From a pool party with Diana to a road trip with Billy Connolly - a bumper 刈る of riveting memoirs
The ありそうもない Duke: Memoirs of an Eclectic Life
(Hodder & Stoughton £25, 320 pp)
井戸／弁護士席, not that ありそうもない a Duke as Harry Beaufort was born to the 役割 ― prep school, Eton and 農業の college (and a family tree going 支援する before the Norman conquest) before taking over Badminton House and its 50,000-半端物 acres a few years ago.
But if toffs behaving 公正に／かなり 不正に is your thing, then this is the 調書をとる／予約する for you. He can 減少（する） 指名するs like ash from an expensive cigar ― partying with Mick Jagger, a fling with Jerry Hall (who has some disobliging but very funny 観察s about the Duke’s personal せいにするs), holidays in Ibiza with Jemima Goldsmith and Hugh Gra nt, poker with Michael Gove, poolside いたずらs with Lady Di, cavalcades of 王室のs and on and on.
L-R:?Princess Diana makes a splash in Harry Beaufort’s memoir;?Princess Diana makes a splash in Harry Beaufort’s memoir
There are a lot of posh girl s here, too: Prince Harry and girls, Imran 旅宿泊所 and girls and the Duke himself with a かなりの number of girls. But it’s self-deprecating, glamorous and entertaining, and there are some very good jokes, 含むing an excellent one about smoking at the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する.
The Hedgehog Diaries
(New River £14.99, 160 pp)
The Hedgehog Diaries by Sarah Sands (New River £14.99, 160 pp)
Arguably the best memoir of the year, this enchanting little 調書をとる／予約する is a must for any Christmas 在庫／株ing. As the 著名な 新聞記者／雑誌記者 Sarah Sands 準備するs for the 切迫した loss of her 病んでいる father, she and her grandson find a 貧しく hedgehog in the garden and 回復する it to health.
What is it, she wonders, about these homely and mysterious creatures, prickly and defenceless, wild and tame, that makes us so fond of them?
Nato has 可決する・採択するd the little animal as a symbol: the hedgehog is 平和的な yet bristles when 脅すd. Just like Nato.
For Sarah Sands, these gorgeous spiky 存在s ― 独房監禁 and snuffling ― and the natural world they belong in help her to 対処する with loss and mortality. If you buy only one 調書をとる／予約する this year, make sure it’s this one.
Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad
(William Collins £25, 472pp)
Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by Daniel Finkelstein (William Collins £25, 472pp)
This powerful modern classic should have a place on everybody’s 棚上げにするs. Beautifully written, as you would 推定する／予想する from a 主要な jo urnalist and author, it reads like a thriller, but a thriller that will have you in 涙／ほころびs from the 早期に pages.
Meticulously 研究d, it tells how Lord Finkelstein’s parents lived through the 大破壊／大虐殺 as Europe was torn apart by Nazism and 共産主義 in the 1930s and 40s.?
The story becomes a race against time as both families 努力する／競う to escape 確かな death before settling happily at last in a stable society and a 平和的な country. That’s 郊外の north London.?As his grandmother used to say: ‘While the Queen is 安全な in Buckingham Palace, we are 安全な in Hendon Central.’?
This 圧倒的な 調書をとる／予約する also 調査するs how 壊れやすい 自由主義の 会・原則s can be when the 広大な／多数の／重要な 軍隊s of history come 衝突，墜落ing 負かす／撃墜する.
George: A Magpie Memoir
(Profile £16.99, 272 pp)
George: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes (Profile £16.99, 272 pp)
A magical, irresistible story from a poet and a painter closely in touch with 野性生物 and the natural world. Hughes is also the daughter of poet laureate Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath so, as you would 推定する／予想する, she 令状s like an angel.
Her diary of life with the magpie she 救助（する）s, after a 嵐／襲撃する has destroyed its nest and family, is poignant and 心暖まる, and beautifully illustrated by the author. George himself, unruly, wilful and intelligent, can be a challenging companion, and the little 黒人／ボイコット and white bird’s 関係 with Hughes runs と一緒に the 決裂／故障 of her marriage.
But Hughes finds her freedom in the end when her husband 出発／死s, just like George when she sends him off to the wilds. Now she lives in the depths of the Welsh countryside with her menagerie, 含むing 14 フクロウs, 救助（する） huskies and chinchillas. You would like to be there, too. A wonderful read.
Went to London, Took the Dog
(Picador £16.99, 342 pp)
Went to London, Took the Dog by Nina Stibbe (Picador £16.99, 342 pp)
If you 港／避難所’t come across Nina Stibbe yet, she was the writer who made a biggish splash nearly ten years ago with Love, Nina, a playful look at posh literary London (経由で a 一連の letters) when she （機の）カム to the city to work as a nanny for the editor of the London Review of 調書をとる／予約するs.
Now a reasonably 井戸／弁護士席-known literary fromage herself, she has popped 支援する from Cornwall after her marriage starts to 取り去る／解体する to 宿泊する with the award-winning writer Deborah (‘Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’) Moggach in trendy Camden.
There’s plenty of 指名するs to be dropped here from Nick Hornby to Alan Bennett; たびたび（訪れる） visits to the 国家の Theatre or the 王室の 学院; and lots of gossip about 無作為の 調書をとる／予約する festivals.
God Is An Octopus
(Bloomsbury £20, 245pp)
God Is An Octopus by Ben Goldsmith (Bloomsbury £20, 245pp)
This exquisite 調書をとる／予約する 証明するs that from unfathomable grief and loss can come 広大な／多数の／重要な joy and beauty. In July 2019, Ben Goldsmith, one of the country’s 主要な 環境保護主義者s and a powerful 選挙運動者 for 自然保護 and rewilding, lost his 15-year-old daughter Iris in an 事故 on their Somerset farm. Her death left the family reeling and here Goldsmith tries to make sense of the 悲劇.
He finds solace in the natural world where Iris had always felt happiest. In some of the finest 令状ing about nature you will find anywhere, Goldsmith sees that the seasons keep on turning.
He 令状s beautifully about the tiny 移住する birds who cross continents and oceans on a 広大な 旅行 from the skies of West Africa 支援する to the 位置／汚点／見つけ出す where they were born ― feats of unimaginable endurance and precision.
He 回復するs the streams on his farm to their 初めの meandering course, and becomes 熱烈な about 逆転するing the 拒絶する／低下する of 種類 and habitats that has blighted the English countryside. Slowly, through his immersion in nature, he finds 慰安 and hope, as will anyone else who has experienced grief on this 規模.
And with （犯罪の）一味ing 裏書，是認s from such luminaries as Tom Stoppard, Stephen Fry and George Monbiot, you feel that Goldsmith has really touched a 神経.
Pru & Me, A Love Story
(Michael Joseph £22, 352 pp)
Pru & Me, A Love Story by Timothy West (Michael Joseph £22, 352 pp)
Timothy West and his wife Prunella 規模s are two of the best-loved actors in the country. But for years he has watched in anguish as his wife 徐々に succumbs to the 荒廃させるs of dementia.
Now, in this poignant memoir laden with laughter and love, he 述べるs how they have 設立する joy together in life’s simplest 楽しみs; conversation, tea and reminiscences ― usually …を伴ってd by a glass of ワイン.
This is a 深く，強烈に moving but also very funny memoir of a 60-year-marriage ― a personal and professional 関係 like no other and one of the most celebrated in the history of British entertainment.
West has written a joyous portrait of a unique 共同 ― uplifting, 高度に moving and packed with stories of the highs and lows of showbusiness, from what happened when Fawlty’s Sybil appeared nude to how he saw off his love 競争相手 Peter 販売人s. But above all, it really is a love story like few others.
Rambling Man
(Two Roads £25, 320 pp)
L-R:?Billy Connolly, in 1974, 令状s a life-断言するing 調書をとる／予約する;?Rambling Man by Billy Connolly (Two Roads £25, 320 pp)
This cheerful, joyously life-断言するing ramble to every corner of the Earth should make you want to 選ぶ up your b anjo and 始める，決める out on the open road. On the other 手渡す, we can’t all be Billy Connolly, still Britain’s greatest living comedian; and we won’t usually be …を伴ってd by a TV 乗組員.
存在 a rambling man, says Connolly, is a 明言する／公表する of mind: they are 解放する／自由な spirits, 企業ing and endlessly curious about the world. Now 81, and 苦しむing from Parkinson’s 同様に as prostate 癌, could it be that he’s saving his best work till the end?
So at least we get a chance to follow a globe-trotting Billy as he rides his motorbike 負かす／撃墜する America’s 大勝する 66, plays elephant polo in Nepal, navigates the North-west passage, builds an igloo in the 北極の, and even visits a 洗面所 seat museum in Texas.
十分な of excellent jokes and engaging anecdotes, this 調書をとる／予約する makes you feel good to be alive.
