A captivating, detail-rich biography of a “criminal legend.”
A rollicking biography of a female art thief.
In his lively third book about art and crime, Amore, the director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tells the story of a “fiery, bold, and brash” Englishwoman who stole for nationalistic reasons. Bridget Rose Dugdale (b. 1941) is a “true outlier and major figure in the annals of criminal history.” Born into a wealthy family, she studied philosophy, politics, and economics at several colleges. A position at the Ministry of Overseas Development was “crucial” to her becoming an activist, as was her reading of Marx’s Das Kapital, with its discussion of British imperialism in Ireland. Dugdale was invigorated by seeing Cuba’s revolution in person, attending protests in Manchester, and visiting Northern Ireland. The Bloody Sunday protests were “responsible for her foray into Irish politics,” as she transitioned from “intellectual activist to militant operative.” Englishman Walter Heaton, a married “revolutionary socialist,” became her comrade in arms and, later, her lover. Dugdale’s aggressive activism earned her the nickname “Angel of Tottenham.” In 1973, she broke into one of her family’s estates and stole eight valuable paintings to fence for the Irish Republican Army, a crime for which she received a suspended sentence. With two “local toughs,” she hijacked a helicopter in a botched aerial bombing of a British police station in Northern Ireland. As Amore writes, Dugdale had “elevated her status from gunrunner and rabble-rouser to bona fide terrorist.” In 1974, Vermeer’s painting The Guitar Player was stolen from England’s Kenwood House. Amore believes Dugdale was the thief, but it was never proven. Then came the “biggest theft in the world,” as Amore extravagantly describes it: Dugdale and her IRA cronies brazenly stole 19 paintings from Ireland’s Russborough House, including Vermeer’s Woman Writing a Letter With Her Maid. She only stood trial for the bombing and was sentenced to nine years. Released in 1980, Dugdale has become “something of an icon in Ireland.”
A captivating, detail-rich biography of a “criminal legend.”Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64313-529-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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