Autobiography corner -come join me!

[RosieLeaLovesTea]

Do you love read autobiographies - I do!
my new year’s resolution is to read more autobiographies.
so I have just finished Matthew Perry. Feeling a bit sad as I read it after he died. He finished the book full of hope to beat his addiction and find a life partner. So sad.

next is Kathy Burke.

so which ones are you reading?

Hi all back to say I have just finished Jonathan Ross ‘why do I say these things?’ published in 2008. He says it’s not an autobiography but more about his thoughts musings about life. But there is quite a lot about his childhood, growing up, early career and marriage/young’s kids in it. It took me a while to read as I stopped in the middle to read Kathy Burkes’s Mind if my own on loan from the library.

Brando songs my mother taught me. Marlon Brando.

Hello Back again to say that I have just finished Paddy McGuinnes My Lifey written in 2021. That book has taken me about 4 weeks. Love that he is friends with Peter Kay from school. Phoenix nights was instrumental in his getting into TV and so I watched the series over the last few days. I’m goi g to watch Max and Paddy’s road to no where next.

I really loved David Baddiel's My Family.
Two other autobiographical books by writers: Brenda by Emma Kennedy, relating a less comical side to life with her mother, and John Niven's memoir about his brother, O Brother. I will re read all of those, which I don't tend to with standard celebrity type books.

Loved this book.

Green lights - Michael Mccnaughy - I really enjoulyed this.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Greenlights-Matthew-Mcconaughey/dp/0593139135

Years ago I read John Barrowmams biography and enjoyed it. May add Kathy Burke to my list.

I’ve read many autobiographies but never ‘listened’ to any. Are narrated books actually the whole book or are they abridged? Takes me ages to read a book so I always imagine the narrator spending weeks recording them!

love Autobiographies

jaw dropping - Terry Waite, taken on trust

also amazing and awe inspiring - Jean Dominique Bauby The diving bell and the butterfly

i also love reading autobiographies / biographies covering the same things by different people or from different angles

for example read Tony Blair’s then read Gordon Brown’s

read ‘no one here gets out alive’ (Jim Morrison bio) by Danny Sugerman then read Danny Sugerman’s autobiography Wonderland avenue for a different view on some of the same people and events

In a similar vein for anyone who likes music autobiographies Mark Lanegan ‘sing backwards and weep’ is incredible. Follow up with ‘The greatest band that ever wasn’t’ by Barrett Martin for the ‘surround sound’ view

I've just started that and l've really enjoyed it so far.

I've followed him on twitter (I refuse to call it X) for years and he's incredibly sharp and funny.

@cheapskatemum did you finish the second Pat Nevin? I finally finished the first (audio) last week, really enjoyed it and now I’m on the second. It could have easily veered into “look at me I’m not like those other footballers” territory, but he is self-deprecatory enough to prevent that, and actually it was totally unheard of for players in his era to admit to being intellectual, anti-racist etc. The only thing that grated a bit for me is that he mentions several times the need to treat women respectfully but pays glowing homage to his late friend John Peel, I would have hoped for a line or two saying how shocked he was at the revelations about underage girls after Peel’s death. Listening to the story of his son Simon now in the second book, this is close to home for me. Love Pat’s accent.

I’m also reading Tony Adams Sober Football, My Story My Life on kindle now, well it is the start of the football season.

I’ve found my people ! Love an autobiography. So far have read Kathy Burke, ade Edmondson. Alan Davies, Jenny eclair, Brett Anderson, David baddiel.

What did people think of Ruth langsfords?

@EnchantedDaytimethanks for reminding me, because I don’t think I did! I will track it down and get back to you once I’m into it. I was reading them rather than listening to them. From your comment, was it Pat himself on the audiobooks? His accent is pretty much my husband’s as they grew up streets away from each other in Glasgow. I asked my husband if he’d played against Pat’s older brothers, but he couldn’t remember them if he did. I can’t think of any other footballer’s autobiographies that I’ve read.

I have three favourite autobiographies:

The Worst Journey in the World (Antarctic 1910 - 1913) by Apsley Cherry-Garrard, which is brilliantly written and still has the power to reduce me to tears.

Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins which tells about his time as an astronaut in NASA and is a light-hearted yet sincere tale of his work.

All That Remains by Dame Sue Black which is about her life and her work as a forensic scientist. A fabulous book.

I did read one of Michael Caine's autobiographies, but it was very much focused on drink, women, money and dropping names so I gave up on it.

@cheapskatemum yes, Pat narrates them himself, he does sound slightly nervous and giggly in places but he does a good job overall.

@EnchantedDaytime @katseyes7 I really enjoyed Kathy Burkes’s autobiography. The chapters were quite short to moved through it as quite a quick pace. I didn’t know that she had been such a serious actress with a lot of theatre experience behind her. I get up in the era of Harry Enfield and Gimme Gimmee Gimmee

im looking forward to reading David Baddiel. Plus add Edmonson alrhough I think his willbe a difficult read in parts as he had an abusive childhood and went to boarding school.

John and Paul: A love story in songs. Ian Leslie. Song writing partnership of Lennon & McCartney. I think Leslie wanted Paul’s genuine genuine to shine at the forefront of John, for once.

He is. Very underrated.

I've recently read How Not to be a Political Wife by Sarah Vine
I think she's quite disliked by many.
The book covers her unusual upbringing and politics in the Cameron years.
The chapters on the Brexit referendum and subsequent fallout are an eye opener. Cameron et al reverting to upper class type and looking down on Gove, and Sam Cameron with whom SV had been close friends for years turning viciously on Vine.
A microcosm of the divisions created throughout the country over Brexit.
It’s a fascinating story, well written and she comes across as engaging, vulnerable and self depricating.

I've been trying to get into audio books so I can listen while driving but I just drift off and lose track. I thought autobiographies might work. My library does Borrowbox but they seem to be mostly celebrity memoirs.

I read Cathy Burke's autobiography recently and did not particularly enjoy it. I read another one of her earlier books- think that might have been autobiographical. I preferred that one.

Dr adam cutt , this is going to hurt, eye opening and funny

@NotWavingButReadingRe: your comment about just drifting off while listening to audio books - me too!

If you mean Kathy Burke…I was very disappointing with that book. Her early life was fascinating but once she started the acting chapters I didn’t know anyone she was talking about (except maybe George Harrison’s & Mia Zetterling!) and I found it very boring. It’s a shame as I was really looking forward to it, especially with all the glowing reviews.
If you’re talking about someone else…sorry to but in!
Bob Mortimer autobiography was fab!

Not sure if I’ve already said this but Viv Albertine book was so open & honest…I read it twice!