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-17 03:40:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: Barack Obama's memoir is a masterful lament over the fragility of hope

"A Promised Land," out Tuesday in a worldwide release, eloquently and ruefully documents the first two and a half years of Obama's presidency. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-16 21:30:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Lit Hub Daily: November 16, 2020

“The temptation to hide the word because the reality of rape is so horrific only made it more critical that it stood front and center in my book.” Memoirist Michelle Bowdler on saying the unsayable. | Lit Hub Memoir “Like poetry, flash often relies on the tiny detail, the single image, or some... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-16 11:30:28 UTC ]
More news stories like this


When Your Memoir Has the Word ‘Rape’ in the Title

I wanted to write a beautiful book, a book about hope, love, optimism and resilience. I wanted to show readers the life I had built, slowly and with intention. The fact that everything had been only aspirational for too many years, and hard-won in the end, only deepened my need to share. As joy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-16 09:48:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Oprah's Interview with Obama Airs on Publication Day

Oprah Winfrey's interview with Barack Obama premieres on Apple TV+ on Tuesday morning, just as copies of the hotly anticipated former president's memoir lands on bookstore shelves around the world. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-11-16 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


PRH's Obama UK media campaign kicks off this weekend

With Barack Obama's memoir out from Viking on Tuesday (17th November), PRH's UK media campaign will kick off this weekend. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2020-11-13 00:35:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Christie Tate Wrote a Best Seller About Group Therapy. Fellow Members Approved.

She tried her hand at fiction, to no avail. So she wrote a memoir about a circle of strangers instead. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-12 10:00:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Has Donald Trump already landed a $100m book and TV deal?

While books about the outgoing US president have been bestsellers for the last four years, Trump might be a step too far for some publishersFact-checkers are quaking in their boots amid reports that Donald Trump could be being “courted for a new tome on his time in the White House”. The... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 14:24:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Review: Celia Paul is finally her own muse in the dazzling memoir 'Self-Portrait'

The painter known to many as Lucian Freud's one-time muse writes of her own muse, her mother, and provers herself a masterful writer as well. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2020-11-10 18:28:13 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Post-election, Kamala Harris’s books are more popular than ever.

Kamala Harris-related books have seen a sharp increase in popularity post-Biden/Harris presidential win. On Sunday, a whopping four books on Amazon’s Top 10 bestsellers list were either about or penned by the vice president-elect. The books in question: Harris’s memoir The Truths We Hold: An... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-10 17:37:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this


The inspiration for Maisie Dobbs? Jacqueline Winspear’s memoir offers charming clues

In “This Time Next Year We’ll Be Laughing,” Jacqueline Winspear recalls her upbringing in the British countryside. Continue reading at The Washington Post

[ The Washington Post | 2020-11-10 14:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


‘Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood,’ by Christa Parravani: An Excerpt

An excerpt from “Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood,” by Christa Parravani Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-10 10:01:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this


This Medical Memoir Reads Like a Detective Story

A young woman’s diagnosis is only the beginning of the mystery in “Lightning Flowers.” As Katherine E. Standefer tried to make sense of her heart condition, her conscience sent her on a trip across the world. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-11-10 10:00:08 UTC ]
More news stories like this


Why I Went Into Debt to Buy Back the Rights for Two of My Books

Yesterday, I attended a virtual book club where Heavy: An American Memoir was being read. When I clicked the link to join the Zoom, I saw the faces, necks, and shoulders of seven beautiful pixelated Black women from as far west as Las Vegas and as far east as Long Island. I assumed from their... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2020-11-10 09:49:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this