Good autobiographies?

[megnog]

Any suggestions for good autobiographies? Open to all suggestions, so long as they're well written!!

[lalalonglegs]

Has anyone mentioned Auberon Waugh "Will This Do?" - unbelievably funny.

Also Edward St Aubyn "Mother's Milk" and "Some Hope" which, strictly speaking, are novels but very heavily autobiographical.

Finally, Miranda Seymour's "In My Father's House" which is about growing up with her father and his absolutely obsessive passion for the (minor and really quite ugly) stately home he inherited and, later, his equally obsessive love for the gardener.

Actually, there's one more by Kate Summerscale called "The Queen of Whale Cay" which is very short but fascinating story of a cross-dressing, extremely wealthy lesbian who, in the 1930s, moved to the Bahamas and created her own country there (sort of).

[lottiejenkins]

84 Charing Cross Road and the sequel are both excellent books. About a lady corresponding with a man who she buys book from.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/84_Charing_Cross_Road

[georgimama]

My Dh used to work for James Caan. He says he was nothing like he is now - he was really nice but looked completely different and was very ordinary. Goodness knows what he's managed to do in the last 15 years. I might buy him that book but it would probably depress him.

[samsonara]

If you like to read about business success and how someone started from scratch using amazing focus then the book by Draagon's Den Investor is brilliant: James Caan from Brick Lane to Dragon's Den, it is a good read and he mentions some of the charitable things he's done too so its not all about money.

[georgimama]

Things Can Only Get Better by John O'farrell is also very funny in the leftie in the 1980s vein.

[georgimama]

How to Talk Dirty and Influence People by Leonard Cohen is both heartbreakingly sad and the kind of book that gets you stared at on trains because you are laughing out loud like a loon,.

[cyLENTeeNIGHT]

that reminds me, Reasons To Be Cheerful by Mark Steel is really good - funny and v interesting memoir of a socialist's life during the Thatcher years.

[bigTillyMint]

I found Anne-Weakest-Link-Eyebrows one very interesting, partly because she came from Liverpool, and partly because she was an alcoholic

[Takver]

Another favourite of mine is Granny Made Me an Anarchist by Stuart Christie.
He definitely had an interesting life - (including being part of a plot to assassinate Franco aged 18) and writes well
I can see I am going to have to go through this thread and add to my amazon wish list

[Takver]

Vera Brittain's Testament of Experience and Testament of Friendship (both of which I think are more interesting and less heartbreaking than Testament of Youth)

Living My Life by Emma Goldman (fascinating life and she also has a very entertaining writing style)

[itcameuponamidnightexpress]

Oh, and JG Ballard - Empire of the Sun of course, but I thought that the follow-up, The Kindness of Women (I think it's called that) was very interesting, and has really stayed with me.

[littlelamb]

O yes Daffodil, An Evil Cradling is one of my all time favourites. An extraoridnary book

[Bink]

Shouldn't one really be reading Dreams From My Father? nowadays? Or maybe you have.

[daffodill6]

Agree with John Sargeant (highly topical!) and Vera Brittain.

Also thoroughly reccomend Brian Keenans An Evil Cradling about his time as a hostage in the Lebanon and alongside that Jill Morrells story of her campaign to release John McCarthy who was held with Brian. They both put things into a different perspective for me and make you realise that life sometime can be unexpectedly hard but people somehow retain their dignity.

[MrsThierryHenry]

Ditto Maya Angelou - though the whole thing's 6 volumes long, her life is extraordinary and fascinating.

[MrsThierryHenry]

The Kindness of Strangers - Kate Adie. Very good read.

[georgimama]

And Testament of Youth is fab too, really stirring stuff(and I think there was a follow up called Testament of Experience. Am I imagining that?).

Diaries are good too - Alan Clark's and Kenneth Williams' diaries are amazing.

[georgimama]

Defo Moab is My Washpot

They're pretty old and possibly out of print but Amazon sells 2nd hand now - TheMoon's A Balloon and Bring on the Empty Horses by David Niven. Brilliant, bitchy and revealing about the Hollywood of the 1940s. Fascinating and really well written (by him not a ghost writer).

My Family and Other Animals by Gerrard Durrall.

An autobiographical novel - Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Choccyfan]

John Simpson's Strange Places, Questionable People is a great read.

[itcameuponamidnightexpress]

Maya Angelou - I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

[pointydog]

I really enjoyed Experience by MArtin Amis. Memoirs style.

[wrinklytum]

Recently read "Blood and Sand" by Frank Gardener,excellent.

Spike Milligans War Diaries are very good.

[constancereader]

Well her life isn't the most dramatic (except for getting pg without having sex) but it is the quality of the writing that made Bad Blood such a brilliant book.

I will defend it to the hilt

[muggglewump]

I loved Nigel Slater's Toast.

[itcameuponamidnightexpress]

Antonia White - Frost in May
Vera Brittan - Testament of Youth
Jung Chang - Wild Swans