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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?

OP posts:
ranting · 27/04/2008 20:33

John Peels' Margrave of the Marshes was very entertaining and not strictly an 'auto' biograpy but Rick Colemans Blue Monday about Fats Domino's life is a must read imo.

fishie · 27/04/2008 20:38

janet hitchman, the king of the barbareens. is about growing up in care.

when hitler stole pink rabbit is super

lauren bacall's autob

wild swans v good for an insight into china but i wasn't completely gripped.

hmm no men.

lulu25 · 27/04/2008 20:38

Isabel Allende - "Paula". Amazing.

sophiewd · 27/04/2008 20:38

Paula is fantastic

lulu25 · 27/04/2008 20:39

(it is like a long letter to her daughter, who was sick and eventually died, about, er, where she came from, i.e. isabel's life)

janeite · 27/04/2008 20:39

Isobel Allende's "Paula" and "My Invented Country" - amazing. Paula is about her daughter falling into a coma from which she never recovered and it is just exquisitely moving.

I quite enjoyed Madhur Jafrey's "Climbing The Mango Trees".

I was v disappointed by the John Peel, I must admit; too little John and too much of Sheila name dropping I thought.

janeite · 27/04/2008 20:40

Oops - crossed posts! Great minds!

BoysAreLikeDogs · 27/04/2008 20:41

Bill Bryson - The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, growing up in America in the fifties. Very very funny, and tender too.

lulu25 · 27/04/2008 20:41

that makes it sound really grim - it's not.

lulu25 · 27/04/2008 20:41

gosh this is moving fast - Paula i meant

jingleyjen · 27/04/2008 20:48

madeline albright former US secretary of state
George Alagiah -
nelson mandela
oh lots more, it is one of my fave genres..

MrsJoshLyman · 27/04/2008 20:55

Possibly not "best ever" but certainly v entertaining if you're of a certain age and musical persuasion - Bit of a Blur by Alex James. Brings the early 90s flooding back...

eekamoose · 27/04/2008 20:55

Martin Amis's memoir. Loved that. Can't remember the title, might just be Memoir.

Toast, too.

My Bookywook - but I guess you have to be able to tolerate Russell Brand. It won't be for everyone.

I also love Kenneth Williams diaries and re-read them all the time.

Elasticwoman · 28/04/2008 08:29

Jackie Daydream - Jacqueline Wilson. Aimed at children but I loved it.

Call The Midwife - Jennifer Worth. Great read, and much in it that's not about childbirth.

janeite · 28/04/2008 17:56

Ah Alex James - is he the one that is now making cheese?

Kathyis6incheshigh · 28/04/2008 17:58

Richard E Grant's With Nails is v v good.

William Woodruff 'The Road To Nab End' is good but the sequel, 'Beyond Nab End' is fabulous.

cocosquarepants · 28/04/2008 17:58

Any Bill Bryson
Spke Milligans war books

Kathyis6incheshigh · 28/04/2008 17:59

Oh yes, the Martin Amis one, it's called Experience. Read that the other week and liked it much more than I expected to. I thought he would be too annoying for words but actually he's got enough insight to make it good.

Kathyis6incheshigh · 28/04/2008 18:00

Larkrise to Candleford, of course.

Elasticwoman · 28/04/2008 21:37

Ooh is Larkrise a memoir? - I thought it was a novel!

I loved Beyond Nab End too

MaureenMLove · 28/04/2008 21:43

I'm clearly no where near being as well read as you lot with my choice of books, but Maureen Lipmans memoirs are hilarious! The kind you can't read on the train, because you've got tears rolling down your face!

squeaver · 28/04/2008 21:45

John Lahr's biography of Joe Orton is very good.

Noel Coward's Diaries

Dh is enjoying Alan Alda's at the moment.

Any Bill Bryson. Any Clive James

Swanson on Swanson - Gloria Swanson, amazing life.

Kate: the woman who was Katharine Hepburn is the best Hepburn biography

Couldn't believe I was reading it but couldn't stop was Tina Brown's Diana book

Rupert Everett: red Carpets and other Banana Skins

Stephen Fry

Elasticwoman · 28/04/2008 21:47

oh yes squeaver, Moab Is My Washpot (Stephen Fry) has me in tears every time I listen to my audiobook version, it is so moving. There are some very funny bits too.

Kathyis6incheshigh · 29/04/2008 08:56

Elastic - she changes the name from Flora to Laura but basically it is a memoir.

Maureen - agree abt Maureen Lipman - I read one once and it was hilarious.

Jessica Mitford's Hons and Rebels

Bink · 29/04/2008 15:19

Siegfried Sassoon - Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man
Orwell - Down and Out in Paris & London; Road to Wigan Pier; Homage to Catalonia - any/all of them
Laurie Lee - Cider with Rosie

special personal favourites:

Edmund Gosse - Father and Son
Primo Levi - Periodic Table

Currently reading John Lanchester's Family Romance, which is good

I must read Stephen Fry. I keep recommending it without having even knowingly laid eyes on it.

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