Secondhand Biography & Memoir Bargain Book Box SP2916

Secondhand Biography & Memoir Bargain Book Box SP2916

Eighteen lives ranging across continents and centuries — Ranulph Fiennes on his extraordinary family history, Mary Robinson's authorised biography, Elizabeth Longford's memoirs, Emlyn Williams's early autobiography, and Havelock Ellis writing with remarkable candour about his own life — alongside A.A. Phillips on Australian cultural criticism, and the astonishing Cold Burial.

1. Lawrence of Lucknow: A Biography — John Lawrence — The biography of Henry Lawrence, the soldier-administrator who held the Lucknow Residency during the 1857 Indian Mutiny and died in its defence: a life at the intersection of Empire, soldiering, and an unusual degree of conscience.
2. Man of Myth: A Biography of Robertson Davies — Judith Skelton Grant — The authorised biography of Canada's greatest novelist — author of the Deptford and Cornish trilogies, who presented as a Victorian sage and turned out to be something more complicated and more interesting than that.
3. Mad Dogs and Englishmen: An Expedition Round My Family — Ranulph Fiennes — Fiennes turns from polar exploration to genealogy: the Fiennes family history from the Norman Conquest to the present, with his characteristic directness about both the distinguished and the embarrassing.
4. Mary Robinson: The Authorised Biography — Olivia O'Leary & Helen Burke — The biography of Ireland's first female president: the career as a constitutional lawyer, the election against all predictions in 1990, the presidency, and her subsequent role as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
5. Sirio: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque — Sirio Maccioni and Peter Elliot — Sirio Maccioni built Le Cirque into one of the defining restaurants of twentieth-century New York. The story of the Italian immigrant who made himself central to Manhattan society, one table at a time.
6. The Pebbled Shore: The Memoirs of Elizabeth Longford — Elizabeth Longford — The historian and biographer of Queen Victoria and Wellington recalls Bloomsbury, Oxford, the Labour Party of the 1930s, her marriage to Frank Longford, and a writing career that produced some of the finest biography in the English language.
7. Ten: The Decade That Changed My Future — Rylan Clark-Neal — The British television personality reflects on the decade since his X Factor debut: the shows, the fame, the personal losses, and the mental health struggles that made those years far more complicated than they appeared from outside.
8. My Life — Havelock Ellis — The autobiography of the Victorian psychologist who produced the seven-volume Studies in the Psychology of Sex, written with the candour about intimate life that defined — and scandalised — his career.
9. Responses: Selected Writings — A.A. Phillips — Phillips coined the term "Cultural Cringe" in 1950; this selection gathers the critical essays on Australian literature and culture that made him a central figure in the argument about what Australian culture actually was.
10. Patrician Democrat: The Political Life of Charles Cowper 1813-1870 — Alan Powell — The biography of NSW Premier five times over: a conservative who backed democratic reform, an Anglican who supported Catholic schools, and one of the most durable politicians in early Australian history.
11. There Is a World Elsewhere: Autobiographical Pages — F. Gonzalez-Crussi, M.D. — The Mexican-American pathologist and medical essayist reflects on a life spanning two continents, two languages, and the vantage point of a doctor who thinks like a humanist.
12. For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington — Donald T. Regan — Reagan's Chief of Staff gives his account of the White House years: the policy decisions, the Iran-Contra affair, and his public clash with Nancy Reagan that ended his career.
13. Emlyn: An Early Autobiography 1927-1935 — Emlyn Williams — The Welsh actor and playwright — author of The Corn is Green and Night Must Fall — recalls the scholarship, the Oxford years, and the London theatre world that turned a miners' son into a playwright.
14. Bluey: The Autobiography of Harold Lewis — Harold Lewis — The autobiography of Harold Lewis, author of Crow on a Barbed Wire Fence, covering the bush years that shaped his writing and the life those years produced.
15. Going Rogue: An American Life — Sarah Palin — Palin's account of her rise through Alaskan politics to the 2008 vice-presidential nomination: her version of the campaign, her clashes with McCain's staff, and what she believes the Republican Party should stand for.
16. Fred Nile: An Autobiography — Fred Nile — The autobiography of the NSW Legislative Council member and founder of the Christian Democratic Party: his faith, fifty years of social conservative campaigning, and his view of Australian cultural and political change.
17. Cold Burial: A True Story of Endurance and Disaster in the Barren Grounds — Clive Powell-Williams — In 1926 a hunting party was stranded in the Canadian tundra in winter with no rescue coming. Powell-Williams reconstructs the ordeal from the records left by the sole survivor.
18. Ashes Glory: Allan Border's Own Story — Allan Border — Border captained Australia through their worst period and out the other side: the defeats of the early 1980s, the slow rebuilding, and the 1989 Ashes series in England that announced the return of Australian cricket as a world force.