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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?
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  • Save 20%
    - From Borstal to The Specials: A Life in Crime & Music
    by Neville Staple
    £11.99

    The biography of The Specials' Neville Staple.

  • Save 10%
    by Ursula Doyle (Ed.)
    £8.99

    Together for the first time in one volume: the bestselling Love Letters of Great Men and Love Letters of Great Women

  • - An Autobiography
    by Angela Y. Davis
    £17.49

  • Save 20%
    - The Fall of Anne Boleyn (Queen of England Series)
    by Alison Weir
    £11.99

    On 2 May, 1536, in an act unprecedented in English history, Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Did Cromwell, for reasons of his own, construct a case against Anne and her faction, and then present compelling evidence before the King?

  • Save 21%
    by Keith Haring
    £13.49

    Keith Haring is synonymous with the downtown New York art scene of the 1980's. His artwork - with its simple, bold lines and dynamic figures in motion - filtered in to the world's consciousness. This title features ninety black-and-white images of his classic artwork and Polaroid images.

  • Save 14%
    - Surviving the Impossible
    by John Geiger
    £9.49

    Incredible true stories of a life-saving presence experienced in extreme adventuring situations - backed up by weighty research

  • Save 18%
    by Andre Brink
    £11.49

    His long love affair with music, art, the theatre, literature and sport illuminate this memoir as do relationships with remarkable women, among them the poet Ingrid Jonker, who have shared and shaped his life, and encounters with people like Ariel Dorfman, Anna Netrebko, Nadine Gordimer, Gunter Grass, Beyers Naude, Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.

  • - The Mass Production Of Hate
    by Neil Baldwin
    £29.49

    A revealing examination of the making of America's most famous anti-Semite

  • Save 21%
    by Peter Ackroyd
    £14.99

    In this magnificent vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and beauty.

  • Save 26%
    by Henry David Thoreau
    £19.99

  • Save 14%
    - How Not to Run a Club
    by Peter Hook
    £9.49

    Legendary musician Peter Hook tells the whole story - the fun, the music, the vast loss of money, the legacy - of Manchester's most iconic nightclub

  • Save 15%
    - Locked in the Arms of a Crazy Life
    by Howard Sounes
    £10.99

    This updated biography features a new preface by the author as well as an expanded notes section

  • Save 14%
    - A Russian Childhood
    by Eugenie Fraser
    £9.49

    A riveting story of two families separated in culture and geography but bound together by a Russian-Scottish marriage.

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    - Front-Line Dispatches from the Advertising War
    by Jerry Della Femina
    £9.49

    A sharp, funny and deliciously gossipy guide to the glory days of advertising in 1960s New York - an inspiration for the hit TV series MAD MEN

  • by Joe Simpson
    £16.49

    While climbing in the Peruvian Andes, Joe Simpson and Simon Yates came face to face with disaster. Simpson fell and broke his leg and then was lost. As his partner Yates was starting to break camp four days later, Simpson crawled in through a blizzard. How both men overcame those four harrowing days is an epic chronicle of fear and friendship.

  • Save 14%
    - The Savage Years
    by Paul O'Grady
    £9.49

    THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Funny, forthright and sharp as a knife . I would expect nothing less from the fabulously honest Paul O'Grady.' *****'He writes as he speaks, entirely from the heart .

  • Save 19%
    by Shauna Reid
    £12.99

    A true story of a young woman who defeated her demons and conquered her cravings to become a weight-loss superhero to inspire us all.

  • Save 11%
    - In Search of the Real Bob Dylan
    by David Dalton
    £12.49

    Our fascination with Bob Dylan never ends. Timed for his 75th birthday in May 2016, and with a new Foreword, WHO IS THAT MAN? comes to paperback

  • by Ulrich Wilcken
    £22.99

    Here is one of the great biographies of Alexander, in its original form, brought fully up to date with findings of modern research and criticism.

  • Save 11%
    - A Listener's Companion
    by Michael Stephans
    £36.49

    Saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer Ornette Coleman has earned enduring praise as an American jazz icon. Stephans weaves together analysis of Coleman's recordings and exploration of the free jazz movement with interviews of those who knew Coleman best to tell an inspiring story of artistic genius and resilience.

  • Save 19%
    - The Cat who Taught his Human How to Live
    by Peter Gethers
    £12.99

    There are only three things a cat needs for a fine life - good food, a comfortable bed, and universal praise and love. Luckily - after converting his human, Peter, from cat hater to cat lover - Norton has plenty of all three.

  • Save 15%
    - My Life In The Eagles, 1974-2001
    by Don Felder
    £10.99

    The Eagles wrote the soundtrack to the Seventies and Eighties - and even now their albums top the charts. But backstage, there were no peaceful, easy feelings...

  • Save 15%
    by Elizabeth Gaskell
    £10.99

    Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857) is a pioneering biography of one great Victorian woman novelist by another. This edition is based on the Third Edition of 1857, revised by Gaskell and collated with the manuscript and the previous two editions, as well as with Charlotte Bronte's letters, offering fuller information about the process of composition than any previous edition.

  • Save 15%
    - The Autobiography
    by Roger Moore
    £10.99

    Packed with anecdotes and memories, My Word is My Bond is as frank, funny and disarmingly charming as the legend himself.

  • Save 17%
    by Quentin Crisp
    £9.99

  • Save 19%
    by Bernadette McDonald
    £12.99

    Or a tragic - and very public - death in the mountains?Years before, as communism was collapsing and the Balkans slid into chaos, Humar was unceremoniously conscripted into a dirty war that he despised, where he observed brutal and inhumane atrocities that disgusted him.

  • Save 19%
    - The Authorised Biography
    by J P Bean
    £12.99

    But most of all it is an uplifting story of an ordinary man who lit up America like a beacon in the night, was written off as a shambolic wreck and then - against all the odds - climbed back to become an even bigger star than he was first time around.

  • Save 21%
    - The Fate of Marie Antoinette's Daughter
    by Susan Nagel
    £13.49

    The first major biography of 18th century France's most mysterious woman, the daughter of Marie Antoinette, who vanished from public view during the tumultuous last days of the ancien regime

  • Save 19%
    - The Political Life of an American Musician
    by Barry Seldes
    £32.49

    From his dazzling conducting debut in 1943 until his death in 1990, Leonard Bernstein's star blazed brilliantly. In this fresh and revealing biography of Bernstein's political life, Barry Seldes examines Bernstein's career against the backdrop of cold war America-blacklisting by the State Department in 1950, voluntary exile from the New York Philharmonic in 1951 for fear that he might be blacklisted, signing a humiliating affidavit to regain his passport-and the factors that by the mid-1950s allowed his triumphant return to the New York Philharmonic. Seldes for the first time links Bernstein's great concert-hall and musical-theatrical achievements and his real and perceived artistic setbacks to his involvement with progressive political causes. Making extensive use of previously untapped FBI files as well as overlooked materials in the Library of Congress's Bernstein archive, Seldes illuminates the ways in which Bernstein's career intersected with the twentieth century's most momentous events. This broadly accessible and impressively documented account of the celebrity-maestro's life deepens our understanding of an entire era as it reveals important and often ignored intersections of American culture and political power.

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. 

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