Secondhand Biographies

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEKSHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE'A fitting legacy left by a blazing talent' Observer'A masterpiece' Andrew O'Hagan, Guardian'Completely amazing' Lucy...

Kevin Lewis grew up on a council estate in South London. Beaten and starved by his parents, ignored by the social services and bullied at school, he was offered a...

The poignant account of a poverty-stricken childhood in Liverpool during the 1930s, and the brilliant first volume of autobiography. A bestseller ever since it was published in February 1993. One...

'Bower's book is a devastating indictment' Sunday Times 'Explosive ... Bower reveals a remarkable and sinister picture of the man who likes to appear as the ever-smiling hero' Daily Mail...

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...

*AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*'As the title suggests, Waypoints is a rewarding mix of markers, both personal as he reflects on his life and geographical as...

'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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

As a young boy, Alexander Sinclair was the target of his mother's irrational hatred. She stopped at no lengths in her campaign to tear him to pieces both mentally and...

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...

Doctor Max Jacobson, whom the Secret Service under President John F. Kennedy code-named "Dr. Feelgood," developed a unique "energy formula" that altered the paths of some of the twentieth century's...

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...

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...

This story begins and ends with a photograph taken when I was two years old. Finding it was like discovering that I really did exist after all . It was...

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 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...

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...

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...

Aiden Aslin joined the Ukrainian marines in 2018, compelled to defend his adopted homeland from the growing threat of Russian invasion. In February 2022, as Russia mounted a full-scale offensive,...

"A Man Named Dave" is the conclusion to Dave Pelzer's trilogy of memoirs, the first two volumes of which were "A Child Called 'It'" and "The Lost Boy". From childhood,...

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...

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...

'NEXT, I APPLIED TO WORK IN THE ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT, a sealed room where women operated clattering machines like enormous typewriters. After I had catastrophically and erroneously applied all the wrong...

Since his release from prison in 1990, Nelson Mandela has emerged as the world's most significant moral leader since Gandhi. As president of the African National Congress and spiritual figurehead...

Mrs Langtry - born a provincial in 1853, died rich and lonely in 1929 - was surrounded by scandal, luxary and gossip; but this new book goes beyond these outward...

This biography of Cary Grant covers his reaction to his father's death and the subsequent stress caused by this and the conflict of hiding his true nature from the world,...

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...

On December 21, 1989, David Dornstein died in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland. He left behind a younger brother, Ken, desperate to understand his...

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...

Russell Brand grew up in Essex . His father left when he was three months old, he was bulimic at 12 and left school at 16 to study at the...