AUTOBIOGRAPHIES A PLENTY

Three more crossed my desk last week:

THE WOMAN I WAS BORN TO BE
My Story
Susan Boyle
Bantam Press - $39.99

OVER BUT NOT OUT
My Life So Far
Richie Benaud
Hodder & Stoughton - $39.99

AND FURTHERMORE
Judi Dench
Weidenfeld & Nicolson - $55

THE WOMAN I WAS BORN TO BE

My Story
Susan Boyle

One year ago, a modest middle-aged woman from a village in Scotland was catapulted to global fame when the YouTube video of her audition for Britain’s Got Talent touched the hearts of millions all over the world.

and Susan Boyle became an international superstar.

This astonishing transformation has not always been easy for Susan, faced with all the trappings of celebrity, but in the whirlwind of attention and expectation, she has always found calm and clarity in music. Susan was born to sing.
Now, for the first time, she tells the story of her life and the challenges she has struggled to overcome with faith, fortitude and an unfailing sense of humour.

OVER BUT NOT OUT

My Life So Far
Richie Benaud

Few people understand cricket as well as Richie Benaud. A high-class attacking batsman and a masterful leg-break bowler, he captained Australia in 28 of the 63 Tests in which he played. After retiring as a player in 1964, Richie quickly became a successful TV commentator. No one else has found such favour with the vast numbers of cricket lovers in both Britain and Australia.
In Over But Not Out, Richie revisits his career and reveals his thoughts on some of the most controversial issues in the game. Looking back on England s victories in the 2005 and 2009 Ashes series, Richie debates the future of Test cricket and, conversely, the recent growth in Twenty20 cricket, the effect it has had on technique, and the rise of India as a major power in world cricket. Richie has known every major figure in cricket for fifty years, as colleague and friend or both, and in his book Richie turns his attention to the role of coaches such as John Buchanan, Duncan Fletcher and Peter Moores, and players such as Shane Warne, Andrew Flintoff and Kevin Pietersen. With the expansion of the IPL, increasingly overloaded schedules and referral systems becoming more commonplace, Over But Not Out is the must-read cricket book of 2010.

AND FURTHERMORE

Judi Dench

From the moment Judi Dench appeared as a teenager in the York Mystery Plays it was clear that acting would be her career. Trained at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, she has played every classic role from Titania to Cleopatra.


But she first became a household name via television, thanks initially to a sit-com, A Fine Romance, in which she played alongside the actor Michael Williams, whom she married in 1971. In the cinema her films have ranged from Ladies in Lavender through to Notes on a Scandal with Cate Blanchett to Shakespeare in Love, in which she played Queen Elizabeth, a role which gained her an Oscar.

This book is, however, much more than a career record. It is the first time Judi has written about her life in her own words and it captures her voice, her impish sense of humour and her charm.

It is full of fascinating never-before told reflections on an extraordinary life. This is a vivid account of more than half a century as one of Britain’s best-loved actresses.

Judi Dench is a foremost actress in the British theatre. She was created a DBE in 1988 and a Companion of Honour in 2005.