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BEST EVER Autobiographies/Memoirs, What are your favourites????

82 replies

Uki · 27/04/2008 11:57

Hi

I admit I'm obsessed with Autobiograhies and memiors.

I've just finished

A Man called Dave- David Pelzer, excellent

Eat, Pray, Love- Elizabeth Gilbert- pretty funny

all time favs.
Desert Dawn - Waris Dirie
Fence around the Cuckoo- Ruth Park.

What are your favourites please?
Also Is Richard Bransons, losing my virginity , any good?

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ByTheSea · 27/04/2008 11:59

'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' was one of the most compelling books I ever read.

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southeastastra · 27/04/2008 12:01

long time gone by david crosby

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Nagapie · 27/04/2008 12:02

Mukiwa - Peter Godwin

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sophiewd · 27/04/2008 12:02

The Moons a Balloon - David Niven
Any of Clive James's are very funny
John Peels, very moving.

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Doodle2U · 27/04/2008 12:03

Branson's was OK IIRC. While since I read it.

There's a book called "Can any mother help me" by Jenna Bailey, if you like to read about people's lives. It's a collection of letters, sent between a group of women and it's a bit like Mumsnet before the internet! V.V. good.

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zippitippitoes · 27/04/2008 12:05

touched by fire kay redfield jamison

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Mercy · 27/04/2008 12:17

Bythesea - that's probably my favourite too.

I also like

The [Joe] Orton Diaries
Kilvert's Diary
The Naked Civil Servant
Hidden Lives (Margaret Forster)

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Mercy · 27/04/2008 12:22

And Janet Frame.

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Igotnewboots · 27/04/2008 12:25

Red China Blues-Jen Wong

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marina · 27/04/2008 12:29

Lorna Sage - Bad Blood
Hilary Mantel - Giving Up the Ghost
Robert Graves - Goodbye to All That
Clive James - Unreliable Memoirs

also love Joe Orton, Mercy - and Kenneth Williams' diaries are an interesting parallel read

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Mercy · 27/04/2008 12:34

I'd forgotten that I've got KW's diaries too!

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PatsyCline · 27/04/2008 12:37

Clive James is an old favourite and I had a great time reading Rupert Everett's book last year.

Alan Clarke's diaries are fab (even to a non-Tory voter).

I got a bit obsessed with historical diaries at one point - I loved Boswell, Fanny Burney and Pepys.

Patsy

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themildmanneredjanitor · 27/04/2008 12:39

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TsarChasm · 27/04/2008 12:40

David Niven 'The Moon's A Balloon' and then 'Bring on the Empty Horses'.

Clive James of course

I also read a good one about F Scott Fitzgerald once.

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marina · 27/04/2008 12:43

And actually, the older Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole gets, the more entertaining her satirical take on British life becomes

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Uki · 27/04/2008 13:22

WOW I haven't heard of many of these great. I was getting so flustered because i need to have another book in line to read after this one.

Don't know how i manage to read books at all, with 2 LO's but it does stop my brain turning to mush

any more???

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suedonim · 27/04/2008 14:30

Any of the actor/writer Dirk Bogarde's memoirs, they're wonderful, if not altogether the unvarnished truth.

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sophiewd · 27/04/2008 14:31

Siegfried Sassoons 2 memoirs are also good if you can get hold of them

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MargaretMountford · 27/04/2008 15:03

Toast - Nigel Slater

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MargaretMountford · 27/04/2008 15:04

oh and Alan Bennett's ...I love hearing about his mam

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MargaretMountford · 27/04/2008 15:06

TsarChasm - I loved The Moon's a Balloon - read it years ago,several times !
Biography of Joe Strummer is interesting and love Margrave of The Marshes - John Peel's...

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marina · 27/04/2008 15:10

Giles Smith - Lost in Music

Frank Muir - A Kentish Lad (might appeal to anyone feeling the loss of Humph at the moment, humour and outlook are not dissimilar)

Loved Siegfried Sassoon sophiewd - Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man is extremely funny, not what I expected tbh

Vera Brittain - Testament of Youth and Testament of Friendship (about Winifred Holtby)

James Aubrey's Brief Lives

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TsarChasm · 27/04/2008 17:50

Ooh Joe Strummer appeals to me.

JPeel, yes I like that. To think his family had to finish though.

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MargaretMountford · 27/04/2008 18:00

the Joe Strummer is very big and the author obv. was a good friend ( as he endlessly points out) - worth a read.. love the John Peel one - the family continue it really well...

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sophiewd · 27/04/2008 20:31

Peter Ustinovs is really interesting as well.

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