Biographies

On 17 April 1986 a British television journalist was kidnapped in Beirut. His name was John McCarthy and he was to remain a hostage for the next five years. During...

It's 1977 and life in Iran is becoming unpredictable. The Shah will be overthrown and events are about to take place on the world stage. But for five-year-old Shappi Khorsandi...

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what Chinese parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's...

Rupert Isaacson's The Horse Boy is one family's epic journey to rescue their son.Rupert and Kirstin Isaacson were heartbroken when they learned that their two-year-old son Rowan was autistic. And...

In this poignant memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the trauma of being sent away from home at age eight to attend a boarding school. A Very Private School offers a clear-eyed,...

In this unauthorised biography of Dame Edna Everage, acquired for an unprecedented advance and in spectacular secrecy, her long-time manager and the man who was there from the very beginning,...

Thirteen years ago, Moab is my Washpot, Stephen Fry's autobiography of his early years, was published to rave reviews and was a huge bestseller. In those thirteen years since, Stephen...

Aiping Mu was born to parents prominent in the Communist hierarchy - her father was Political Commissar for the Beijing region and her mother ran one of the city's universities...

A WATERSTONES BEST BIOGRAPHY OF 2024My son's death will never make sense to me. But it has taught me that it's possible to find meaning, collectively and individually, in the...

The world needs new ideas, new products, new kinds of associations and institutions, new initiatives, new art and new designs. But these new things seldom come from established organisations. They...

An anonymous barrister's darkly comic and moving first-hand account of life in the legal system, and how it's failing us all.The Sunday Times number one bestseller.Winner of the Books are...

Ed Husain's The Islamist is the shocking inside story of British Islamic fundamentalism, told by a former radical. 'When I was sixteen I became an Islamic fundamentalist. Five years later,...

A confessional, uplifting memoir from the beloved YouTube personality. Twenty-three year old Joey Graceffa has captured the hearts of millions of teens and young adults through his playful, sweet, and...

When the journalist Lynn Barber was 16, she was picked up at a bus-stop by an attractive older man who drew up in his sports car - and her life...

SELECTED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN'The zigzagging life of an adventurer' GUARDIAN'An astonishing, wonderful memoir of an extraordinary life' HENRY MARSH, author of Do No Harm'Exciting...

Having a brood has changed the mood... As one of the biggest parenting stars on social media, mother-of-three Louise Boyce knows a thing or two about navigating the craziness of...

Book1

*A 2024 HIGHLIGHT FOR: THE SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES AND SYLIST*A gripping memoir of one woman's self-discovery inside a top Wall Street firm, and an urgent indictment of privilege, extreme...

'I'd been in Claybury for four months before I was given ECT. I was sixteen. The day I went down for it I was wearing a striped hospital dressing gown...

When the Taliban took control of Kabul, Kamila Sidiqi and all the women of Kabul saw their lives transformed. Overnight, they were banned from schools and offices and even forbidden...

Nostalgic, witty and filled with characters and situations that people of all ages will recognise, Dear Lupin is the entire correspondence of a Father to his only son, spanning nearly...

VULTURE'S BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR 2023A NEW STATESMAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023When Shane McCrae was eighteen months old, he was removed from his parents and taken to...

Waris Dirie, whose name means "desert flower", was born in Somalia of nomadic parents. She underwent extreme female circumcision at the age of five, and when she was 13 her...

THE TIMES AND WATERSTONES BEST ART BOOK OF 2023'Marvellous . . . intimate and insightful . . . reads like a novel by Samuel Beckett' Paul Theroux A portrait of...

A Stylist 'Non-fiction You Can't Miss' selection for 2023This serial memoir follows Charlotte over the course of several years as she falls in and out of love, muses on the...

BOOK OF THE YEAR IN GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, GRANTA AND TLS'This dazzling anti-memoir is nothing less than a portrait of a writer with a beautiful mind. Harrison turns over what it...

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'It's heartbreaking. It's scary. It's beautiful.' Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called OveIn a world where children murder children, and where gun violence is the worst in...

"A love letter to our people-full of fury and passion."- Jose Olivarez, award-winning poet and author of Citizen Illegal"If you could take Rodolfo Gonzales epic poem 'I Am Joaquin' and...

William Woodruff had the sort of childhood satirised in the famous Monty Python Yorkshireman sketch. The son of a weaver, he was born on a pallet of straw at the...

Born in 1979, Roxy Freeman grew up travelling around Ireland and England in a traditional horse-drawn wagon with her mother and father and six siblings. Life was harsh but it...

After a decade as Conservative Party leader, David Cameron remains an enigma to those outside his tight-knit inner circle. This authoritative biography of Britain's youngest Prime Minister for nearly 200...

The son of a deranged Italian immigrant, Joseph Grimaldi (1778-1837) was the most celebrated of English clowns. The first to use white-face make-up and wear outrageous coloured clothes, he completely...

With the same sharp eye, quick wit and narrative drive that made The Game a bestseller, Neil Strauss takes us on a white-knuckle journey through America's heart of darkness as...

In the early 1960s, Anne Watts was a newly qualified nurse, eager to use her skills. Her father expected her to work locally, not too far from North Wales, where...

In a captivating and compelling voice that ranks with many of our greatest memoirists, Laura Bush tells the story of her unique path from dusty Midland, Texas to the world...

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...

This is a riveting memoir by the popular veteran BBC correspondent, examining his desire to become a war reporter and how the nature of the job has changed. Having joined...

'Inspirational ... I can't recommend this book highly enough' Bill GatesProfound and powerful, Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba and Russia, as the charismatic but...