My Review (5 stars out of 5) In 1986, together with close friend and screenwriter Stewart Stern, Paul Newman began to tape an oral history. His aim was to provide a biographical record, including comments from family members, friends, actors and movie directors. The idea focused on everyone being entirely truthful – a no-hold-barred account…
Category: Autobiography
‘Madly, Deeply: The Alan Rickman Diaries’ by Alan Rickman
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) Alan Rickman shot to fame as villainous Hans Gruber in Die Hard, back in 1988. Up until then he’d done a lot of theatre, mostly in the UK. His diaries run from 1993 until his death in 2016 and offer insight into the actor’s public and private…
‘Playing Under the Piano’ by Hugh Bonneville
My Review (5 stars out of 5) British actor Hugh Bonneville is a familiar face to audiences all over the word for his roles in Notting Hill, the Paddington films and Downton Abbey. Charting his rise to stardom from nativity play to the heights of Hollywood, he recounts the highs, lows and day-to-day life of…
‘Secrets and Lies’ by Christine Keeler
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Sixties model Christine Keeler tells her part in helping bring down Harold Macmillan’s government via the infamous scandal known as the Profumo Affair. Uncovering the intimate lives of her friends Stephen Ward and model Mandy Rice-Davies, Keeler relates what actually happened all those years ago, including disclosures she…
‘A Pocketful of Happiness’ by Richard E Grant
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Swaziland-born actor Richard E. Grant has been a firm favourite with cinemagoers since his debut in Withnail and I in 1987. When his wife Joan was diagnosed with cancer, he was faced with a challenge that would end in her death in 2021. I’ve long been a fan…
‘The Devil’s Defender’ by John Henry Browne
My Review (5 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) For forty years, lawyer John Henry Browne has defended people who some might think were undefendable. From Facebook folk hero Colton Moore to Kandahar massacre perpetrator Sergeant Robert Bales, Browne has often taken cases that appear unwinnable. His most famous client, however, is one of America’s most…
‘A Moveable Feast’ by Ernest Hemingway
My Review (5 stars out of 5) A Moveable Feast is Ernest Hemingway’s reflections on his early days as a writer in Paris, meeting other writers, struggling to sell his stories and often being short of money. Firstly, the paperback I bought has a different cover. It also does not contain the ‘personal foreword by…
‘Catch Me If You Can’ by Frank W. Abagnale with Stan Redding
My Review (3 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) In the nineteen sixties, American Frank W. Abagnale, while utilising several aliases, became one of the cleverest con men the world has ever seen. Posing as an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer, and sociology professor, he forged thousands of cheques, stayed free of charge in hundreds…
‘It’s Not About the Gun’ by Kathy Stearman
My Review (4 stars out of 5) (Audiobook) As a Special Agent with the FBI, Kathy Stearman spent twenty-six years with the Bureau, one of only 600 women among 10,000 agents. Faced with sexist and misogynistic attitudes from the outset, she fought her way up to the position of FBI Legal Attaché and held positions…
‘The Brothers Grimshaw’ by Joy Mutter
My Review (5 stars out of 5) Set in London during the 1970s, this autobiographical tale is based on the author’s experiences following landing her first job after leaving art college. Based in a grotty printing firm in Kilburn, the heroine finds her new employers to be lacking in social graces and good manners, as…
Colin Garrow 