Suggestions for memours, biographies, autobiographies of writers, scientists, musicians, religious or philanthropist

[Bunoflowers999]

Yes please

Prairie Fires by Caroline Fraser. Biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Epic, much more than a biography

[Charles] Dickens by Peter Ackroyd. You'll go off him as a person when you see how he treated his wife.

The Last Secret of the Secret Annex by Joop van Wijk Voskuijl and Jeroen de Bruyn. Story of Bep Voskuijl who was one of those who helped Anne Frank and the families in the attic.

Memoirs sorry

Bill Gates has a memoir out

As far as musicians are concerned, I enjoyed both these:-

A Genius in the family. - Hilary and Piers du Pre

Love you to bits and pieces - Gillian Helfgott

For writers, Agatha Christie’s two autobiographies are good - Come Tell Me How You Live, and her Autobiography

Ngaio Marsh’s Black Beech and Honeydew is also worth a read.

Not sure if you’d see her as a philanthropist, but Leap of Faith by Queen Noor is fascinating.

Henry Marsh - Do No Harm

I enjoyed Benjamin Zephaniah and Sinéad O'Connor's autobiographies but not sure if you need to be a fan?

Part way through Brother.Do.You.Love Me by Reuben and Manni Coe and I'm invested but not yet finished so can't fully recommend it.

passionate Minds - biography of Emilie du Chatelet. She was a French mathematician and lover of Voltaire who had an incredible and tragic live.

Super Infinite - the life of John Donne by Katherine Rundell.

you don’t even need to have read any of his poems to enjoy this book

The Dark Lady of DNA by Brenda Maddox is a good biography of Rosalind Franklin. Read it alongside "The Double Helix" by James Watson, which covers his view of the same events, and see if you can refrain from throwing the latter at the wall, but it's a terrifically vivid glimpse into doing science in 1950s Cambridge.

You might also enjoy "I Wish I'd Made You Angry Earlier" by Max Perutz - collection of essays on loosely scientific topics, and "Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin: Patterns, Proteins and Peace: A Life in Science" by Georgina Ferry. The last one I haven't read myself, but it seems to be a 2014 update of her 1998 version, which was very good.

Finally, depending how comfortable you are with quantum physics, "The Strangest Man" about Paul Dirac is very good, although I had to read some of the deep science pages a few times over to make sure it went in!

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin: Patterns, Proteins and Peace: A Life in Science" by Georgina Ferry

Agree with this, it's one of my favourite biographies. I've read all the others that @InstantUserNameJustAddWater recommended except the Paul Dirac one (which DH has read). He also loved A Computer Called LEO: Lyons Tea Shops and the world's first office computer, also by Georgina Ferry.

Other (non-scientific) biographies I've enjoyed:
Bess of Hardwick by Mary S. Lovell.
Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand

Edward Said’s memoir

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Out-Place-Edward-W-Said/dp/1862073708

That is going on my reading list - thank you. There is a great chapter about her in E=mc2 by David Bodanis, where I first learned about her work. (I’d heard of her before but only through reading about Voltaire & she really deserves to known in her own right).

Graham Coxon's memoir Verse Chorus Monster was well worth a read.

I recently read Bertrand Russell's autobiography and loved it. He's a wonderful writer – clear, funny and wise. He also lived an interesting life and met countless famous people, from Wittgenstein to Lenin and Einstein to T. S. Eliot.

I love Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That. It's a masterclass in how to write. Not only in terms of style, but also content – he's just incapable of being dull.

Claire Tomalin's biography of Thomas Hardy is very good. In general, I'm not a fan of biographies (I prefer memoirs and autobiographies), but I like Claire Tomalin. I keep meaning to try her biography of Dickens. I think she wrote one on Jane Austen as well. Richard Ellman's biography of Oscar Wilde is supposed to be a masterpiece. I'd also recommend Ray Monk's biography of Wittgenstein. His philosophy is way beyond me, but he was a fascinating character, and the biography really brings him to life. Wittgenstein's Poker is a great book as well.

How about Peter Ackroyd? He's written loads of biographies. His most famous one is on Blake, but I think he wrote one on Newton as well, and even on Charlie Chaplin.

I've always meant to read T. E. Lawrence's Seven Pillars of Wisdom (would be interested to hear if anyone else has).

Christopher Humphrey's book The Inklings is one of my favourites. The Inklings were a sort of drinking club at Oxford formed by C. S. Lewis and Tolkien during WW2. Charles Williams was another member (a sightly crazy fantasy/sci fi writer and intellectual). It's a great evocation of that world. It's also a very cheerful book. Lewis and Tolkien and the others really enjoyed life. They'd drink beer, chat and read out loud to one another. Tolkien read a lot of his work to them. I love to imagine these heavyweight Oxford intellectuals getting pissed and listening to Tolkien read them stories about elves and wizards!

I second The Inklings. Really fascinating.
There's a biography of Fermi by his wife which I found very readable despite knowing noting about physics.

I'd also recommend Ray Monk's biography of Wittgenstein. His philosophy is way beyond me, but he was a fascinating character, and the biography really brings him to life

Off the back of that, I’d thoroughly recommend Alexander Waugh's House of Wittgenstein, which is a kind of group biography of a quite extraordinary family. Ludwig was far from the most interesting sibling - one of his brothers, Paul, was a concert pianist who lost an arm in WW1, painstakingly taught himself to play again with just one arm, and went on to commission many major new works from the likes of Ravel and Prokofiev. The other siblings were remarkable too. It’s a great read.

For writers, Agatha Christie’s two autobiographies are good - Come Tell Me How You Live, and her Autobiography

I was going to say Come Tell Me How You Live. It's intended to be a light, humourous book, but it's also rather sad, knowing all that's happened in the region since Agatha and Max were there.

You can also get Mallowan's Memoirs, which is Max's autobiography, but you really need to be interested in ancient civilisations to enjoy it properly.

And maybe read the Gertrude Bell bio first, for an introduction to the region.

Hilary Mantel- Giving up the ghost.