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My Dad's autobiography

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bspittles
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My Dad's autobiography

Post by bspittles »

I knew he was thinking about writing his life story, but was very surprised to get an email to say it was published! It's currently a kindle-only publication http://www.amazon.co.uk/ALLWAYS-AND-EVE ... f_se_p_t_1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is his sixth book, although the others were strictly academic.

It was fascinating to read the story of someone I've known pretty well, without ever having all the details (my parents split up when I was three). It isn't a conventional autobiography as each chapter focusses on an aspect of evolving as a person, rather than it being written chronologically.

RamR
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Re: My Dad's autobiography

Post by RamR »

The blurb itself is very interesting and makes it seem like it would be quite a good read.

Striker
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Re: My Dad's autobiography

Post by Striker »

RamR wrote:The blurb itself is very interesting and makes it seem like it would be quite a good read.
Having found Brian's post interesting I also clicked on the Amazon link. But in contrast I found the blurb to be absolutely hopeless in providing any guidance as to whether or not I would be interested in reading the book. Surely a few lines providing a brief synopsis of the authors life is essential. I've no idea from the blurb alone (i.e. ignoring Brian's own post from which one can rule some things out) as to whether Spittles senior was an astronaut, a dishonest banker, a selfless disaster worker, a dustman or anything else. I'd never read an autobiography without knowing a little about the author. 10 lines would be sufficient if it wasn't filled with the bullsh*t provided by Amazon.

RamR
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Re: My Dad's autobiography

Post by RamR »

I read the blurb as a description of how the book was written and how it was different than traditional autobiographies. It seems to be more about how people change than one specific life lived... though a single life is obviously used as the example. Sure, I found myself wondering about the details of the authors life but more so about how he changed as a person.

bspittles
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Re: My Dad's autobiography

Post by bspittles »

The idea was that the events and occupations of his life weren't the focus, more the change from one person to another throughout his eight decades. However, if you follow the link and click 'Look Inside', you can see the first few pages. Here's the first paragraph, which gives more of an insight...

(It's also worth noting that it is written in the third person, and has a fictional editor. Some readers may find this harder work than usual!)
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fancy dan
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Re: My Dad's autobiography

Post by fancy dan »

That does sound like quite a full life (although I think a real editor would have suggested not putting 'arsed' and 'hole' not quite so close together... :wink: )

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