Item category 1: Biographies & Memoirs

Sage brings alive her childhood in post-war provincial Britain.

Heather was born and bred Mormon. Growing up in Utah, not even the snow-capped mountains could draw attention from the state's most prominent resident: the Mormon Church. Between attending orthodox services, embarking on an eighteen-month mission, attending Brigham Young University, and marrying ...

Straight off the slopes and into the spotlight, Heather Gay is famous for speaking the gospel truth. Whether as a businesswoman, mother, or television personality, she is unafraid to blaze a new trail, even if it means losing family, friends, and her community. Born and bred to be devout, Heather...

"No matter how much I’d like to be a yoga glamazon, they are not my tribe. My tribe are aqua crew-cut goddesses who smell like samosas. My tribe are neurotic corporate banshees with white knuckles on Goldman Sachs water bottles. My tribe are seven different lineages that all lead to the same dest...

With the release of his first memoir, Not My Father's Son, Alan Cumming felt the power that came with sharing his truth. Shocking fans and readers with the reality of his childhood trauma. The message of this second memoir is that the past is not something to forget or "get over". Alan hasn't mir...

Damien Brown is a twenty-nine-year-old Australian doctor, inexperienced but motivated by a strong desire to help, when he arrives in Angola - an impoverished, war-torn country in south west Africa - for a six-month posting with Medecins Sans Frontieres. It's his first stint with the organisation,...

A.B. 'Banjo' Paterson is rightly recognised as Australia's greatest storyteller and most celebrated poet, the boy from the bush who became the voice of a generation. He gave us our unofficial national anthem, 'Waltzing Matilda', and treasured ballads such as 'The Man from Snowy River' and 'Clancy...

Notebooks, illustrations, photographs, letters and transcripts of some of our best-loved songs, poems and stories have been brought together for the first time. Banjo's great-grandson and sole executor of the poet's literary estate, Alistair Campbell, has curated this rare collection and provides...

Sir Joseph Banks was a larger-than-life character best known for his promotion of science. In 1768 Banks joined Captain James Cook's expedition to the South Pacific. The 30,000 specimens he brought back generated enormous interest, as did the sometimes racy written account of the journey, which c...

For someone who shuns the limelight so completely that he conceals his name, never shows his face and gives interviews only by email, Banksy is remarkably famous. From his beginnings as a Bristol graffiti artist, his artwork is now sold at auction for seven-figure sums and hangs on celebrities' w...

Barbara Tucker: The Art of Being presents a multifaceted view of Tucker and the life she made with her artist husband Albert. Inspired by accounts of family, friends and admirers attending her memorial, it contains speeches, essays, memoirs and a photo journal. Her nephew Darren Jones and niece C...

When the legendary comedian Barry Cryer died in January 2022, there was a vast outpouring of grief, appreciation and anecdotes - from the general public and fellow comics alike. Now, his son, Bob, is doing what Barry's humility did not allow: revealing the story of the man behind the jokes. Stret...

Of all the uplifting sports stories that have captured the imagination of Australia as a nation, few have been greeted with such spontaneous and unanimous acclaim as tennis champion Ashleigh Barty. Her inspirational 2021 Wimbledon win delivered a celebration not seen since Cathy Freeman's immorta...

When Norm Macdonald, one of the greatest stand-up comics of all time, was approached to write a celebrity memoir, he flatly refused, calling the genre "one step below instruction manuals." Norm then promptly took a two-year hiatus from stand-up comedy to live on a farm in northern Canada. When he...

Ina Garten, the author of thirteen cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and the cultural icon whose face has launched a thousand memes, shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table.

Playing the drums at the age of five despite never taking formal lessons, by the late 1960s John Bonham was looking for a solid gig in order to provide his growing family. Guitarist Jimmy Page sought new bandmates to help him record an album and tour as the New Yardbirds; Bonham joined the band w...

A visually stunning compilation of a decade with more than seven hundred illustrations, behind-the-scenes photos, rare memorabilia, album covers.

She was one of the most renowned actresses in the world -- until a massive stroke cost her not only her health, but her career, family, fortune, and global fame. In The Beauty of Living Twice, Sharon Stone chronicles her efforts to rebuild her life, and the slow road back to wholeness and health.

Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, Knott was forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency. Knott realized she must let go, not just of them, but of who she thought she was. Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety th...

Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) possessed one of the twentieth century's most astonishing voices. In this first major biography since Fitzgerald's death, historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational arti...

The mysterious, brutal, and calculating Kim Jong-un has risen to become the unchallenged dictator of a nuclear rogue state. He now possesses weaponry capable of threatening America and its allies, and his actions have already significantly changed global politics. It's believed that Kim Jong-un i...

Welcome to the personal archives of Britain's biggest dope smuggler. For 40 years Howard Marks traversed the globe: an international businessman who became an inmate in America's toughest penitentiary before standing for election in the United Kingdom. Becoming Mr Nice reveals an extraordinary mo...

Becoming the Ex-Wife tells the story of US women's changing prospects in early twentieth-century life through the lens of its once-famous but now-forgotten subject, Ursula Parrott. Parrott was a prolific and best-selling author whose books, Hollywood deals, quartet of marriages and divorces, and ...

Bee Miles was a truly larger-than-life character. Famous for being outrageous in public, or, as she said, living 'recklessly', she shocked and intrigued cities and towns across Australia. But she was no ordinary wanderer. Born into a wealthy family, Bee moved in Sydney's literary and artistic cir...

As an antique dealer, Athol Salter has peddled in other people's stories for over sixty years. From humble beginnings in his Junque Shop in country New South Wales in the 1960s to Dirty Janes in the Southern Highlands, he has rummaged through ramshackle huts, dealt with dubious property from dece...

The memoir of international music icon Richard Thompson, co-founder of the legendary folk rock group Fairport Convention. Guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson came of age during an extraordinary moment in British culture: it was 1967 and popular music was reflecting a great cultural awakenin...

A concise biography of one of the world's most influential composers. Considered by many the world's greatest composer, Ludwig van Beethoven achieved his ambitions against the difficulties of a bullying and drunken father, growing deafness and mounting ill-health. This biography tells the story o...

With unprecedented access to the archives at the Beethoven House in Bonn, renowned Beethoven conductor and scholar Jan Caeyers expertly weaves together a deeply human and complex image of Beethoven -- his troubled youth, his unpredictable mood swings, his desires, relationships, and conflicts wit...

This anthology contains separate memoirs -- poems, literary pieces, diaries -- by twenty different Jewish women that describe their persecution under the Nazi regime during World War II. Separated into four sections -- women who survived in hiding, by passing, in the camps and in the Soviet Union...