Showing titles in Biographies & Memoirs

From the long-tenured head Goldman Sachs - an institution legendary for its culture of success - comes a candid memoir of global leadership in an age of extreme turbulence 'Lloyd Blankfein is scary smart about people, markets, and life generally. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Lloyd...

Brought to you by Penguin. *NARRATED BY BBC RADIO 1 PRESENTER, GREG JAMES* A brilliantly warm-hearted celebration of the lost art of having fun When Greg James was ten years old, his nylon shell suit-clad idols the Chuckle Brothers ('to me, to you') signed an autograph (from them, to him) with...

'From a very early age I loved the countryside as much as any garden and was fascinated by the life that I saw all around me from trees, wildflowers, birds, insects and mammals. In a sense this book has been over sixty years in gestation. I have kept notebooks and journals ever since I could...

In Alan Partridge: Nomad, Alan dons his boots, windcheater and scarf and embarks on an odyssey through a place he once knew - it's called Britain - intent on completing a journey of immense personal significance. Diarising his ramble in the form of a 'journey journal', Alan details the people and places he encounters, ruminates on matters large and small and, on a final leg fraught with danger, becomes not a man (because he was one to start off with) but a better, more inspiring example of a man.

Brought to you by Penguin. No sex. No kids. No future? When Tom Feiling moved to Tokyo as a student in the early nineties, Japan was a beacon of the future: a rising superpower, a technology giant, and a global symbol of prosperity, civility and success. When he returned twenty-four years later...

A pop memoir like no other: the sensational tell-all story of one of Britain's most beloved pop stars. Pop legend Lulu looks back over her astonishing life with fresh eyes, reflecting on all she has learnt. From the tenements of Glasgow to the Royal Albert Hall and the glittering lights of...

Brought to you by Penguin. The riveting account of SAS action in the Falklands war After passing the world's toughest Special Forces selection and joining the elite ranks of D Squadron, 22 SAS in 1979, Mark 'Splash' Aston thought the hard part was over. Then on April 2 1982 Argentina invaded the...

Brought to you by Penguin. 'Lukewarm is no good.' As a youngster, Ellie Kildunne was told girls don’t play rugby. But that’s what she was good at, and she was determined to find a way. Growing up in Yorkshire, Ellie started playing rugby aged six with a boys’ team, which she continued to...

A vast canvas of camps, prisons, transit centres and secret police, of informers and spies and interrogators but also of everyday heroism, The Gulag Archipelago is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's grand masterwork. Based on the testimony of some 200 survivors, and on the recollection of Solzhenitsyn's own 11 years in labour camps and exile, it chronicles the story of those at the heart of the Soviet Union who opposed Stalin, and for whom the key to survival lay not in hope but in despair.

Shortly after the turn of the century, my wife, Terry, and I moved to the mountains of Colorado. Shortly after that, I wrote this humorous story about our lives and how my hero wife lived in spite of the debilitating illness of MCS - multiple chemical sensitivity. Terry lives with the severe face pain, the mind fog, the lack of energy. And she swears every time she's out for a walk and somebody is doing their laundry with some fragrant detergent - her biggest bane. Sometimes she falters and doesn't bear it well, but to me, she's always a hero. This is her story.

‘[A] rich, stylish and immersive epic’ Irish Independent ‘Deeply researched and fascinating’ The Guardian ‘[Rory Carroll is] an exceptionally gifted storyteller’ Max Hastings ‘A gripping read’ The i Paper ‘A thrilling account of one of the most unpredictable, memorable and...

After seeing a friend run the London Marathon, Sophie decided to give it a go. Collapsing two miles from the finish line, her first attempt was a disaster, but she picked herself up and kept going on a path that would take her to races all over the world across the Alps and even the Sahara Desert for the famous 150-mile Marathon des Sables. Sophie has now run all six World Marathon Majors, completed 15 marathons and three ultra-marathons, and run the entire length of the Thames Path, from source to sea.

The principal criminal court of England, historically reserved for the more serious and high-profile trials, Court Number One opened its doors in 1907 after the building of the 'new' Old Bailey. In the decades that followed it witnessed the trials of the most famous and infamous defendants of the twentieth century. It was here that the likes of Madame Fahmy, Lord Haw Haw, John Christie, Ruth Ellis, George Blake (and his unlikely jailbreakers, Michael Randle and Pat Pottle), Jeremy Thorpe and Ian Huntley were defined in history.... 

#1 New York Times non-fiction bestseller #2 Sunday Times non-fiction bestseller SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY APPLE, AMAZON, THE TIMES AND FINANCIAL TIMES Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk offers the most intimate...

Comedian Pierre Novellie was on stage when a heckler suggested he was autistic. Usually, this disruption would be water off a duck's back but two things made this heckler different: first, he was himself autistic. Second, he turned out to be absolutely right. This random encounter led to a diagnosis of autism at the age of 31 that unravelled his world, explained his struggles and answered questions that had bothered him for his entire life: why were the other kids obsessed with Britney Spears instead of The Goon Show? Why don't people ever say what they mean? Why is everyone chewing so loudly?

From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog – now the subject of a new Disney+ docuseries – and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing. Shari...

David Mitchell, who you may know for his inappropriate anger on every TV panel show except Never Mind the Buzzcocks, his look of permanent discomfort on C4 sex comedy Peep Show, his online commenter-baiting in The Observer or just for wearing a stick-on moustache in That Mitchell and Webb Look...

'Natalie Livingstone's deeply researched, unfailingly fascinating book gives the many extraordinary women at or near the centre of the Nuremberg trials their proper, important, and often ignored place in history' Salman Rushdie 'A book that is as interesting as it is important. Beautifully...

Dorit Kemsley has spent years cultivating a persona that exudes elegance, ambition, and confidence. But behind the designer labels and otherwise picture-perfect image lies a story of resilience, transformation, and self-discovery. Now, for the first time, she's telling this story in full. Before the cameras started rolling, Dorit was raised in a Jewish home in Connecticut, shaped by her family's international roots.

As a young schoolboy, David Essex dreamed of becoming a professional footballer and was signed up by his beloved West Ham United. But as a teenager, he developed a passion for music, which set him on a very different path, and ultimately led to superstardom. It wasn't, however, an easy start. Scraping a living on the edges of show business was a hard slog, and he endured many disappointments. Then, aged 23, he went along to an audition for a new musical called Godspell and won the role (Jesus) that shot him to fame.