We a good story
Quick delivery in the UK

Biographies

A good biography invites you into someone else’s life. It takes you on fascinating journeys through the ups and downs of the life of legendary film stars, talented musicians, inspiring athletes, visionary politicians and many more. A good biography lets you get under the skin of your biggest idols, and you feel collected when reading their story - maybe even in the form of their own words. You will find both biographies and autobiographies in Tales’ selection, in addition to diaries and memoirs. So are you ready to be inspired by some of the world’'s most extraordinary individuals?
Show more
Filter
Filter
Sort bySort Popular
  • - A Case Study of Mass Murder
    by Martin Dillon
    £9.49

    This book by the author of "Rogue Warrior of the SAS", retells the story of a series of murders by the Ulster Volunteer Force in N. Ireland in the 1970s. When convicted, the killers received over 2000 years in jail, the longest sentences ever given in a single trial in British legal history.

  • by Woody Guthrie
    £8.99

    An autobiography of Woody Guthrie, founder of modern American folk music. This book presents a cynical, earthy and tragic account of his life in an Oklahoma oil-boom town, of the Depression that followed, and of his subsequent travels in, on, and under trains, in stolen cars and on his feet, round an America going rotten from the top downwards.

  • - Journals
    by Kurt Cobain
    £18.99

    The first publication of Kurt Cobain's diaries, which were found after his death in 1994. Genuinely moving, provocative and candid, and suprisingly funny, pieces of writing which, as a whole, provide a unique account of the rise and fall of a greatpopular artist and icon.

  • by John Pearson
    £9.49

    When the Englishman learned that someone was asking about him, he introduced himself to Pearson, who persuaded him to write his story - a story even more extraordinary than that of the Krays. Because the Englishman is the only man of non-Italian blood to be admitted to the heart of the Mafia.

  • - And Heaven and Hell
    by Aldous Huxley
    £8.99

    In 1953, in the presence of an investigator, Aldous Huxley took four-tenths of a gramme of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen. When he opened his eyes everything, from the flowers in a vase to the creases in his trousers, was transformed.

  • - A Terrifying Expose Of The British Drugs Scene
    by Bernard O'Mahoney
    £8.99

    It is the true story of the rise of one of the most violent and successful criminal gangs of the 90's whose reign of terror was finally terminated when the three leaders were brutally murdered in their Range Rover one winter's evening. On their way they had built the drug-dealing organisation that which supplied the pill that killed Leah Betts.

  • - The Story Of A 17th Century Playboy
    by Lucy Worsley
    £11.99

    William Cavendish, courageous, cultured and passionate about women, embodies the popular image of a cavalier. Famously defeated at the Battle of Marston Moor in 1644, he went into a long and miserable continental exile before returning to England in triumph on the restoration of King Charles II to the throne in 1660.Lucy Worsley brings to life a fascinating household of the 17th century, painting a picture of conspiracy, sexual intrigue, clandestine marriage and gossip. From Ben Jonson and Van Dyck to a savage, knife-wielding master-cook, Cavalier is a brilliant illumination of the stately home in England and all its many colourful inhabitants.

  • - The Private Letters Of Sir Winston And Lady Churchill
    by Mary Soames
    £18.99

    Winston and Clementine Churchill wrote to each other constantly throughout the 57 years of their life together. Written solely for each others eyes, their letters serve as a revealing portrait of their characters and their relationship, and as a unique political and social history, as international affairs were rarely absent from their thoughts.

  • - A biography of Eugene V. Debs
    by Ray Ginger
    £20.49

    The classic biography of Debs, one of the most important thinkers and activists in US.

  • by Evan Wright
    £9.49

    Generation Kill is about the young men sent to fight their nation's first open-ended war since Vietnam. Generation Kill is not just a combat chronicle but an inside look at how people fighting in war actually experience it.

  • - An Autobiography
    by Andre Agassi
    £9.49

    He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court - but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game.

  • by Dame Ethel Smyth
    £20.49

    Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) was an exceptional woman in an age rich in strong personalities. A feminist, intrepid traveller and sportswoman, she wrote nine volumes of autobiography, recounting a life packed with incident. Her writings, abridged by Ronald Crichton, and including a catalogue of her music, are full of brilliant portraits.

  • - True Stories of Vanished Times: An Autobiography
    by Harold Evans
    £9.49

    From a wartime beach in Wales to the gleaming skyscrapers of twenty-first-century Manhattan, the extraordinary career of Fleet Street legend Harold Evans has spanned five decades of tumultuous social, political and creative change. Just how did a working class Lancashire boy, who failed the eleven-plus, rise to a position where he could so effectively give voice to the unheard?Born in the bleak years between the wars in the sprawl of Greater Manchester into a thrifty, diligent and loving family, Evans inherited only the privilege of his parents' example. Theirs was a work ethic that led Evans through night school classes, national service and a passionate commitment to regional life, and, finally, to his unassailably successful editorship of one of our greatest newspapers, the Sunday Times. Whether unpicking the murderous chaos of Bloody Sunday, pursuing a foreign correspondent's murderers or uncovering the atrocity of Thalidomide, this consummate newsman evokes his contagious passion: for the real story and the truth.

  • - A Year On The Killing Streets
    by David Simon
    £10.99

    The bestselling true crime classic from the creator of The Wire

  • - Being a True and Detailed History of the Most Barbarous and Inhumane Murder at Oddingley and the Quick and Awful Retribution
    by Peter Moore
    £13.49

    The brutal murder of the Reverend George Parker in the rural village of Oddingley on Midsummer's Day in 1806 - shot and beaten to death, his body set on fire and left smouldering in his own glebe field - gripped everyone from the Home Secretary in London to newspapermen across the country.

  • by Roger Deakin
    £9.49

    From the sea, from rock pools, from rivers and streams, tarns, lakes, lochs, ponds, lidos, swimming pools and spas, from fens, dykes, moats, aqueducts, waterfalls, flooded quarries, even canals, Deakin gains a fascinating perspective on modern Britain.

  • - Love, Grief and a Journey into Japan's Shadows
    by Richard Lloyd Parry
    £9.49

    In the summer of 2000, Jane Steare received the phone call every mother dreads. Her daughter Lucie Blackman - tall, blonde, and twenty-one years old - had stepped into the vastness of a Tokyo summer and disappeared forever. That winter, her dismembered remains were found buried in a seaside cave. Had Lucie been abducted by a religious cult?

  • by Hermione Lee
    £21.99

    Her brilliant, disturbing fiction shows her deep understanding of the longing and struggle in women's lives. This masterly new biography draws on new material and delves into every aspect of Wharton's extraordinary life-story.

  • - Insider's Edition
    by Anthony Bourdain
    £10.99

    Kitchen Confidential is a captivating book penned by the renowned author, Anthony Bourdain. Published in 2013 by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, this book delves into the thrilling and often unseen world of culinary arts. Bourdain, with his characteristic wit and candor, takes the reader on an unforgettable journey behind the scenes of restaurant kitchens, revealing both the highs and lows of the food industry. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the genre of culinary literature. It offers an insightful, no-holds-barred view of what it truly means to be a chef. Kitchen Confidential is a testament to Bourdain's love for food and his respect for those who dedicate their lives to creating it. Read it to explore the culinary world through the eyes of one of its most iconic figures.

  • - The True Story of My Lifelong Battle With Anorexia
    by Nikki Grahame
    £14.99

    'The figure looking back at me was little more than a skeleton with just a thin layer of tissue paper for skin, drawn over the stick-like bones. I stood staring for a good couple of minutes, considering what I'd become. And my verdict? Brilliant, I thought. It's been worth every moment of all that hard work.'

  • by Jack Whitehall & Michael Whitehall
    £8.99

    Jack and Michael Whitehall perform their laugh-out-loud autobiography Him & Me as a unique dual voiced comedy audiobook, filled with ad-libs, asides, and comic dialogue to create a uniquely funny listen. Jack and Michael open up the rich and plentiful family lore archives on topics such as Jacks nannys enormous feet, Michaels lifetime touchline ban from Jacks prep-school and the Whitehall collection of downright weird and eccentric relatives. With family photographs and sketches by Jack himself, the result is a hugely entertaining insight into a hilarious and sometimes bumpy journey of self-discovery and into the unique relationship between a father and a son. The devotees that adore and worship Jack are already embracing his lovably grumpy father, who is rather enjoying his newfound fame. Watch out, fans of Reeves & Mortimer, Walliams & Lucas, Morecambe & Wise, theres a new comedy duo in town. This edition features an extra final chapter, recorded exclusively for Audible listeners.

  • - Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning
    by Thomas Neville (c/o Carlisle & Company) Bonner
    £37.99

    His story, based on new archival sources and told with verve and wit, is sure to become the definitive work on a man and his era.

  • by A. H. Saxon
    £48.99

    Saxon brings together more than 300 letters written by the self-styled "Prince of Humbugs." Here we see him, opinionated and exuberant, with only the rarest flashes of introspection and self-doubt, haggling with business partners, blustering over politics, and attempting to get such friends as Mark Twain to endorse his latest schemes.

  • - A decade of living dangerously
    by Ash Dykes
    £8.99

  • by Sam Millar
    £11.49

    The incredible true life story of Sam Millar, from his childhood in Belfast to membership of the IRA, time spent in Long Kesh internment camps and carrying out the $7 million Brinks heist, one of the biggest robberies in U.S. history. Subject of RTE Documentary on One: The Seven Million Dollar Man.

  • - The Inspirational Memoir of the World's Greatest Ultra-Runner
    by Kilian Jornet
    £13.49

    Run or Die by Kilian Jornet - the autobiography of the world's most dominating athlete in ultra runningShortlisted for the 2014 William Hill Sports Book of the Year AwardNational Geographic Adventurer of the Year 2014Marca Legend Award 2014 'This man can run 100 miles. Up and down mountains. Without stopping. After skipping breakfast. Meet Kilian Jornet, the world's greatest ultra-runner' The TimesAt 18 months he went on his first hike. At 3, he climbed his first mountain. At 10, he entered his first mountain race. At 26, he plans to run up Everest - without an oxygen mask.Kilian Jornet has conquered some of the toughest physical tests on the planet. He has run up and down Mt. Kilimanjaro faster than any other human being, and struck down world records in every challenge that has been proposed - all before the age of 25. Dominating ultra marathons and races at altitude, he has redefined what is possible in running, astonishing competitors with his near-superhuman fitness and ability.In Run or Die Kilian shares his passion, inviting readers into a fascinating world rich with the beauty of rugged trails and mountain vistas, the pulse-pounding drama of racing, and an intense love for sport and the landscapes that surround him. In turns inspiring, insightful, candid, and deeply personal, this is a book written from the heart of the world's greatest endurance runner, for whom life presents one simple choice: Run. Or die.This is the next must-have read for those who enjoyed the endurance books Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes.'Fascinating insight into the gruelling world of the ultimate ultra-runner' Daily MailKilian Jornet is a world champion ultra-runner, climber and ski mountaineer (a combination of skiing and mountaineering).He was voted the presitigious 'Adventurer of the Year 2014' award by National Geographic magazine, in honour of his latest project to break speed records up and down the world's 7 tallest mountains. The 4-year-project finishes with a running attempt up Everest in 2016.

  • - A True Story of Corruption, Murder and how I became Putin's no. 1 enemy
    by Bill Browder
    £9.49

    Magnitsky's brutal killing has remained uninvestigated and unpunished to this day. His farcical posthumous show-trial brought Putin's regime to a new low in the eyes of the international community.

  • - My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made
    by Tom Bissell & Greg Sestero
    £8.99 - 9.49

    Now a major motion picture, The Disaster Artist, starring James Franco, Alison Brie, Zoey Deutch, Lizzy Caplan, Zac Efron, Bryan Cranston, Dave Franco, Kristen Bell, Seth Rogen, Sharon Stone, and Judd Apatow.In 2003, an independent film called The Room - starring and written, produced, and directed by a mysteriously wealthy social misfit named Tommy Wiseau - made its disastrous debut in Los Angeles. Described by one reviewer as 'like getting stabbed in the head', the $6 million film earned a grand total of $1,800 at the box office and closed after two weeks. Over a decade later, The Room is an international cult phenomenon, whose legions of fans attend screenings featuring costumes, audience rituals, merchandising and thousands of plastic spoons. In The Disaster Artist, Greg Sestero, Tommy's costar, recounts the film's bizarre journey to infamy, explaining how the movie's many nonsensical scenes and bits of dialogue came to be and unraveling the mystery of Tommy Wiseau himself. But more than just a riotously funny story about cinematic hubris, The Disaster Artist is an honest and warm testament to friendship.

  • - A Harrowing True Story of Adventure, Danger and Survival
    by Yossi Ghinsberg
    £9.49

    Four travellers meet in Bolivia and set off into the Amazon rainforest on an expedition to explore places tourists only dream of seeing. But what begins as the adventure of a lifetime quickly becomes a struggle for survival when they get lost in the wilds of the jungle.

  • - A Memoir by the Creator of NIKE
    by Phil Knight
    £9.49

    The first-ever memoir of the legendary co-founder of Nike Inc, Phil Knight

Biographies
Biographies books are per definition a collection of someone’s life. That someone is mostly a celebrity and often comes from the world of entertainment for example a famous movie or television star. A good biography lets you under the skin of the subject. Biographies are mostly written by biography authors, who are specialized in capturing the life of another person through research and multiple interviews with both the individual and his or her relatives. The celebrity or icon can also choose to write his or her own story, which is what characterizes an autobiography. An autobiography can - if the writer is good - give you a more intimate picture of the subject. You can both find biographies and autobiographies in Tales’ wide selection of Biographies. 

Biographies best sellers
Tales’ selection contains most of the biographies best sellers. The biographies books are often about celebrities known from film, television or the music industry, but they can also be about inspiring trailblazers from the societal or political world like the biography best seller Becoming about Michelle Obama. The American first lady has inspired many Americans and people around the world. Her and her husband - the first black American first lady and President - made many extraordinary changes in the American society and advocated for more diversity and respect in the American people. Michelle Obama also fights for more equality, especially when it comes to girls and women. Read the inspiring story of how Michelle Obama became one of our times most popular, kind and obliging residents of the White House in her biography Becoming, and let it guide you to finding our own voice. 
Another best seller is Three Women by Lisa Taddeo. Taddeo has written an innovative biography that is a collection of three American women's lives. The biography is an investigation of the female lust in all its complexity. Many women have expressed that they can reflect their own life and feelings of desire in the book. 

Biographies about musicians
Take a look in our selection and find some of the best biographies about musicians. The selection has something for every taste, because you find accounts about musicians from every end of the spectre. Whether you like rock, jazz, classical music, pop or musicals you will find biographies about musicians representing every genre. 
Take for example the autobiography Me Elton John, who has gained extraordinary reviews and success all around the world making the Elton John biography an international best seller. The book is the only official biography made about the iconic musician and singer. Read the incredible and turbulent story about one of our biggest stars to date, and you might learn the secrets behind writing and performing hit after hit.
You can also dive into the fascinating story of the musical legend Julie Andrews. In the biography Home you can read about her journey from London to Broadway stardom. The triple threat is the woman behind legendary roles such as Mary Poppins and Maria from The Sound of Music, and you can follow her journey through Hollywood in the sequel Home Work. Julie Andrews is the writer of her own story and she writes in an intimate and heart-warming narrative. 

Biographies about artists
Are you an art lover, art student or an artist yourself? Then we would recommend you to find inspiration in our biographies about artists. Our collection of biographies contains among others the book Frida Kahlo - A Biography written by Claudia Schaefer. Schaefer gives an introduction to the beloved Latino artist. Frida Kahlo is one of modern times greatest female artists and her surrealist artworks are extraordinary. The biography introduces the reader to her unique form of art - Kahlo did not see herself as a surrealist - but it also gives a look into the artist behind the world famous works of art. If you want to dive into the lives of amazing artists, the story of Kahlo is just one of many wonderful biographies about artists. 

Join thousands of book lovers

Sign up to our newsletter and receive discounts and inspiration for your next reading experience.