Recommend a Good Autobiography

Beruthiel

I have read a few autobiographies, Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King come to mind, all inspiring, riveting reads.

Anyone got an autobiography they would recommend?

Sgt. Sensible

Arturo Barea's 3 volume autobiography The Forging Of A Rebel is probably the definitive book on the Spanish Civil War and gives an amazingly vivid account of daily life in early 20th century Spain, if that's your thing.

Paladin

Surviving The Killing Fields - Haing S. Ngor

He also won a best supporting oscar for his role in the movie - The Killing Fields - hence the title.
Makes the lives of the aforementioned figures seem like a walk in the park.

bongo85

Howard Marks' MR NICE is an excellent read

Sgt. Sensible

The Moon's A Balloon - David Niven. That's a good one.

Paladin wrote:

Surviving The Killing Fields - Haing S. Ngor

He also won a best supporting oscar for his role in the movie - The Killing Fields - hence the title.
Makes the lives of the aforementioned figures seem like a walk in the park.

Why do some people feel the need to turn everything into a pathetic pishing contest?

MagnumForce

White Line Fever by Lemmy from Motorhead

Odysseus

Sgt. Sensible wrote:

The Moon's A Balloon - David Niven. That's a good one.

Excellent piece of work, I have to say one of the most enjoyable autobiographies I have read.

r3nu4l

The Wild Swans by Jung Chang is excellent! A young girls life in China during and after teh time of Chairman Mao.

Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson is amazing too, a real eye-opener in places and gives amazing insight into what made him the man he is today, whether you like him or not.

My fight for Irish Freedom by Dan Brown was fantastic too. Tales from the days of the rising, civil war and war of Independance.

I'd recommend those to anybody.

brianthebard

Che Guevara's Bolivian Diary was excellent. It shows the man outside of the myth. It's hard to put words to how I feel about this book (a cop out I know) but if you want to read an autobiography because you think you'll understand a person better afterwards, read this.

shockwave

The kid stays in the picture by Robert Evans is a good read.The guy had an amazing life.Started from nothing,climbed to the top of the movie industry and fell back down again,producing some great films like The Godfather along the way.

Beruthiel

Thanks lads, that should keep me going for a while

BossArky

- Winston Churchill's docs bio of Churchill during the WW2
- Nelson Mandela, as already mentioned
- Bez (from the Happy Mondays... "Pills Trills and Belly Aches")
- Wonderland Avenue by Danny Sugarman (manager of the doors)
- Malcolm X's autobio (see other thread)
- Che Guevra's years bio of his years in the Congo

I read Bill Clintons autobio, which was interesting enough if a bit too heavy on the politics. My mother gave it to me once for xmas... at the same time giving Hillary's to my girlfriend :rolleyes: Hillary's is basically Bill's in half the words.

I'm getting an overdose of deja-vu typing this... cannot remember but thought there was a similar thread a while back?

doonothing

elizabeth wurtzel - prozac nation

bit sad though

Orion

Well if just a plain old biography will do I have a one of Joseph Kennedy - JFK's father. Can't remember the name of it off-hand but I'll dig it out when I get home later. Gives a great insight into the whole Kennedy clan when you read about what the patriarch got up to.

biko

Alex Maskey: Man and Mayor.

Anton17

doonothing wrote:

elizabeth wurtzel - prozac nation

bit sad though

A bit tedious more like it. I'm amazed I finished it, that girl is so annoying. Apparently the sequel is worse.

Skellington

Kingdom Of Fear: Hunter S. Thompson
Grass: Phil Sparrowhawk
High: John O'Dea

Last two are along the same lines as Mr. Nice.

If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell

One of the funniest books ever written.

demosuzki

BossArky wrote:

- Bez (from the Happy Mondays... "Pills Trills and Belly Aches")

+1vote.

/ds

Backtoblack

"Papillion" is a fascinating book!!
Incredible life story!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Papillon-Henri-Charriere/dp/0586034862/sr=1-1/qid=1167854537/ref=sr_1_1/202-7811619-3285444?ie=UTF8&s=books

demosuzki

Backtoblack wrote:

"Papillion" is a fascinating book!!

isn;t it considered fiction now-a-days ?

/ds

demosuzki

not an autobiography (are biography's ok ?)

but i read this last year and enjoyed it.

In Green and Red: The Lives of Frank Ryan, Adrian Hoar, Kerry: Brandon. 2004. ISBN 0-86322-332-X.

"Ryan was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army, editor of An Phoblacht, leftist activist and leader of Irish volunteers on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War."
he got captured in spain and after Dev got his life spared the spanish fasists gave him to Hitler.
With conections to Dev he is said to have been some kind of unoffical irish ambassador during the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ryan_(Irish_republican)


if you like it then this is also good.
Connolly Column: The story of the Irishmen who fought for the Spanish Republic 1936-1939, Michael O'Riordan, Torfaen: Warren & Pell. 2005 [2nd edition]. ISBN 0-9548904-2-6.

Steve01

The Bible

Backtoblack

demosuzki wrote:

isn;t it considered fiction now-a-days ?

/ds

Its a life story is it not???
Or do have you heard something?????
Or what is your point here?
A biography is not a history book - its an personal account.



Review:
Condemned for a murder he had not committed, Henri Charriere (nicknamed Papillon) was sent to the penal colony of French Guiana. Forty-two days after his arrival he made his first break, travelling a thousand gruelling miles in an open boat. Recaptured, he suffered a solitary confinement and was sent eventually to Devil's Island, a hell-hole of disease and brutality. No one had ever escaped from this notorious prison - no one until Papillon took to the shark infested sea supported only by a makeshift coconut-sack raft. In thirteen years he made nine daring escapes, living through many fantastic adventures while on the run - including a sojourn with South American Indians whose women Papillon found welcomely free of European restraints! "Papillon" is filled with tension, adventure and high excitement. It is also one of the most vivid stories of human endurance ever written. Henri Charriere died in 1973 at the age of 66.

Backtoblack

demosuzki wrote:

not an autobiography (are biography's ok ?)

but i read this last year and enjoyed it.

In Green and Red: The Lives of Frank Ryan, Adrian Hoar, Kerry: Brandon. 2004. ISBN 0-86322-332-X.

"Ryan was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army, editor of An Phoblacht, leftist activist and leader of Irish volunteers on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War."
he got captured in spain and after Dev got his life spared the spanish fasists gave him to Hitler.
With conections to Dev he is said to have been some kind of unoffical irish ambassador during the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Ryan_(Irish_republican)


if you like it then this is also good.
Connolly Column: The story of the Irishmen who fought for the Spanish Republic 1936-1939, Michael O'Riordan, Torfaen: Warren & Pell. 2005 [2nd edition]. ISBN 0-9548904-2-6.

you MIGHT enjoy this so. Good book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_b/202-7811619-3285444?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Killing+Rage&Go.x=14&Go.y=12
Cheers!

scojones

bongo85 wrote:

Howard Marks' MR NICE is an excellent read

Seconded. Just finished it a few weeks ago. Very good story.

InFront

I would enthusiastically second Backtoblack's "papillon" recommendation...

And also recommend wholeheartedly Robert Graves' autobiography "Goodbye To All That" which, if you have any interest in war or history, is highly attractive, and very very sad. Best book I read in 2006 and now one of my favourites of all time.

Backtoblack

sjones wrote:

Seconded. Just finished it a few weeks ago. Very good story.

Yep! Good book!

LovelyHurling

it probably doesnt qualify as autobiography, more a bildungsroman, but A Portrait of the artist as a Young Man is... there are no words

EamonnKeane

How about "very good"? Those are words.

You could also look at "Moab is My Washpot" by Stephen Fry or "Cider With Rosie" by Laurie Lee.

da_deadman

I would recommend 'Chronicles: Volume 1' by Bob Dylan. It's an interesting read and he has a great way with words - which isn't really surprising I guess

And then there are the Ashley Cole, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard books that all came out recently. These guys have so much to say, they are like the collective voice of a generation - don't miss them. :rolleyes:

dvega

i recently read 'gerard' by ofc steven gerard.
Good read,goes on about england an awful lot but you have to expect that.

BossArky

da_deadman wrote:

I would recommend 'Chronicles: Volume 1' by Bob Dylan. It's an interesting read and he has a great way with words - which isn't really surprising I guess

I thought this book was crap.

Keedowah

Snowblind: A Brief Career in the Cocaine Trade by Robert Sabbag


Not autobiographies as such, but still good:

The Westies by T. J. English
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner

Esmereldina

Steve01 wrote:

The Bible

... autobiography???

I'm reading Interesting Times by Eric Hobsbawm -- I haven't finished it yet, but it's realluy interesting (;) ) if you like European history...

BopNiblets

Two autobiographies I'd like to read would be Johnny Cash and Clint Eastwood, anyone read them?

r3nu4l

I'm almost finished 'It's a long way from penny apples' by Bill Cullen and I have to say it's a great read.

Some of the information is shocking but some of it really inspirational and uplifting...then again he has moved into the whole arena of motivational speaking and this book may be the prelude to that event.

Either way, well worth a read - story of an inner-city tenament dwelling street trader who became a multi-millionaire through hard work and determination.

sitout

bongo85 wrote:

Howard Marks' MR NICE is an excellent read

yep very good indeed

Hitch-Hiker

Shakey - Neil Young's Biography.
Not an Autobiography, but a quality book nonetheless.

dubsgirl

Paul McGraths & Gordon Ramsays are both good reads...

Psychedelic

r3nu4l wrote:

I'm almost finished 'It's a long way from penny apples' by Bill Cullen and I have to say it's a great read.

Some of the information is shocking but some of it really inspirational and uplifting...then again he has moved into the whole arena of motivational speaking and this book may be the prelude to that event.

Either way, well worth a read - story of an inner-city tenament dwelling street trader who became a multi-millionaire through hard work and determination.

i saw bill speaking at a conference last november, he did a presentation on his life etc, probably a lot of the same material the book is based on. fantastic motivational speaker. i must get myself a copy of that book, sounds good.

watna

Not an autobiography but a biography if that's ok. It's a biography of the mitford sisters by Mary Lovell. It was fascinating. They were an upper class family of 6 girls born in the 1920s. They all had fascinating lives, one was a close friend of Hitler's, another married Oswald Mosley and another was a communist in America during the McCarthy Era. Another sister, Nancy Mitford wrote a number of books based on her family life which are also very good. I have to say I haven't enjoyed a book as much in a long time.

Gun_Slinger

Have to second the Paul McGrath bio. Really heart felt book in which he faces head on all his demons and is very open and honest about his drink problem. In my opinion he was a legend before I ever read the book but now he is even more so. You really feel for him though.

black #8

r3nu4l wrote:

The Wild Swans by Jung Chang is excellent! A young girls life in China during and after teh time of Chairman Mao.

was going to mention that one myself. and for something a little lighter, i'd recommend "on Edge" by Adam Copeland. Adam Copeland is a professional wrestler, whose stage name is "Edge", for those who don't know. And i wouldn't just mark this for wrestling fans.. it's a good read, and really funny regardless of your view on pro wrestling.

TCP/IP

I would second the Gordan Ramsey book its fantastic

stovelid

Dunno if you'd call it an autobiography but the Alistair Campbell diaries are an interesting - if slightly patchy - read.

Mrs. MacGyver

Charley Boorman & Ewan MacGregor 'long way round' and 'race to dakar' excellent especially for those of you who like travel/motorbikes