Collection: Adult Non Fiction - Biography

Kiera Lindsey uncovers the life of the talented and exuberant colonial painter Adelaide Ironside, following in her footsteps from the shores of Sydney harbour to the leading artistic circles of Europe. Colonial lasses were expected to marry at 16, but she wanted to be an artist, not a wife, and s...

In Wild Silence Raynor tells us about taking on a chronically over-farmed piece of land that was given to her and Moth by a reader who was moved by their story in The Salt Path. This book is about readjusting to life after homelessness, but also about recovering trust and self-belief after a trau...

"Graham Boynton's Wild is the definitive biography of photographer Peter Beard, a larger-than-life icon who pushed the boundaries of art and scandalised international high society with his high-profile affairs. He was the original 20th century "enfant terrible" with the looks of a Greek god who b...

Hendrix revolutionised classic rock, inventing a whole new vocabulary for the guitar. Onstage he pushed the boundaries of Sixties permissiveness, fellating the strings of the guitar with his tongue, lying it flat and straddling it, even setting fire to it. Yet in private he was polite, shy and sw...

Beautifully written and extremely moving, this is a probing exploration of what drives a woman to become a mother, told through the prism of the author's experience in deciding and attempting to adopt a child. How to find an outlet for a love that demands expression? Single, in her mid-forties an...

Will Self writes an honest memoir about his drug addiction in the 1980s and his attempts to grapple with adult life as he left university for the professional world. Will's mother's hokey homily, Waste not, want not . . . hisses in his ears as he oscillates furiously on the spot, havering on the ...

One of the most dynamic and globally recognised entertainment forces of our time opens up fully about his life, in a brave and inspiring book that traces his learning curve to a place where outer success, inner happiness, and human connection are aligned. Along the way, Will tells the story in fu...

Will Dyson (1880-1938) was a brilliant and versatile artist, and much more besides. His prodigious talents struggled to find a niche in Australia, but he burst into prominence with cartoons of extraordinary vigour and resource on the London Daily Herald. These whole-page cartoons with wordy, witt...

"Will She Do? is the story of a girl from a council estate in Tottenham, born in 1934 to an electric-meter reader and a seamstress, who was determined to be an actress. Candid and witty, this memoir takes her from her awkward performances in working-men's clubs at six years of age as dancing 'Bab...