Autobiographies

Documents the milestones in the fight for equality between genders and sexualities, from the victories of early activists, to the gradual acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community in society and the passing of legislation barring discrimination.

In this compelling book, Richard Holmes tells the exhilarating story of the Duke of Wellington, Britain's greatest ever soldier.Seeing Wellington as a remarkable figure, Holmes follows his career from the ruins of his family seat in Ireland to the plains of India where Wellesley first gained his reputation as a brilliant commander, to the horrors of the Peninsular War and Waterloo.Combining his astute historical analysis with semi-biographical examination, Holmes artfully illustrates the rapid evolution in military and political thinking of the time.

Charts are best viewed on a tablet.Picking up where Liar's Poker left off (literally, in the bond dealer's desks of Salomon Brothers) the story of Long-Term Capital Management is of a group of elite investors who believed they could beat the market and, like alchemists, create limitless wealth for themselves and their partners.Founded by John Meriweather, a notoriously confident bond dealer, along with two Nobel prize winners and a floor of Wall Street's brightest and best, Long-Term Captial Management was from the beginning hailed as a new gold standard in investing. It was to be the hedge fund to end all other hedge funds: a discreet private investment club limited to those rich enough to pony up millions.It became the banks' own favourite fund and from its inception achieved a run of dizzyingly spectacular returns. New investors barged each other aside to get their investment money into LTCM's hands. But as competitors began to mimic Meriweather's fund, he altered strategy to maintain the fund's performance, leveraging capital with credit on a scale not fully understood and never seen before.When the markets in Indonesia, South America and Russia crashed in 1998 LCTM's investments crashed with them and mountainous debts accumulated. The fund was in melt-down, and threatening to bring down into its trillion-dollar black hole a host of financial instiutions from New York to Switzerland. It's a tale of vivid characters, overwheening ambition, and perilous drama told, in Roger Lowenstein's hands, with brilliant style and panache.

The astonishing true account of John Chapman, Medal of Honor recipient and Special Ops Combat Controller, and his heroic one-man stand during the Afghan War, as he sacrificed his life to save the lives of 23 comrades-in-arms.

The in-depth biography of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the Manchester United legend who came back as manager to breathe new life into the club

The exclusive behind-the-scenes story of the Mauricio Pochettino revolution at Spurs

In his new autobiography, Finding My Virginity, the Virgin Founder shares his personal, intimate thoughts on five decades as the world's ultimate entrepreneur. Discover how he created a new life on Necker Island, while continuing to grow the Virgin brand into all corners of the world.

A revelatory memoir by a legendary rock star, Bruce Springsteen's BORN TO RUN will be the book of 2016.

This fully updated edition of the international bestseller includes Pep Guardiola's Bayern years and his decision to join Manchester City

The unvarnished and complete story of the life of one of America's greatest ever songwriters.

From the moment Karen Blixen arrived in Kenya in 1914 to manage a coffee plantation, her heart belonged to Africa. Drawn to the intense colours and ravishing landscapes, Karen Blixen spent her happiest years on the farm. This book presents her experiences and friendships with the people around her.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'This is my kind of history: carefully researched but so vivid that you are convinced Lucy Worsley was actually there at the party - or the parsonage.' Antonia Fraser'A refreshingly unique perspective on Austen and her work and a beautifully nuanced exploration of gender, creativity, and domesticity.' Amanda ForemanLucy Worsley 'is a great scene-setter for this tale of triumph and heartbreak.' Sunday TimesOn the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death, historian Lucy Worsley leads us into the rooms from which our best-loved novelist quietly changed the world.This new telling of the story of Jane's life shows us how and why she lived as she did, examining the places and spaces that mattered to her. It wasn't all country houses and ballrooms, but a life that was often a painful struggle. Jane famously lived a 'life without incident', but with new research and insights Lucy Worsley reveals a passionate woman who fought for her freedom. A woman who far from being a lonely spinster in fact had at least five marriage prospects, but who in the end refused to settle for anything less than Mr Darcy.

In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Einstein and Steve Jobs, shows how the most fascinating of America's founders helped define our national character.Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us, the one who seems made of flesh rather than marble. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklins life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, Americas best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. He explores the wit behind Poor Richards Almanac and the wisdom behind the Declaration of Independence, the new nations alliance with France, the treaty that ended the Revolution, and the compromises that created a near-perfect Constitution.In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklins amazing life, showing how he helped to forge the American national identity and why he has a particular resonance in the twenty-first century.

'You have talked so often of going to the dogs - and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them.' George Orwell's vivid memoir of his time among the desperately poor and destitute in London and Paris is a moving tour of the underworld of society. Here he painstakingly documents a world of unrelenting drudgery and squalor - sleeping in bug-infested hostels and doss houses, working as a dishwasher in the vile 'H tel X', living alongside tramps, surviving on scraps and cigarette butts - in an unforgettable account of what being down and out is really like.Includes an introduction by Dervla Murphy, as well as definitive footnotes assigned to Orwell.

'TRULY INSPIRING' Mail on SundayNow familiar to millions of Gardeners' World fans as Longmeadow (the home of Nigel & Nellie), this is the story of Monty & Sarah Don's early days there. The Jewel Garden is the story of the garden that bloomed from the muddy fields around the Dons' Tudor farmhouse, a perfect metaphor for the Monty and Sarah's own rise from the ashes of a spectacular commercial failure in the late '80s .At the same time The Jewel Garden is the story of a creative partnership that has weathered the greatest storm, and a testament to the healing powers of the soil. Monty Don has always been candid about the garden's role in helping him to pull back from the abyss of depression; The Jewel Garden elaborates on this much further. Written in an optimistic, autobiographical vein, Monty and Sarah's story is truly an exploration of what it means to be a gardener.

I AM ZLATAN - the explosive, critically-acclaimed memoir of Zlatan Ibrahimovich, one of the world's most gifted and controversial footballers'Guardiola has no balls. He drove me like a Fiat . . . I'm a Ferrari' Zlatan Ibrahimovic - professional football's most mercurial player, Swedish national hero, tabloid fixture, fashion icon, modern-day philosopher and black belt in Taekwondo. Born to a Muslim father from Bosnia, and a Catholic mother from Croatia, Zlatan recounts his extraordinary life story, from his poverty-stricken upbringing as an outsider in Malm , Sweden, to becoming one of the world's most sought-after and expensive players, gracing Europe's finest clubs, from Ajax to Juventus, Internazionale to Barcelona, Milan to Paris Saint-Germain. I AM ZLATAN reveals a rare and ferocious intelligence, willpower and God-given talent most recently exhibited when Zlatan scored all 4 goals for Sweden in a 4-2 victory against England. His fourth goal, a 30-yard overhead kick with his back to goal is widely regarded as one of the greatest goals of all time. The BBC described it as a goal that 'combined unfathomable imagination and expert technique'.For fans of The Secret Footballer and Football Manager Stole My Life this no holds barred football memoir is every bit as dramatic and revealing as Roy Keane's classic autobiography.'The best footballer's autobiography of recent years is probably I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic . . .' Simon Kuper, author of Why England Always Lose'Eagerly awaited, not least because Ibra seems to be spoiling for a fight on every other page. 'Dynamite' said one Swedish reporter' Daily Mail on I AM ZLATAN

Lewis Hamilton's explosive arrival on the Formula 1 scene has made front-page headlines. In My Story, for the first time Lewis opens up about his stunning debut season, including the gripping climax to the 2007 F1 World Championship, as well as his dad Anthony, his home life and his early years. The only book with the real story, as told by Lewis.In his first season in F1, Lewis Hamilton has thrilled the world of motor racing. With victories in Canada, America and Hungary and Japan he led the World Drivers' Championship, right up to the last race of the season. But bare statistics alone do scant justice to the amazing impact Lewis Hamilton has had on the sporting landscape this year. My Story gives the real account from Lewis himself, as he sets the record straight about his colourful life on and off the track.Given a grounded upbringing by his dedicated father in unremarkable Stevenage, Lewis tells about how he first tried out go-karting while on a cut-price family holiday in Ibiza. In his book he gives the real version of events at a motor sport dinner where, as a nine-year-old wearing a borrowed suit, he approached McLaren team boss Ron Dennis with the immortal words that were to change his life forever.He rose rapidly through the Junior and Formula ranks, dominating every series with his raw speed and canny race craft. Here Lewis candidly recalls those key moments that shaped his career and went some way towards compensating for the sacrifices made by his father Anthony in getting his son to the top.Lewis also charts how he got into the sport and was signed up by Ron Dennis, what motivates him, who are his closest friends, how he copes with the constant travelling, and the physical and mental challenges of driving a state-of-the-art Formula 1 car. He looks back in detail at the 2007 World Championship - his four race wins, the frightening crash in Germany, his rivalry with team-mate Fernando Alonso, his special relationship with Ron Dennis, and what it's like living under the spotlight of the paparazzi - right up to the last race of the season in Brazil.

Little treasures, the FLAME TREE COLLECTABLE CLASSICS are chosen to create a delightful and timeless home library. Each stunning, gift edition features deluxe cover treatments, ribbon markers, luxury endpapers and gilded edges. The unabridged text is accompanied by a Glossary of Victorian and Literary terms produced for the modern reader.

The definitive, authorised biography of the creator of The Moomins.

In his major New York Times bestseller, Jimmy Carter looks back from ninety years of age.

An affordably priced, complete retrospective of one of the world's greatest architects, covering her work from the earliest experimentations to the very last projects she worked on before her death in 2016.

For many complaints and conditions, the benefits from surgery are lower, and the risks higher, than you or your surgeon think. In this book you will see how commonly performed operations can be found to be useless or even harmful when properly evaluated. That these claims come from an experienced, practising orthopaedic surgeon who performs many of these operations himself, makes the unsettling argument particularly compelling.Of course no surgeon is recommending invasive surgery in bad faith, but Ian Harris argues that the evidence for the success for many common operations, including knee arthroscopies, back fusion or cardiac stenting, become current accepted practice without full examination of the evidence. The placebo effect may be real, but is it worth the recovery time, expense and discomfort?

WITH A NEW EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHORLike Primo Levi's The Periodic Table, The Noonday Demon digs deep into personal history, as Andrew Solomon narrates, brilliantly and terrifyingly, his own agonising experience of depression.

The autobiography of Deep Purple's lead singer. An entertaining read for any rock fan, as Ian describes the rock 'n' roll lifestyle disarming detail while never taking himself too seriously.

The intimate biography of the charismatic Tour de France winner Marco Pantani and the world that caused his downfall. Now updated.

At the age of 15, with only a hand-held camera and a Wi-Fi connection, the author started to build his media empire. This book shares his own story and some of the things he has learned, in order to inspire other young people to get some self-belief and turn their dreams and ideas into reality.