Biography

It could be argued that all writing is, to a certain extent, biographical since it reflects, at the very least, the author’s choices of subject matter and point of view. But here, I take a more literal view of biography by including only those stories that are substantially true. If I have allowed myself license to exaggerate or embellish the truth in a particular piece, it is only in an attempt to better convey the sense and the extent of impact of the events described, for this is the written word, and what we experience vicariously is rarely as powerful or as moving as what we experience ourselves in reality. But in the key facts, these biographical stories are true.  For example, one reader described the story I have entitled Time on my side a “typical male fantasy” and that may be so; but the only detail in that story that is possibly untrue is the scheduled time of the train; and that is because the actual events took place so long ago that I cannot remember the precise time. As it happens, 8:05am would have been within the most probable time window; but in every other respect, that story is true.

Some stories are written in the first person while others are written in the third. That is simply a style choice and should not be regarded as a distinction between biographical and autobiographical writing,