[Closed] Definitive list of biographies

Shunt-James hunt
Eddie Irvine's a good un too.

Alf Wright the real James heriot

I wouldn’t say Definitive but I enjoyed:

Mr. Nice - Howard Marks

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid - Bill Bryson

The Secret Race - Tyler Hamilton

Not really a biography; but the closest he came to writing one:
Raw Spirit by Iain Banks. A tour of Scotland, whisky, anecdotes and cars.

This will turn into a thread on biographies of people you like rather than great examples of biography.

However, Quartered Safe out Here by George MacDonald Fraser and The Moon's a Balloon/Bring on the Empty Horses by David Niven.

Loved the Secret Race; and David Niven's are good too.
Roald Dahl's two are pretty engaging; Racing Through the Dark by David Millar also worth a read if you like cycling biogs.

Nearly finished "Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits" by Barney Hoskyns. I think you gotta like Tom Waits for that one.

Johnny Rogan's "Ray Davies: A Complicated Life" - a massive book, but fascinating
and Dave Davies "Kink" written back when you could admit to the dodgy stuff is also fascinating.

Another music one Shakey (Neil Young) - Jimmy McDonough

Don McCullin: "Unreasonable Behaviour" is amazing

I liked the Ozzy Osborne one. How the hell he is still alive I’ll never know.

I've not read Shunt as the reviews suggest it borrows heavily from Gerald Donaldson's biography - I've read that and it was really good, so I'd suggest that instead (along with Donaldson's biography of Gilles Villeneuve, which is pretty much the definitive).

Other motor racey ones I'd recommend are Maurice Hamilton's Lauda (outstanding), Richard Williams's A Race With Love And Death, and Graham Hill's excellent autobiography Graham. Once got burned by a Chris Nixon biography - I wouldn't bother with another.

Michael Collins's Carrying The Fire is a fantastic autobiog of the first forty years of an Apollo astronaut's life, and I really enjoyed Richard Moore's In Search Of Robert Millar (but then everything he does is really good). Shouts too for Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman of Richard Feynman fame and The Quiet Soldier, by Adam Ballinger. Motocross fans of a similar age to me will, I have no doubt, love Rob Andrews's The Inside Line.

I likes a biography, me. 🙂

Recently read and enjoyed Clothes clothes clothes, music music music, boys boys boys by Viv Albertine. It gives a good insight into the birth of the punk era.

long walk to freedom - best book I've read.

Frank Skinners biography is absolutely laugh out loud hilarious.

The majority of it is about his days as a jobbing stand up comic in the midlands working men’s clubs, while a chronic vodka-on-your-cornflakes alcoholic.

Painfully honest and very, very funny

Also Motley Crue - The Dirt. Wrong on an Absolutely epic level! Like the comment about Ozzy (which I’m definitely going to have to read) how they’re not all dead is unbelievable.

Scar Tissue: Anthony Keidis - another of the how is this man still alive category. Complements Fleas book to give a perspective of the RHCP at the height of the creativity.

Four that I've enjoyed - I'm rating them on how entertaining they are, rather than how important the subject is/was.

Anthony Bourdain - Kitchen Confidential

Peter O'Toole - Loitering with Intent

Markus Wolf - Memoirs of a Spymaster.

Richard E Grant - With Nails

Second the Frank Skinner one, funny and disgusting in equal measure.

Richard Ellman's biography of Joyce
Italo Svevo Confessions of Zeno
Philip Norman on the Beatles or Stones
Second vote for Keith Richard
My Childhood Maxim Gorky

Double post

Hawk, Occupation Skateboarder - Tony Hawk

Also came on to say The Dirt and Scar Tissue but they have already been done, so I'll stick in Slash as well.

Oh, and I,Partridge (if that really counts)

Not really a biography; but the closest he came to writing one: Raw Spirit by Iain Banks. A tour of Scotland, whisky, anecdotes and cars.

First novels are usually autobiographies with the names changed so I've always assumed that The Wasp Factory is his childhood memoir.

The Life of My Choice - Wilfred Thesiger.

You've probably never heard of him, but he was an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. Read his autobiography and then read Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs.

Genius - Feynman and Modern Physics, written by Gleick

First novels are usually autobiographies with the names changed so I’ve always assumed that The Wasp Factory is his childhood memoir.

🙂

I'm certainly never thinking of Tolkien or HG Wells in the same way again!

Tricky - Hell Is Round The Corner

Duff McKagan - It's So Easy (and other lies)

Holly Johnson - A Bone In My Flute

All eye openers. Looking forward to Skin's - It Takes Blood and Guts.

Second Anthony Bourdain.

Third Bourdain, great style and funny.

Anthony Bourdain – Kitchen Confidential

Hell yeah! I must’ve bought that for half a dozen people when it came out in paperback.

The Hard Years - Joe Brown
Clothes Music Boys - Viv Albertine (must get around to the second volume)
Girl in the band - Kim Gordon

Another +1 for David Millar

Just for one Day - Louise Wener (Sleeper)

Riding Rockets - Mike Mullane (another astronaut autobiog but much more)

Great thread - bookmarked a couple to add to my list

Hitler by Ian Kershaw.

This will turn into a thread on biographies of people you like rather than great examples of biography.

Not particularly in this case 🙂

Raw Spirit is bilge - a dashed off load of rubbish written to fund more Porsches. I found it hard to believe it came from the same pen as The Wasp Factory.

Not particularly an avid consumer of biographies, although I will make an exception for Skin's.

Just finished "The Profession of Violence" by John Pearson about the Kray twins. Very interesting read.

The moons a balloon - David Niven (I hope it is true, but suspect he might have at least embellished his story)

Adolf Hitler; My part in his downfall - Spike Milligan

Danny Baker's Going to Sea In A Sieve is properly funny. (If you like Danny Baker, natch)

Previously mentioned, but Motley Crue – The Dirt is an awesome book. Been Meaning to get the Flea Biog after reading the Anthony Keidis one.

+1 Roald Dahl

I've just started rereading What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami - a memoir of his preparation for the 2005 NYC Marathon, and the influence of running on his writing. I enjoyed the reflective style IIRC, and gained an insight into writing which I still try to follow years later - in writing, and other activities which require a bit of momentum over the long-term. Very good.

Here comes everybody by James Fearnley. A lot of autobiography is tosh, but that's really good.

Not exactly biography, but Down and Out in Paris and London is worth reading

Agreed! Just read the prologue to JCC's 'I Wanna Be Yours'. Five paragraphs made me laugh out loud five times. Not much of a review after two pages but I reckon this'll be be a good 'un.

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E. B. Sledge WW2 Pacific war classic. A the sharp end with the marines.

Chickenhawk, obviously.

Twelve Days on the Somme, Sidney Rogerson. Everyday life in the trenches in a quiet sector in November near the end of the battle. Mostly everyday trench life as a young officer. The carnage only referred to off handedly when describing other officers or men and matter of factly mentioning - kiled 1917 etc.

Stretching it a bit - The biography of a group. Battalion: British Infantry Unit's Actions from El Alamein to the Elbe, From everday life on the Somme to everyday life in a Scottish Division in WW2. By Alistair Borthwick, who has the rare achievment of having written classic biographies in two entirely different fields. Also writing -

Always a Little Further: A Classic Tale of Camping, Hiking and Climbing in Scotland in the Thirties

Agree with above suggestios for Mr Nice, The Moon's A Balloon, Down and Out in Paris and London.

Oscar Wilde (Oscar by Matthew Sturgis)

First Light - Geoffrey Wellum. I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned earlier as it often comes up on recommend me a book thread.