Collection: Adult Non Fiction - Biography

Melanie C, aka Sporty Spice, tells her life story in her own words and gives a full and honest account of what life was really like in The Spice Girls.

"In just twenty years I went from a complete unknown, to a comer, to being hailed as the most powerful man in Hollywood--invariably described as a gap-toothed, tightly scripted, secrecy-obsessed superagent. After a few years of that, I became the most feared man in town. And once I left CAA, when...

In this compelling biography, acclaimed music biographer Lesley-Ann Jones unravels the enigma that was John Lennon to present a complete portrait of the man, his life, his loves, his music, his untimely death and ultimately his legacy. Pulling back the many layers, Jones closely tracks the life e...

From a glittering life running Vogue to a mud hut in Ghana, a fashion icon now offers hope to thousands of lost children. After an essay contest at 18 landed her a plum internship at Anna Wintour's British Vogue, within a year Lisa Lovatt-Smith became the youngest photo editor in the history of C...

"Van Gogh is the most famous artist in the world, yet our understanding of his life is full of contradictions. Art historians, filmmakers, journalists, psychologists, and conspiracy theorists have offered theories on his life and work, yet their views are often poles apart. Van Gogh has been desc...

In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It was Jeanette's version of the story of a terraced house in Accrington, an adopted child, and the thwarted giantess Mrs Winterson. It was a cover story, a painful past written over and repainted. It was a s...

Lebrecht has immersed himself in the rich catalogue of Beethoven recordings and presents a unique picture of the man through his music. He selects the best recordings of one hundred key pieces, showing the composer as we've never seen him before. Unruly, offensive, and hopeless in so much of his ...

"A unique, moving and dazzlingly researched exploration of the places, people, musicians, writers and filmmakers that inspired David Jones to become David Bowie, what we can learn from his life's work and journey, and why he will always matter. When David Bowie died on 10th January 2016, it seeme...

First as a doe-eyed ingenue with 'As Tears Go By', then as a gravel-voiced phoenix rising from the ashes of the 1960s with a landmark punk album, Broken English, and finally as a genre-less icon, Marianne Faithfull carved her name into the history of rock 'n' roll to chart a career spanning five ...

A radical exploration of the artistry and influence of Patti Smith: the Poet Laureate of Punk whose uninhibited creativity inspired an entire generation and triggered a cultural revolution. Patti Smith arrived in New York City at the end of the Age of Aquarius in search of work and purpose. Throu...