Bibliofemme Bookclub An Irish Bookclub

“Mad, bad and dangerous to know” was Lady Caroline Lamb’s verdict on Lord Byron in the early nineteenth century. The same description could be applied to the beautiful Caroline Blackwood (1931-1996), a member of the celebrated (and perhaps cursed) Guinness family who, as part of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, was brought up in County

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James Frey brings us into his world again with his autobiographical sequel My Friend Leonard. After the very compelling A Million Little Pieces the author might have had a challenging time living up to his own self-created standard.

As outlined in my previous review, A Million Little Pieces divulges all of his fears, strengths and weaknesses in a

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From Oxford to the toughest US maximum security penitentiary of Terre Haute, Indiana, Howard Marks has got an amazing story to tell. Mr Nice is an autobiography of Wales’ most notorious drug smuggler. Written with laugh out loud humour and passages that will grip you and coerce you into rereading time and time again, this is one very well written

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She sings, she dances, she pouts, she poses, and now she pens original fiction. Is anything beyond the reach of pop sensation Britney Spears? Co-written with her mother, Lynn, ‘A Mother’s Gift’ is recommended for ages 9 and up; it’s a sugar-sweet rags-to-riches tale of a girl from small town Mississippi whom everyone knows

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At some point in their career, most journalists dream of conquering the land of Manhattan’s glossy mags. Undeterred by a world where infamous ball-breaker Tina Brown is Queen, Toby Young went Stateside for five years in search of success, supermodels and better cocaine. Thus begins a voyage of self-discovery bristling with a naivety that rarely

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Starting with writer Samuel Johnson’s muse Hester Thrale and moving on to Alice Liddell (Lewis Carroll’s inspiration for Alice in Wonderland), Pre-Raphaelite beauty Elizabeth Siddal and Salvador Dali’s wife Gala, this is a multi-biography with an art slant and a theme as fascinating as the lives of the women who inspired it.

What

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A Million Little Pieces is set in the roller coaster timeframe of James Frey’s torturous ride through rehabilitation. While struggling to find a new life, Frey shares his past life of debauchery and addiction with astonishing honesty and clarity, giving the usual self-pity a gracious miss.

Frey started drinking regularly at the early age of

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Back in the summer of 1956, Colin Clark’s first job was as third assistant director (as he puts it, “the lowest of the low”) on a film called ‘The Prince and the Showgirl’. Starring Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe, the film was one of Monroe’s attempts to escape being typecast as a dumb blond, but her acting

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