Showing titles in Biographies & Memoirs

The remarkable, moving story of Prince Philip's mother by eminent biographer Hugo Vickers, updated in this new edition - for fans of Kingmaker and The Lives and Deaths of the Princesses of Hesse Princess Alice, mother of Prince Phillip, was something of a mystery figure even within her own...

We share the triumphs and tragedies of a group of elite soldier trailblazers as they commit daring raids behind enemy lines in 1944, manage an against-the-odds escape to victory and then seek post-war retribution for the terrible murder of their captured comrades. SAS Band of Brothers is replete with action, peppered with great characters and features two of the most daring escapes of WWII. It ends with the hunted becoming the hunters - a group of men intent on seeking out the Nazis responsible for their brethren's deaths, on an ultra-deniable SAS mission to avenge a war crime.

Brought to you by Penguin. At the age of 16, a boy amongst men, Andy Farrell made his first-team debut for Wigan Warriors – and became a father for the first time. At 18, he won his first senior international cap. At 21, he won his first Man of Steel Award for the Super League player of the...

Hugh Bonneville is one of Britain's best-loved actors, whose credits include Downton Abbey, W1A and the Paddington films. From getting his big break as third shepherd in the school nativity play, to navigating Highclere Castle's complex Labrador policies, to bizarre Hollywood encounters, Hugh creates a brilliantly vivid picture of a career on stage and screen. 

'Hill is an extremely skilled writer, and his conscientious, measured reporting is a gift.' New York Times 'Troubling, uplifting, heartbreaking... a masterwork.' Ron Suskind, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Life, Animated On a cool autumn night in 1999, twenty-six-year-old Sarah Green crept out...

On the 8th August 1963 a gang of 15 men stopped a mail train in Buckinghamshire and proceeded to steal sacks of money worth £2.6 million. It was the biggest heist ever carried out in the UK and frontpage news around the world. The mastermind behind this most audacious crime of the twentieth century was Bruce Reynolds. Perhaps the last of the 'gentlemen villains'; Reynolds epitomised that particular breed of sharply dressed post-war criminals who mixed with royalty and movie stars, and never carried a gun. They thrived on adventure and glamour, and the Great Train Robbery was their last ride.

Brought to you by Penguin Following on from his hugely successful first book, The Fry Chronicles, comes the second chapter in Stephen Fry's life. This unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of More Fool Me is read by Stephen Fry himself. 'Oh dear I am an arse. I expect there'll be what I...

Read by the author, Robert Hardman. An intimate, authoritative, richly entertaining new portrait of Elizabeth II in her centenary year from the Sunday Times number 1 bestselling author of Charles III. Biographer and royal commentator Robert Hardman has had unique access to the world of the late...

‘I never once attended a Sunday morning church service in Stanford. There was always the feeling that they weren’t aimed at families like ours.’ Pam Ayres was the sixth child in a hard-up family who lived in a council house, her parents’ generation were harrowed by the war. Yet they lived by the green in the village of Stanford in the Vale, where everything you needed was within walking distance and the sound of motorcars was rarely heard.

This is Going to Hurt was the publishing phenomenon of the century, read by many millions, loved by at least fifty of them, and adapted into a major TV series. But it was only part of the story. By turns hilarious, heartbreaking and humbling, Undoctored is about what happens when a doctor hangs...

Author and historian Michael Esslinger spent seven years conducting interviews with Whitey Bulger following his capture in 2011. Their conversations captured Bulger's memories of an early life in crime, his years as a prisoner on Alcatraz, and his life as one of the FBI's Most Wanted fugitives. The Last Interviews is a collection of Bulger's own memories, transcribed directly from personal interviews that chronicle a lifetime spent in crime. It is a scrapbook weaved together from prison documents, personal letters, and candid conversations that offer intimate details about his life.

Some of the greatest heroes and villains in British history were thrown together in these turbulent times: Henry V, whose victory at Agincourt and prudent rule at home marked the high point of the medieval monarchy; Edward IV, who was handed his crown by the scheming soldier Warwick the Kingmaker, before their alliance collapsed into a fight to the death; and the last Plantagenet, Richard III, who stole the throne and murdered his own nephews, the Princes in the Tower.

Over 13 months in 1976­-1977, four children were abducted in the Detroit suburbs, each of them held for days before their still-warm bodies were dumped in the snow near public roadsides. The Oakland County Child Murders spawned panic across southeast Michigan, triggering the most extensive manhunt in US history. Yet after less than two years, the task force created to find the killer was shut down without naming a suspect.

A major figure behind his nephew Philip's marriage to Queen Elizabeth II and instrumental in the royal family taking the Mountbatten name, Dickie Mountbatten's career included being Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia during World War Two and the last Viceroy of India. Once the richest woman in Britain and a playgirl who enjoyed numerous affairs, Edwina Mountbatten emerged from World War Two as a magnetic and talented charity worker loved around the world.

Born in Chicago in 1897, 'Chips' Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family, and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 1935 until his death in 1958. His career was unremarkable. His diaries are quite the opposite. Elegant, gossipy and bitchy by turns, they are the unfettered observations of a man who went everywhere and who knew everybody. 

Brought to you by Penguin. WINNER OF THE BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION ASSOCIATION AWARD FOR BEST NON-FICTION 'PEOPLE THINK THAT STORIES ARE SHAPED BY PEOPLE. IN FACT, IT'S THE OTHER WAY AROUND.' At the time of his death in 2015, award-winning and bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett was working on...

In Chase Darkness with Me, you’ll ride shotgun as journalist Billy Jensen identifies the Halloween Mask Murderer, finds a missing girl in the California Redwoods, and investigates the only other murder in New York City on 9/11. You’ll hear intimate details of the hunts for two of the most terrifying serial killers in history: his friend Michelle’s pursuit of the Golden State Killer which is chronicled in I’ll Be Gone In The Dark which Billy helped finish after Michelle’s passing, and his own quest to find the murderer of the Allenstown 4 family.

From eldest daughter Shari Franke, the shocking true story behind the viral 8 Passengers family vlog – now the subject of a new Disney+ docuseries – and the hidden abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother, and how, in the face of unimaginable pain, she found freedom and healing. Shari...

In June of 1999, Stephen King was hit by a van while walking along the shoulder of a country road in Maine. Six operations were required to save his life and mend his broken body. When he was finally able to sit up, he immediately started writing. This book - part biography, part a collection of tips for the aspiring writer - is the extraordinary result.

Fred and Rose West are virtually unique in British criminal history: a husband and wife who loved and killed together. During their long relationship, the Wests murdered a series of young women, burying the remains of nine victims under their home at 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, including those of their daughter. What was left of Fred West's eight-year-old stepdaughter was dug up from under the Wests' previous Gloucester home; his first wife and nanny were buried in open country.