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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 18%
    by David Peisner
    £20.49

    Stephen "Steve-O" Glover-social media icon, comedy-touring stalwart, and star of Jackass-delivers a hilarious and practical guide to recovery, relationships, career, and how to keep thriving long after you should be dead.

  • Save 13%
    by Faith Jenkins
    £12.99 - 20.49

  • Save 15%
    by Martyn Ware
    £10.99 - 15.49

  • Save 21%
    by Christina Lupton
    £13.49

  • Save 14%
    by Anne Glenconner
    £9.49 - 16.99

  • Save 21%
    by Vandana Shiva
    £14.99

    Terra Viva was originally published in India in 2022 by Women Unlimited.

  • Save 17%
    by Don Keith
    £9.99

    "Bold, brash, and brimming with courage, Chuck Yeager burst onto the scene as a national hero in 1947, when he became the first to fly an airplane faster than the speed of sound. Yet even before his days as America's most famous test pilot, Yeager was a young fighter ace in the US Army Air Force, flying a P-51 Mustang over Nazi-occupied Europe. His exploits are the stuff of legend"--

  • Save 15%
    by Frank Close
    £10.99

    In the summer of 1964, a reclusive young professor at the University of Edinburgh wrote two scientific papers which have come to change our understanding of the most fundamental building blocks of matter and the nature of the universe. Peter Higgs posited the existence an almost infinitely tiny particle - today known as the Higgs boson - which is the key to understanding why particles have mass, and but for which atoms and molecules could not exist.For nearly 50 years afterwards, some of the largest projects in experimental physics sought to demonstrate the physical existence of the boson which Higgs had proposed. Sensationally, confirmation came in July 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva. The following year Higgs was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. One of the least-known giants of science, he is the only person in history to have had a single particle named for them.This revelatory book is 'not so much a biography of the man but of the boson named after him'. It brilliantly traces the course of much of twentieth-century physics from the inception of quantum field theory to the completion of the 'standard model' of particles and forces, and the pivotal role of Higgs's idea in this evolution. It also investigates the contested history of Higgs's responsibility for the breakthrough when there were others close by, and explains why the boson is named for him alone. Competition between institutions and states, Close shows, then played as much of a role in creating Higgs's fame as his work itself. Drawing on conversations with Higgs over a decade (a figure generally as elusive as his particle) this is a superb study of a scientist and his era - and of how scientific knowledge advances.

  • Save 14%
    by Matthew Ingle
    £9.49

    When the chips are down you have to step forward, speak up and take action - or sink.Matthew Ingle, Yorkshire born and bred, left school in 1971 with four O levels. He went to work at a timber yard in Huddersfield, before joining the management training programme at Magnet. When he was made redundant in 1994, he had an idea for a business, jotted down on a single sheet of paper but no name, no products, no buildings and no backers. Howdens was founded in 1995, and today is a FTSE 100 company with 10,000 staff, sales of over billion and a royal warrant. This is the story of how he got there: the highs and lows, the disasters turned to triumphs, the unsung heroes and the grafters - and the no-nonsense business principles that guided him along the way.Kitchens, or Sink weaves memoir with business insight, telling us a great deal about the state of manufacturing in the UK, how Matthew learned to turn setbacks into opportunities and established the standards he set for himself and his workforce. This is an honest and uplifting story, which also offers sound and pragmatic advice to anyone starting their own business.

  • by Nick Eliason
    £16.99

  • by Michael Hoyt
    £18.49

    Hanabata Days is a graphic memoir that explores the unexpected reunion of a father and son, 47 years after separation.The diasporic story unfolds visually over the span of 60+ years navigating shifting geographic and cultural dissonance, from pre-tourism Hawai'i to present day Middle America. Its central characters' hidden pasts are made visible to one another after searching for answers compelled by hope, premonition, the stars, currents, and the introduction of ancestral coordinates unlocked via shared genetic data.How do two familial strangers proceed forward and make meaning together? What possible pasts can be known and never known? What secrets should remain buried? And is their path to redemption intricately dependent on one another? Hanabata Days connects two lives impacted by different forms of colonization, silence, and ambiguous longing. Each seeking to reckon with their complex pasts towards reclamation.

  • by Valeria Luiselli
    £15.49

    Foreword by Jenny Minton Quigley, series editorIntroduction by Valeria Luiselli, guest editor"Screen Time," by Alejandro Zambra, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell"The Wolves of Circassia," by Daniel Mason "Mercedes's Special Talent," by Tere Dávila, translated from the Spanish by Rebecca Hanssens-Reed "Rainbows," by Joseph O'Neill "A Way with Bea," by Shanteka Sigers "Seams," by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft "The Little Widow from the Capital," by Yohanca Delgado "Lemonade," by Eshkol Nevo, translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston "Breastmilk," by 'Pemi Aguda "The Old Man of Kusumpur," by Amar Mitra, translated from the Bengali by Anish Gupta "Where They Always Meet," by Christos Ikonomou, translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich "Fish Stories," by Janika Oza "Horse Soup," by Vladimir Sorokin, translated from the Russian by Max Lawton "Clean Teen," by Francisco González "Dengue Boy," by Michel Nieva, translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer "Zikora," by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "Apples," by Gunnhild Øyehaug, translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson "Warp and Weft," by David Ryan "Face Time," by Lorrie Moore "An Unlucky Man," by Samanta Schweblin, translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell

  • Save 14%
    by Malala Yousafzai & Christina Lamb
    £9.49

  • Save 12%
    by Thomas Shapiro
    £11.49

    . Die komplette Geschichte der unerwartetsten Instagram-Queen: der Italienischen Windspiel-Dame Tika the Iggy!. 1,1 Mio Follower*innen auf Instagram und 1,6 Mio auf TikTok. Mit zahlreichen Bildern von Tika in außergewöhnlichen Outfits . Ein Muss für alle Tika-Fans und alle, die mehr Fabelhaftigkeit im Leben brauchen!

  • Save 15%
    by Zarifa Ghafari & Hannah Smith
    £10.99 - 15.49

  • Save 14%
    by Selma Blair
    £9.49 - 14.99

    Selma Blair has played many archetypal roles: gullible ingenue in Cruel Intentions. Preppy ice queen in Legally Blonde. Fire-starter in Hellboy. Muse to Karl Lagerfeld. Face of Chanel. Cover model. Advocate for the multiple sclerosis community. But before all of that, Selma was known best for being one thing: a mean baby. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Selma Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth. The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention. Although Selma went on to become a celebrated Hollywood actress and model, she could never quite shake the periods of darkness that overtook her, the certainty that there was a great mystery at the heart of her life. She often felt like her arms might be on fire, a sensation not unlike electric shocks, and she secretly drank to escape. Over the course of this beautiful and, at times, shocking memoir, Selma lays bare her addiction to alcohol, her devotion to her brilliant and complicated mother, and the moments she flirted with death. There is brutal violence, passionate love, true friendship, the gift of motherhood and, finally, the simultaneous devastation and surprising salvation of a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. In a voice that is powerfully original, fiercely intelligent, and full of hard-won wisdom, Selma Blair's Mean Baby is a deeply human memoir and a true literary achievement.

  • Save 11%
    by Michael McConnell
    £7.99

    Fifty years after their marriage, Jack and Michael's story is one of the milestone events in the fight for equal rights, and this memoir the unmissable account a remarkable couple.On September 3, 1971, at the dawn of the modern gay movement, Michael McConnell and Jack Baker exchanged vows in the first legal same-sex wedding in the United States. But the battle to get there - legal and emotional - was only the start of their incredible lives together.Jack enrolled in law school, keeping his promise to Michael that he would figure out a way to marry. He did, but the repercussions would echo not only through their lives, but through those of everyo gay person in the US who ever wanted what this one pioneering couple did: a happy family life. This is the story of how they met, how they married, and what came after. And one wedding heard 'round the world.'A beautiful, well-written love story that is heartrending and ultimately heartwarming'Robert Alexander, New York Times bestselling author of The Kitchen Boy'A fascinating story of love and struggle that reads like a novel'Washington Book Review

  • by Jayfri Hashim & Michael Frizell
    £7.99 - 21.99

  • by Publius Syrus & D. Lyman
    £8.49 - 19.49

  • Save 15%
    by Kid Congo Powers
    £10.99 - 15.49

  • Save 21%
    by All Creatures Great and Small
    £14.99

  • Save 10%
    by Suleika Dawson
    £8.99

  • by Amy Miller
    £9.99

  • by Jamie Bartlett
    £16.49

    'An astonishing read, plunging you into a toxic world of Insta-wealth, betrayal and ruthless ambition... A con that made Theranos look like small fry' - The Telegraph'The largest financial scam ever' - Fortune'The bizarre case of OneCoin illustrates how easily a classic scam could be reinvented for the digital age' - Financial Times'The story of OneCoin stands out even among the outlandish capers of the cryptocurrency era' - Wall Street Journal____________________________________________________Hundreds of Countries.Billions of Dollars.One Lie.In 2014 a brilliant Oxford graduate called Dr Ruja Ignatova promised to revolutionise money and make people rich in the process. The future, she said, belonged to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. And the self-styled cryptoqueen vowed that she had invented the Bitcoin Killer. She launched OneCoin, an exciting new cryptocurrency that she promised would not only earn its investors untold fortunes, it would change the world. OneCoin swept the globe - becoming one of the fastest companies to make $1 billion in revenue.By 2017, billions of dollars had been invested in OneCoin in hundreds of countries, from the USA to Pakistan, Hong Kong to Yemen, and the UK to Uganda. But by the end of the year Ruja Ignatova had disappeared, along with the money, and it slowly became clear that her revolutionary cryptocurrency was not all it seemed.The Missing Cryptoqueen tells the unbelievable story of the rise, disappearance and fall of Dr Ruja Ignatova. It is a modern tale of intrigue, techno-hype and herd madness that reveals how OneCoin became the biggest scam of the 21st Century.

  • Save 15%
    by Estelle Paranque
    £10.99

  • Save 24%
    by William Gaddis
    £17.49

    "Now recognized as one of the giants of postwar American fiction, William Gaddis shunned the spotlight during his life, which makes this collection of his letters a revelation. Beginning in 1930, when Gaddis was at boarding school, and ending in September 1998, a few months before his death, these letters function as a kind of autobiography, and are all the more valuable because Gaddis was not an autobiographical writer. Here we see him forging his first novel, The Recognitions, while living in Mexico, fighting in a revolution in Costa Rica, and working in Spain, France, and North Africa. Over the next twenty years he struggles to find time to write the National Book Award-winning J R amid the complications of work and family; deals with divorce and disillusionment before reviving his career with Carpenter's Gothic; then teaches himself enough about the law to indite A Frolic of His Own, which earned him another National Book Award. Returning to a topic he first wrote about in the 1940s, he finishes his last novel, Agapåe Agape, as he lies dying"--

  • by Henry Hanson
    £12.49 - 18.99

  • Save 18%
    by Dennis McDougal
    £16.49

  • by James Howard
    £13.99 - 19.99

  • Save 22%
    by A. J. Black
    £13.99

    In The Cinematic Connery A. J. Black delves into Sean Connery's life for more than mere biography, exploring not just the enormously varied pictures he made but also the sweep of a career that crossed movie eras as well as decades.

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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