Secondhand Biography & Memoir Bargain Book Box SP4098

Secondhand Biography & Memoir Bargain Book Box SP4098

Twenty-two books of biography, autobiography and memoir — from Paul Hogan and Yehudi Menuhin to Vinnie Jones, Chris Patten and Hunter S. Thompson. Music, sport, royalty, politics, literature and working-class life all represented.

1. Paul Hogan: The Tap Dancing Knife Thrower — Paul Hogan — The man who gave the world Crocodile Dundee tells his own story with characteristic larrikin wit and irreverence.
2. Yehudi Menuhin: Unfinished Journey — Yehudi Menuhin — The autobiography of one of the twentieth century's greatest violinists: his prodigious childhood, his international career, his inner life.
3. Michael Palin: There and Back — Diaries 1999–2009, Volume Four — The fourth volume of Palin's celebrated diaries, covering a decade of travel, film and the quiet pleasures of a writer's life.
4. The Private Life of Thomas Cromwell — Caroline Lygo — A richly researched portrait of Henry VIII's most powerful and enigmatic minister, exploring the man behind the iron reputation.
5. Smithy: The Life of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith — Ian Mackersey — The story of Australia's greatest aviator, the first man to fly the Pacific, told in full for the first time.
6. The Royal Insider: My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana — Paul Burrell — The former royal butler's account of life inside the Palace, during some of the monarchy's most turbulent decades.
7. The Louder I Will Sing: A Story of Racism, Riots and Redemption — Lee Lawrence — A powerful memoir about growing up mixed-race in Britain, the 1981 Brixton riots and the search for justice and identity.
8. Bernard Shaw — Michael Holroyd — The celebrated multi-volume biography of George Bernard Shaw by one of Britain's finest literary biographers.
9. Paul Tortelier: A Self-Portrait — Paul Tortelier & David Blum — The great French cellist in his own words: his music, his philosophy, his extraordinary life.
10. Lost Without You: Loving and Losing Tanya — Vinnie Jones — The footballer and actor's raw, honest memoir about the illness and death of his wife Tanya. Deeply moving.
11. Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head — Alex Wheatle — The award-winning novelist's memoir of his Brixton childhood, reggae culture and the path to becoming a writer.
12. East and West — Chris Patten — The last Governor of Hong Kong reflects on the handover, East-West relations and the future of democracy in Asia. Still essential reading.
13. Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths About World Affairs — Chris Patten — Patten turns his attention to global politics with the candour of a man with nothing left to prove.
14. Great Rides According to G — Geraint Thomas — The Tour de France winner shares his favourite climbs, races and cycling adventures in a book for every kind of rider.
15. The Mountain People — Colin Turnbull — The anthropologist's controversial account of the Ik people of Uganda, forced from their land and stripped of their culture. A landmark of twentieth-century anthropology.
16. Caroline Jones: Through a Glass Darkly — Caroline Jones — A journey of love and grief with her father, by the beloved Australian broadcaster.
17. The Devil in the White City — Erik Larson — The true story of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the serial killer who used it as his hunting ground. Larson's most celebrated book.
18. Only the Heart — Brian Caswell & David Chiem — A memoir of survival, migration and family across two cultures.
19. Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s — Hunter S. Thompson — Thompson's column collection from the Reagan years: furious, funny and still painfully relevant.
20. A Moving Target — William Golding — Essays, lectures and reflections from the Nobel laureate, written across several decades. Illuminating and underrated.
21. Legends of Vancouver — E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) — The celebrated Indigenous Canadian poet's collection of Squamish legends, as told to her by Chief Joe Capilano.
22. A Moveable Feast — Ernest Hemingway — Hemingway's memoir of 1920s Paris: the cafés, the writers, the hunger and the extraordinary years of his youth.