Biography & Autobiography

We live in an age when reality TV shows climax in a tearful finale. But feeling sad - genuinely sad - is still taboo. Yet, sadness happens to us all, sometimes in heartbreakingly awful ways. If we don't know how to be sad, it can be...

A family with a dark secret.A child who refuses to speak.Rosie must help her before it's too late. Nine-year-old Caitlin has a secret, but she cannot tell anyone about it. When her mother is sectioned under the Mental...

Of all the celebrities who served their country during World War II -and they were legion -Jimmy Stewart was unique. On December 7th, when the attack on Pearl Harbor woke so many others to the reality of war, Stewart was already in uniform - as a private...

A poignant and introspective memoir from Irish journalist and broadcaster Charlie Bird. In 2021, Charlie Bird was diagnosed with motor neurone disease - a man whose voice was so synonymous with his career faced losing it completely. Yet...

*With a foreword from Gerald Durrell* In 1947, returning to the UK with two young children to support, Margaret Durrell starts a boarding house in Bournemouth. But any hopes of respectability are dashed as the tenants reveal themselves to be a host of...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 Part social history, part memoir, Swell shines a light on the 'swimming suffragettes'. These days, swimming may seem like an egalitarian pastime, open to anyone with a swimsuit - but...

Ara: The Life and Legacy of a Notre Dame Legend captures the personality, courage, and character of a great man who faced adversity on and off the field. Through his unprecedented access to Ara Parseghian’s personal files, author Mark O. Hubbard explores...

Ever since being brought up by The Beatles, Frankie Boyle has been a tremendous liar. Join him on his adventures with his chum Clangy The Brass Boy and laugh as he doesn't accidentally kill a student nurse when a party gets out of hand. I...

The Sunday Times bestselling autobiography from the greatest tennis player of his generation'A winner' Independent 'A terrific sporting memoir, full of memorable anecdotes' New Statesman 'As exciting as Rafa himself' Woman's OwnNo tennis player since...

This is a personal and insightful portrait of Pope Pius XII, the memories of Sister M. Pascalina Lehnert, who served as his housekeeper for forty years. Her book, most of it written just a few months after the Pope's death, shares insights into the...

Radio 4 Book of the WeekIn the Ukrainian city of Poltava stands a building known as the Rooster House, an elegant mansion with two voluptuous red roosters flanking the door. It doesn't look horrifying. And yet, when Victoria was a girl growing up in the...

'A classic of its kind.' William Boyd'Thought-provoking, hilarious, sardonic and scarily brilliant.' Scotsman'A work of dazzling craft.' Times Literary Supplement'A memoir in a million.' Sunday Times** Chosen as a Time Book of the Year ** Don Paterson...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781618909626Author Joseph PearceFormat PaperbackPage Count 264Imprint Saint Benedict PressPublisher Saint Benedict PressWeight(grams) 340gDimensions(mm)...

The unforgettable true story of one Jewish orphan’s survival against impossible odds, and her lifelong quest for family, safety and a sense of belonging. Elida Friedman was never supposed to have been born. In the Kovno Ghetto in Lithuania, Nazi law...

A chronicle of travels, some homely some exotic, from the man who can make a schoolboy holiday in Swanage as colourful as a walk in the Hindu Kush. Eric Newby's life of travel began in 1919, on pram-ride adventures with his mother into the...

From Pilgrims to Robber Barons, martyred witches to Confederate officers, artists to statesmen, founders of towns, states, and industries, from journalists to pirates, or pioneers to war heroes, each person in the narrative has an individual destiny and...

For more than 70 years, the marriage of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip was at the centre of the nation's life. Now, in My Husband and I, Ingrid Seward reveals the real story of their loving and enduring relationship. When a young Princess Elizabeth...

An in-depth look at one of the film industry's most audacious working actors In 1982, a gangly teenager named Nicolas Coppola made his film debut and changed his name to Nicolas Cage, determined to distance himself from his famous family. Once he...

'A lyrical investigation ... both powerful and transcendent' CHIGOZIE OBIOMA 'Acutely observed, hauntingly rendered and deeply affecting' AMINATTA FORNA 'Both epic and intimate' MARGO JEFFERSON An...

The unsung and remarkable stories of the women who held London's East End together during not one, but two world wars.'Inspiring tales of courage in the face of hardship' Mail on Sunday'Inspiring . . . Takes you back to a time of community and helping...

*Longlisted for the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History, 2022*A spectacular biography of the great designer, entrepreneur, abolitionist and beacon of the Industrial Revolution, from acclaimed historian and Director of the Victoria and Albert...

In the new edition of this highly successful book, Harold Schonberg traces the consecutive line of composers from Monteverdi to the tonalists of the 1990s through a series of fascinating biographical chapters. Music is a continually evolving art, and...

Shortlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson PrizeShortlisted for the 2014 Costa Biography AwardLonglisted for the 2015 Orwell PrizeWinner of the 2014 Political Book Awards Political Biography of the YearRoy Jenkins was probably the best Prime Minister...

P. D. James's extraordinary memoir of her early life and time starting out as a novelist, as well as diaries recording her in old age.In this intriguing and very personal book, part diary, part memoir, P. D. James considers the twelve months of her life...

A trawlerman's life was hard, often up against bad weather, rough seas and black frosts, although on calm days it was a pleasure to be at sea. In this eventful memoir, deep-sea trawlerman James Greene relates his life at sea, from his childhood when his...

The story of Henry VIII's queens - as seen through the eyes of Jane Rochford, sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn and cousin to Katherine Howard.'Outstanding ... fascinating and moving' Amanda Foreman, bestselling author of THE DUCHESSJane Rochford was...

The final part of Charles Moore's bestselling and definitive biography of Britain's first female Prime Minister, 'One of the great biographical achievements of our times' (Sunday Times)A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, TELEGRAPH, IRISH TIMES, NEW...

The scandalous love triangle at the heart of the Victorian art world. Effie Gray, a Scottish beauty, was the heroine of a great Victorian love story. Married at nineteen to John Ruskin, she found herself trapped in a loveless and unconsummated union...

Over the last five years, transgender people have seemed to burst into the public eye: Time declared 2014 a 'trans tipping point', while American Vogue named 2015 'the year of trans visibility'. From our television screens to the ballot box, transgender...

Welcome to the ultimate Real Housewives reunion! Not All Diamonds and Rose is the definitive oral history of the hit television franchise, from its unlikely start in the gated communities of Orange County to the pop culture behemoth it has...

Veering from the hilarious to the tragic, Andrew Mitchell's tales from the parliamentary jungle make for one of the most entertaining political memoirs in years. From his prep school years, straight out of Evelyn Waugh, through the Army to Cambridge,...

Hannah Arendt is one of the most renowned political thinkers of the twentieth century and her work has never been more relevant than it is today. Born in Germany in 1906, Arendt published her first book at the age of 23, before turning away from the...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781778063831Author Harvey S FirestoneFormat PaperbackPage Count 232Imprint Latticework PublishingPublisher Latticework PublishingWeight(grams)...

The Sunday Times bestsellerGrowing up in Liverpool in the 1960s and '70s, when skinheads, football violence and fear of just about everything was the natural order of things, a young Will Sergeant found the emerging punk scene provided a shimmer of hope...

The sensational second volume of Charles Moore's bestselling authorized biography of the Iron LadyIn June 1983 Margaret Thatcher won the biggest increase in a government's Parliamentary majority in British electoral history. Over the next four years, as...

When Suzanna Clarke and her husband bought a dilapidated house in the Moroccan town of Fez, their friends thought they were mad. Located in a maze of donkey-trod alleyways, the house - a traditional riad - was beautiful but in desperate need of repair...

'Dan is a national treasure and one of America s great songwriters. Elvis Costello. 'Dan s songs were funny, serious, and entertaining, and the combo of old-timey folk, country, and jazz knocked me out. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. 'Dan...

Emma was one of England's most remarkable queens: a formidable woman who made her mark on a Europe beset by Vikings. By birth a Norman, she married and outlived two kings of England and witnessed the coronations of two of her sons: Harthcnut the Viking...

In Double Talkin' Jive legendary drummer Matt Sorum takes music lovers behind the scenes of a remarkable life in rock. Sorum, whose albums have sold tens of millions of copies around the world, provides an honest, engaging account of the highs and lows...

Cleopatra Selene, daughter of Cleopatra VII of Egypt and Mark Antony, was the only member of the Ptolemaic dynasty to survive after her parents were defeated by the future Roman emperor Augustus at the Battle of Actium. Paraded as a prisoner in a...