FRIENDS AND ENEMIES by Barbara Amiel (Constable £25) MEMOIRS FRIENDS AND ENEMIES by Barbara Amiel (Constable £25) ‘Losing status, money, reputation and security is a shock when it happens all within a few days,’ writes Barbara Amiel in her fabulously gutsy and revealing memoir. She takes us from her world of glittering wealth to the … Read more
MEMOIR Mapperton Moments by John Montagu (Skyscraper £10, 224 pp) Leaking house, leaking pond, leaking puppy, leaking father… these touching diaries of John Montagu (now the 11th Earl of Sandwich), chronicling his father’s slow decline into Alzheimer’s disease and death over eight years, have them all, in dripping abundance. Drip, drip, drip. It’s January 1987 … Read more
THE IMPATIENT PEN by Nicky Haslam (Zuleika £22.99, 240 pp) SHOWBIZ MEMOIRS OF THE YEAR THE IMPATIENT PEN by Nicky Haslam (Zuleika £22.99, 240 pp) If you are in agreement that ‘gossip is simply another word for finding other people interesting’ then, from start to finish, this book is a cheeky joy. Haslam’s prose, as … Read more
THE MOUNTBATTENS: THEIR LIVES AND LOVES by Andrew Lownie (Blink £20, 400pp) THE MOUNTBATTENS: THEIR LIVES AND LOVES by Andrew Lownie (Blink £20, 400pp) Everyone of a certain age remembers where they were, 40 years ago, when they heard the news that Lord Mountbatten had been assassinated by an IRA bomb. In this impressively well-researched … Read more