Biographies

Woody Allen remains a controversial director. As a practitioner of film comedy he has progressed from the slapstick of "Take the Money and Run" and "Bananas" to the sophisticated Freudian...

** 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...

On Sunday April 27, 2003, 27-year old Aron Ralston set off for a day's hiking in the Utah canyons. Dressed in a t-shirt and shorts, Ralston, a seasoned climber, figured...

In October 1996, the national newspapers began to report the disappearance of the Bishop of Argyll who had been missing for ten days. He eventually reappeared in the North of...

Featuring original interviews with Everest mountain guides and climbers, this is "a fast-moving, nuanced account of the peak's transformation from the ultimate mountaineering challenge into a booming business opportunity" (Joshua...

David Blaine, downtown hipster and master of the ancient art of illusion, challenges our version of reality and brings magic to the world. 'David Blaine! He completely blew my mind'....

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...

A combination of straightforward autobiography - his family background, education and career - and an account of the election campaign of 1989 when Yeltsin stood as a candidate for the...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An extraordinary insight into life under one of the world's most ruthless and secretive dictatorships - and the story of one woman's terrifying struggle to avoid...

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,...

Shayne Ward was planning to work in his local clothes shop as usual last Christmas. Instead he was selling CDs - millions of them. In fact, the artist who secured...

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...

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,...

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...

'One of the best books I've read in the last five or ten years... Wild is angry, brave, sad, self-knowing, redemptive, raw, compelling, and brilliantly written, and I think it's...

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...

DISCOVER THE TRUTH BEHIND THE HEADLINES IN THE ROYAL GIFT OF THE YEARFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author and Royal correspondent, Robert Jobson - with his extensive connections within the...

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...

Hoping to improve her Chinese and broaden her cultural horizons, Rachel DeWoskin went to work for an American PR firm in China. Before she knew it, she was not just...

'The best thing about weighing 40 stone is eating whatever you want. You don't worry about gaining half a stone: you know it won't make a difference. You know that...

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,...

Vitali's fearless journalism made him a national hero in the USSR, as well as a sitting target for the criminals he has helped to convict. In this book he investigates...

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...

'I always knew he was quite creative, but I had no idea he was so reckless' Lord Sugar 'The thinking woman's Bakewell tart ... Witty, interesting and underpinned by a...

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...

'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...

The heartfelt, witty and inspiring first and only autobiography from one of Britain's most beloved celebrities. 'Raw and revelatory' Sunday Times'Showbiz memoir of the year' Daily Express'A rip roaring and...

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...

A riveting oral biography of the proto-punk Detroit rockers MC5, based on original interviews with the band and key members of their inner circle Few bands have dared to ignite...