Secondhand Biographies

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...

John Bayley's account of his long and loving marriage to the great novelist Iris Murdoch takes us on a journey, from their love affair's comically inauspicious beginnings in the Oxford...

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...

Peter Godwin, an award-winning writer, is on assignment in Zululand when he is summoned by his mother to Zimbabwe, his birthplace. His father is seriously ill; she fears he is...

Mark Johnson's father had 'LOVE' tattooed across his left hand, but that didn't stop the beatings. The Johnson children would turn up to school with broken fingers and chipped teeth,...

This informative and entertaining look at our past and present explores the pleasantries, pardons, interrogations and arguments that have passed between the likes of Jackie Kennedy and Princess Diana, Lew...

For once, these men are the objects; I am the subject. Me, me, me.Rosemary Mac Cabe was always a serial monogamist - never happier than when she was in a...

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...

The No. 1 Sunday Times Bestseller. At just eight years old, Jodie is violent, aggressive and extremely challenging. Five carers in four months have been unable to cope, but there...

The SUNDAY TIMES bestselling inside story of the real relationship between King Charles III and his mother, our late Queen, by the acclaimed royal biographer, Ingrid Seward. 'Incisive, emotive and...

'The best book on teachers and children and writing that I've ever read. No-one has said better so much of what so badly needs saying.' Philip PullmanKate Clanchy wants to...

Bill Hicks was arguably the most influential stand-up comedian of the last 30 years. He was funny, out of hand, impossible to ignore and genuinely disturbing. His work has inspired...

In this unprecedented book, palliative medicine pioneer Dr Kathryn Mannix explores the biggest taboo in our society and the only certainty we all share: death 'Impossible to read with dry...

The story of an unwanted Chinese daughter growing up during the Communist Revolution, blamed for her mother's death, ignored by her millionaire father and unwanted by her Eurasian step mother....

Adventures in Wonderland is an extraordinary true life story, giving the most brilliant insights ever into the fascinating, often exhilarating – and sometimes emotionally devastating – world of contemporary music...

John and Geraldine Gleeson, teenage sweethearts in Carlow, had only one wish in life after they got married: to have a child. Promises to Keep is John Gleeon's heartrending account...

For nearly fifty years, J. Edgar Hoover held great power in the United States. The creator of the FBI and its Director until his death, he played a role in...

This is the story of one woman. But it's not just one woman's story. It's about family. And it's a story that could belong to any one of us at...

'Vivid and compelling and so moving... Kit's depiction of her parents' dynamic is both painful and comforting to read' Marian Keyes*Soon to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4*From the award-winning...

Now a Netflix original series! Unorthodox is the bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman's escape from a religious sect, in the tradition of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel and Carolyn...

A harrowing memoir of life with manic depression. All In My Head reveals the terrible reality of the condition and it's devastating impact on the life of a young woman....

Alice could be anyone - she could be someone you know, or someone you love - and Alice is in trouble ...Being fifteen is hard, but Alice seems fine. She...

This is Esther William's witty autobiography, all about an 18-year-old girl who reluctantly answers the call of MGM and finds herself launched in a career that lasted almost 20 years.

Ken Clarke needs no introduction. One of the genuine 'Big Beasts' of the political scene, during his forty-six years as the Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire he has...

Celebrate the phenomenal career of record-breaking superstar Ariana Grande.Ariana Grande has been hailed as one of the most influential celebrities on the internet, a pop icon, and one of the...

After a lifetime of impartial reporting for the BBC from the world's war zones and trouble spots, Martin Bell writes about the human misery and political cynicism that makes up...

On her twenty-first birthday Monica Baldwin - daughter of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin - entered one of the oldest and most strictly enclosed contemplative orders of the Roman Catholic Church....

Read this meditative and inspiring diary of Derek Jarman's famous garden at Dungeness, which is also a powerful account of his life as an HIV positive man in the 1980s....