And those lives are "compulsively vivid, page-turning and rich in surprises.
There are occasional well-sustained passages (some vivid pages on a Rothschild ball, a touching little memoir on working at the BBC in the postwar years).
Some of Matthews's most vivid pages evoke the children's inconceivably brutal experience during the war, though he is brilliant, too, on what it was like to be one of Stalin's children: "Thank you, Uncle Stalin," they would chant, "for a happy childhood".
I write these books of mine to find out things.' Some of the most vivid pages of his autobiographical writing recall golden summers on Martha's Vineyard, but he has reached a point in his endgame where he will not repeat old tales.
Highlight the most important and vivid pages with sub-menus to keep your navigation easy and compelling.
It had the most vivid serious sports page.
"We were impressed by his ability to tell a timely and compelling story that is every bit as vivid on the page as it would be on the screen".
An adventure at heart, Funke's story is vivid on the page so could easily be portrayed on-screen, and, generally, the idea of Inkheart being reimagined by some of the most thoughtful animators in history is a very exciting one.
It is oddly disturbing to read in Jessie Child's vivid but measured pages how contentious all these things once were, and out of what savagery the modern British state grew.
On the right-hand page are vivid illustrations; on the left, the information: distinguishing characteristics, behaviors, habitat, a map showing the season-by-season range across the continent.
Like all great writers, he could write a couple of lines of dialogue and the characters would spring from the page in vivid reality.
