Biographies & Memoirs

The latest in Hesperus’s On series comes from master travel writer Mark Twain and concentrates on his journey through the Wild West From 1861 to 1867, a young Mark Twain traveled through the Wild West. Following an abortive foray into a career as a Confederate Cavalry man he opted instead to head off ...

'The Children of Lovers are Orphans.' Proverb

Bestselling novelist, author of Lord of the Flies, William Golding was a famously acute observer of children.

The autobiographic story of one uneducated man's inspiring and eventful journey to an education in adulthood.

Ellen Terry is perhaps the most celebrated English actress of the 19th century, and the best known member of the talented theatrical Terry family, today represented by her great-nephew Sir John Gielgud.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is a treasured charity whose mission is to save lives at sea, but what is known of its founder, Sir William Hillary?

TV actor, producer and screenwriter Valentine Palmer sets out to write the definitive account of the Titanic’s sinking. As the 100th anniversary of the fateful night approaches, Palmer follows up innumerable conflicting stories and theories that still, to this day, surround the doomed liner.

Charles ...

Tara's childhood was scarred by the debilitating mental illness of her father and by her mother's death from cancer when she was thirteen. Caught up in grief and despair, Tara and her older brother Adam developed a deep, caring bond, but Adam struggled silently with growing anxiety and depression.

A harrowing memoir from the father of a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with child-onset schizophrenia.

Discovered in the archives of journalist and author Keith Waterhouse, which were acquired by the British Library in 2012, was a typescript for Waterhouse's first full-length work which had never been published, a humorous autobiography entitled How to Live to Be 22.

At twenty-three, after leaving graduate school to pursue her dreams of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff moves to New York City and takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. She spends her days in the plush, wood-panelled agency, where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign ...

This is a fascinating and highly readable biography of Barbara Wootton, one of the extraordinary public figures of the twentieth century. She was an outstanding social scientist, an architect of the welfare state, an iconoclast who challenged conventional wisdoms and the first woman to sit on the Woolsack in the House of Lords.

A fresh exploration of Merton's life and thought, focussing on his role as a Christian activist. An inspirational book that will encourage readers to work towards a more just world, written by an author who combines a contemplative life with political action.

National treasure Charlotte Green tells her compelling story.

"An epic, mesmerizing oral history of Hollywood and Los Angeles by the author of the contemporary classic Edie; Jean Stein transformed the art of oral history in her groundbreaking book Edie : American Girl, an indelible portrait of Andy Warhol 'superstar' Edie Sedgwick. Now, in West of Eden, she turns ...

The Chamberlains were the most controversial dynasty in British public life for sixty years. Based on the letters they wrote to each other during that time, this book relives those controversies as the Chamberlains saw them.

The authorized biography of one of the great British post-war writers.Written with the close co-operation of Alan Sillitoe himself, The Life of a Long Distance Writer is not only the definitive work on the legendary writer in his 80th birthday year, it also promises to be perhaps the most controversial ...

First memoir by one of the most influential poets, novelists and critics of the last few decades. Full of literary anecdotes and revealing events in the author's personal life.

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

From the moment the Military Wives sang together on BBC Two's The Choir, their lives changed forever. Their journey entranced the nation, and their story moved millions.

Subrata Dasgupta was six years old when his parents came to Britain from Calcutta in 1950. In his affectionate portrait of a Britain, he recalls what it was like growing up in Nottingham and Derby in the 1950s: holidays in Blackpool, the trials of the dreaded Eleven-Plus and the first stirrings of rock and roll.