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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 14%
    by Gerald Durrell
    £9.49

    Gerald Durrell's classic memoir of growing up on Corfu with an afterword by Peter Olney, former Keeper of Birds at the London Zoo.

  • Save 15%
    - The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    by Irin Carmon
    £10.99

    New York Times BestsellerFeatured in the critically acclaimed documentary RBG"It was beyond my wildest imagination that I would one day become the 'Notorious RBG."

  • Save 15%
    - Bernard Hinault and the Fall and Rise of French Cycling
    by William Fotheringham
    £10.99

    He is a five-time winner of the Tour de France and the only man to have won each of the Grand Tours on more than one occasion. Three decades on from his retirement, Hinault remains the last French winner of the Tour de France.

  • Save 10%
    - Times Like His: Foo Fighters, Nirvana and Other Misadventures
    by Martin James
    £8.99

    Dave Grohl: Times Like His is the fully updated edition of the bestselling biography on one of modern rock's most influential figures, drawing on interviews with key figures in the Grohl story to create an intimate, insightful portrait of the man himself.

  • Save 21%
    - The Transcendent Wisdom of Neem Karoli Baba Told Through the Stories of the Westerners Whose Lives He Transformed
    by Parvati Markus
    £14.99

    A celebration of one of the most influential spiritual leaders of our time: Neem Karoli Baba, the enlightened guru who inspired a generation of seekers?including Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman, and Larry Brilliant?on life-altering journeys that helped change the world.In 1967, Ram Dass returned to the West from India and spread the teachings of his mysterious guru, Neem Karoli Baba, better known as Maharajji. Ram Dass's words about Maharajji's life-affirming wisdom resonated with a youth culture that had grown disillusioned with the violence, civil discord, and crude materialism of modern civilization. Hundreds of Westerners traveled to India and experienced Maharajji's extraordinary presence directly until his death in 1973. His simple directives?love everyone, feed everyone, and remember God?opened their hearts and awakened their souls.What these followers brought back to the West has since changed the landscape of everyday life. Meditation is now mainstream; yoga studios are in every town; and mindfulness is practiced in elementary schools and board-rooms everywhere, from Silicon Valley to Capitol Hill. A stirring piece of history, Love Everyone brings these stories to life, sharing for the first time the inspiring tales of the men and women who followed the siren call of the East to the foothills of the Himalayas, then returned to forever reshape the world.A compelling and inspiring tribute to Maharajji from the Western men and women who knew him best, Love Everyone is a profound teaching on the power of love, as lasting and transformative as the truth, wisdom, and bliss of Maharajji.

  • Save 14%
    by Bear Grylls
    £9.49

    Some of them make uncomfortable reading - survival is rarely pretty. But all of them are tales of eye-watering bravery, death-defying resilience and extraordinary mental toughness by men and women who have one thing in common: true grit. What readers are saying about True Grit:***** 'Exhilarating .

  • Save 15%
    by Lutz Pfannenstiel
    £10.99

    The incredible story of German goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel - the most interesting footballer you've never heard of. A massive bestseller in Germany, this astonishing, fascinating and at times hilarious book relates a football career in which Lutz travelled the world, played for 23 teams on five continents and lived life to the absolute full.

  • Save 17%
    - The Incredible True Story of a Child Raised by Monkeys
    by Marina Chapman
    £9.99

    .'In 1954, in a remote South American village, a four-year-old girl was abducted and then abandoned deep in the Colombian rainforest. So begins the incredible true story of Marina Chapman, who went on to spend several years alone in the jungle, her only family a troop of capuchin monkeys.

  • Save 15%
    - Glory, revolution, betrayal and the real Count of Monte Cristo
    by Tom Reiss
    £10.99

    By walking the same ground as Dumas - from Haiti tothe Pyramids, Paris to the prison cell at Taranto - Reiss, like the novelistbefore him, triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero. 'Entrances from first to last.

  • Save 14%
    by Fredrik Sjoberg
    £9.49

    The author finds happiness in the little things. Millions of them, in fact. He tells us about living on a remote Swedish island, blissful long summer nights, lost loves, unexpected treasures, art, nature, slowness, and how freedom can come from the things we least expect.

  • Save 21%
    - My secret life teaching the sons of North Korea's elite
    by Suki Kim
    £13.49

    Her letters are read by censors and she must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but also from her colleagues, evangelical Christian missionaries, whose faith she does not share. As the weeks pass she discovers how easily her students lie, and how total is their obedience to Kim Jong-il.

  • Save 10%
    by Binyavanga Wainaina
    £8.99

    A groundbreaking memoir by the acclaimed Kenyan Caine Prize winner.

  • Save 27%
    - The Life and Enlightenment of Yeshe Tsogyal
    by Gyalwa Changchub
    £23.49

  • Save 15%
    - A Memoir
    by Salman Rushdie
    £10.99

    On Valentine's Day, 1989, Salman Rushdie received a telephone call from a BBC journalist that would change his life forever: Ayatollah Khomeini, a leading Muslim scholar, had issued him with a death sentence. This book offers an account of how he was forced to live in hiding for over a decade.

  • Save 15%
    - My Journey Through Heaven and Hell with Black Sabbath
    by Tony Iommi
    £10.99

    An electrifying tell-all autobiography from one of rock's greatest legends -- Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi

  • Save 10%
    - Memories and wisdom from the iconic writer and director
    by Nora Ephron
    £8.99

    If there is any solace in growing older, it is that you will find yourself guffawing in hysterical recognition at the situations the author describes, from the impossibility of trying to remember people's names at parties, to struggling with the new technology. This title focuses on what we all struggle with as we journey into our later years.

  • Save 21%
    - Aileen Wuornos in Her Own Words
    by Aileen Wuornos
    £13.49

    The chilling autobiography of the notorious female serial killer who was recently the subject of a two-hour Investigation Discovery special.Between 1989 and 1990, Aileen Wuornos, a hitchhiking prostitute, shot, killed, and robbed seven men in remote Florida locations. Arrested in 1991, she was condemned to death on six separate counts and executed by lethal injection in 2002.An abused runaway who turned to prostitution to survive, Wuornos has become iconic of vengeful women who lash out at the nearest target. She has also become a touchstone for women's, prostitutes', and prisoners' rights advocates. Her story has inspired myriad books and articles, as well as the 2003 movie Monster, for which Charlize Theron won an Academy Award. But until now, Wuornos's uncensored voice has never been heard.Dear Dawn is Wuornos's autobiography, culled from her ten-year death row correspondence with beloved childhood friend Dawn Botkins. Authorized for publication by Wuornos and edited under the guidance of Botkins, the letters not only offer Wuornos's riveting reflections on the murders, legal battles, and media coverage, but go further, revealing her fears and obsessions, her rich humor and empathy, and her gradual disintegration as her execution approached. A candid life story told to a trusted friend, Dear Dawn is a compelling narrative, unwaveringly true to its source.?It is both empowering and heartbreaking, because Wuornos represents the fury of a wronged girl-gone-wild, whose rage was unleashed on men.? ?The Rumpus?Condenses ten years of obsessive correspondence into a fragmented, sometimes funny, sometimes nightmarish, often paradoxical portrait of Wuornos.? ?Muzzle Magazine

  • Save 14%
    by Amy Chua
    £9.49

    The most talked about book of the yearThe Sunday Times bestsellerThe New York Times bestsellerDer Spiegel bestseller

  • Save 27%
    by Caroline Zoob
    £21.99

    A chronological account takes the reader through the key events in the lives of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, and their deaths.

  • Save 23%
    - The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Icon
    by Matt Stone
    £15.49

  • Save 10%
    - The Writings of the Queen of the Desert
    by Gertrude Bell
    £8.99

    During World War I, Georgina Howell worked her way up from spy to army major to become one of the most powerful woman in the British Empire. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, she was instrumental in drawing the borders that define the region today, including creating an independent Iraq. This book deals with her life and work.

  • Save 14%
    - A Love Story
    by Elizabeth Gilbert
    £9.49

    The eagerly awaited sequel to the astonishing international bestseller Eat, Pray, Love

  • - A Memoir
    by Fred Haefele
    £15.49

    Chronicles one man's journey through the fearful expanse of midlife in a quest for peace, parts, and a happy second fatherhood. With limited mechanical skills, and a cast of local experts, the author takes us down the rocky road of restoration to the headlong, heart-thrilling rush of open highway on his on his midnight-blue Millennium Flyer.

  • Save 14%
    - A Memoir of My Early Years
    by Julie Andrews
    £9.49

    The heroine of MARY POPPINS and THE SOUND OF MUSIC tells her life story from the music halls of London to Broadway stardom.

  • Save 11%
    by Frederick Douglass
    £7.99

    Frederick Douglass's Narrative recounts his life as a slave in Maryland and escape to freedom in 1838. An important slave autobiography, it is significant both for what it tells us about slave life and about its author. It is here reprinted with contexualizing source material and other writings by Douglass, as well as an introduction discussing its literary and historical significance.

  • Save 11%
    by Carrie Fisher
    £7.99

    In her first ever memoir, Carrie Fisher takes us on an intimate, hilarious and sobering journey through her life.

  • Save 21%
    - The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer
    by John E. Douglas
    £14.99

    From the New York Times Best-Selling Author John Douglas Comes a Story of True Crime That Reads Like Fiction Inside the Mind of BTK tells the incredible true story of how FBI profiler John Douglas tracked and participated in the hunt for one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history.

  • Save 10%
    by Charles Bronson
    £8.99

    Charlie Bronson has spent decades in solitary confinement, and yet has stayed as fit as a fiddle, gaining several world strength and fitness records in the process. This book, a guide to getting fit and staying fit, reveals just how he's done it. It shows you the best way to burn those calories, tone your abs, and build your stamina.

  • Save 14%
    by Ronnie Wood
    £9.49

    A candid, no-holds-barred romp through forty years of drugs, sex and rock 'n roll

  • - An Autobiography
    by Ingmar Bergman
    £17.49

    When a film is not a document, it is a dream. This visual autobiography traces the author's lifelong love affair with film. It looks at his life from a rural Swedish childhood through his work in theater to Hollywood's golden age, and a romantic history that includes five wives and more than a few mistresses.

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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