Biographies & Memoirs

Two days before Christmas 2013, former MP Denis MacShane entered one of Europe's harshest prisons. Having pleaded guilty to false accounting at the Old Bailey, he had been sentenced to six months in jail. Upon arrival at Belmarsh Prison, his books and personal possessions were confiscated and he was ...

Tells the story of the author's experiences as a young officer in the First World War. This title describes life in the trenches and how the dehumanizing horrors he witnessed left him shell-shocked.

Escaping the ills of the British climate, the Durrell family take off to the island of Corfu.
The Durrells find that, reluctantly, they must share their various villas with a menagerie of local fauna, thanks to the youngest of the family, budding naturalist Gerry.
Recounted with immense humour and ...

K.M.R Smythe grew up in Rhodesia Her family lived in the grounds of Ingutsheni Mental Hospital in Bulawayo from 1953-1971 where her father worked as a psychiatrist. As a child she grappled with many frightening situations and found strength and self-belief by becoming a successful tennis player. The ...

Written with the raw honesty and poignant insight that were the hallmarks of her acclaimed bestseller A Widow's Story, an affecting and observant memoir of growing up from one of our finest and most beloved literary masters.

The Lost Landscape is Joyce Carol Oates' vivid chronicle of her hardscrabble ...

In this entertaining and surprisingly moving autobiography, Timmy shares his journey through TV stardom, cycling the Camino and his passion for art

From American master Richard Ford, a memoir: his first work of nonfiction, a stirring narrative of memory and parental love How is it that we come to consider our parents as people with rich and intense lives that include but also exclude us? Richard Ford’s parents—Edna, a feisty, pretty Catholic-school ...

"Based on the true and tragic story of Eliza Whitman, the subject of America's first tabloid scandal, this 1797 sentimental novel both satirizes and pays homage to its moralistic predecessors. The heroine's dilemma -- a choice between duty, romance, and her personal freedom -- reflects the limited options ...

Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations fighting in the Spanish Civil War for the POUM militia of the Republican army.

Published in 1938 (about a year before the war ended) with little commercial success, it gained more attention in the 1950s following ...

The long-awaited new collection of stories from David Sedaris, America's favourite humorist.

The first TV journalist to broadcast live as British peacekeeping forces arrived in Kosovo, he also covered the first Gulf War and, in 2003, anchored Sky News coverage of the second Gulf War from Iraq.

A humorous and anecdote-filled romp through the corridors of power. Former MP Nick de Bois exposes the vagaries and eccentricities of the Palace of Westminster and the peculiar demands that come with being a member of the UK Parliament.

Paul Morley's short biographical portrait of Michael Jackson looks at how we turned the most outrageous child star talent of the late 20th century into a monster; This is a rare piece of pop cultural alchemy that cuts through the myth in a way that only a writer as great as Paul Morley could do.

Newly jacketed reissue of Motion's award-winning biography of this high-achieving yet tragically self-destructive family.

Sir Lenny Henry is one of the UK's best-loved comedians with a career spanning over forty years. Here he writes about his youth for the first time.

Jimmy Greaves remains the greatest goalscorer in English football history with 357 top-flight goals, although his England career was defined by the heartbreak of missing the 1966 World Cup Final. After slipping into the grip of alcoholism, he reinvented himself as a popular TV personality. Natural is the definitive biography of a sporting legend.

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Eddie Redmayne as Hawking and Felicity Jones as his wife Jane. It chronicles their relationship, from his early development of ALS to his success in physics.

Fitzsimons's eye-opening biography brings new light to the life and works of famed literary icon E. Nesbit, in whom pragmatism and idealism, tradition and modernity worked side-by-side to create a remarkable writer and woman.

'We asked listeners to be honest, creative, funny, engaging and evocative in their writing ... to try to make us laugh, cry and think. We never imagined we would get the quantity and quality of entries that we did for A Page from My Life.' - Ray D'Arcy

This gripping biographical study, published here for the first time in paperback, explores the immensely complicated relationship that existed between A.L. Rowse and his native Cornwall.