Best autobiography you have read

[newnameagain1976]

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

All In by Billie Jean King

Cider with Rosie
Angela’s Ashes

‘Period Piece’ by Gwen Raverat

I'm currently enjoying Barbra Streisand's memoir on Audible. Very frank and interesting, plus it has short excerpts from some of her songs.

I would say about the Matthew Perry one that it is probably better read than listened to. As, sadly, he sounds very slurry.

My London Irish grandparents were autobiography readers and discussers. I'd live with them off and on when my parents were acting up / breaking up / making up. Frank McCourt of course and the David Niven books were a window on another world. The most memorable Hollywoodish one, for reasons I can't truly explain, was The Kid Stays In The Picture by Robert Evans (not that then then me understood some of the goings on).

Giving Up The Ghost by Hilary Mantel is quite something. From memory there' s grim childhood events / infertility / secrets. Not a joyful read. Some of her non-Tudor fiction also clearly draws on her life.

I agree about Alan Cumming's first memoir. His second autobiography, Baggage, doesn't seem to have done as well as his first one, but is equally wonderful.

I thought it was a bit shit tbh. It starts off really well, the bits about his childhood home etc were very interesting, but once he became a celebrity he became increasingly 'lovie' and dramatic, he seemed to spend all his time collapsing in tears whenever he had a whiff of bad news. I also couldn't understand why he went through so much angst for so long wondering if his dad was his biological father, why didn't he just talk to his mother about it?

I started the Billy Connolly AB, thanks for the recommendation on here.

if you did… thoughts?! @Perfectlystill ? as i also loves the two others

Ahh I saw it in my Amazon basket this morning and thought what on earth is that and deleted it!

Have just bought a new book can't justify it but will add to basket for next time and let you know!

That was for @regenerate !

Duff McCagen from Guns and Roses' autobiography just blew me away last summer. The way Guns and Roses just made it from nothing and his subsequent long journey to sobriety is such an inspiring read. I follow him and his wife on Instagram now and they're amazing.

Also the absolute template for rock autobiography is Marianne Faithful's. That she basically sat on a wall on heroin in London for two years before pulling herself together is worth the price alone.

any you have read since then you recommend as we seem to have similar taste in books! thanks

not exactly an autobiography but Jarvis Cocker's Good Pop Bad Pop. Loved it. Clearing out his loft but raises memories of his life related to the objects. An easy but interesting read.

Couple that haven’t been mentioned yet:

know my name by Chanel Miller
a heart that works by Rob Delaney

Minnie Driver
Educated - Tara Westover

One of the best...
Bernadine Evaristo - manifesto on never giving up.
Boy she can really write, has had a really interesting life and I took away so much from the book that I'll use time and again.

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Manifesto.html?id=6eQlEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Any recommendations for autobiographies that are particularly good in audiobook form? I enjoyed Michelle Obama’s on Spotify , but some narrators can be irritating!

Miriam Margolyes ‘This much is True’. I also rather enjoyed Stephen Fry reading ‘Moab is my Washpot’

Agree Miriam Margolyes's autobiography is very good. She's a fascinating person, who's done a lot in her life, and it makes for a very good (but sometimes slightly uncomfortable) read. She has some strong, and sometimes very funny, opinions, often about people she's met and worked with. I like her very much and still like her after reading her book. Thoroughly recommended.

I am currently reading "Is that it" by Bob Geldof. He writes really well about his upbringing in Ireland, getting together with Paula and then the lead up to Live Aid. The book was written in 1986 so obviously won't include his life after Paula but it is a really interesting read.

Angela's ashes
educated by Tara Westover
An unquiet mind
a heartbreaking work of staggering genius
running with scissors
i never promised you a rose garden (mental health)

I read the Miriam Margolyes one, after seeing it recommended on here. I respect her, and I liked the writing, direct and without flourishes etc, but I didn’t quite warm up to her.

Patrick Swayze