I'm looking for a non celeb memoir to read

Second Oliver Sacks' works. He was a neurologist and psychologist (who is sadly now deceased) and he wrote a lot of books about fascinating cases he encountered during his work. Brilliant man, my professional hero and it hurts my heart that I'll never get to see him speak.

Call the Midwife series is also good, and if you enjoy them you may also like Yes Sister No Sister (about a trainee nurse in the 50s) and Baby Catcher (about an American midwife). The Midwife's Here! is another midwife memoir, and it's about the life of Linda Fairley who's one of the longest serving midwives in Britain.

I should add that Hendrik Groen isn't a celeb. Think it's a pseudonym...

Hello,

DH is currently reading: 'The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen' and is really enjoying it!

It's the diary of an 84-year-old man and it's hilarious.

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DOSVSNW/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

No non-celeb and no misery either. Try "London for Immigrant suckers"
It has some good Amazon reviews but I usually don't believe them.
The best description is given here forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=38570

It may not be a memoir but it reads like one.

The strange lives of the Mitfords is what makes them fascinating. Can't argue with the comments from Ada about the awfulness Diana, Nancy and Unity - all true but they ARE intriguing and unique and each in their own way a window on history.

Mitford books in order of preference for me :

Letters Between Six Sisters, Hons And Rebels, In Tearing Haste, Wait For Me, A Life Of Contrasts

The biographies I've read by Thompson and Lovell were biased I thought

Also Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks and Last Act Of Love - brilliant

Another Bullshit Night In Suck City by Nick Flynn

Shantaram by Gregory Roberts

A Million Little Pieces by that guy who was discredited by Oprah

oh gosh

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - Vietnam memoir

My Traitors Heart by Rian Malan - Apartheid memoir

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat - Oliver Sacks (neurologist memoir)

Cut: One Woman's fight against FGM in Britain today. Sounds very dreary, but this woman is extremely inspirational.

www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Cut-One-Womans-Fight-Against-FGM-in-Britain-Today/Hibo-Wardere/9781471153983

Oh yes, Into Thin Air is a great book. Also, Touching the Void by Joe Simpson.

Ooh, and into thin air is a cracking book! Autobiographical book by Jon krakauer describing an ill-fated expedition to the summit of Everest. Totally engrossing.

Haven't rtft, so someone may have mentioned it already, but "if this is a man" by Primo Levi. It's a memoir of his time in auschwitz and is one of the best books I have ever read. Definitely not misery porn- he writes with an almost clinical detachment.

The periodic table, a book of short, autobiographical stories, is also very good.

Also, The Farm by Richard Benson.

Once Upon A House on Fire by Andrea ???

And Toast by Nigel Slater.

A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold - her son Dylan was one of the Columbine killers. Interesting book.

Dear Tom by Tom Courtenay. Letters from Tom Courtenay's mum to him. Deeply moving.

The Moon's A Balloon by David Niven. Such a well-written and funny memoir.

Unreliable Memoirs by Clive James.

I just read a review of ''fifty dead man walking'' from a Swede on good reads. Like James Bond, but raw and real and not dolled up with a Martini''.

I must re-read it. But then there are so many other books I'd love to get through on this thread. I@m going to go through it later and make a note of the ones I want to read

ALso Horatio Clare's memoir Running for the Hills about growing up on a Welsh Farm.

Another vote for The Shepherds Life. Couldn't put it down.

Seconding ''fifty dead men walking''

Two that are slightly different but lovely - The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks about a sheep farmer in the Lake District and Meadowland: the private life of an English field by John Lewis-Stempel, a year in the life of a field in Herefordshire.

Gervase Phinn Dales series about a school inspectors life in Northern Yorkshire

• those are not that's. 😬

Btw that's fascinating comments from previous two posters.

Enjoying this thread as pp have said.

It's made think, not for the first time, is there anyway that this could be like a kind of what we're reading mumsnet classic hybrid iyswim? Almost like a sticky? So threads where people recommend books of a certain genre/type that we can go back to months or years to come. I know you can find out in search but something a bit easier. E.g. Search: thread recommending biographies. Does that make sense? Or is that as clear as mud? Sorry in advance if so!

I second DO NO HARM by Henry Marsh. He was my mother's brain surgeon and saved her life, so it was a truly fascinating read.

I have written a fictional diary, but based on my own experiences of fostering - just the funny ones, I think enough has been written about the tragic children from horrible backgrounds with resultant behavioural problems. My own experience of fostering was with children who are just like any other, but don't normally get a mention - and the carer is also not the got-all-the-answers foster carer usually portrayed, but a disorganised, always running late, constantly behind with the paperwork and having to lie to social workers, despairing about the state of the house sort of foster carer. I am self-published and this is my first attempt, so, unfortunately, book is only available through www.rosallison.com website.

Place marking as there are so many good recommendations.
Thank you OP for starting this thread and to all those making suggestions

I would recommend Casting Off by Emma Bamford which is an entertaining memoir about quitting the rat race to become a sailor. Also Once in aHouse on Fire by Andrea Ashworth is brilliant, not a misery memoir even though the blurb would make you think so.

I recommend "Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman who Helped to Hide the Frank Family" by Miep Gies.