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Original poster

Best autobiography you have read

137 replies

newnameagain1976 · 01/01/2024 21:16

Im going to try and read more this year. I enjoy autobiographies. Can anyone recommend a good one please?

OP posts:
ninetieseyebrows · 02/01/2024 01:12

Nigel Slater - Toast, he writes so beautifully
Gordon Ramsey's is really interesting

grandkk454 · 02/01/2024 01:05

AA Gill - Pour Me. It’s an excellent portrait of a drinker. Not a fan of the man but his book is one I dip into regularly. Some great lines..

‘Dinners would start with fish mousse, carrot and orange soup and cheese straws and end in tears, port and infidelity. Everything in their lives ended in tears, port and infidelity.’

Mistymornin · 02/01/2024 00:38

Agree on David Niven's book 'The Moon's a Balloon' plus his follow up 'Bring on the Empty Horses' (read these years ago!!).

Molly70 · 02/01/2024 00:28

Becoming by Michelle Obama. I’m not a particular fan of hers generally but her autobiography was very enjoyable and it seemed to be a really honest account of her life.

Philandbill · 02/01/2024 00:12

The Past is Myself by Christobel Beilenberg.

Turmerictolly · 02/01/2024 00:09

.

SkaterGrrrrl · 01/01/2024 23:25

Matthew Perry's is excellent.

countvoncount · 01/01/2024 23:23

1975wasthebest · 01/01/2024 22:00

I've got a couple - Take it Like a Man by Boy George, and Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal by Jeannette Winterson.

I was going to suggest take it like a man, fabulous read

TheresOnlyOneWayOfLife · 01/01/2024 23:18

Just ordered I Don't Take Requests by DJ Fat Tony - great reviews

Perfectlystill · 01/01/2024 23:10

toomanyjellyfish · 01/01/2024 21:23

Educated. Tara westover. I loved it and so did my mum.

The gift. Mia Dolan.

Lost. Cheryl Strayed.

Agree with your first and third ones but haven't heard of the Mia Dolan one and given we have the same taste in biographies, I might have to buy this one.

Original poster
newnameagain1976 · 01/01/2024 23:10

Wow, so many recommendations. Thank you all.

OP posts:
LunaandLily · 01/01/2024 23:08

John Cooper Clark and Ronnie O’Sullivan come to mind. Both drug addicts, must make for a good autobiography! The JCC audiobook version is great

caringcarer · 01/01/2024 23:03

I enjoyed Jonny Bairstow's autobiography.

savethatkitty · 01/01/2024 23:01

I want to get my hands on Naya Rivera's autobiography that poor girl from Glee who drowned a few years back.

Years ago, read biographies Judy Garland & Enid Blyton - both fascinating!

RomainesToBeSeen · 01/01/2024 22:57

A bit left field but one that's always stuck with me is 'Breaking the Surface' by Greg Louganis the US diver. Not only about his Olympic diving career but about being diagnosed as HIV+ and coming out as a gay athlete.

Eightytwenty · 01/01/2024 22:57

Strong female character by Fern Brady. Amazing clever, funny, traumatic writing about her undiagnosed autism. Will stay with me for a long time.

ditalini · 01/01/2024 22:55

If you can find a copy, Castles Burning: a child's life in war by Magda Denes.

She was a psychoanalyst specialising in child psychology after the war, and I think the special thing about this book for me is that she seems to capture herself as she was at the time without hindsight affecting her voice at all.

PurpleWhirple · 01/01/2024 22:53

I don't really enjoy autobiographies generally but read frank skinners on a recommendation from a friend and it was laugh out loud funny. I remember chortling away to myself on the tube

larkstar · 01/01/2024 22:50

Clive James - Unreliable Memoirs is the first of 3 separate books (which I have but you can get them all in one book now) - they had me in stitches... but I think you'd have to know Clive James to enjoy it - if you've never heard of him probably not much point.

Bob Mortimer's - And Away has chapters that alternate between hilarious childhood recollections and disarmingly honest and poignant stories from the more recent past - and it's far better overall because of that switching back and forth - better than I expect it to be.

I think biography is such a hard area to make recommendations - I have read quite a lot of biography but few (I think) by people that most people will know of so I'd hesitate to recommend any to anyone - it depends on what sort of personal story or context you are drawn to -

I liked John Hull's Notes on Blindness (made into a beautiful award winning film) and Eavesdropping - A Life By Ear by Stephen Kuusisto - another one on blindness.

A Mountain of Crumbs: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain - Elena Gorokhova

cariadlet · 01/01/2024 22:49

I'd forgotten This Boy by Alan Johnson until a pp mentioned it. That was very enjoyable.

I also enjoyed Things Can Only Get Better and Things Can Only Get Worse by John O'Farrell.

girljulian · 01/01/2024 22:46

Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves

Clingfilm · 01/01/2024 22:46

How could I forget Miriam Margoyles! On audio book just so you get to hear her saying the F word with superb diction. Quite the (sex) life!

AzureBlue99 · 01/01/2024 22:42

Terence Stamp's - think there are three volumes. The first and second one, the last one not so good. He was an icon in the 60s, his girlfriend was the beautiful Shrimpton, and it is very evocative of swinging London. The last one, he goes all mystical and far out man.

LadyLolaRuben · 01/01/2024 22:42

Ricky Tomlinson. A real page turner right until the end

MissBattleaxe · 01/01/2024 22:42

Alan Rickman's diaries are wonderful. Gossipy, moving and tender.