A beautiful read

This is a book i will never forget. It is beautiful to read, ican't say enough about it. I just wish i had been lucky enough to have had the relationship these two men had. Please read it, go and buy it now.<br />

The best football biography I have read

Over ten years ago I went though a big spate of reading many sporting biographies and autobiographies. I came away thinking that very few would stand the test of time beyond being historical reference works and this was especially the case in football which despite its great popularity were very low on honesty and analysis in the books written.<br /><br />This book has changed my view on that and benefits greatly from two elements not present in most of those other biographies. The first is that the subject Brian Clough was by temperament very open and not too interested in being less than honest. The second is that the writer has benefited greatly from awaiting several years before putting pen to paper and the intervening death of Clough ensuring there was no undue influence exerted by the subject - a factor that ruins most current sporting bios.<br /><br />So here it is a true warts and all honest story of a man whose high opinions of himself and outspoken views on many taboos (the FA, football club directors, the England Team and bribery in European football) was matched by his great achievements both as a footballer before injury put paid to his career and his managerial reigns at two clubs (Derby and Nottingham), helped all the way by his lifelong support Peter Taylor. <br /><br />Where this book merits five stars is the great analysis of explaining how it all happened with clubs that had little in money and what worked and what did not, plus why Clough was a product of his times and would never survive in todays media savvy premier and TV driven football. The painful telling of why Taylor and Clough were so good for each other and their split was the beginning of the end, plus Clough's decline into alcoholism as his star declined mark this out as one of the best all round football biographies I have read.

'HOME is were the heart is'

This book was written with real heart!Reading about Julie Andrews home/work life was really interesting.Loved every minute detail of it.There wasn't any wasted moments,only wished there was more of it(plus photos).Really can't wait for the next instalment(hope it's not too long!!!)

An excellent read even for those not interested in finance

I have just finished reading Liar's Poker: Rising Through the Wreckage on Wall Street by Michael Lewis and, although not wanting to provide a review of every book I read, felt this one deserved a special mention. The book was recommended by a friend of mine as a good follow up to the LTCM story that I finished a couple of weeks ago and is an great insight into the booming Wall Street of the 80's. It is written in a very funny and laid back style that makes it a excellent read even for those not interested in trading or finance.

A ground-breaking book

A ground-breaking book that opens the door to a new area of political economy. David Owen's background as a medical doctor and a leading political figure of our times gives a unique voice to this subject. It deserves to become a standard text in its field.<br /><br />The extent to which illness can affect our leaders should be a concern to us all. Worse, the tendency of some leaders to become prone to behavioural inconsistencies the longer they hold office is developed by the author into a fascinating 'hubris syndrome' with its attendant personality symptoms and modern examples.<br /><br />This book should resonate with electors and provide cause for reflection by those who seek or hold high office.

Beautifully told

This is a curious mixture of a book. Granted that it was written under strained and special circumstances, it is both revealing and concealing in equal measure. If you are familiar with Ballard's work and have taken an interest in him over the years, you will find nothing new here. It is, however, a joy to have it in one volume. And for all its apparent superficiality, we learn a great deal about Ballard from the structure and level of content of this work.<br /><br />Nearly half the book is devoted to Ballard's first fifteen years, the time he lived in Shanghai and experienced the strange life of an expatriate community as well as internment by the Japanese. This is also the most fluent and vibrant part of the book.<br /><br />It may well be that writing of his early life in his fiction, especially in Empire of the Sun, means he is well rehearsed. But it is clear these formative years are seared not just into his memory, but also his psyche. The things he saw and experienced have re-appeared time and again in his writings, sometimes filtered, but always from the same roots.<br /><br />Elsewhere, there is a reticence, a shyness that produces a sketchy feeling, as if we are seeing an early draft. A pioneer of explorations into the sf of `inner space', his own inner space is closely guarded. Yet what he chooses to conceal is revealing in itself. He speaks of family life, for example, but whilst it is clear that his family was the bright sun at the centre of his universe, dimmed for a while by the sudden death of his wife, it is also clear that the rest is nobody's business but his own and theirs. I find this wonderfully refreshing - we are strangers, after all, those of us who read his books.<br /><br />As a writer myself, I confess I was disappointed that Ballard did not discuss how he wrote or consider the processes by which developed certain styles, especially his concentrated novels. I would love to have known more of those early days and the discussions he had with other writers of the so-called `New Wave'. On the other hand I am not altogether surprised. Whilst undoubtedly a highly intelligent man and a skilled and innovative writer, he has never been one of the `literati', self-dissecting and self-obsessed. His work must (and does) speak for itself - with a voice that is robust, fluent, exciting, innovative, often tackling the controversial, but always worth listening to.<br />

A fascinating insight into a life of adventure

I usually read at light speed, but this book was so enjoyable I slowed right down and savoured it bit by bit for two weeks. It was like having Fiennes himself there in the room telling the story of his life. There is not much by way of self psycho-analysis but that's fine. We are allowed to draw our own conclusions. Instead events are described in excellent detail allowing the reader to accompany Fiennes on his adventures and share in his triumphs and tragedies.

Worth the read

Just to provide a bit of balance to some of the reviews below... this is no Papillion. It's not particularly well written and is often disjointed while you get the feeling that the account is rather selective. Some stories could do with elaboration while others could have been ommitted. This not with standing, it is an interesting story and gives some fascinating insight into the crazy world of a Bolivian prison.

The Best diary of all!!!

The Diary of Ann Frank is the diary of a thirteen-year old-Jewish girl who had to go into hiding with her family so they are not killed by the Nazis. Ann got the diary for her thirteenth birthday and Kitty was the name of the diary. Kitty was Ann's best friend while she was in the secret annexe but Peter was also near the middle a very good friend. In the diary, Ann leaves her happy home and the family hide in a secret room behind a bookshelf. This book feels so real but it is a true story that is really fantastic. If you haven't read this journal before you die then you are a total failure. That is how good this book is. The book is both moving and frightening yet it is exciting and touching. This story explains the cruelty of Adolf Hitler in exact detail. There is the edited edition and the definitive edition. Rating: 9.5/ 10.

Open, Honest and revealing

As a Fan but not a fanatic of Guns and Roses i bought this book because i was more interested in the life Slash had lead and i was not disappointed.<br /><br />This is a book about a life that has been lived to the full and as such is honest and very revealing about who slash is and how he gets his kicks.<br /><br />By the end you don't really like him and as a person he comes across as a selfish and flawed individual.<br /><br />But the honesty with which he approaches his many drug and drink addictions and relationships shows a maturity that you wouldn't really associate with a rock star.<br /><br />It is a really good read and very well written although i was expecting more pictures until i read at the end of the book that his best mate and long time photographer has released a companion piece of just photographs which i will be searching out.<br /><br />Well worth getting and you will enjoy it!<br />

Can't write, can't act

This bloke can't write any more than he can act. He's a terrifically amusing and likeable entertainer and TV show host. He should stick to that.

Out of his comfort zone

This seems to be an admirable research file for a next novel. As a research file it has lots of incidents, lots of characters, but it lacks cohesion and narrative to make it interesting.<br /><br />

Interesting but leaves important questions unanswered

This is a personal account of a British born Muslim. He writes how he became a radical Muslim as the result of encounters with gradually more extreme and politically ambitious Muslim radicals. This ranges from Islamic radicals at his sixth form college who wanted to force all Muslim women to come to college in the veil, to Hizb ut Tahrir, who wanted to set up a global Islamic state. The book is dotted with his very interesting descriptions of buildings where clandestine meetings took place, and his frank admissions of his initial views.<br /><br />The book then switches quite dramatically, when he begins to meet American people in the flesh. His hatred of America slowly thaws, and he begins to embrace more gentle, liberal strains of Islam. He gives special focus to the Sufis, and again, Americans he meets are instrumental in his de-radicalisation. The book's main weakness is that Hussain never really tells us why he made this journey to the brink and back, and never explains fully why he came back. His writing style about the new liberal Islam he embraces is rather sickly sweet in places. He also seems very keen to name drop prominent Islamists he met on his journey.<br /><br />All in all, the book is a genuinely interesting peak into the lives of radical Islamists in Britain. His account of his time in the Middle East is also very revealing, especially his time in Saudi Arabia, which bitterly disappoints him as the kingdom transpires not to be quite the moral paradise he imagined it to be. However, the book does leave some important questions unanswered, and the author's sudden switch in writing style is rather abrupt and testing. Nevertheless, a good read.

Eyewitness Auschwitz

This book gives you a real insight to the horrors of Auschwitz and Birkenau, from within the Crematorium(s) itsself. Harrowing account of the hardship prisoners (POW) were subjected too. This book is no bars hold... its straight to the point including all the gruesome details. A graphic account of what it was like to live and survive in Auschwitz. Fantasic book and a must read for those with interest in WWII.<br />A.Pepler

Angels' Darling

Delightful and modest reminiscences of Diana Barnato one of approximately 150 women who flew aeroplanes in the ATA during the Second World War. Brief biographical info of her youth and later life, however the bulk of this book refers to the ATA.
Excellent resource for all those interested in this undersung
department.

wait its bilingual -english and french versions -both great

marjane ,music ,men and marijuana <br />the privileged child of a pro communist teheran family tells her somewhat hedonistic and always veracious adventures in the backdrop of a war and revolution,the travesty becomes reality as she proceeds to her personal predicament ,a girl's transition to a woman in the context of preserving her bosom with jasmine flowers is both poetic and filled with pathos as she is destroyed almost by, a perfunctory western culture of drug and hard metal,her contempt of religious authority is only equalled by the patronising condescension of her western peers with their pseudo intellectual gibberish and selfishness,<br /><br />yet she gives a horrific account of the terrible war wrought upon a newly freed iran by the american ally saddam ,the bilateral arming of the 2 oil rich nations by west,resulting in an unforgivable massacre is described appropriately .<br /><br />the political comment even goes to claim the revolution could have donned another mantle if a weak iran had not been targeted by iraq at america's behest.<br /><br />the coming of age in a french viennese school is a satire on the artifice and hypocrisy of the western claims to civilization ,the racial patronising as an iranian and her sexual coming of age with european men who use her as a portal to discover their homosexuality and later to buy cannabis is dark humour but pathetically predatory .<br /><br />she wins ultimately as she discovers her intuitive strength as a woman who needs a man not for security but intellectual consumption ,her sojourn to paris after her obligatory marriage in iran is a liberation not from a regime ,which are all the same in their hierarchy and machiavellian political antics,but self-discovery.<br /><br />she finds liberty with her wise granny who teaches that the only ugliness in the world is a lie and it is refreshing to see her critique of the hypocrisy of the attires assigned to male and women students in tehran university.<br /><br />the movie is a poetic blend of verisimilitude and monochrome images juxtaposed with colour occassionally and always spellbinding to watch .<br /><br />it spares no one -the bearded iranian revolutionaries ,the hypocrisy of catholic nuns -the predatory sex drug culture of the west or the political games of the superpowers which treat people as fodder for missiles .<br /><br />but its inherent strength for me lies in a honest account of a disillusioned,spirited woman who becomes content when she is true to herself, not listening to bootlegged iron maiden and guzzling home-made wine.<br /><br />her pride in being iranian is the key to understanding a personal account which is neither a mockery of mullahs nor a celebration of female emancipation ,but rather a search for your own truth .<br /><br />marjane means a precious gem in farsi and persepolis was the ancient persian capital torched to ashes by alexander -the metaphor for the bombing of modern iran by western bombs is complete -time comes full circle.<br />the movie might be black and white but the content is so rich and diverse it needs no color ,an ingenious invention for a tired medium.<br /><br />i will recommend multiple viewings for this dvd in french and english both as catherine deneuve and chiara have dubbed the brilliant black and white visuals .<br />love to see the making of as well -and marjanes tehran home will be a great story in a special edition.<br /><br />usman khawaja<br /><br />

Returning to my own past

I first read this gem as a set book in school at around age 14, a London-born child educated in the City. The details of it never left me, 'Laura's' description of hamlet life in the 1880's were my benchmark for how poor honest country folk lived in those days, I could always refer to my recollections of the book, I was fascinated by the facts.

I finished re-reading it tonight, 37 years later and am still enchanted by the writer's simple and straightforward style and the vivid descriptions with such attention to detail. It's never fussy or sentimentalised, the reader comes to their own conclusion that material wealth isn't the secret to happiness, which is humbling when we compare today's standards with those of these simple people. Laura does well for herself, and the reader is glad for her but she never loses sight of who she is deep down.

I shall recommend that my young neice reads it, I doubt she'll enjoy it as I did but if only a little of the good natured common sense of the people is recognised that will be a good thing for a child brought up these days to know about. Am I really getting that old-fashioned?

Highly readable personal and business reflections

This book seems to give a"warts and all" view of Branson's start in business ventures, his early escapades and narrow escapes and his subsequent successes. From one-time album importer to multi-millionaire, multi-business owner, this review touches on his feelings and beliefs as well as his ways of making personal and business success.<br /><br />I picked up the book when I was working at Virgin Holidays, and actually expected little from it. But I found the style and personal history fascinating ... at least initially. The book drifts midway, going into some self-justification over BA vs Virgin, and a little too much of the ballooning adventures, but opens up fascinating accounts of helping evacuate hostages from Iraq in the first Gulf war. The clash of old bureaucratic business vs the Virgin style is exemplified! Definitely worth the investment, and 4 stars from me.

I loved this book!

I'm a woman of the 60's and it all rang true. I think we all wanted to be these three women when we were younger, and the stories behind the music, plus the real-life tales of each woman's challanges to free herself from stiffling conventions kept me reading it straight through. The evocation of each woman's personality and her particular challenges was keen - I felt I knew them by the time the book was finished (and could so relate to so much of what they went through). You also got a chance to revisit the times ....How I had forgotten so many details: What we wore, what concerned us, how small a space a young woman had to move around in, how much she had to do on her own. These women's music expressed the exhilleration and the pain of charting a new course, and by the end of the book I wanted to hug them (and listen to their magnificent albums all over -- and over -- again)