 You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Just to add to my Xmas list.
I've read a few from sporting personalities but when your committed to a sport requiring a lot of training, not a lot else happens in your life and makes for (in my view) a dull read.
So, any good reads for actors, musicians, explorers, or indeed, whoever?
Cheers
Brian Moore's second one - Beware of the Dog I think it's called. Not your standard sport autobiography. Similarly, Trescothick's.
Joe Simpson or Andy Kirkpatrick.
Have you read The Domestique?
[img] 
[/img]
I have read your post but I would suggest fignon's auto biography if you've not read it. We were young and carefree. Yes it's all about cycling but its so French, he had a refreshing positive outlook and it comes out of the pages. He didn't give a shit basically.
Hitch - 22. A Memoir.
Sort of autobiographical.
Matchless oratist.
Paul McGrath - harrowing in places
Danny Baker - Going to Sea in a Sieve. Bloody hilarious.
Adventure stuff (Not necessarily autobiographical, but well worth a read)
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
And, linked (by author) to the above;
[img] 
[/img]
Ranolph fiennes-in from the cold.
Viv Albertine - boys boys, music music, clothes clothes.
Plus one for Viv Albertine's book.
The first half (up to the end of the Slits) is fascinating but the second half is possibly even better.
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
[img] 
[/img]
Simon Winchester is excellent. I can recommend:
Woody Guthrie - Bound for glory
Laurie Lee - As I walked out one midsummers morning
Primo Levi - Is this a man?
Also like Simon Yates writing on climbing. Just read Vive la tour by Nick Brownlee, very good.
+1 for Brian Moore - Beware of the Dog, very good.
Also Perry McCarthy (The original Stig) can't remember what it was called, it was light entertainment rather than deeply engrossing.
Keep the suggestions coming I'm going to need something to fight the boredom on a long flight down under next year.
Slash: the autobiography.
More fool me by Stephen fry. Not normally my cup of tea but it was well written and he has an interesting life.
Billy Connelly
Tom Jones,
And definitely the Keith Richards one. Says a lot about my life these choices do!
Scar Tissue, the Anthony Keildis (lead singer from Red Hot Chilli's) is amazing.
The Metallica one is quite good, tells of how the band lost Cliff Burton, Jason Newstead etc. very good.
+1 for First Light.
I know it's cycling, but if you haven't read Tyler Hamilton's 'Secret Race' then you really should.
It's a very easy style to read too, thoroughly enjoyed it (if that's the right emotion)...
[img] http://btmedia.whsmith.co.uk/pws/client/images/catalogue/products/9781/84/5967086/xlarge/9781845967086_1.jp g" target="_blank">http://btmedia.whsmith.co.uk/pws/client/images/catalogue/products/9781/84/5967086/xlarge/9781845967086_1.jp g"/> [/img]
'Head On/Repossessed' - Julian Cope
Like Vic Reeves? Want a laugh?
[url= https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8630/15822711870_fbf5ec1273.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8630/15822711870_fbf5ec1273.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/q7cwZ5 ]Me Moir[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/people/7904024@N08/ ]jimmyg352[/url], on Flickr
Hilarious & unputdownable.
i got 'john lydon- anger is an energy' waiting for me to start at the mo.
I quite fancy reading the Jimmy White one.
The moons a balloon - David Niven autobiography.
Spike milligans war memoirs (first 3 especially)
Bah, was going to write a short review to my recommendation but the forum clock minute-hand of doom gave it the chop. Have a read of the [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Head--Repossessed-Julian-Cope/dp/0007197756/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418463330&sr=8-1&keywords=head+on+julian+cope ]first few pages instead[/url]. Agree with the Observer review - this book does make your heart burst. Not least for reminding us how youth can be so powerful, fragile and swift in departure. A youth is recounted here with wit and self-effacing charm in hilariously egomaniacal proportions - spread across the cultural landscape of UK punk and post-punk. Recommended reading for anyone, especially those who were young in the 70s-80s. It really is a treasure.
Danny Baker - Going to Sea in a Sieve. Bloody hilarious.
Wife may be getting this and the sequel for Xmas.
Not at all because I want to read them.
😳
CFH If you like 'the great game',have a read of this
[URL= http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/uu38/MarkF-XT/P1010392-book.jp g" target="_blank">
http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/uu38/MarkF-XT/P1010392-book.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]
Joe Simpson wrote this about his exploits in the mountains
[URL= http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/uu38/MarkF-XT/P1010393-book.jp g" target="_blank">
http://i631.photobucket.com/albums/uu38/MarkF-XT/P1010393-book.jp g"/> [/IMG][/URL]
[url= http://www.davemacleod.com/shop/tearsofthedawn.html ]Jules Lines - Tears of the dawn[/url]
Great book by a great guy.
Worked with Jules a few times and he is the most humble,nice guy i have ever met.
Oh and the book is ace too 🙂
The real life inspiration for the action side of James Bond
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Patrick-Dalzel-Job/e/B001IC9AD2
[url= http://www.v-publishing.co.uk/books/categories/e-books/one-day-as-a-tiger.html ]'One Day As A Tiger'[/url] by John Porter. It's not strictly autobiographical in the sense that it's about Alex Macintyre, but because Porter was one of his climbing partners, there's a fair strand of it mixed in. Brilliant book about a particular era in British climbing hung around the story of Macintyre's (short) life.
Won the Grand Prize at this year's Banff Mountain Festival too.
Michael Collins (Apollo 11) - Carrying the fire.
Some good suggestions but a couple that I don't think have been mentioned yet, that I liked are;
Seven years in Tibet
Wonderland Avenue
"Eastern Approaches" by Fitzroy MacLean.
Another person who allegedly inspired James Bond, and had a front row seat for some major 20th century events:
"Maclean wrote several books, including Eastern Approaches, in which he recounted three extraordinary series of adventures: travelling, often incognito, in Soviet Central Asia; fighting in the Western Desert Campaign, where he specialised in commando raids behind enemy lines; and living rough with Tito and his Yugoslav Partisans. It has been speculated that Ian Fleming used Maclean as one of his inspirations for James Bond.[1]"
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Fitzroy_Maclean,_1st_Baronet
I also second the recommendation above for Julian Cope; bonkers and very funny.
It breaks your sporting ban, but "The Flying Scotsman" by Graeme Obree. Very honest, and about much more than cycling.
I've just read King of the Gypsies by Bartley Gorman which is quite astonishing and tells you more than you need to know about bareknuckle boxing.
If you like climbing and stuff I really enjoyed Don Whillans ' the villain', Jerry moffat's and both Andy Kirkpatrick's. If you don't like climbing then I wouldn't bother, tho...
If you want a view of the 30/40/50s Hollywood - David Niven - 'the moon is a balloon' is excellent.
Mike Tyson.
john allen .cairngorm john - for any mountain user it is A an education and B a reality check.
Charlie Chaplin's life story is most engaging .
A silent comedy star whose legendary slapstick routines are recognisable to this day, Charles 'Charlie' Chaplin's My Autobiography is an incomparably vivid account of the life of one of the greatest filmmakers and comedians, with an introduction by David Robinson
As a child, Charlie Chaplin was awed and inspired by the sight of glamorous vaudeville stars passing his home, and from then on he never lost his ambition to become an actor. Chaplin's film career as the Little Tramp adored by the whole world is the stuff of legend, but this frank autobiography shows another side. Born into a theatrical family, Chaplin's father died of drink while his mother, unable to bear the poverty, suffered from bouts of insanity. From a childhood of grinding poverty in the south London slums, Chaplin found an escape in his early debut on the music hall stage, followed by his lucky break in America, the founding of United Artists with D.W. Griffith and Douglas Fairbanks, the struggle to maintain artistic control over his work, the string of failed marriages, and his eventual exile from Hollywood after personal scandals and persecution for his left-wing politics during the McCarthy Era.
Hans Rudel's [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stuka-Pilot-Hans-Ulrich-Rudel/dp/1908476877 ]Stuka Pilot[/url]
"[i]Rudel flew 2,530 combat missions claiming a total of 2,000 targets destroyed; including 800 vehicles, 519 tanks, 150 artillery pieces, 70 landing craft, nine aircraft, four armored trains, several bridges, a destroyer, two cruisers, and the Soviet battleship Marat[/i]."
Apart from the incredible first hand accounts of dive bombing tanks, I found it interesting to see how someone who was so clearly on the wrong side of what we see as right and wrong these days, could see himself as in the right.
He does put forward a good case for they Nazis being the good guys by saving Europe from Russian invasion.
Even after all these years, and despite them being "kids" books, it's hard to beat Boy and Going Solo by Ronald Dahl
My Wicked, Wicked Ways - Errol Flynn: From the copra plantations of PNG to Hollywood, a dissolute philandering swashbuckler!
He does put forward a good case for they Nazis being the good guys by saving Europe from Russian invasion.
Except that ultimately they actually facilitated it.........
Mind you, if you read anything about what the Russians got up to in eastern Germany in particular in early 1945....
Thanks for the 'Stuka Pilot' recommendation. That's gone in my reading queue.
I can second the recommendations for 'First Light' and anything by Ranulph Feinnes, particularly 'Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know'.
Also, if you're up for a bit of adventure, try 'Walking the Amazon' by Ed Stafford.
Wilfred Thesiger - The Life of My Choice.
Explorer type in the 30s and 40s who spent much of his time in the then pretty-much unknown Middle East. Stunningly good read. Annoyingly, he glosses over the two best bits in his life so I also recommend his [i]Arabian Sands[/i] and [i]The Marsh Arabs.[/i]
They don't make British chaps like him any more.
I can't believe no one has sugested Mr nice, by Howard marks.
I can't remember what is called, but nick kent, an Mme journalists autobiography is a good read.
[url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Escaped-My-Certain-Fate/dp/0571254810 ]Stuart Lee [/url]
It's hard work being a good stand up.
Also Spike Miligan's war time memoirs are brilliant. I think there are 7 all together.
I saw an interesting article about Tim Howards autobiography - even if you aren't into football, how he overcame OCD to become a top goalkeeper.
[url= http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/06/everton-tim-howard-goalkeeper-tourette-syndrome-ocd-autobiography-the-keeper ]http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/06/everton-tim-howard-goalkeeper-tourette-syndrome-ocd-autobiography-the-keeper[/url]
I might be wrong, but has no one mentioned that GUY BLOODY MARTIN has one out?!
Half price in Waterstones or WH Smith I think?
G Gordon Liddy: Will
The ghost runner
Terrible band but hilarious autobiography - Motley Crue - "The Dirt"
+1 for Tyler Hamilton plus David Millar's if you want some cycling reading. Both are eye openers whatever you feel about them as individuals.
+1 for Spike Milligan's series too - you'll cry with laughter.
The Villain is good too.
I love Morrissey as a songwriter and his books gives you a good insight into the points he makes with his songs but it's not the best read ever tbh
Not strictly an autobiography but Donnie Brasco is a great read. About the FBI legend who first went deep undercover in the Mafia.
Jah Wobble memoirs of a geezer and from the other side of the tracks but equally dealing with addiction, Clarissa Dickson-Wright.
Kicked into Touch by Fred Eyre. Wonderfully funny little book about a life of rejection in lower league football.
Disappointingly, Billy Bragg's The Progressive Patriot didn't do it for me. I sooo wanted to love that book
Gorky My Childhood
Trotsky My Life
Not an autobiography but it does cover a good few years of her life:- "Just A Little Run Around The World" by Rosie Swale-Pope is a pretty epic adventure.
Second the Ranulph Fiennes recommendations, top drawer!
I'll add Chuck Yeager's bio, excellent life story. For a slightly more gripping read though I'd say Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Not a bio per se but near enough.
"The Moons a Balloon" by David Niven
quite saucy and I think i borrowed my mums copy
(just realised thats a +1)
+1 Spike Milligan
I enjoyed Elan Mcarthurs books if your into sailing
'Legionaire' - Simon Murray and 'Wings on my sleeve' - Capt Eric Brown are both excellent reads.
If you like crack, hookers, racism and the 70s. Cupcake Brown - a Piece of Cake
If you are at all interested in space then [url= http://www.amazon.co.uk/Astronauts-Guide-Life-Earth/dp/1447257103 ]An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth[/url] by Chris Hadfield is great.
A mix of biography and guide to how to be an astronaut. A very talented and modest man.