What autobiographies have you read

[Yellow Fang]

I have read, so far as I can remember

Unreliable Memoirs - Clive James
Very funny, very honest, very rude, especially regarding his teenage masturbation habits.

Auto da Fey - Fey Weldon
Very entertaining, incredible characters. I especially liked her first husband.

Tom Finney Autobiography - Tom Finney
Like stepping back in time 50 years. Best manager football never had in my opinion. Almost the living embodiment of Rudyard Kipling's 'If' poem.

Baggage - Janice Street Porter
A game girl if ever there was one. Not entirely likeable.

Mr Nice - Howard Marks
How to feel like you really haven't lived by page 10. How can anyone have such a good memory, especially after smoking so much dope.

Looking for Trouble - Sir General de la Billiere
Quite interesting. He omits quite a lot of personal things you'd think were important to him. He has some surprising opinions in other matters. Especially regarding devolving responsibility and on the qualities of conscripts and TA personnel.

Rough Ride - Paul Kimmidge
Very readable book about a professional cyclist. Somewhat bitter about not being able to compete cleanly.

It's Not About the Bike - Lance Armstrong
Incredible determination.

Breaking the Chain - Willy Woets
A former soigneur's revenge on the industry that cut him loose after he was arrested with a bootload of performance enhancing drugs in his car. Learned that Belgiums refer to each other with "tu".

 

[mangaman]

I've read Kimmage's rough ride / plus Willy Voet's breaking the chain- very good IMHO

Also Michael Atherton's- also very good (both written by the person / no ghost writer involved. They can actually write, which I think is the key)

Not strictly on topic but "The Ghost" by Robert Herris is suberb.

He was the closest journalist, I believe, to the Blairs in 1997, but disagreed with Blair's warmongering.

It's a fantastic/funny/clever book about the publishing industry /ghost writing as a concept/ and a devastating attack on the Blairs
I haven't,for example, read Mark Cavendish's as he's only 20 years old and it would have been written by a ghost. (I'd be fascinated if Mark wrote his own story aged 75 when he had a real dispassionate view incidentally)

 

[rich p]

Don't you have to write it for it to be an autobiography? I don't think LA can write!

 

[Greedo]

Don't really read many. Saying that reading Chris Evans on at the moment.

David Niven - The Moons a balloon is truly superb. What a man and what a life. Was gutted when i finished reading it

 

[potsy]

Only one I've read is the Peter Kay one that the mrs bought me for birthday last year.Was OK not a big fan of them tbh.

 

[Ian H]

I Claud is worth a read. Recently finished Lord Berners' account of his childhood.

 

[irontam]

David Niven - The Moons a balloon is truly superb. What a man and what a life. Was gutted when i finished reading it

+1 Utterly brilliant, well written book.

If you're looking for something both entertaining, hilarious and informative, try something by Redmond O'Hanlon; the following two for starters:

No Mercy: A Journey into the Heart of the Congo
Into the Heart of Borneo
​

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I like the Spike Milligan books (6) about his glorious military career during the second world war.

'Dance and Skylark' written by Naomi Sim about the fifty years she spent with Alastair Sim.

Jon Pertwee 'Moon Boots and Dinner Suits'

The American crime writer Charles Wiliford's two volumes of his time as a soldier. A wonderful read.

And more...

 

[Spinney]

The Kindness of Strangers - Kate Adie
Some entertaining bits on the 1st Gulf War, and quite forthright about the quality of US squaddies!

 

[mangaman]

Don't you have to write it for it to be an autobiography? I don't think LA can write!

Sadly I believe very few best sellers are written by the name on the cover (alone)

eg Katie Price / Andy Macnab

As I said ealier, one of the joys about "The GHost" is it is about the publishing industry as much as the Blairs.

I think one of the publishers refers to thewoman with the huge tits and the SAS man dominating the top 10 despite the ghosts doing the work.

Certainly LA would be utterly unable to write several books

 

[vernon]

Don't really read many. Saying that reading Chris Evans on at the moment.

David Niven - The Moons a balloon is truly superb. What a man and what a life. Was gutted when i finished reading it

Try Bring on the Empty Horses, a sequel to The Moon's a Balloon you'll enjoy that too. I read them both 25 years ago and might just return to them for an entertaining read.

 

[Vidor06]

Lawrence Dallaglio's was quite good.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Oh yes, I've read The Moon's a Balloon and the six Spike Milligan war diaries - hilarious. Another cycling autobiography was 'The Flying Scotsman' by Graeme Obree - not brilliantly written, but what a story!

Edit: And yet another was 'The Escape Artist: Life From the Saddle' by Matt Seaton. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this one. Parts of it were very sad.

 

[slowmotion]

Sir Peter de la Billiere, David Niven, Clive James, Spike Milligan, Auberon Waugh, Rosy Boycott, Betty Boothroyd, Nelson Mandela, John Major, Andrew Marr, Christopher Meyer, Frank Gardner, Alan Clarke. Also, the gay political columnist who writes so beautifully, but whose name I have forgotten (help!), Samuel Pepys, and of course......Howard Marks.

FYO, I will not be spending my hard-earned cash on TB or AC. Bah, humbug!

Just remembered, he was Matthew Parris.

 

[dellzeqq]

Sexus, Nexus and Plexus.