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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 21%
    by John Curran
    £13.49

    Agatha Christie's Complete Secret Notebooks brings together for the first time Secret Notebooks and Murder in the Making, two volumes that explore the fascinating contents of her 73 notebooks. This includes illustrations, deleted extracts, unused ideas, two unpublished Poirot stories and a lost Miss Marple.

  • Save 23%
    by Akiane Kramarik
    £15.49

    Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry is a collection of the best of Akiane's full-color paintings and poetry created from ages 4 to 10, along with details of her family and the amazing stories that surround each unique artwork.

  • Save 21%
    by Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre
    £13.49 - 17.99

    The electrifying story of India's struggle for independence, told in this classic account (first published in 1975) by two fine journalists who conducted hundreds of interviews with nearly all the surviving participants - from Mountbatten to the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi.

  • Save 17%
    - Picador Classic
    by Philip Gourevitch
    £9.99

    With an introduction by Rory StewartWinner of the Guardian First Book award, a first-hand account one of the defining outrages of modern history.All at once, as it seemed, something we could have only imagined was upon us - and we could still only imagine it. This is what fascinates me most in existence: the peculiar necessity of imagining what is, in fact, real.In 1994, the Rwandan government orchestrated a campaign of extermination, in which everyone in the Hutu majority was called upon to murder everyone in the Tutsi minority. Close to a million people were slaughtered in a hundred days, and the rest of the world did nothing to stop it. A year later, Philip Gourevitch went to Rwanda to investigate the most unambiguous genocide since Hitler's war against the Jews.Hailed by the Guardian as one of the hundred greatest nonfiction books of all time, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families is a first-hand account one of the defining outrages of modern history, an unforgettable anatomy of Rwanda's decimation. As riveting as it is moving, it is a profound reckoning with humanity's betrayal and its perseverance.

  • Save 14%
    by John Garth
    £9.49

    A new biography exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Lord of The Rings. "e;To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 ... by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead."e;So J.R.R. Tolkien responded to critics who saw The Lord of the Rings as a reaction to the Second World War. Tolkien and the Great War tells for the first time the full story of how he embarked on the creation of Middle-earth in his youth as the world around him was plunged into catastrophe. This biography reveals the horror and heroism that he experienced as a signals officer in the Battle of the Somme and introduces the circle of friends who spurred his mythology to life. It shows how, after two of these brilliant young men were killed, Tolkien pursued the dream they had all shared by launching his epic of good and evil. John Garth argues that the foundation of tragic experience in the First World War is the key to Middle-earth's enduring power. Tolkien used his mythic imagination not to escape from reality but to reflect and transform the cataclysm of his generatuion. While his contemporaries surrendered to disillusionment, he kept enchantment alive, reshaping an entire literary tradition into a form that resonates to this day. This is the first substantially new biography of Tolkien since 1977, meticulously researched and distilled from his personal wartime papers and a multitude of other sources.

  • Save 14%
    - The dog who crossed the jungle to find a home *SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOVIE 'ARTHUR THE KING' STARRING MARK WAHLBERG*
    by Mikael Lindnord
    £9.49

    The epic true story of one man, his dog, and how they found each other.

  • Save 18%
    - Growing Up with Robert Johnson
    by Annye C. Anderson
    £20.49

    An intimate memoir by blues legend Robert Johnson's stepsister, including new details about his family, music, influences, tragic death, and musical afterlife

  • Save 14%
    by Hans Rosling
    £9.49

  • - Unabridged 1946 Edition
    by Paramahansa Yogananda
    £25.99 - 32.49

  • Save 15%
    - The Man and the Machine
    by Brock Yates
    £10.99

  • Save 11%
    by Erling Kagge
    £7.99 - 10.99

  • Save 10%
    - Adapt, Survive and Win
    by Mark 'Billy' Billingham
    £8.99

    A searing, raw and honest memoir of television's greatest SAS veteran. Sergeant Major Mark 'Billy' Billingham recounts his life, twenty-seven years of military service as an elite soldier, and new-found fame on the hugely successful Channel Four series SAS: Who dares Wins.

  • Save 14%
    by Robert Bilott
    £9.49

    The remarkable David-against-Goliath story of the lawyer who took on industrial conglomerate DuPont in a huge class action - and won. Soon to be a major motion picture.

  • Save 15%
    - One mayor's challenge and a model for America's future
    by Pete Buttigieg
    £10.99 - 11.99

    'The best American political biography since Obama's Dreams from My Father' GuardianNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA mayor's inspirational story of a Midwest city that has become nothing less than a blueprint for the future of American renewal.

  • Save 21%
    - Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say)
    by Elaine Welteroth
    £13.49

    In this part-manifesto, part-memoir, the revolutionary editor who infused social consciousness into the pages of Teen Vogue explores what it means to come into your own - on your own terms. Elaine Welteroth has climbed the ranks of media and fashion, shattering ceilings along the way.

  • Save 15%
    - The Untold Story of Virginia Hall, WWII's Most Dangerous Spy
    by Sonia Purnell
    £10.99

    The incredible untold story of Virginia Hall, an American woman with a wooden leg who infiltrated Occupied France for the SOE and became the Gestapo's most wanted Allied spy, written by acclaimed biographer Sonia Purnell.

  • Save 15%
    - Alex Honnold, El Capitan and the Climbing Life
    by Mark Synnott
    £10.99

    An intimate account of Alex Honnold's unprecedented, almost unimaginable feat: a 3,000-foot vertical climb up El Capitan in Yosemite, without a rope.

  • Save 15%
    - The Real Anne Lister The Official Companion to the BBC Series
    by Anne Choma & Sally Wainwright
    £10.99

  • Save 14%
    by Lemn Sissay
    £9.49

    THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. A memoir with a message - about growing up in care and finding hope, determination and creativity - from British poet and national treasure Lemn Sissay

  • Save 14%
    - Words of Wisdom from 40 of the World's Most Inspiring Women
    by Zoe Sallis
    £9.49

    A fantastically inspiring collection of interviewswith 40 successful and empowering women, including Maya Angelou, Isabel Allende, Mary Robinson and Shami Chakrabati, exploring their challenges and achievements.

  • Save 15%
    by Jeremy Clarkson
    £10.99

  • Save 14%
    - A (Personal) Journey Through LGBTQ + Culture
    by Amelia Abraham
    £9.49

    This immersive, accessible and thought-provoking book takes the reader on a journey - from Los Angeles to Istanbul, via London, Stockholm and Belgrade - to explore the pros and cons, the myths and realities of life for LGBTQ+ people today.

  • Save 15%
    - The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government
    by Christine Harper & Paul A. Volcker
    £14.49

    The extraordinary life story of the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, whose absolute integrity provides the inspiration we need as our constitutional system and political tradition are being tested to the breaking point.

  • Save 10%
    by Lucy-Anne Holmes
    £8.99

    A frank and revealing memoir about the search for better sex, from `No More Page 3 campaigner Lucy-Anne Holmes

  • Save 21%
    - Her Life
    by Benjamin Moser
    £14.99

  • Save 10%
    by Paul Amsterdam
    £8.99

  • Save 14%
    - From the Authors of Mindhunter
    by John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker
    £9.49

  • - A Biography of a Heavy Metal Icon
    by James Curl
    £19.49

  • Save 18%
    - Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art
    by Mary Gabriel
    £17.99

    The rich, revealing, and thrilling story of five women whose lives and painting propelled a revolution in modern art

  • Save 15%
    - My Autobiography
    by Francis Rossi
    £10.99

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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