Secondhand Biographies

Mike Curtis, a former coal miner and likely Welsh international, served with 2 Para in the Falklands before going on to join the SAS. In this book Curtis, describes his...

'Full of love, wisdom and yearning' Kit de WaalA coming-of-age story set in Birmingham in the 1980s and 1990s, The Go-Between opens a window into a closed migrant community living...

A vividly rendered and empathetic exploration of how two of the greatest poets of the 20th century-Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton-became bitter rivals and, eventually, friends. Introduced at a workshop...

'Hilarious, informative, enlightening, instructive ... It's the funniest book I've read all year' - Chris Evans***You're about to die. What would your final meal be?This question has long troubled Jay...

A candid, warm and engaging account of former 'IT' Girl and model Caprice Bourret's quest to become a mother after the brutal medical diagnosis that she would never carry a...

When Robyn Scott was seven her parents left the tranquil hills of New Zealand, taking their three small children to live in the wild Botswana bush, where they grew up...

When fishing, there's always an element of chance. And the occasional opportunity to exaggerate just a bit, especially about the one that got away. In Lies, Damned Lies & Anglers,...

Alan Titchmarsh has had a passion for gardening for as long as he can remember. Aged 8, he announced to friends that he was going to be the next Percy...

Dark, sharp, blackly funny and powerful, this is memoir, wielded as weapon, with the tightly compressed energy of an explosive device. 'She has a poet's gift for language, a playwright's...

For Alex James, music had always been a door to a more exciting life: a way to travel, meet new people and, hopefully, pick up girls. But as bass player...

In 1831 John Dodgson Carr, son of a Quaker grocer, set off to walk from his home in Kendal to Carlisle, determined to launch a great enterprise. Within 15 years,...

On 15 March 1996, Bruno de Stabenrath made love for the last time; the next day he was lying in a coma in hospital. He spent the following fourteen months...

When social distancing is over, can people still keep their distance?I only do the things I like now, rather than the things I should - is that alright?And these days,...

This is a biography of Napoleon III who ruled over 18 years of glittering success in France known as the Second Empire. Modern Paris was created out of its medieval...

** BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 29 JUNE - 3 JULY 2020 READ BY SANJEEV BHASKAR (GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME, THE KUMARS AT NO. 42 AND MORE) ** 'Enthralling...

This is a remarkably honest and moving account of fathering over the past century, with a particular focus on Richard Madeley's own turbulent family history.Richard Madeley is fascinated by the...

TELEGRAPH 50 BEST BOOKS OF 2022THE UNTOLD STORY OF PRINCESS DIANA'S STEPMOTHER 'A sparkling biography of a fascinating woman' - Lynn Barber, Telegraph ***** 'Gaudoin's book is revealing and hugely...

From the Number One Bestsellign author of UGLY Despite her mother's constant physical and psychological abuse, Constance Briscoe has gained a place at Newcastle University to study law - a...

An award-winning poet and former infantry team leader in Iraq, Brian Turner combines his devastating recollections as "Sergeant Turner" with his visions of the experiences of generations of warriors in...

While Felicia Pearson is a brilliant actor in a truly chilling role, what's most remarkable about 'Snoop' is what she has overcome in real life. Born a three-pound, cross-eyed crack...

You may not know it, but you've met Augusten Burroughs: You've seen him on the street, in bars, on the train, at restaurants: a twenty-something guy, nice suit, works in...

Separated from her brother Bryan, and passed from caretaker to caretaker, Jenny discovers -- as she rebels her way through high school and into adulthood -- that the past can...

Born in 1786, by the time she was 15 years old, Harriette Wilson was well on her way to becoming Regency London's most sought-after courtesan. She counted amongst her conquests...

While wide awake in the middle of the night (welcome to menopause!), Amy Ferris began chronicling every one of her funny, sad, hysterical, down and dirty, and raw to the...

Beautiful and charismatic, the daughter of one of Pakistan's most popular leaders -- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, hanged by General Zia in 1979 -- Benazir Bhutto is not only the first...

In Eccentric Wealth, Alastair Scott traces the life of Lancashire industrialist Sir George Bullough in this absorbing biography which explores his family's connection with the Hebridean island of Rum, particularly...

Like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi is an iconic figure, and the best-known prisoner of conscience alive today. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize...

This is Esther William's witty autobiography, all about an 18-year-old girl who reluctantly answers the call of MGM and finds herself launched in a career that lasted almost 20 years.

Now a Netflix original series! Unorthodox is the bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman's escape from a religious sect, in the tradition of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel and Carolyn...