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Biographies are not about truth. They are at best about the biographer's perception of what he remembers or what he researched in connection with his subject be it himself or history whatever kind. The question, therefore, should rather be: How to read a biography. The answer to which I think would be to read as many biographies as possible about the subject one is interested in and then make up one's own mind.

Of course by taking this route, one can end up with a sorely biased notion of one's subject, but may this not be the same with reading a single biography? And then the bias is not even one's own! So it would help to join a discussion group, either on-line or in the area one lives, and learn to regard the subject through the eyes of many, which might help to form a more balanced outlook on the life and times in question.

But back to the real question: How to write a biography. The best method I can think of would be to make use of time-lines. One should look up and make lists of events which happened in the time that one's biography is placed. Some of these global events might add perspective and luster to one's own subject. It might also spark interesting side roads, which could give greater insight into reasons for the way history' turned out that is; the subject's story!

If by doing this one comes across unknown facts, it might lead to one of the many rewarding side effects of writing biographies, in the way it broadens one's own knowledge and understanding of history.

After having exhausted the subject of timelines, it might be a good idea to enter deeper into specific times and places of the subject's history, which was left waiting during the lateral part of researching timelines. This would now allow the biographer to get to know more about the things which left him with a kind of unease maybe just a tingling of a notion yet something he couldn't get rid of. This unease is the sixth sense which has to become part of every biographer's toolkit. This is the small voice which nags at the back of his mind: things are not as they seem. If the biographer is worth his or her salt, there would be no rest until the reason for the unease has been discovered through research.

An author I know worked with biographical material of the captain and a ship she wanted to use in a novel. She was ready to implement all she unearthed, seeing she got it from an unquestionable maritime source in London. As it happened, an expert on ships and sea fare glanced at it and was

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