If, in this wildly distracting and content-pervasive culture of ours, you struggle to expose yourself to a healthy dose of quality fictional writing as much as a steady supply of insightful non-fiction, I have a suggestion for you: Biography. In the biography (or autobiography) of a fascinating person, we satisfy both our ceaseless desire for story and the self-imposed rule that we ought to continue to learn, to pursue written works of educational value well beyond our formal education.
Many people, both well known figures and obscure historical personalities, have lived lives that rival any screenplay or novel for their suspense, empathetic draw and obedience to classical storytelling virtues. By studying the lives of Richard Nixon and Sir Winston Churchill, we satisfy our insatiable appetite for stories of falls from grace, corruption, betrayal, redemption and victory. We learn about the madness of the Watergate scandal and the absurdity yet importance of the second world war through the perspectives of those periods’ most influential, indeed, determining actors. These compelling stories give us our fix for a well spun tale, while quenching our thirst for knowledge of political history. Continue reading The power of biography