Biographies & Memoirs

"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.

Grown Boy came into his own voice and let loose his word-horde pent-up within him.

From growing up as an orphan in 1920s New York, to serving in the Navy at the D-Day landings in Normandy, to a vagabond life drinking in Parisian cafes, to befriending America's greatest counter-cultural writers, Little Boy has seen it all.

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

Walking Through Shadows describes a winter walk in memory of the author's friend, Clive Dennier, a popular Inverness journalist, who died in Knoydart in March 2013 but whose body was found only some weeks later. The journey begins at Whiten Head on the north Sutherland coast and ends at Kinloch Hourn ...

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.

In this haunting memoir, Alison gives a luminous account of key moments in her life that brought her to be the writer she is: her early activism; her descent into alcoholism; her recovery; her discovery of the power of writing to give a shape and meaning to a life. Found and Lost is both a tender memorial to the extraordinary people in her life.

In the winter of 1811 Lewis Way had an epiphany on the road to Exmouth. From that moment the eccentric millionaire devoted himself and his fortune to only one goal - the return of the Jews to the Holy Land. To achieve this mission he undertook extraordinary journeys as far as Moscow and Mount Lebanon. ...

From the con flict-stricken waters of his wartime service in the Merchant Navy to the restless corridors of power in Whitehall and the tumult of the Yeltsin years in Russia, Sir Ronald McIntosh has never been far from the centre of events. As Director General of the National Economic Development Of fice ...

A riveting and entertaining memoir of life behind the scenes as Britain's ambassador to the US and South Africa, with revealing portraits of some of the giants of international politics over the last forty years.