Walk a mile in someone else's shoes. Immerse yourself in the lives of the famous and people whose stories you can relate to. Our biography titles come in book, eBook, eAudiobook or large print. This list updates when we add new titles to our collection.
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Large Print
"A deeply textured and compelling biography of comedy giant Mel Brooks, covering his rags-to-riches life and triumphant career in television, films, and theater, from Patrick McGilligan, the acclaimed author of Young Orson: The Years of Luck and Genius...
Book
Interest in mid-20th century British artists and the world they inhabited is growing internationally - prices are rising and exhibitions proliferate. This biography focuses on the couple who were at the centre of the Modern British art scene: Cedric ...
"In 2013, Ayaz Virji left a comfortable job at an East Coast hospital and moved to a town of 1,400 in Minnesota, feeling called to address the shortage of doctors in rural America. But in 2016, this decision was tested when the reliably blue, working...
"A unique burden was inherited by the children of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his celebrated siblings Senators Robert and Ted Kennedy. Raised in a world of enormous privilege against the backdrop of American history, this third generation of...
"In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was on the front lines. To “set Europe ablaze,” in the words of Winston Churchill, the Special Operations Executive (SOE) was forced to do something unprecede...
"The 1954 motion picture Creature from the Black Lagoon featured a monster designed by a woman, Milicent Patrick. But Patrick's contribution was claimed by a jealous male colleague, her career was cut short, and she soon after disappeared from film h...
"Meredith May recalls the first time a honeybee crawled on her arm. She was five years old, her parents had recently split and suddenly she found herself in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric beekeeper who made honey in a rusty old military bus...
An inspirational memoir about how Jennifer Pastiloff's years of waitressing taught her to seek out unexpected beauty, how deafness taught her to listen fiercely, how being vulnerable allowed her to find love, and how imperfections can lead to a life full...
A new biography of Alma Mahler. Drawing on Alma's vivid, sensual, and overlooked diaries, biographer Cate Haste recounts the untold and far more sympathetic story of this ambitious and talented woman. Though she dreamed of being the first woman to compose...
"Richard Emerson is one of our pre-eminent brewers, a trailblazer who is often lauded as the godfather of craft beer in New Zealand. Born profoundly deaf in 1960s Dunedin, Emerson triumphed against all odds to launch Emerson's Brewery in 1992. He went...
Best remembered today for his blockbuster documentary series The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski spent decades explaining scientific ideas to laypersons on television and radio. A true Renaissance man, Bronowski was not only a scientist, but a philosopher...
Two-year-old Greta Greene is sitting chatting with her grandmother on a park bench in New York when a brick crumbles from a windowsill overhead and strikes her unconscious. As she is rushed to hospital in the hours before her death Once more we saw stars...
Tattoo artist Megan Massacre presents a beautiful collection of her best work, with instructive how-to and inspiration for both professional tattoo artists as well as tattoo aficionados. With a personal behind-the-scenes peek into the making of a tattoo,...
In 1985 Tony Macaulay, a Protestant from the top of the Shankill Road, was appointed assistant director of the 174 Trust. There was one condition - Tony had to move to live on the Catholic side of the peace line.
"In 2008 Graham Clayton published Last Stand in Singapore: The Story of 488 Squadron RNZAF. After the fall of Singapore, the squadron was disbanded, then subsequently reformed in the UK in June 1942 as an RAF unit, 488 (New Zealand) Squadron. Its role...
When her husband of twenty five years suddenly announces he's leaving her, writer Mary Jane Grant runs away to London to immerse herself in any reality but her own. Reeling from the shock and loss of her marriage and the life she's known, she begins ...
Dennis Altman first travelled from Australia to the United States when Lyndon Johnson was President, beginning a long obsession with the US. In the early 1970s he was involved in New York Gay Liberation; his 1971 study Homosexual: Oppression and Liberation,...
Who was the man behind The Scream, the iconic painting that so acutely expresses the anguish of the twentieth century? Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944) was twenty-eight when he embarked on a lifelong effort to paint his ‘soul’s diary’ – and began a perverse...
From the award-winning poet, dissident, and "one of the most original and remarkable Chinese writers of our time" (Philip Gourevitch) comes a raw, evocative, and unforgettable look at the Tiananmen Square massacre through the eyes of those who were t...
The greatest escape story of Australian colonial history by the son of Australia's best-loved storyteller In 1828, James Porter, sailor, chancer, illywhacker, found himself on a ship bound for Van Diemen's Land, having been convicted of stealing a stack...
Unearthing previously unseen papers and interviewing countless insiders, Roger Faligot's astonishing account reveals nothing less than a century of world events shaped by Chinese spies. Working as scientists, journalists, diplomats, foreign students,...
The story that bonds Ernest Rutherford and Marcus Oliphant is as extraordinary as it is unlikely. They were kindred souls, schooled and steeped in the furthest frontiers of Britain's empire, whose restless intellect and tireless conviction fused in t...
At the moment her mother died, Olivia Potts was baking a cake, badly. She was trying to impress the man who would later become her husband. Afterwards, grief pushed Olivia into the kitchen. She came home from her job as a criminal barrister miserable...
Maud West ran her detective agency in London for more than thirty years, having started sleuthing on behalf of society’s finest in 1905. Her exploits grabbed headlines throughout the world but, beneath the public persona, she was forced to hide vital...
Raised in a military, Mormon household outside San Antonio, Texas, Dustin Lance Black always found inspiration in his plucky, determined mother. Having contracted polio as a small girl, she endured leg braces and iron lungs, and was repeatedly told that...
"This is a story of Jelena Dokic's survival. How she survived as a refugee, twice. How she survived on the tennis court to become world No. 4. But, most importantly, how she survived her father, Damir Dokic, the tennis dad from hell. Jelena was a pro...
'I was a child who was a cuckoo in the nest', Grayson says. In his bedroom not a scrap of wallpaper showed: every inch was covered with pictures of aeroplanes, and every surface with models. Fantasy took over, in a world of battles ruled by his teddy...
eBook
"The gripping, untold story of The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and how the perpetrators of Balkan war crimes were captured by the most successful manhunt in history. Written with a thrilling narrative pull, The Butcher's...
eAudiobook
"When the Taliban took control of the Swat Valley in Pakistan, one girl spoke out. Malala Yousafzai refused to be silenced and fought for her right to an education. On Tuesday, October 9, 2012, when she was fifteen, she almost paid the ultimate price....
The story of Abu Bakr al Rabeeah, a young boy whose family moved from Iraq to Syria just before the start of the Syrian civil war. In 2014 his family finally found safety in immigrating to Edmonton, Canada.
An anthology of more than 50 stories, memories, poems, ideas, essays and letters -- all examining what it looks like, feels like, and is like to inhabit masculinity outside of cisgendered manhood as people of colour in the world. Read these passionate,...
"Girl from Glendene is the story of a young girl growing up in West Auckland in the 1970's-1980's era. Glendene was a relatively new sub-division where many young families including English emigrant settled at this time. There are fun tales of friend...
José Carlos Mariátegui (1894-1930) is widely recognized across Latin America as one of the most important and innovative Marxist thinkers of the twentieth century. Yet his life and work are largely unknown to the English-speaking world. In this gripp...
Relates how the author and his dog named Atticus M. Finch attempted to climb all forty-eight of New Hampshire's four-thousand-foot peaks twice to pay tribute to a friend who died of cancer and raise money for charity.
Candace Bushnell gets personal in her new memoir - an investigation into what happens when a woman of a certain age (ok, let's call it 'middle') finds herself not-so-young, free and single in the city. Set between the Upper East Side of Manhattan and...
'When you're sneaking around the city at night you feel like a kid again. The seriousness of the world is unmasked as a series of facades, dead objects just waiting to be painted. I was immediately hooked. Out on the street I could say anything I wanted....
Two-time CrossFit Games champion Katrin Davidsdottir's inspiring and poignant memoir details her focus on training, goal setting, nutrition, and mental toughness.
A top safari guide tells more hair-raising true stories about safari life in South Africa's famous Kruger National Park and in Botswana's Okavango Delta.
When Lisa Faulkner learned that she wouldn't have biological children, her plans and expectations for her life were derailed. But, in the months and years that followed, she discovered that there was more than one way to build a family - and that there...
"Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's final work, posted to his publisher the day before his tragic death, brings the destruction of a war-torn Europe vividly to life. Written as both a recollection of the past, and as a warning for future generations, The...
A new biography exploring J.R.R. Tolkien's wartime experiences and their impact on his life and his writing of The Lord of The Rings. To be caught in youth by 1914 was no less hideous an experience than in 1939 ... by 1918 all but one of my close friends...
Four quite separate periods or episodes in Edmond's life are linked by a number of themes and are often the excuse for discussions of historical figures, typically on society's margins, or reflections on the nature of art and its relation to personal...
These recordings have been of great importance in revitalising Maori music in many tribal areas and have preserved the songs and the voices of many great kaumatua. McLean travelled throughout New Zealand, often in primitive conditions, showing extrao...
Brigid Keenan was never destined to lead a normal life. From her early beginnings - a colourful childhood in India brought to an abrupt end by Independence and Partition, then a return to dreary post-war England and on to a finishing school in Paris ...
The incredible life story of Haben Girma, the first Deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School, and her amazing journey from isolation to the world stage. Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, ...
In 1970 at the height of the Cold War, the young Sandhurst-trained Sultan Qaboes of Oman, with secret British military backing, took on the communist rebels in a fierce but little known war. Along with regular British Army and 'contract' officers, the...
A queer Muslim searches for the language to express her truest self, making peace with her sexuality, her family, and Islam. Growing up in Pakistan, Samra Habib lacks a blueprint for the life she wants. She has a mother who gave up everything to be a...
"A reissue of this classic title brought up to date and with a new introduction by Andrew Morton. Reflecting on the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the original publication, and on the long-term legacy of Diana, the woman who helped reinvigorate...
"Teammates For Life" is an uplifting book about lasting friendships and what we are willing to do for those we love. The story centers on a college basketball team that overcomes adversity to make it to the Final Four. One of its star players, Kenny Arnold,...
'It's beautiful weather today - I sit down outside the lambing shed with my back up against a pen and savour the spring sunshine. All the sheep are bedded up and everyone is fed and watered. No ewe is lambing, and I have half an hour to myself. I stretch...
How do you go from being a shopkeeper to multi-billionaire in forty years? Kuldip Singh Dhingra, the patriarch of the Dhingra family and the man credited with building Berger Paints, has remained a mystery. He is low-profile, eschews media and continues...
Forced to do hard labour, starved and savagely beaten, British soldier Arthur Dodd thought his life would end in Auschwitz. Determined to go down fighting, he risked his life to sabotage Nazi industrial work and alleviate the suffering of Jewish pris...
With echoes of Just Mercy and An American Marriage, a remarkable memoir of a woman who falls in love with an incarcerated man, and the toll prison takes not only on those behind bars, but on their families and relationships.Ebony's parents were high ...
When her husband passed away after a long, trying illness, Annie Dodds was forced to sell almost everything to settle his estate. Homeless, with little money, she wondered if it might be time to pursue a decades-old dream of living a quiet, self-suff...
Spanning three generations, The Long Goodbye takes us deep into the lives of an Australian family as they survive record-breaking floods, outlast epic droughts and face the unforgiving realities of life on the land. Written with astounding lyricism, warmth...
Als junger, abenteuerlustiger Business-School-Absolvent auf der Suche nach einer Herausforderung lieh Phil Knight sich von seinem Vater 50 Dollar und gründete eine Firma mit einer klaren Mission: qualitativ hochwertige, aber preiswerte Laufschuhe aus...
A revealing, courageous, fascinating, and funny account of the author's experiment with microdoses of LSD in an effort to treat a debilitating mood disorder, of her quest to understand a misunderstood drug, and of her search for a really good day. When...
On 7 February 2009 Roger Wood was the police officer in charge of Kinglake, at the epicentre of the worst ever bushfire disaster in Australia's history, Black Saturday. As the firestorm engulfed the community, he risked his life, again and again, to try...
With humor, alacrity, and profound insight, Amber van de Bunt reveals her deepest, darkest secrets and pulls no punches--least of all with herself.
Only is a memoir of an unconventional childhood that explores what it means to be an Only Child -- as both child and adult. Also what it means to be the daughter of two people damaged by trauma and tragedy. Secrets are revealed and differences settle...
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Airhead, written and read by Emily Maitlis. As anchor for the BBC's key political news programme, Newsnight, Emily Maitlis has interviewed some of the most powerful and controversial figures on the political scene....
Adele touches the hearts of millions of people who love her for her music and share the real and honest emotion she brings to each and every song. In Adele, bestselling biographer Sean Smith talks to those close to her as he follows her astonishing journey...
Corey White was a golden child. He knew this because his father would hit his mother and his sisters but not him. And his mother adored him so much she let him drop out of primary school. After losing his father to jail and his mother to heroin, though,...
A moving memoir from a woman who made a fortune in a man's world and then gave it all away...soon to be turned into a film In 1962, Stephanie 'Steve' Shirley created a software company when the concept of software barely existed. Freelance Programmers...
For the first time, music legend Rudy Pérez shares his remarkable journey from a poor refugee kid in Miami to composing the greatest hit songs on the world stage. Named the most successful Latin songwriter in history, Rudy Pérez is the ...
In 1966 the author, newly graduated from college, went to work for the MIT laboratory where the Apollo guidance system was designed. His assignment was to program the complex lunar landing phase in the Lunar Module's onboard computer. As Apollo 11 ap...
The story of a once-in-a-lifetime horse who would surpass all the rest. Before Winx, before Black Caviar, there was an incredible, mould-breaking mare who won the hearts of the nation and added the most fantastic chapter of all to the story of its gr...
For Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in America is enough to induce a ceaseless state of angst where questions such as "How should I react here, as a professional...
Bill Haley was the man who brought rock 'n' roll into the mainstream, starting with "Crazy Man, Crazy" that became the first rock 'n' roll song to break the Billboard Top 20 in 1953. His success made him an idol not only in the US but throughout the ...
A deeply moving story of the beauty and brutality of life, and death, on the world's most unpredictable and perilous mountain. Adrian Hayes details an intensely personal account of his attempts to climb K2 the second highest and deadliest mountain in...
"In this remarkable account of the April 20, 1999, Columbine High School shooting, journalist Cullen not only dispels several of the prevailing myths about the event but tackles the hardest question of all: why did it happen? Drawing on extensive int...
From the disability rights advocate and creator of the #DisabledAndCute viral campaign, a thoughtful, inspiring, and charming collection of essays exploring what it means to be black and disabled in a mostly able-bodied white America. Keah Brown loves...
In this candid memoir, Laura Kate Dale recounts what life is like growing up as a gay trans woman on the autism spectrum. From struggling with sensory processing and learning social cues and feminine presentation, through to coming out as trans during...
"G. Kelly's Pie and Mash has been run by the same family in the Roman Road in Bow for nearly a hundred years; an East End institution and the still point of a turning world. Outside its windows the Roman Road has seen an extraordinary revolution - from...
"The extraordinary follow-up to the international bestseller The King's Speech. The broadcast that George VI made to the nation on the outbreak of war in September 1939 - which formed the climax of the multi Oscar-winning film The King's Speech - was...
"Each June, Tory Bilski meets up with fellow women travelers in Reykjavik where they head to northern Iceland, near the Greenland Sea. They escape their ordinary lives to live an extraordinary one at a horse farm perched at the edge of the world -- if...
This is the story of James Herriot's formative years at veterinary college. It shines a light on his calling to work with animals, his early friendships and his quest for veterinary knowledge.
There's nothing quite like a relationship with an aged pet-a dog or cat who has been at our side for years, forming an ineffable bond. Pampered pets, however, are a rarity among animals who have been domesticated. Farm animals, for example, are usual...
After an incredible first season with Golden State, Kevin Durant earned the coveted NBA Finals MVP award: he was the Warriors' top scorer in every game of the 2017 Finals, helping the team snatch the title from LeBron James and the defending champion...
The love song of André P Brink is the first biography of this major South African novelist who, during his lifetime, was published in over 30 languages and ranked with the likes of Gabriel García Márquez, Peter Carey and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Leon de...
Intrepid's Last Case chronicles the post-World War II activities of Sir William Stephenson, whose fascinating role in helping to defeat the Nazis was the subject of the worldwide bestseller A Man Called Intrepid. Sir William Stephenson (Intrepid) still...
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces counties, towns, a river, parks, bays, lakes, and mountains. His restless life was packed with adventure and...
In this evocative memoir, Tim Costello explores the people and experiences that have shaped him into a socially active fighter for the world's most challenging issues. Tracing each defining stage of his life with stark insight and honesty, Tim untangles...
Malcolm Young was the founder and the driving force of AC/DC, a man who possessed what many have called 'the greatest right hand in rock and roll'. That riff-producing mitt provided the muscle behind such signature songs as 'Highway to Hell', 'Back in...
What if you followed your heart to a life that made you truly happy? When her daughter Emmie was 6 years old, Evie Farrell left her corporate career, sold or donated almost everything she owned, rented out her house and, hand-in-hand with Emmie, began...
‘Hi guys. I have some bad news I want to tell you all.' So said seventeen-year-old Shaun Miller on YouTube in April 2012, shortly after receiving a devastating diagnosis about his heart condition. The clip has now been viewed millions of times. In 1994,...
You walk out of the maternity ward with your new baby, looking back over your shoulder, waiting for someone to stop you and tell you you're not qualified to do this. But they don't. They just wave you on your merry way and that's it. It's up to you n...
How did Dhirubhai Ambani build a polyester plant in record time? What made JRD Tata launch India s first airline? How did Vijay Mallya wrest control of Shaw Wallace from Manu Chhabria? Why did Bhai Mohan Singh fall out with his favourite son and lose...
"A frank, smart and captivating memoir by the daughter of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Born on a farm and named in a field by her parents--artist Chrisann Brennan and Steve Jobs--Lisa Brennan-Jobs's childhood unfolded in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley....
"John Crocker spent eight months in the Gombe forest working with Jane Goodall. He would follow families of wild chimpanzees and learn the fundamental behavioural traits of these chimps as they raised their offspring. Upon returning home and becoming...
Tara Winkler first arrived in Cambodia in 2005 and was taken to visit a small orphanage in Battambang. The children were living in extreme poverty, which had a huge impact on Tara. She determined to come home to Australia and raise money for the welfare...
Zoe Daniel is the ABC's South-East Asia correspondent, based in Bangkok with her husband and young family. She reports on nine countries across Southeast Asia filing copy and stories for TV, radio, online and social media. She was the Africa correspondent...
"A Leader Must Be A Leader essays political leadership in modern Canada. Based on impressions and personal encounters with each of the last 11 Prime Ministers, their followers, and reflections on their paths to power, their legacies still being written...
"In 1987 a massive snowstorm hits New York as Peter Kaldheim flees the city, owing drug debts to a dealer who is no stranger to casual violence. Leaving behind his chaotic past, Kaldheim hits the road, living hand-to-mouth in flop-houses, pan-handling...
Tells the story of The Hundreds--with anecdotes ranging from the author's Southern California, punk-DIY-tinged youth to the brand's explosive success.
"In a moment, Chris went from a talented eighteen-year-old college football player with a promising future to a quadriplegic with a 3 percent chance of ever moving or feeling anything below his neck, much less walking again...Determined to prove the ...
She faced years of abuse after arriving in Canada as a teenage bride in a hastily arranged marriage, but nothing could stop Samra Zafar from pursuing her dreams. At 15, Samra Zafar had big dreams for herself. She was going to go to university, and forge...
"Through the lens of their decades-long friendship and including exclusive interviews and details from previously classified documents, noted historian and New York Times bestselling author Steven M. Gillon examines John F. Kennedy Jr.'s life and legacy...
The Sea Is Not Full is an eclectic personal sailing narrative that mixes accounts of two dramatic boat abandonments and a cruise up a West African river with practical advice on learning to sail, navigation, heavy weather tactics, and other topics. A...
"Grit & Grace is a collection of quotes, stories and sage advice from female trailblazers, creatively designed to inspire modern-day leaders. Powerful words from groundbreakers like Marie Curie and Susan B. Anthony have moved and motivated us for gen...
Sing Us A Song Ma, Before We Say Goodbye is a lively, vividly rendered and extremely moving memoir of Johnny Slater's childhood in war-torn Liverpool. Written by his daughter Carol, it follows Johnny from the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939,...
In September of 1939, thirteen-year-old Gerda Krebs's world changed when the Nazis invaded her hometown of Przemyśl, taking everything she held dear--her home, irreplaceable heirlooms, and ultimately, most of her family members. Escaping deportation to...
Set to the soundtrack of music that has shaped a generation, Something To Believe In will resonate with anyone whose life has been saved by rock 'n' roll. Born in Melbourne's outer suburbs in the 1970s, Andrew Stafford grew up in a time when music was...
The story of a once-in-a-lifetime horse who would surpass all the rest.
"[Sterling Hayden] was at the peak of his earning power as a movie star when he suddenly quit. He walked out on Hollywood, left a shattered marriage, defied the courts, broke as an outlaw, and set sail with his four children in the schooner Wanderer bound...
At the outbreak of World War I, 129 women were registered as medical practitioners in Australia, and many of them were eager to contribute their skills and expertise to the war effort. For the military establishment, however, the notion of women doct...
Before the Manhattan Project, before nuclear warfare and the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, there was the twentieth century's great scientific quest to fathom the secrets of the atom. It was through that search for the inner workings of matter that...
When Amy Nappa was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV-B uterine cancer, her life and that of her husband's, Mike, changed forever. But they weren't the only ones whose lives were touched by Amy's courageous journey into the waiting arms of her loving...
The dark true story about the exceptional Nicky Nicholls and her struggle to survive a bleak and abusive young life. Left as a newborn in a box outside Stoke City Football ground, her grandparents took her into their home. But instead of finding a sa...
A young woman risks everything to save her own life in this "unusual, riveting medical drama crafted with deep emotion and exquisite detail" (BookPage).
Exquisite and nuanced in its storytelling, Midnight crafts intimate, humanizing portraits of Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and Joan of Arc that ask us to behold the women behind the icons.
Random House presents the audiobook edition of What Would Dani Do? written and read by Dani Dyer. Dani Dyer stole the nation's heart with her genuine warmth and honest personality when she won Love Island in summer 2018. She proves that you don't need...
In the summer of 1990, Cathy's brother Matty was knocked down by a car on the way home from a night out, two weeks before receiving his GCSE results. Sitting by his unconscious body in hospital, holding his hand and watching his heartbeat on the moni...
Kelly Walk Hines presents her story of finding hope in the darkness in Memoirs of an Invisible Child. Contains mature themes.
Breaking fresh ground, this new and important biography of Sir Edmund Hillary stands apart from previous accounts of this truly great New Zealander. The author, Michael Gill, was a close friend of Edmund Hillary's for nearly 50 years, accompanying him...
Just how do you navigate life with a mental illness? What effect does it have on day-to-day activities and future plans? I'm the Patient Not the Shrink takes you on a journey through an ordinary life lived against extraordinary odds. You won't find e...
Murderer, philanthropist, drug dealer, politician, devil, saint: many words have been used to describe Pablo Escobar, but one is irrefutable--legend. For the poor of Colombia, he was their Robin Hood, a man whose greatness lay not in his crimes, but in...
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