Diaries & Memoirs

The first-ever collection of the letters of John Lennon, now available in paperback.

In this inspirational memoir, internationally bestselling author David Vann tells the true story of building his own sailing ship and of the disastrous voyage that ensues.

Emily Chappell was never meant to be a cycle courier. She planned to earn her living using her mind rather than her legs. She thought it'd be a useful stopgap while searching for a 'real' job. Today, six years on, she's still pedalling. 'It's my most enduring love affair; the career that's shaped my life, made me what I am, and entirely derailed any hope of a normal existence.'As she flies through the streets of the capital, dancing with the traffic, Chappell records the pain and pleasure-both mental and physical-of life on wheels: the hurtling, dangerous missions; the ebb and flow of seasonal work; the moments of fear and freedom, anger and exhaustion; the camaraderie of the courier tribe and its idiosyncratic characters; the conflict and harmony between bicycle and road, body and mind.At the same time it is a hymn to London; its changing skyline, its chaos and interconnectedness: 'the unlikeliest street corners will have some tattered threads of memory fluttering from them like a flag...It's almost as if the memories have overflowed from my head and scattered themselves about the city. Some parts of my life I can recall simply by thinking of them; others I think I'd remember better if I went back to a certain part of London and plucked them up from the tree I'd hung them from, or retraced them from the park bench I'd scratched them on, or snatched them up as they blew around in circles in an alleyway like a discarded carrier bag'. This is a book about discovery and belonging, connection and memory, choosing life's uncharted course and the delicious sensation of just riding.

Paul Darrow's career has encompassed theatre, television and film. Famed for his portrayal of Kerr Avon, a ruthless and calculating computer expert, in Terry Nation's science fiction series Blake's 7, Darrow has also appeared in Coronation Street, Emergency Ward 10 and many other productions - including two guest appearances in Doctor Who.

Before Carrie Brownstein became a music icon, she was a young girl growing up in the Pacific Northwest just as it was becoming the setting for one of the most important movements in rock history. Seeking a sense of home and identity, she would discover both while moving from spectator to creator in experiencing the power and mystery of a live performance. With Sleater-Kinney, Brownstein and her bandmates rose to prominence in the burgeoning underground feminist punk-rock movement that would define music and pop culture in the 1990s. They would be cited as "e;America's best rock band"e; by legendary music critic Greil Marcus for their defiant, exuberant brand of punk that resisted labels and limitations, and redefined notions of gender in rock.Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl is an intimate and revealing narrative of her escape from a turbulent family life into a world where music was the means toward self-invention, community, and rescue. Along the way, Brownstein chronicles the excitement and contradictions within the era's flourishing and fiercely independent music subculture, including experiences that sowed the seeds for the observational satire of the popular television series Portlandia years later.With deft, lucid prose Brownstein proves herself as formidable on the page as on the stage. Accessibly raw, honest and heartfelt, this book captures the experience of being a young woman, a born performer and an outsider, and ultimately finding one's true calling through hard work, courage and the intoxicating power of rock and roll.

Winner of the Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller, this book is about a journey undertaken by the author that begins in the dusty city of Jingdezhen in China and travels on to Venice, Versailles, Dublin, Dresden, the Appalachian Mountains of South Carolina and the hills of Cornwall to tell the history of porcelain.

A powerful memoir from the granddaughter of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, chronicling holidays at Sissinghurst, reckless youth, and the tragic loss of her 19-year-old daughter Rosa

Former BBC correspondent's graphic personal account of National Service with the Suffolk Regiment in the 1950s based on the letters he wrote home to his family at the time.

A fascinating journey on the footsteps of Mary Wollstonecraft and an exploration of never-dying themes, such as babies versus careers.

A moving meditation on home, home-coming and belonging from Francophone Africa's most important writer.

From the author of the acclaimed 'Mr. China' comes another rollicking adventure story - part memoir, part history, part business imbroglio - that offers valuable lessons to help Westerners win in China. In the twenty-first century, the world has tilted eastwards in its orbit; China grows confident while the West seems mired in doubt. Having lived and worked in China for more than two decades, Tim Clissold explains the secrets that Westerners can use to navigate through its cultural and political maze. Picking up where he left off in the international bestseller 'Mr. China', 'Chinese Rules' chronicles his most recent exploits, with assorted Chinese bureaucrats, factory owners, and local characters building a climate change business in China. Of course, all does not go as planned as he finds himself caught between the world's largest carbon emitter and the world's richest man. Clissold offers entertaining and enlightening anecdotes of the absurdities, gaffes, and mysteries he encountered along the way. Sprinkled amid surreal scenes of cultural confusion and near misses are smart myth-busting insights and practical lessons Westerns can use to succeed in China. Exploring key episodes in that nation's long political, military, and cultural history, Clissold outlines five Chinese rules, which anyone can deploy in on-the-ground situations with modern Chinese counterparts. These Chinese rules will enable foreigners not only to co-operate with China but also to compete with it on its own terms.

Inspirational memoir from one of the most admired CEOs of today, rich in stories about how to get a job, how to excel and to lead in the 21st century

Offers an account of France hit by wave after wave of revolutions. This book includes a narrative of the major events of author's life - which spanned the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Era and the uneasy period that led up to the Revolution of 1830.

You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed... In Levels of Life Julian Barnes gives us Nadar, the pioneer balloonist and aerial photographer; then, finally, he gives us the story of his own grief, unflinchingly observed. This is a book of intense honesty and insight;

A Nobel Prize-winning cancer biologist, leader of major scientific institutions, and scientific adviser to President Obama reflects on his remarkable career.

From the winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize. In a time of death and terror, Gbowee brought Liberia's women together--and together they led a nation to peace. In the process, she emerged as an international leader who changed history.

Lady Hyegyong's memoirs, which recount the chilling murder of her husband by his father, is one of the best known and most popular classics of Korean literature. From 1795 until 1805 Lady Hyegyong composed this masterpiece, which depicts a court life whose drama and pathos is of Shakespearean proportions.

The author's son Jacob has an IQ higher than Einstein and a photographic memory. At nine he developed an original theory in astrophysics that may earn a Nobel Prize. This book is about the power of love and what can happen when we tap the true potential that lies within every child.

'She's experienced wealth, cultural alienation, homelessness, brushes with fame, prison, rehab, record deals, a million blown second chances, a dozen broken hearts and one bloody-knuckled ultimate spiritual redemption. She even died once in the process, and may very well have had sex with your wife back in the eighties...' Elizabeth GilbertWhen she was seven, Rayya Elias and her upper-class family fled the political conflict in their native Syria, settling in a suburb of Detroit. Bullied in school and caught between the world of her traditional family and her tough American classmates, she rebelled early. Rayya moved to New York City to become a musician and kept herself afloat with an uncommon talent for cutting hair. Eventually though, Elias's affairs with lovers of both sexes went awry, her (more than) occasional drug use turned to addiction and she found herself living on the streets - between visits to jail. Told with a keen sense of humour and a lack of self-pity in even the most harrowing situations, Harley Loco is a memoir about jumping in head-first, no questions asked. It's a book about living in the moment no matter what that might bring, and about pursuing, not always by choice, a life of extremes - highs and lows, pain and passion - until ultimately arriving at a place of contentment and peace.

Josef Sepp Allerberger was the second most successful sniper of the German Wehrmacht and one of the few private soldiers to be honored with the award of the Knights Cross.

New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans embarks on an exercise in scriptural exploration and spiritual contemplation when she vows to take all of the Bible's instructions for women as literally as possible for a year.

On the night of 10-11 May 1996, eight climbers perished in what remains the worst disaster in Everest's history. Graham Ratcliffe, the first British climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest twice, was a first-hand witness, having spent the night on Everest's South Col at 26,000 ft, sheltering from the deadly storm.

From a writer who is as dazzling on the dance-floor as she is on the page, here is the hidden story of tango: the world's most passionate dance.

A dazzling and devastating memoir exploring breakdown and obsessive love, in a voice unlike any other

This volume collects many outstanding pieces of memoir that first appeared in the LRB's pages. Here, Lorna Sage remembers growing up with her grandfather during the Second World War, Jenny Diski imagines her own burial, and Hilary Mantel tackles a strongman on her hospital bed.

The extraordinary story of a Palestinian doctor who, despite witnessing the death of three of his daughters in the Israeli incursion into Gaza in January 2009, continued his medical and humanitarian work aimed at bringing the people of the region together in peace.

A humorous and incisive reflection on education - the autobiography of a dunce who became a brilliant teacher and a bestselling author.

Bruce Chatwin is one of the most significant British novelists and travel writers of our time. Comprising material collected over two decades from hundreds of contacts across five continents, Chatwin's letters are a valuable and illuminating record of one of the greatest and most enigmatic writers of the twentieth century.

*WINNER British Sports Book Awards SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR*'I have this one term for the kind of woman my mother raised me not to be, and I call it a 'Do-Nothing B-tch'.