Christmas 2024: Biography
Selected by the Bookshop
From the publisher:
An outrageously provocative and profoundly moving new work on the complicated relationship between Joan Didion and her fellow literary titan, Eve Babitz.THE BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK FOR NOVEMBER 2024'This book is magic. It's all I ever…
From the publisher:
A revealing, intimate biography of England's greatest - and most private - country writer, by his close friend Ian Collins.'An intimate and insightful portrait of the peerless observer of rural life' RICHARD MABEY'Moving, candid, vivid, it…
From the publisher:
The new must-read biography of Queen Elizabeth II from the winner of the Baillie Gifford PrizeFrom one of the funniest writers of our time, the award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of One Two Three…
From the publisher:
A creative, honest and funny account of an LA childhood growing up as the first daughter in the wildly unconventional and dysfunctional Zappa familyThe saying goes that "God only gives you what you can handle." Well God didn't grow up in my…
From the publisher:
Colm Tóibín’s personal account of encountering James Baldwin’s work, published in Baldwin’s centenary year. Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibín first read James Baldwin just after turning…
From the publisher:
'Exquisite... a beautiful book, one of the finest meditations on animal companionship that I have ever read' Kathryn Hughes, Guardian An instant New York Times bestseller, this is an unforgettable story about love, loss…
From the publisher:
From bestselling author Sarah Moss, a boundary-breaking memoir about the battleground of the female body, and about how reading and thinking can save you.'Moss writes so compassionately about human frailty while her own work is as close to…
From the publisher:
In this memoir of perceptions and ideas, renowned feminist intellectual bell hooks presents a stirringly intimate account of growing up in the American South.One of bell hooks' foundational works introduced to the UK for the first…
From the publisher:
A groundbreaking reassessment of W. H. Auden's early life and poetry, shedding new light on his artistic development as well as on his shifting beliefs about political belonging in interwar England.W. H. Auden is a towering figure in modern…
From the publisher:
Translated by Alison L. StrayerThe Use of Photography recounts a passionate love affair between Annie Ernaux and the journalist and author Marc Marie, after the two met in January 2003. Ernaux had been receiving intensive chemo…
From the publisher:
From twice Booker-shortlisted author Deborah Levy, a moving and revelatory collection exploring the muses that have shaped her life and work as a writerIn The Position of Spoons, Deborah Levy invites the reader into the interiors of…
From the publisher:
An exhilarating, lyrical ‘cosmic biography’ of the iconic poet, essayist and activist Audre LordeA Guardian and Lit Hub most anticipated book of 2024An exhilarating biography of the iconic poet, essayist and…
From the publisher:
Translated by Peter GreenThe second volume in Simone de Beauvoir’s celebrated autobiography recalls her formative years in Paris when she began to emerge as a public figureFirst published in 1960, The Prime of Life offers an…
From the publisher:
Translated by Arch Tait and Stephen DalzielThe powerful and moving memoir of a fearless political opposition leader who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs.Patriot is the exhilarating life story of one of the most…
From the publisher:
In Pariah Genius, literary giant Iain Sinclair follows in the footsteps of photographer John Deakin, whose chronicles of Soho life - and the world of Francis Bacon and his friends - have so influenced our perception of that generation's…
From the publisher:
The magical true story of a woman and an injured hare who taught her how to live again - the perfect Christmas gift for 2024Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around…
From the publisher:
From Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia, a memoir about the accident that left him paralysed‘Moving, funny, remarkable’ - Richard Eyre‘A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also…
From the publisher:
Winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2024A breathtaking new book about love, family and nuclear fission from one of our greatest writers'Question 7 could be Richard Flanagan’s greatest yet' Guardian‘A…