Biographies & Memoirs

"Country Girl is Edna O'Brien's exquisite account of her dashing, barrier-busting, up-and-down life."--National Public Radio When Edna O'Brien's first novel, The Country Girls, was published in 1960, it so scandalized the O'Briens' local parish that the book was burned by its priest. O'Brien was undeterred ...

Modern Women is a celebration of 52 influential and inspiring women who have changed the world through their lives, work and actions

By turns philosophical and darkly comic, an ex-smoker's meditation on the nature and consequences of his nearly lifelong addiction. Written with the passion of an obsessive, Nicotine addresses a lifelong addiction, from the thrill of the first drag to the perennial last last cigarette. Reflecting on ...

A page-turning, shirt-grabbing true story that follows a one-of-a-kind family required to make nearly unimaginable choices

A fascinating study of how a NATO intervention can work in a nation state if backed by a strong commitment to support democratic government.

Based on interviews with Butler himself, his friends, colleagues and family, and with access to many previously unseen papers, Crick chronicles the long and energetic life of the greatest analyst of British elections - a story which weaves its way through post-war history with surprises, colour and humour.

Paperback edition of bestselling music biography.

A new look at the man who gave us ideas "the medium is the message" and "globalvillage".

Vicky Beeching, called "arguably the most influential Christian of her generation" in The Guardian, began writing songs for the church in her teens. By the time she reached her early thirties, Vicky was a household name in churches on both sides of the pond.

During his remarkable lifetime, Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) served his country in many capacities, including as the third President of the United States. But ultimately, this gifted individual — an accomplished architect, naturalist, and linguist — wished to be remembered primarily as the writer ...

Born into a Jewish family in Romania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were rounded up by the Nazis, corralled into trains, and transported first into the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and then to Buchanwald. This is his terrifying and intimate account of the increasing horrors he endured, ...

Primo Levi's devastating and classic account of what it meant to have survived the Holocaust.

The extraordinary stroy of 'Joe' Carstairs, the fastest woman on water
The Sunday Times bestseller

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 ...