I would quit and save yourself wasting the hours reading the rest of it.
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
Biographies. Why bother?
- Thread starter Lush
- Start date
I would quit and save yourself wasting the hours reading the rest of it.
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 72,378
fatbadger
New member
Like other posters, the idea of reading any biography of, or autobiography by, some so-called modern 'celebrity' who has done precisely nothing in their lives other than smile at a camera is my idea of hell.
Gwylan, however, has listed some particularly good ones (Newman's Apologia being a case in point).
Subjects I have read more than one biography about (and in each case at least one of them at least twice) include Gladstone (John Morley's Life of Gladstone is by some distance the greatest political biography ever written), Bacon, Cromwell, Hooker, Milton, Schiller, Fichte, Tyndale, John Clare. There are undoubtedly more, but I can't think of them right now.
Shameless plug: Boydell & Brewer will be publishing a fine biography of SR Gardiner next year. Er, by me.
Gwylan, however, has listed some particularly good ones (Newman's Apologia being a case in point).
Subjects I have read more than one biography about (and in each case at least one of them at least twice) include Gladstone (John Morley's Life of Gladstone is by some distance the greatest political biography ever written), Bacon, Cromwell, Hooker, Milton, Schiller, Fichte, Tyndale, John Clare. There are undoubtedly more, but I can't think of them right now.
Shameless plug: Boydell & Brewer will be publishing a fine biography of SR Gardiner next year. Er, by me.
It's not just me then?
Life is too short to spend it numbing your brain reading something dull, if you don't like the book already there is nothing yet to read that is going to make you like it!
As for good autobiographies - Maya Angelou's are all good and I have reread those several times. And of course Malcolm X this book should be required reading for every child, every where.
Lady Bracknell
Handbag at Dawn
I don't choose to read biographies because I have some sort of Literacy Problem that has resulted in me not knowing what to read! Instead, I read books about, or by, people I find genuinely interesting. And I can re-read some autobiographical works endlessly - George Orwell being an example.
But there are biographies and biographies and the ghost written lives of Z list celebrities don't count in my book! Unfortunately, Lives of Great Sportsmen are usually relentlessly dire and, so far as sales are concerned, quite cynically rely upon the uber-fan whose devotion can often takes the edge off their critical judgement!
But there are biographies and biographies and the ghost written lives of Z list celebrities don't count in my book! Unfortunately, Lives of Great Sportsmen are usually relentlessly dire and, so far as sales are concerned, quite cynically rely upon the uber-fan whose devotion can often takes the edge off their critical judgement!
Tom Hark Preston Park
Will Post For Cash
- Jul 6, 2003
- 72,378
Good CALL
Also, tho not strictly an autobiography, The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter S Thompson, is as near as dammit his own story in his own wise drug-fuelled words, seeing as how he's centre stage for most of the pieces. And all in one handy housebrick-sized volume. Lugged that bugger around for the second half of the Seventies, reading it and re-reading it over and over.
John Bumlick
Banned
Hitler by Ian Kershaw - both volumes are stunning.
Norman Potting
Well-known member
"My father and other working class football heroes" by Gary Imlach about his dad John is a cracking book. If you want to know what life as a player was like in the days of the maximum wage this is the one for you.
As one of the reviews on the cover states, it should be compulsory reading for all Premiership players!
As one of the reviews on the cover states, it should be compulsory reading for all Premiership players!
dougdeep
New member
I can't read.
John Boy
Paul McShane
I'm a massive fan of autobiographys and biographys, have loads of them.
Tony Cascarino's is the best one I have read, have read it three times now
Tony Cascarino's is the best one I have read, have read it three times now
Braders
Abi Fletchers Gimpboy
i very nearly bought that this afternoon as it happens and might do so at the weekend after i've worked my way through another couple of books i've got on the go...
You won't regret it. It's one of my favourite books of all time, it really affects me every time I read it.
surrey jim
Not in Surrey
im not into celebrity biographies, have read the one by one of Londons gangsters was an excellent read (cant remember his name - think he was mentioned on here a while ago doing London tours or sommink!)
John Boy
Paul McShane
Frankie Fraser?
bhaexpress
New member
Mad Frankie Fraser is now something of a celebrity but in truth he was a borderline mental case when he was younger. He's one of the last men to receive the 'Cat of nine tails' as a prison punishment. He was a key member of the infamous Richardson torture gang, not a nice man at all.
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,878
Jeffrey Archer: Stranger Than Fiction by Michael Crick, has got to be one of the best political biographies I've ever read.
A must read.
A must read.
Lady Bracknell
Handbag at Dawn
I'll second that! Quite hilarious and also very well researched. It was telling to discover that Archer inherited a family tradition of being very economical with the truth too.
clapham_gull
Legacy Fan
- Aug 20, 2003
- 25,878
Yep, funniest thing I had read in years. Couldn't put it down.
Did you come out of it thinking a little bit of "respect" for him in the sense that he was quite obviously bent as a nine bob note but still managed to crawl his way to the top, in a Del Boy kind of way.
I assumed in the case of Archer that power corrupts before I read the book.
Far from it, Mr 30% was born that way - would sell his own grandmother.