Home
/
Non-Fiction
/
The Lives of the Famous and the Infamous
The Lives of the Famous and the Infamous
May 3, 2025 12:29 PM

Author:The Week

The Lives of the Famous and the Infamous

Read about the man who convinced Einstein there was a God, the newspaper publisher who brought down a president and the code-cracking genius who helped foil the Nazis, and remember the lives of those that created the extraordinary moments in our modern history.

Based on the obituaries that appear in every issue of The Week, here is a book that brings together the famous and infamous figures of our generation. From the world’s influential leaders and thinkers of the day, such as Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Margaret Thatcher and Sir Patrick Moore, to the more infamous and eccentric, this is a fascinating compendium of the lives of our times.

Reviews

One of the most important books about gay culture in recent times

—— Andy Thomas , The Quietus

Fascinating and entertaining...as incisive about gay culture as Caitlin Moran's books are about feminism

—— Boyd Hilton , Heat

One of civilisation’s great pop-cultural writers…tells the story of some of the most amazing decades in British history

—— GQ Style

Lively, timely and lovingly researched: thoroughly gay, in both the old and the new senses of the word

—— Louis Wise , The Sunday Times

Insightful and engaging look at the past 30 years of gay social history in Britain

—— Attitude

Important and insightful

—— The Pool

Wonderful book...sensitively written and well researched. I'm honoured to be included

—— David Furnish

An essential testament that needs to be read by anyone who came of age during the last three decades: gay, straight, parent, child, sister, brother, politician, policy maker, celebrity, commentator - all of us who are trying to make sense of where we came from and where we are now

—— John Tiffany

Whether it's the bittersweet recollections of a former London Lighthouse AIDS nurse, the unexpected moral fortitude of a former tabloid editor, or the Grindr confessions of a pop idol, Flynn finds the heroism in the everyday and the exceptional...an ambitious and inspiring work

—— Adam Mattera, former Attitude editor

As fascinating as it is laugh out loud funny, and proves, quite brilliantly, that there's nowt so queer as folk

—— Antony Cotton

Lively trip through haberdashery history.

—— Iain Finlayson , Saga

I found this a great read for all ages and a genuine insight into the social history of different times.

—— Phil Robinson , Yorkshire Post

Knight is a lively minded writer… Knight trims her story with wonderful arcane clothes-related information.

—— Claire Harman , Guardian Weekly

If ever there was a case for book groups to abandon fiction… [This] is it… Irresistible.

—— WI Life

If you spent many happy hours as a child messing about with buttons, you’ll love The Button Box

—— Yours

A box which contains the buttons of three generations of women in Lynn Knight’s family is at the centre of this book, and is both ordinary and remarkable, prosaic and magical… The only illustrations of the buttons and clothes in the book appear on the dust jacket and at the start of each chapter, yet through Knight’s prose we are able to vividly picture them and ourselves rummaging through an old button box, imagining the dresses and the lives that they once belonged to

—— Sophie Woodward , Times Literary Supplement

Strikingly lucid, brave and generous

—— Sue Gaisford , Tablet

This is the mesmerising, seven-generations saga of the strong women in Juliet Nicolson’s family

—— Iain Finlayson , Saga Magazine

Alongside vivid portraits of Pepita, Victoria and Vita, Nicolson delivers a magnificently clear-eyed view of her mother… Lovely, elegant book, painstakingly unsentimental.

—— Nick Curtis , Radio Times

She examines the pride, passion, resentment, emotional neglect, addiction and loss, and recognizes them in her own life... a treat

—— Psychologies

Few writers can boast such a literary heritage as Juliet Nicolson, granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, who turns her astute historian’s eye onto her own family history.

—— Choice Magazine

An engaging history-cum-memoir… Strongest when exploring the tender relationship between Nicolson and her father after her mother’s death as a result of alcoholism, her own struggles with the same condition, the knife-twist of grief when one loses a parent, and the emotional rush of motherhood.

—— Natasha Tripney , Guardian

I would recommend everyone to read this book

—— CB Patel , Asian Voice

Juliet Nicolson is firing on all cylinders ... She is able to write about powerful emotion in a way that is both heartfelt and unselfconscious ... It makes the book perfectly personal as well as a fascinating history

—— William Boyd

This book is a marvellous illustration of the often forgotten fact that people in history were real, with real ambition, real passion and real rage. All these women took life by the throat and shook it. It’s a wonderful read, and a powerful reminder of the significance of our matrilineal descent

—— Julian Fellowes

Juliet Nicolson's book will engage the hearts and minds of daughters and sons everywhere. She has turned my attention to much in my life, and I am full of admiration for her clarity and gentleness

—— Vanessa Redgrave

I loved A House Full of Daughters. I was initially intrigued, then gripped, and then when she began writing about herself, deeply moved and admiring of the way in which she charted her own journey. An illuminating book in which she charts the inevitability of family life and the damage and gifts that we inherit from the previous generations

—— Esther Freud

A fascinating, beautifully written, brutally honest family memoir. I was riveted. This is a book to read long into the night

—— Frances Osborne

I was riveted... She is so astute about mother/daughter relationships and the tenderness of fathers and daughters. She deeply understands the way problems pass down through generations... I congratulate her on her fierce understanding.

—— Erica Jong

Juliet Nicolson’s writing is so confident and assured. She combines the magic of a novelist with the rigour of a historian, and the result is thrilling and seriously powerful

—— Rosie Boycott

Once I started it was impossible to stop. I was totally absorbed by Juliet Nicolson's large-souled approach to family memoir down the generations, drawing the reader into lives that reverberate with achievement and suffering... movingly original

—— Lyndall Gordon

A moving and very revealing account of seven generations of strong and yet curiously vulnerable mothers and daughters

—— Julia Blackburn

An outstanding book about a gifted, unconventional family told through the female line. Insightful, painfully honest, beautifully written and full of love, wisdom, compassion, loss, betrayal and self-doubt. A House Full of Daughters will resonate down the years for all who read it

—— Juliet Gardiner

An engaging memoir in which Nicolson lays bare discoveries about herself, but also gives a fascinating inside take on her renowned, and already much scrutinized, forebears. She also has much that is thought-provoking to say about mothers and daughters, marriage and the way in which damaging patterns can repeat down generations.

—— Caroline Sanderson , Bookseller

Nicolson is perceptive on difficult mother-daughter relationships.

—— Leyla Sanai , Independent

A fascinating personal look at family, the past and love.

—— Kate Morton , Woman & Home

Beautifully written history… She has as easy and elegant a style as her many writer relations, so this book is seductively readable. It could be described as a late addition to the ‘Bloomsbury’ shelves, but that should not put off anyone who feels enough has been said about that particular group. I found it touching and fascinating. In admitting that Nigel Nicolson was a friend, I can say with confidence that he would have been painfully proud of his daughter’s candid confession.

—— Jessica Mann , BookOxygen

Highly readable, no-holds barred tale.

—— Jenny Comita , W Magazine

Nicolson has written a poignant and courageous history.

—— Daily Telegraph

The most enjoyable book to take on holiday would undoubtedly be Juliet Nicolson’s A House Full of Daughters… It is ideal holiday reading.

—— Lady Antonia Fraser , Guardian

A simple premise looking at seven generations of women in one family, but it's got all the juicy bits of several novels in one

—— Sarah Solemani , You Magazine

[An] ambitious memoir.

—— Lady, Book of the Year

An entrancing book… A poignant, well-written memoir-cum-social history

—— Sebastian Shakespeare , Daily Mail, Book of the Year

A fine family memoir.

—— Daily Mail

This engrossing book charts seven generations of a family who were obsessive documenters of their lives through diaries, letters, memoirs and autobiographical novels… Interwoven with the personal is a portrait of society’s changing expectations of women, and the struggle to break free from patriarchy. Here, brilliantly laid bare, are both the trials of being a daughter and of documenting daughterhood in all its complexity.

—— Anita Sethi , Observer

A charming book about the female side of Nicolson’s family tree.

—— i
Comments
Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdbook.com All Rights Reserved