Memoirs & Personal Stories Books

Between Meals is the gourmand and journalist A.J. Liebling's delectable account of his time spent eating and drinking in 1920s Paris, under the tutelage of his friend Yves Mirande, 'one of the last of the great around-the-clock ga…

The pop songs that have been the soundtrack to the worst moments of her life. And of course, the pivotal day when Orange Is the New Black hit the airwaves and broke down the door to Jill's own sexuality. In these honest examinatio…

'I too wanted to forget that girl. Really forget her, that is, stop yearning to write about her. Stop thinking that I have to write about this girl and her desire and madness, her idiocy and pride, her hunger and her blood that ce…

Getting Lost is the diary kept by Annie Ernaux during the year and a half she had a secret love affair with a younger, married man, an attache to the Soviet embassy in Paris. Her novel, Simple Passion, was based on this affair, bu…

Aziz Shehadeh was many things: lawyer, activist, and political detainee, he was also the father of bestselling author and activist Raja. In this new and searingly personal memoir, Raja Shehadeh unpicks the snags and complexities o…

Sir Edmund Hillary described Douglas Mawson's epic and punishing journey across 600 miles of unknown Antarctic wasteland as 'the greatest story of lone survival in polar exploration'. This Accursed Land tells that story; how Mawso…

When Kerri and her partner M moved to a small, remote railway cottage in the heart of Ireland they were looking for a home, somewhere to stay put. What followed was a year unlike any other. Cacophony of Bone maps the circle of tha…

Sir Ranulph Fiennes has travelled to the most dangerous and inaccessible places on Earth, almost died countless times, lost nearly half his fingers to frostbite, raised millions of pounds for charity and been awarded a polar medal…

From the bestselling and Booker Prize–winning author of Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo’s memoir of her own life and writing, and her manifesto on unstoppability, creativity, and activism Bernardine Evaristo’s 2019 Booker …

Read this prize-winning historian's "immersive" ( New York Times) account of the famous writers who, in the run-up to World War II, took on dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism They were an astonishing group: glamo…

When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her mid-thirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by this most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of a…

The incredible memoir of Elaine Brown - the first woman leader of the Black Panthers'Here I was, a woman, proclaiming supreme power over the most militant organization in America'In 1974 Elaine Brown became the first woman leader …

"I have come to think of all the metal in my body as artificial stars, glistening beneath the skin, a constellation of old and new metal. A map, a tracing of connections and a guide to looking at things from different angles."We t…

Jan Morris is widely considered one of Britain's best-loved writers, known for her observational genius, lyricism, and humour. Born in 1926, she spent her childhood amidst Oxford's Gothic beauty and later participated in military …

Jason Byrne is 17. With his leaving cert under his belt but no idea what to do next, who better to ask for advice than his dad, Paddy? There's a (very) short stint studying accountancy (he was asked to leave); a FAS course with ju…

In this memoir of loss, acclaimed writer and comedian Rob Delaney grapples with the fragile miracle of life, the mysteries of death, and the question of purpose for those left behind. When you're a parent and your child gets hurt …

A luminous and haunting memoir from the prize-winning poet - a story of love, heartbreak and coming of age, and a fearless exploration of queer identity and trauma. When Sean meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. B…

Grief does something particular when it hits you young. This book is a moving exploration of that transformative pain, from the founder of The Grief Network.Rachel Wilson's mother died when Rachel was in her twenties.It felt like …

For once, these men are the objects; I am the subject. Me, me, me. Rosemary Mac Cabe was always a serial monogamist - never happier than when she was in a relationship or, at the very least, on the way to being in one.But in her d…

John le Carre was a defining writer of his time. This enthralling collection letters - written to readers, publishers, film-makers and actors, politicians and public figures - reveals the playfully intelligent and unfailingly eloq…

In 1968, Vashti Bunyan gave up everything and everybody she knew in London to take to the road with a horse, wagon, dog, guitar and her then partner. They made the long journey up to the Outer Hebrides in an odyssey of discovery a…

PSYCHIATRIST: So how can I help you? ME: I don't know, I'm - what's the word - depressed? Do I have to go into detail? Baek Sehee is a successful young social media director at a publishing house when she begins seeing a psychiat…

Dark, fierce and raw, Notes on Heartbreak is a love story told in reverse, starting with a devastating break-up. As Annie Lord deals with her broken heart, the book constantly revisits the past, from the moment she first fell in l…

Bestselling author Colm O'Regan is a worrier. A professional one. Caution is his watchword.Risk aversion is his love language. Now Colm is grappling with the biggest worry of all: the whole 'planet being on fire' thing and how exa…

The warm, rich and fascinating memoir of beloved broadcaster Tommie Gorman. When Tommie Gorman was growing up in Sligo in the 1960s, struggle was never far away but his household had a surplus of love and warmth. From modest begin…

Growing up, Cathy Rentzenbrink was rarely seen without her nose in a book and read in secret long after lights out. When tragedy struck, it was books that kept her afloat.Eventually they lit the way to a new path, first as a books…

Memoir Of An Irish Jew is the story of Lionel Cohen, who was born in 1922 into a Jewish family in Cork. Lionel served in the Irish Army, the British Merchant Navy, the Israeli Army and in the fledgling Israeli Merchant Navy. He re…

What if the things we keep hidden say more about us than those we put on display? We all have a random collection of the things that made us - photos, tickets, clothes, souvenirs, stuffed in a box, packed in a suitcase, crammed in…

From the author of Mrs Engels and The Sisters Mao, an intimate family memoir about filial love and its limits, separation, and loss. Gavin is spending the quarantine with his eighty-year-old mother, whose mind is slowly slipping a…

Some people live to walk. Raynor and Moth walk to live . .. Raynor Winn knows that her husband Moth's health is declining, getting worse by the day. She knows of only one cure.It worked once before. But will he - can he? - set out…