autobiography – Page 2 – Everything Is Better With Dragons

Review: ‘Veronica’s Bird’, by Veronica Bird & Richard Newman

Veronicas Bird Cover

Published By: Clink Street publishing

Publication Date: 23rd January 2018

I.S.B.N.: 9781912262618

Format: Paperback

Price: £8.99

Blurb

Veronica’s Bird: Thirty-five years inside as a female prison officer

Veronica Bird was one of nine children living in a tiny house in Barnsley with a brutal coal miner for a father. Life was a despairing time in the 1950s, as Veronica sought desperately to keep away from his cruelty. Astonishingly, to her and her mother, she won a scholarship to Ackworth Boarding School where she began to shine above her class-mates. A champion in all sports, Veronica at last found some happiness until her brother-in-law came into her life. It was as if she had stepped from the frying pan into the re: he took over control of her life removing her from the school she adored, two terms before she was due to take her GCEs, so he could put her to work as a cheap option on his market stall. Abused for many years by these two men, Veronica eventually ran away and applied to the Prison Service, knowing it was the only safe place she could trust. This is the astonishing, and true story of Veronica Bird who rose to become a Governor of Armley prison. Given a ‘basket case’ in another prison, contrary to all expectations, she turned it around within a year, to become an example for others to match. During her life inside, her ‘bird’, she met many Home Secretaries, was honoured by the Queen and was asked to help improve conditions in Russian Prisons. A deeply poignant story of eventual triumph against a staggeringly high series of setbacks, her story is lled with humour and compassion for those inside.

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Veronicas-Bird-Thirty-five-inside-officer-ebook/dp/B077NXT42X

About the authors: After thirty-five years working for the Prison Service, Veronica Bird is now retired and living in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. She is still an active proponent of the justice system and continues to lecture across the country and is a supporter of Butler Trust, which acknowledges excellence within the prison system.

A qualified architect and Swiss-trained hotelier, Richard Newman enjoyed a forty-year career designing and managing hotels worldwide before retiring in 2001. Since then he has gone on to publish a number of novels: The Crown of Martyrdom, The Horse that Screamed, The Potato Eaters, The Green Hill, Brief Encounters and most recently The Sunday Times bestseller, A Nun’s Story. He is currently working on a new novel about retirement and an autobiography of his time in the Middle East. He lives happily with his wife in Wetherby, West Yorkshire where he enjoys being close to his family.

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A trio from Olympia Publishing

A couple of weeks ago a marketing bod from Olympia Publishing emailed me with a list of recent books to see if I wanted to read and review any of them. I asked for three that looked interesting. I’ve now read them and present to you, dear readers, the reviews. I’ve also been looking at the Olympia Publishing page, since I’ve never heard of them before I thought I’d also give you my opinion on the quality of the books and anything I’ve gleaned from reading their website.

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Review: ‘Finding Masculinity’, Edited by Alexander Walker

Finding Masculinity
Female to Male Transition in Adulthood
Alexander Walker

Riverdale Avenue Books
Magnus
ISBN 9781626011861
PRICE $9.99 (USD)

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Review: I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai and Christina Lamb

2013
Weidenfeld & Nicholson

ISBN: 9780297870913
Edition: Hardback
Price: £18.99

I took a trip to the library yesterday on my way home from a doctor’s appointment – I’ll talk about that in a later post – to try to get some books about depression and anxiety – again, I’ll talk about local mental health care provision in another post, I’m getting a lot of material to work on at the moment – when I noticed this book on the shelves. It’s taken about a year to get to our little library, but according to the library assistant I spoke to yesterday there has been a great deal of interest in reading it. I’ll have to get up in the morning and take it back so other people can read it.

I found this book deeply moving. Malala Yousafzai comes from a deeply troubled and exquisitely beautiful area of Pakistan called the Swat Valley. Her family are not well off but her father managed to get an education. With help from family and friends he started a school, The Khushal School, in Mingora. Malala has obviously inherited her passion for education from him. In this book she recounts the events of her life and provides family and regional background history. How fascinating to find that the area around Mingora is littered with 1300 year old Buddhas, and that Alexander the Great past through on his way to the Indus.

Malala describes the events in her region and country in the last decade or so with great clarity, and the circumstances of her shooting and subsequent recovery in Birmingham with a specificity that is commendable. Especially interesting are her observations of the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan, the affects of earthquake, flood and war in her community and her family’s displacement, first as IDP’s for three months while the Pakistani Army dealt with the Taliban in Swat and her later removal to the UK in 2012 for medical treatment after being shot on her school bus by an assassin sent by the Taliban. It was this event which brought her to global attention after she became known in Pakistan for her campaign for universal girls education. She now continues her work, through the Malala Fund, while continuing her own education here in the UK.

As I said earlier, I found this book deeply moving, and thoroughly engrossing. It provides just a bit of perspective on world events that often seem so far away, and yet are truly something we must all be concerned with.

Review: ‘My Brief History’ by Stephen Hawking

10th September 2013

Bantam

Stephen Hawking has written several popular science books that have been incredibly well received. And now he has written his own story. I have read an uncorrected e-book and am now able to review it.

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Review: ‘Girl least likely to’ by Liz Jones

4th July 2013

Simon & Schuster UK

Liz Jones is Fashion Editor at the Daily Mail and a columnist for the Mail on Sunday, having worked in the media for the last 30+ years.

Born in 1958 the youngest of seven children to an ex-army captain and a housewife, Liz Jones grew up in a variety of places around Essex wearing handmade and hand me down clothes, but dreaming of working for Vogue. She never quite managed it. Anorexic at 11 and still obsessed with food, having it all and losing it all because she never felt good enough, Ms Jones has considered herself a failure from a young age and has striven to be better.

I think I’ve occasionally read her column, for the simple reason that when I’m at my grandparents flat and I haven’t anything with me to read, it’s the only vaguely honest and interesting piece I can find in the paper. This autobiography is the same; the writing is fluid and moving. I read it in a single sitting.

One review described the book as ‘laugh out loud funny’. I disagree; it’s sad, with odd moments that are funny in hindsight, but must have been embarrassing or painful at the time. A vivid example of how a strong work ethic and success can mask low self-esteem, this is a powerful story.

Rose