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

[Uki]

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?

[LyraSeveredtongue]

Oh, and Toast - Nigel Slater, which was good.

[LyraSeveredtongue]

Also like Piers Morgan's memoirs, The Insider.
Most recent reads were Gail Porter - Laid Bare (I think) and Max Clifford - Read All About It.

[beansmum]

Not autobiographies but

I Am Alive and You are Dead: A Journey Inside the Mind of Philip K. Dick by Emmanuel Carrere

The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton by Kathryn Hughes

[LyraSeveredtongue]

Angela's Ashes (Frank McCourt)
Scar Tissue (Anthony Kiedis)

[ilovemydog]

yes, an evil cradling.

[lou33]

i enjoyed scar tissue and mr nice

i havent read any clive james for years but yes, i agree unreliable memoirs was good iirc

[SuperSillyus]

An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan

[ilovemydog]

Long Walk to Freedom - Nelson mandela
Wild Swans

[changer22]

What Remains by Carole Radziwill.

Working class girl (US) goes to work for ABC News, meets a American old money prince and marries him.

He is JFK Jr's cousin and best friend, she becomes Carolyn Bessette Kennedy's best friend.

They are together for a couple of years then he dies from cancer 3 weeks after the plane crash that kills JFK Jr and his wife.

Very sad but very well written.

[wrinklytum]

Currently reading Frank Gardners autobiography.

It is extremely interesting,well written,and his passion for all things Arabic shine through.Ironic,then,that his first chapter deals with him being shot and left for dead by an Al- Qaeda cell of fundamentalists,having previously met with unfailing warmth and hospitality throughout his travels around the middle east.

My favourite bit so far is his description of travelling and living with the Bedu and going through the desert.Fascinating.

Would reccommend it

[nuttymum303]

Ugly & Beyond Ugly I have read.

[VeronicaMars]

Cristina Noble - Bridge Across My Sorrows is fantastic.

[BitOfFun]

Haven't read whole thread, but "The Moon's A Balloon" by David Niven is superb! Agree also that Malcolm X's is great, if a lot less funny...

[JulesJules]

Haven't read the whole thread, so don't know if anyone else has gone for these, but I love

Robert Graves - Goodbye to all that
David Niven
Vera Brittain - Testament of Youth
Christabel Bielenberg - The Past is Myself

[Suedonim]

Re my post way back on this thread, today I received a fab book of Dirk Bogarde's letters, Ever, Dirk. Ds1 spotted me looking at it in a bookshop and gave it to me for my birthday, bless.

I've just finished 'Leonard Woolf' (he was husband of the more famous Virginia) by Victoria Glendinning. Absolutely fascinating about the Bloomsbury set etc.

Before that, I read Bill Bryson's Thunderbolt Kid, which is lovely. And was pleasantly surprised at how good Russell Brand's Booky Wook is, well worth a read, I think.

[NorksDrift]

I've just been given "Don't let's go to the dogs tonight" by Alexandra Fuller, which has 'Told with all the intensity of Lorna Sage's Bad Blood' as one of its reviews. High praise indeed!

[constancereader]

Another vote for Bad Blood by Lorna Sage, so beautifully written and funny.

[Tinkywinks]

I practically only ever read memoirs and autobiogs. Here are some I've enjoyed off top of my head:

Life Interrupted - written by a bloke who had tourettes - funny, moving, insightful

I'm reading Girls Of Tender Age at the moment by Mary-Ann Tirone Smith - about a murder that happened to her childhood friend, very well written.

Dibs, In Search of Self by Virginia M. Axline - written by a therapist and her sessions with a disturbed boy. Amazing stuff. Boy turns out to be super brainy.

I read Richard Bransons one some years ago, did enjoy it. Some people think he is a bit of an arrogant twat but I liked the book, quite inspiring.

Boy Georges book - great fun, sex drugs and rock 'n' roll type stuff.

Be My Baby by Ronnie Spector - singer from motown days who was married to total nutcase music producer Phil Spector.

Dreamgirl & Supreme Faith; My Life as a Supreme by Mary Wilson. Lots of insight as to what a bitch Diana Ross was/is!

If you liked A Man Named Dave (and I presume you've read A boy Called IT and The Lost Years by same author) you'll like Unloved by Peter Roche.

Girl, Interuppted is also brill - don't know if you've seen film but it's about a girl living in a psycho ward in the 60's.

Personally I loved Russel Brands booky wook but I love the strange chap anyway.

I read Autobiographies and Memoirs rather than biographies - which tend to be too factual without the emotion and usually quite boring, like a history lesson.

[empressorchid]

Have to admit i haven't read the whole thread and I don't kow if this has been suggested... It's not really autobiography but it's funny, poignant at times, LOL (if you're in the know) and is still going on on-line

Blood, Sweat and Tea - Tom Reynolds

The on line blog of a London Ambulance Service paramedic, turned into a book, bloody brilliant

[squilly]

I read a football manager's book once, a guy called Ollie (Ian Holloway) who managed Plymouth Argyl (I think it was) and had deaf kids.

It was a fabulous book with some really funny bits and a great insight into family life.

I don't like football, but the guy was a real optimist and had a great work ethic. And he says some bizarre things when he's interviewed. Always makes me laugh. I also liked Bob Geldof's and the guy from Blur's.
Duncan Bannatyne's was interesting, but a bit pompous. Billy Bragg's was good and so was John McEnroe.

My husband loved Colin Friday, a football biog.

[mppaw]

Anthony Kledis - Scar Tissue

[SomeLikeItHot]

Lauren Bacall's autobiography is fantastic.

[saltire]

Agent Zigzag
Adam Ant
Johnny Cash - fab

[Wags]

I don't read much nowdays but I love biographies and memoirs. My favourite and most moving one is by Emily Prager - Wuhu Diary: The Mystery of my Daughter Lulu. She adopted a little girl who had been abandoned in China and came home to England. Some years later she went back to China with Lulu to try and find her roots and let her daughter see her country of origin. It is truly fascinating, I am adopted myself so not sure if that added to the interest to me or not. Fab book.

[PerkinWarbeck]

another vote for the alan clarke diaries - most hilarious even to a hardened left-winger.