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Review
'Mesmerising' (Caroline Gascoigne, Books of the Year, Sunday Time )
'A beautifully written, fascinating glimpse into the childhood and personal life of the woman who was one of the pioneers for equality for women in the BBC.' (Lesley Pearse, Daily Mail )
'She has the rare ability to observe her life from a semi-detached position and to lace her own story into the social history of our times' (Michael Cockerell, Daily Mail )
'Few can match Bakewell for the qualities that abound in her book: class and composure and a deeply unfashionable concern for more than her own career.' (Lesley White, Sunday Times )
'Wise and wry' (The Times )
'Bakewell's level-headed discussion of her ambivalent response to the tag (the 'thinking man's crumpet') makes fascinating reading...as does her calm but moving account of her lengthy affair with Harold Pinter.' (The Sunday Times )
'Like the devil in the Rolling Stones' song, Joan Bakewell was everywhere at every stage: reporting on the Cuban missile crisis, interviewing Allen Ginsberg and Vaclav Havel, taking chunks out of the Berlin Wall when it fell...draped in the kaftan of Sixties sophistication...her evocations of grief [are] powerful and honest.' (Independent on Sunday )
'vividly believable and tinged with sadness...a tender, unshowy memoir' (Casilda Grigg, The Telegraph )
'Joan Bakewell's superb autobiography is honest and intriguing, but it is also beautifully-written...Contemplating her gender, Cambridge, politics, ideas, she appears charming without being self-righteous. Well conveyed is the tension she felt between seizing opportunities finally available to women like herself and the enduring expectations of motherhood and the perfect family.' (The Observer )
'A beautifully written, fascinating glimpse into the childhood and personal life of the woman who was one of the pioneers for equality for women in the BBC.' (Lesley Pearse, Daily Mail )
'She has the rare ability to observe her life from a semi-detached position and to lace her own story into the social history of our times' (Michael Cockerell, Daily Mail )
'Few can match Bakewell for the qualities that abound in her book: class and composure and a deeply unfashionable concern for more than her own career.' (Lesley White, Sunday Times )
'Wise and wry' (The Times )
'Bakewell's level-headed discussion of her ambivalent response to the tag (the 'thinking man's crumpet') makes fascinating reading...as does her calm but moving account of her lengthy affair with Harold Pinter.' (The Sunday Times )
'Like the devil in the Rolling Stones' song, Joan Bakewell was everywhere at every stage: reporting on the Cuban missile crisis, interviewing Allen Ginsberg and Vaclav Havel, taking chunks out of the Berlin Wall when it fell...draped in the kaftan of Sixties sophistication...her evocations of grief [are] powerful and honest.' (Independent on Sunday )
'vividly believable and tinged with sadness...a tender, unshowy memoir' (Casilda Grigg, The Telegraph )
'Joan Bakewell's superb autobiography is honest and intriguing, but it is also beautifully-written...Contemplating her gender, Cambridge, politics, ideas, she appears charming without being self-righteous. Well conveyed is the tension she felt between seizing opportunities finally available to women like herself and the enduring expectations of motherhood and the perfect family.' (The Observer )
The Times
'Wise and wry'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Big Treat,
This review is from: The Centre of the Bed (Hardcover)
Joan Bakewell writes a beautiful account of her life, from her birth in 1933, which runs parallel to the incredible and turbulent history of the 20th century. She has also lived through significant social changes, from the Education Act which enabled her to get to university, to the very gradual shift from gender discrimination which caused her mother (and thousands like her)to live a melancholic and disappointed life. We follow Joan's life through marriage, children, divorces and her reporting arts work at the BBC - this organisation also going through something of a revolution. I was a bit muddled with the chronology about the middle of the book - when and who she was married to and when she had divorced - the dialogue seemed to jump back and forth somewhat. Despite that however, still an absorbing, jolly good read.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A real treat,
By Hayles "Hayles" (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Centre of the Bed (Paperback)
It's so great to read a well-written autobiography and be in no doubt that the subject really did put pen to paper themseleves. As one of the most well-known and respected journalist of her generation, Bakewell has a great command of the English language. The tale of her life is both informative and entertaining. There is no sensationalism here - even when we are learning about her extra-martial affairs - she is restrained without being secretive and it seems that at all timees she is considering the thoughts and feelings of everyone else involved in her story. Bakewell's experiences put her at the centre of so many social changes - the rise of feminism, the fall of communism and the decline of public broadcasting are all chartered through her personal experiences. Never self-indulgent or apologetic, this is a mature look at a well lived life. A welcome change from all those autobiographies of so-called celebrities who have achieved nothing and have even less to say.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Late Night Line Up Remembered,
By
This review is from: The Centre of the Bed (Paperback)
Joan Bakewell's book,The Centre of the Bed is a must for those old enough to have watched BBC2's flagship
news review programme in the late 1960's. Joan was a masterly vision in her mini skirt and she made the programme unmissable. I will never forget an overwhelmed male interviewee who all of a sudden exclaimed ''my God you're beautiful !''even Joan, the ultimate professional, was visibly moved. At the time it would have been great fun to have known even some of what was going on in her private life but it's all so well described in this autobiography.
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