Best biographies/autobiographies?

[Hellohappiness]

I read recently that successful people read a lot of biographies and autobiographies. I usually stick to fiction so thought I would diversify a bit and wondered what your favourites were?

Interesting hypothesis! I don't often read (auto)biographies but have just finished Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley and I really enjoyed it. I've also got Kate Adie's The Kindness of Strangers and David Attenborough's Life on Air on my shelves awaiting reading - maybe I'm in for a successful spring!

Hermione Lee's Virginia Woolf and Edith Wharton biographies. Juliet Barker's collective biography of the Brontes. Janet Malcolm's The Silent Woman, which is about the Sylvia Plath biography industry.

I really loved Boy George Take It Like A Man

Ma'am Darling by Craig Brown about Princess Margaret. You go from feeling jealous of her lifestyle of Dior dresses and glamour, to angry at her being the rudest woman alive, to incredibly sorry for this woman in an abusive marriage with no education, no role and the rest of the world just taking a pop at her all the time.

Incredibly well written and researched, I read it very quickly and my DH practically read it too as I kept reading it out to him.

I love biographies / autobiographies, here are some of my favourites:

Clothes, clothes, clothes. Music, music, music. Boys, boys, boys - Viv Albertine
Educated - Tara Westover
Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson
The Glass Castle - Jeanette Walls
Romantic Outlaws: the Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley - Charlotte Gordon
Mad Girl's Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted - Andrew Wilson
The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius - Graham Farmelo

Vic Reeves' autobiography is brilliantly written.

Some brilliant suggestions thanks!

Errol Flynn's My wicked, Wicked Ways.
I started reading it on holiday and couldn't put it down. It was in the house rental so I didn't get a chance to finish it before we went home.

• Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser
• Catherine de Medici by Leonie Frieda
• William Armstrong 'Magician of the North' by Henrietta Heald (not about magic, he was an industrialist!)
• Bess of Hardwick by Mary S. Lovell

I could go on an on, I read a lot of biographies.

Life on Air, by David Attenborough

Interesting for the early days of TV, and some bits from when he was the producer of the Queen's Christmas broadcasts, as well as loads about his documentaries.

He narrates the audiobook.

The Mitford sisters by Mary s Lovell. An amazing story about 7 sisters.

How Not to be a Boy by Robert Web is brilliant. Made me laugh and cry.
Educated by Tara Westover is gripping but disturbing at times.

Alan Cummings autobiography was good too. Can't remember the name of it now though.

Another auto/biography lover and to add to some of the crackers already mentioned:

Michelle Obama - Becoming
Danny Baker - Going on the turn
Ashlee Vance - Elon Musk
Vic Reeves - Me Moir
Warren Harris - Lucy and Desi
Chrissie Wellington - A life without limits
Nile Rodgers - Le Freak
Brian Blessed - Absolute Pandemonium
Elizabeth Warren - A Fighting chance
Patti Smith - Just Kids
Susan Calman - Cheer up Love
Alex Ferguson - Alex Ferguson

Interesting topic! Strangely, the autobiographies that spring to mind right now are those written by Paula Yates, and another by Mia Farrow. And The Moon's A Balloon by David Niven.