All articles in Biography & Memoir
9th September, 2022 in Biography & Memoir, History, Women in History
Queen Elizabeth II: A giant among British royals
Descending the stairs of the royal plane at London Airport on 7 February 1952, the former Princess Elizabeth took her first steps on British soil as queen. She was 25. Only days earlier, her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, along with her sister, Princess Margaret, ha…
24th August, 2022 in Biography & Memoir, History
Breakspear: More cannons than canon
‘The English reader may consult the Biographia Britannica for Adrian IV but our own writers have added nothing to the fame or merits of their countryman.’ – Edward Gibbon [1] Nicholas Breakspear was elected pope in 1154, choosing Adrian as his papal name. He is the first and so f…
21st July, 2022 in Aviation, Biography & Memoir, Women in History
Pauline Gower: Pioneering leader of the Spitfire women
Pauline Mary de Peauly Gower was born on 22 July 1910 at Sandown Court in Tunbridge Wells, the younger daughter of Robert and Dorothy Gower. It was an auspicious year for aviation pioneers: on 23 April Claude Grahame-White, who trained at Louis Bleriot’s flying school, had made t…
22nd June, 2022 in Biography & Memoir, Military, Women in History
Remarkable Women of the Second World War
If I may say so myself, as author of the twelve stories (and epilogue) about the Second World War contained in Remarkable Women of the Second World War, anyone with an insatiable appetite for knowledge about World War Two must read this book. It does not have to be read in…
18th November, 2021 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Germany’s war children
My father’s clergywoman called his now almost-gone generation of Germany’s World War II war children ‘sad’ when I told her about the publication of my book Boy Soldiers: A Personal Story of Nazi Elite Schooling and its Legacy of Trauma. After his retirement, my father had activel…
26th August, 2021 in Biography & Memoir, True Crime, Women in History
Valerie’s story: The woman who survived the A6 Murder
In August 1961, 22-year-old Valerie Storie and 36-year-old Michael Gregsten were the victims of James Hanratty in the notorious ‘A6 Murder’. After a five-hour ordeal, ending in a layby on the A6 in Bedfordshire, Michael was shot dead and Valerie was raped, shot and left for…
24th June, 2021 in Biography & Memoir, Entertainment, Women in History
Ask the author: Lyndsy Spence on Maria Callas
Maria Callas is one of opera’s greatest talents, and yet so much of her life is lost when we focus solely on Callas the artist and ignore Maria the woman. We spoke to Lyndsy Spence, author of Cast a Diva: The Hidden Life of Maria Callas, about Maria’s legacy… What drew you to Mar…
5th May, 2021 in Biography & Memoir, Society & Culture, Women in History
Josephine Butler: The Victorian feminist who campaigned for the rights of prostitutes
Josephine Butler was once described as ‘the most distinguished Englishwoman of the 19th-Century’. Born in 1828, she was the leader of a national women’s political campaign – one of the very first. As a woman, she defied Victorian convention by becoming involved in politics….
19th March, 2021 in Biography & Memoir, Women in History
Ten things you may not know about Princess Mary
If ever a member of the Royal Family has been underestimated, then it is Princess Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood. Few people are aware of the immense amount of work she undertook in her public life and her importance in the history of the Royal Family during the tw…
16th December, 2020 in Biography & Memoir, History, Natural World
A Christmas like no other? Captain Robert Scott’s 1910 expedition to the Southern Ocean
By late December, Captain Robert Scott’s expedition ship, the Terra Nova, had been on the Southern Ocean for almost a month. After a sea-sickness-inducing passage through the Roaring Forties and a ferocious storm in the Furious Fifties, photographer Herbert Ponting and his compan…
18th November, 2020 in Biography & Memoir
Memoir: A personal experience
I didn’t set out to write a book. When I left school, my educational qualifications in English were zero. And so these memoirs were written slowly, and sometimes painfully as I relived my search for my own identity and for my baby brother, Kevin. Abandoned into an orphanage two m…
9th April, 2020 in Biography & Memoir, Military
Buster Crabb: Ian Fleming’s favourite spy
Commander Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb was author Ian Fleming’s favourite real-life spy, whose daring exploits eventually became the main inspiration for his fictional character ‘James Bond.’ Crabb was a drinker and a gambler, who loved women, fast cars, and gadgets. A British naval fro…