Biography & Autobiography

'He had brought nothing but trouble to the navy: how would he fare as King?'Known as the 'Sailor King', William IV was sent to join the navy by his father to discipline him, but instead became notorious for his calamitous years of service, his debts...

Candid, outspoken and supremely honest, and including interviews with those close to him, #2Sides is Rio's unique story: from his early days in Peckham, through to picking up the Champions League trophy on a rainy summer's night in Moscow, #2Sides is the...

A pause. 'Ah, Herr Fergusson. It's Frau Schwenk.' Our social worker, I now understood. 'Thank you for getting back to me. I'm calling because we have a little boy, four weeks old, who needs a family.'In 2018, after the introduction of marriage equality...

By the time he was nineteen, Royston Vasey had married, divorced, fathered two children, spent two years in Britain's toughest Borstal, served three prison stretches and been stabbed while in the Merchant Navy. He thought his only career choice would be...

To appreciate the present and how far we have come we sometimes need to revisit the uncomfortable past, no matter how painful. Norwell Roberts, who became the Met's first Black police officer in 1967, found out he had a new job the same way the readers...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781761044458Author Matt PrestonFormat PaperbackPage Count 368Imprint Viking AustraliaPublisher Penguin Random House Australia

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of "Bumble", the legendary SkySports cricket commentator who's one ball short of an over and delivers madcap moments galore in this ebullient, endearing and hilarious new book. David "Bumble" Lloyd is a...

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) always stood in the shadow of her lover and teacher, Jean-Paul Sartre, despite the fact that she was a brilliant writer and philosopher in her own right. Her monumental study "The Second Sex" made her a cult figure of the...

A ROUGH TRADE BOOK OF THE YEARWayne Kramer, legendary guitarist and co-founder of quintessential Detroit proto-punk legends The MC5, tells his story in The Hard Stuff.'As gripping as it is sobering.'THE TIMES'Voyerustically dramatic.'NEW YORK...

'Meticulously researched.' - Stewart Lamont, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Centre'Sandford's accomplished, well-crafted work brings Conan Doyle into sharp relief as a man of scrupulous fairness and great integrity.' - Library Journal'Adds a new dimension to our...

Imran Khan is in the spotlight once more, this time for his defiant presence on the political stage of Pakistan and not on the cricket field. Although not a beginner in politics-for he has been roaring out his public speeches for nearly two decades-but...

James II (1633-1701) lacked the charisma of his father, Charles I, but shared his tendency to dismiss the views of others when they differed from his own. Failing to understand his subjects, James was also misunderstood by them. In this highly-regarded...

In the spring of 1895 the life of Constance Wilde changed irrevocably. Up until the conviction of her husband, Oscar, for homosexual crimes, she had held a privileged position in society. Part of a gilded couple, she was a popular children's author, a...

This fascinating story charts the career of Max Hoffman, the US car dealer who represented Jaguar, Porsche, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Fiat, Lancia, BMW, and many other European car brands during the decades following WWII. He pushed for distinguished...

'Clear, authentic and utterly engaging . . . it is as successful as it is authentic' Independent on SundayBorn to an unhappy marriage and into a deeply sexist society, Nance Russell worked hard for everything she had, and while the world changed around...

Mooresy: The Fighter's Fighter is the life story of one of Britain's most-loved boxers. Not always an angelic teen and a product of the 'Salford Overspill', Jamie Moore was sucked into the slipstream of the thrill which came with car theft. At 15, his...

Ilan Pappe has long been a controversial figure in Israel, here; he gives a full account of his break with mainstream Israeli scholarship and its consequences. Growing up in a conventional Israeli community and influenced by the utopian visions of...

In Xanadu did Kubla KhanA stately pleasure dome decreeKublai Khan lives on in the popular imagination thanks to these two lines of poetry by Coleridge. But the true story behind this legend is even more fantastic than the poem would have us believe. He...

Duke Leto Atreides is now the skilful and much-loved ruler of Caladan, served by loyal Duncan Idaho. To his court come Gurney Halleck, despised slave of the Harkonnens - and Jessica, the exquisite, perfectly trained concubine chosen by the Reverend...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781568589572Author Raphael HonigsteinFormat PaperbackPage Count 288Imprint PublicAffairs,U.S.Publisher PublicAffairs,U.S.

This is the story of the actress who became a Hollywood legend by winning the coveted role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, and whose circle included both theatrical and political celebrities, from Winston Churchill to Noel Coward, John Gielgud,...

Recollections of birth and death, joy and tragedy that reveal the reality of maternity care in a remote setting. In 2016, English midwife Indie joined the staff at Attat Hospital in south-western Ethiopia, where Atsede led the midwifery services. It...

CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF 2022 BY THE GUARDIAN AND NEW STATESMAN 'A STAND OUT' SUNDAY TIMES 'STARTLINGLY HONEST AND DEVASTATINGLY GOOD' RACHEL CLARKE 'YOU EMERGE KNOWING HOW LUCKY YOU ARE TO HAVE READ IT' ALI SMITH, NEW STATESMAN 'SEARING' GUARDIAN, 50...

Included in The Times and Daily Telegraph Book of the Year round-ups'Friends and Enemies is an extraordinary read showing unflinching candour from a truly remarkable woman' Elton John'Blistering . . . shockingly candid . . . stiletto-sharp memoir of the...

Featuring legendary and inspirational guitarists and the equipment they used. This fully illustrated, beautifully produced hardback explores the history of the pioneering British guitarists - their background, career and equipment. Includes many...

For the last quarter of a century Michael Stipe has been the lead singer of R.E.M, who from their humble beginnings toured and built a steadily growing legion of fans before breaking into the mainstream during the early 1990s. Today Stipe is one of the...

The New York Times BESTSELLERA moving, unflinching memoir of hard-won success, struggles with addiction, and a lifelong mission to give back - from the late iconic actor beloved for his roles in The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, and Lovecraft Country.When...

Rosa tells the life story of philosopher, economist, publisher, writer, organizer, political leader, and martyr Rosa Luxemburg, in full-color, graphic form. The story follows Rosa from her family life in Jewish Poland, where she became the leader of a...

Wilfred Thesiger, this century's greatest living explorer, recalls his travels among the mountain ranges of Asia. Although Wilfred Thesiger is still largely associated with the Arabian deserts and the Marshes of Iraq, he has also travelled...

Until it was pulled down, the Walled City was Hong Kong's most foreboding territory. It was a lawless place, dominated by the Triads, and which the police hesitated to enter. Strangers were unwelcome. Drug smuggling and heroin addiction flourished, as...

Born and raised in Essex, Maajid Nawaz was recruited into politicised Islam as a teenager. Abandoning his love of hip hop music, graffiti and girls, he was recruited into Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Liberation Party) where he played a leading and international...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780310611219Author Pamela Rosewell MooreFormat PaperbackPage Count 192Imprint ZondervanPublisher ZondervanWeight(grams) 185gDimensions(mm) 216mm * 139mm *...

From a master biographer and leading scholar of eighteenth-century literature comes an award-winning new portrait of the greatest satirist in the English language Jonathan Swift is best remembered today as the author of Gulliver's Travels, the satiric...

David Livingstone has gone down in history as a fearless explorer and missionary, hacking his way through the forests of Africa to bring light to the people - and also to free them from slavery. But who was he, and what was he actually like? "He was an...

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week It's as if they're made for each other. Two men, both falling, but holding each other up for a time. Ostend, 1936: the Belgian seaside town is playing host to a coterie of artists, intellectuals and madmen, who find...

From the record-breaking success of 1991's 'Black Album' to the band's reinvention with the Load/Reload albums; from bassist Jason Newsted's shock departure to the group's subsequent meltdown as laid bare in the documentary Some Kind of Monster; from the...

'A third presence has arrived in my marriage. Ms Alzheimer's - I think of her as a hideous, brain-eating monster - has come to live with us. Permanently.' In April 2017, Susan's husband Nicholas was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This was followed by 28...

All In My Head is a memoir by a woman who in her early fifties received a life-shattering diagnosis. It is about her determined search for effective treatment, the birth of a campaign to get proper data and funding for research into glioblastoma (GBM),...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780996044011Author Susan BranchFormat HardbackImprint Spring Street PublishingPublisher Spring Street PublishingWeight(grams) 839gDimensions(mm) 235mm *...

Published simultaneously in Britain and America to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of T. S. Eliot, this major biography traces the life of the twentieth century's most important poet from his childhood in the ragtime city of St Louis right up...