Biography > General

A classic memoir of prison breaks and adventure - a bestselling phenomenon of the 1960s.Condemned for a murder he had not committed, Henri Charriere (nicknamed Papillon) was sent to the penal colony of French Guiana. Forty-two days after his arrival he made his first break, travelling a thousand gruelling miles in an open boat. Recaptured, he went into solitary confinement and was sent eventually to Devil's Island, a hell-hole of disease and brutality. No one had ever escaped from this notorious prison - no one until Papillon took ... read more

Born into a Jewish ghetto in Hungary, as a child, Elie Wiesel was sent to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This is his account of that atrocity: the ever-increasing horrors he endured, the loss of his family and his struggle to survive in a world that stripped him of humanity, dignity and faith. Describing in simple terms the tragic murder of a people from a survivor's perspective, "Night" is among the most personal, intimate and poignant of all accounts of the Holocaust. A compelling consideration of the d... read more

Born in an Hungarian ghetto, Elie Wiesel was sent as a child to the Nazi death camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. 'Night' is the story of that atrocity; here he relates his childhood perceptions of an inhumanity that was as painful as it was absolute. Written in Paris after the war, 'Night' was first published in French in 1958.

The childhood world of Hugo Hamilton, born and brought up in Dublin, is a confused place. His father, a sometimes brutal Irish nationalist, demands his children speak Gaelic, while his mother, a softly spoken German emigrant who has been marked by the Nazi past, speaks to them in German. He himself wants to speak English. English is, after all, what the other children in Dublin speak. English is what they use when they hunt him down in the streets and dub him Eichmann, as they bring him to trial and sentence him to death at a mock ... read more

Growing up in Rhodesia in the 1960s, Peter Godwin inhabited a magical and frightening world of leopard-hunting, lepers, witch doctors, snakes and forest fires. As an adolescent, a conscript caught in the middle of a vicioud civil war, and then as an adult who returned to Zimbabwe as a journalist to cover the bloody transition to majority rule, he discovered a land stalked by death and danger.

The making of the "Oxford English Dictionary" was a monumental 50 year task requiring thousands of volunteers. One of the keenest volunteers was a W C Minor who astonished everyone by refusing to come to Oxford to receive his congratulations. In the end, James Murray, the "OED's" editor, went to Crowthorne in Berkshire to meet him.

In this account of the ascent, eventual collapse, and the resurrection of the Gucci dynasty, Sara Forden takes us behind the scenes of the second "Trial of the Century" and exposes the passions, the power, and the vulnerabilities of the greatest fashion family of our times.

In 1900 Vienna was one of the most exciting places to live in the world. Its glamorous high society was the envy of Europe, and it was the centre of an exploding arts movement that set the tone for the following century. Tim Bonyhady's great-grandparents were leading patrons of the arts in fin de sile Vienna: Gustav Klimt painted his great-grandmother's portrait, and the family knew many of Vienna's leading cultural figures. In Good Living Street he follows the lives of three generations of women in his family in an intimate accoun... read more

This is the definitive illustrated edition of the international bestseller with gorgeous new photography of the celebrated netsuke collection, and sumptuous full-colour images hand-picked by Edmund de Waal from his family archive 264 Japanese wood and ivory carvings, none of them bigger than a matchbox: Edmund de Waal was entranced when he first encountered the collection in his great-uncle Iggie's Tokyo apartment. When he later inherited the 'netsuke', they unlocked a story far larger and more dramatic than he could ever have imag... read more

'Why couldn't I be a perfumer's muse? I've come such a long way in the realm of scent. In fact, I was never really meant to poke my nose into it !' The Perfume Lover by Denyse Beaulieu is an intimate journey into the mystery of scent. What if the most beautiful night in your life inspired a fragrance? Denyse Beaulieu is a respected fragrance writer; it is her world, her love, her life. When she was growing up, perfume was forbidden in her house, spurring a childhood curiosity that went on to become an intellectual and sensual pa... read more

At 107 years old, Alice Herz-Sommer is the world's oldest Holocaust survivor, as well as the world's oldest concert pianist. An eyewitness to the entire last century and the first decade of this one, she has seen it all. Despite her years of imprisonment in Theresienstadt concentration camp and the murders of her mother, husband and friends at the hands of the Nazis, Alice is victorious in her ability to move on, to live each day in the present. She has wasted no time on bitterness toward her oppressors and the executioners of her ... read more

Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfil her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home - Blenheim Palace.The 9th Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era. An unsnobbish, but often amused observer of th... read more

This astonishing, brilliantly written book brings us to places we could otherwise never go as it unfolds a riveting contemporary drama: a group of remarkable people striving to better their lives, in an age of bewildering global change.

Not many names epitomise an era, but Mary Quant is such a name. Her life, her ideas, her style touched (and still touch) everyone. Mary Quant is fashion. Most people connect Mary with one thing - the mini skirt - that ground-breaking design that is as potent now as it was when it first appeared in the early sixties. But her influence carried way beyond those early frenetic black-and-white years. Now, towards the close of what has been one of the most influential and visionary careers in fashion's history, Mary Quant has written a m... read more

'I asked Jai what she has learned since my diagnosis,' Randy Pausch wrote about his wife in THE LAST LECTURE. 'Turns out, she could write a book titled Forget the Last Lecture; Here's the Real Story.' DREAM NEW DREAMS traces Jai's experiences since Randy's diagnosis, from the constant struggle she faced as a mother of three small children, to the burdens and dilemmas that accompany the role of caregiver: navigating the steep medical learning curve; managing finances; often neglecting one's own needs; making gut-wrenching decisions... read more

Entertaining, instructive, thought-provoking and hilarious, the unmistakable voice of Deborah Devonshire rings out of this volume which combines her two collections of 'occasional' writings. The pieces are broad and eclectic in their subjects, ranging from treasures unearthed while the kitchen was being redecorated, musings about the reason for the reworded town sign, tourism at Chatsworth, a ringside view of both John F. Kennedy's inauguration and funeral, and the value of deportment. No matter what she's writing about she is alwa... read more

This collection of sharply observed animal-themed tales is a delight, told with David Sedaris's trademark blend of hilarity and goodnaturedness. Though the characters may not be human, the situations in these stories bear an uncanny resemblance to the insanity of our own everyday interactions. In 'The Toad, the Turtle, and the Duck', three strangers commiserate about animal bureaucracy while waiting in a complaint line. In 'Hello Kitty', a cynical feline struggles to sit through his prison-mandated AA meetings. In 'The Squirrel and... read more

A gripping, triumphant memoir about the power of addiction and its effect on the brain. Marc Lewis knows addiction: that desperate ambition to get high accompanied him around the world for many years. In the 1960s, Lewis was a teenager in boarding school, experimenting with cough syrup and alcohol to assuage his depression. When he moved to Berkeley, California, the pulsing heart of the counter-cultural movement, he began using LSD and heroin. His spiralling journey of addiction eventually led him to Asia, where he sniffed nitr... read more

At fourteen, Richard Holloway left his working-class home north of Glasgow and travelled hundreds of miles to an English monastery to be trained for the priesthood. By twenty-five, he had been ordained and was working in the slums of Glasgow. In 2000 he controversially resigned as Bishop of Edinburgh, having lost heart with the the Church over its condemnation of homosexuality. In his years as a priest Richard touched many lives, but behind his confident public face lay a mind troubled by questions. Why is the Church, which claims ... read more

In 2008, Tom Lubbock was diagnosed with a rare brain tumour and told he had only two years to live. Physically fit and healthy, and suffering from few symptoms, he faced his death with the same directness and courage that had marked the rest of his life. As the Independent's chief art critic, Lubbock was renowned for the clarity and unconventionality of his writing, and his characteristic fierce intelligence permeates this extraordinary chronicle. With unflinching honesty and curiosity, he repeatedly turns over the fact of his mort... read more