Secondhand Biographies

An idea came to Simon Cowell one night as he watched an episode of The Sopranos. Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman were providing the background music singing 'Time to Say...

Jennie, Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of England's greatest statesman, was a single-minded and dynamic woman, who overcame the scandal of a criminal father and an upbringing spent largely in exile...

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...

At the age of twenty, George Ritchie died in an army hospital. Nine minutes later, he returned to life. What happened to him during those minutes was so compelling, it...

David Taylor was a supremely resourceful backbencher, a polymath and a unique parliamentary craftsman whose sudden death on Boxing Day 2009 shocked and saddened all of Westminster. In this biography,...

Bryony Gordon survived her adolescence by dreaming about the life she'd have in her twenties: the perfect job; the lovely flat; the amazing boyfriend. The reality was something of a...

One forgotten street, 12 unforgettable women. ''Ang on boy, Joan's got sumfink to show yer.' She rummaged in a drawer for a moment, pulled out a piece of paper and...

'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...

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...

Decades after her death, the legend of Eva Peron continues to captivate millions. No other female political leader in the 20th century - not Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi or Golda...

When the first shell fell on the elegant spa town of Lipik, it hit the roof of the town's stately orphanage. Within three months Lipik had been destroyed, the people...

'I hadn't been very comfortable with fame, but I didn't know what to do with myself after I was famous. On the surface, I was just hugely relieved to be...

'One of the gems of the year' - Michele Magwood, Sunday Times (Books LIVE SA)The story of a young man fighting to recover from a devastating psychotic break and the...

A gripping, painfully honest, and ultimately inspirational memoir from global superstar and creator of the Red Table Talk series Jada Pinkett Smith. In a media driven landscape that crafts narratives...

"A renegade Florence Nightingale cares for the ill in a remarkable tale of compassion and combating prejudice" The Guardian 'Breath-taking courage and compassion [...]a beautiful book' The Sunday Times'An extraordinary...

When Pat Stewart posed on the railings of Blackpool promenade on a blustery day, little did she know the resulting photograph would become an iconic image of the twentieth century....

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...

Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud is a beautifully written account of Sun Shuyun's journey to retrace the steps of one of the most popular figures in Chinese history -...

It is the late 1970s and Manjula Padmanabhan is in her mid-twenties trying to find her way in the world. Life in Bombay is proving tricky: there are the visits...

Most break-up bibles are full of the same old stories of woe, wrack and ruin...1. Crying into large glasses of Chardonnay2. A huge amount of retail therapy and some unwise...

'An incredibly personal story...sad, but unbelievably funny' - Claudia Winkleman, BBC Radio 2 Arts Show'This memoir is gasp-out-loud, offensively funny, touching and a sure thing for anyone who likes David...

The tough life of one of Britain's most senior policemen, who rose through the ranks from poverty and deprivation to the highest office, and went on to become Blair's 'Drug...

Set in 1970s Manchester, Once in a House on Fire tells the true story of three sisters and their mother, a close-knit and loving family forced to battle with poverty,...

An intimate portrait of an everyday genius. As Aristotle understood it, 'there is no great genius without a mixture of madness' and he may well have had a point: Einstein...

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...

'Incredible. One of those rare books that should be dispensed on prescription to every household.' - Lucy Easthope, author of When the Dust Settles'Hilarious, bitter, poignant and profound . ....

When even his friends refer to him as 'a balding, bug-eyed opportunist with the looks of a beach ball, the charisma of a glove-puppet and an ego the size of...

As a small boy in Epping Forest, Jack Straw could never have imagined that one day he would become Britain's Lord Chancellor. As one of five children of divorced parents,...

Bear Grylls is a man who has always sought the ultimate in adventure. Growing up on the Isle of Wight, he was taught by his father to sail and climb...

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom the National Book Award-winning author of Just Kids Selected as Book of the Year by the Daily Telegraph, i paper, Metro and Harper's Bazaar'Magical' GUARDIAN...

"It might be thought the height of poor taste to ascribe good fortune to a healthy man with a young family struck down at the age of sixty by an...

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...

For years, Jenny and sister Kim suffered horrendous physical and sexual abuse at the hands of their father. They survived in part because of their closeness and their determination to...

'Remarkable . . . Infidel shows that a determined woman can change more history than her own' Christopher Hitchens, Sunday Times 'If there is one book that really addresses the...