Re-issue of her classic 1976 memoir. Arriving in Britain in 1952 to study child development at the University of London, Gilroy was at first denied teaching positions but eventually became t... read more
A biography of Mildred Harnack (by her great-great-niece), the American woman who worked with political activists in Berlin1930s and then, when WW2 broke out, with the German resitance. She ... read more
Hart began a new life in a white-washed cottage in Wigtown - her Innisfree - while recovering from cancer. There she finds that swimming in a cold sea, nattering with lobster pot men, beekee... read more
After twenty years as an FT columnist and surrounded with all the usual trappings of success, Kellaway found herself uneasy. She then set about undoing the framework of her life and has retr... read more
A witty historical novel that conjures Dryden, Swift, Pope, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and their ilk, by the cunning means of an imagined memoir, written by William Congreve's servant and com... read more
A work of self-investigation by a remarkable and versatile writer, which explores why an artist would respond to the world without being invited to do so. Essays about voice, finding it and ... read more
Parini really did travel around Scotland with Borges in an old Morris Minor, his ears flapping, heart opening and mind sharpening all the way. The result is a wonderful work of autofiction -... read more
Raven is an American biologist whose cherished solitude in a remote part of Montana is interrupted by a fox, who begins visiting her daily. As an academic, any sense of a meaningful rela... read more
A cultural history of ice and icy places, written between Northern Greenland and the Bodleian Library, in the Alps and at the Kinross Curling Club. NC, a poet, deftly blends memoir, literary... read more
A cultural history of ice and icy places, written between Northern Greenland and the Bodleian Library, in the Alps and at the Kinross Curling Club. NC, a poet, deftly blends memoir, literary... read more
A delightful extended riff on books and reading from a man with various pseudonyms (Jennie Walker, Jack Robinson...). Its subtitle is 'A book about books, mostly. And bonfires, cliches, dyst... read more
Not Oscar (of the 'Ark' or 'List') but a Cafe in Innsbruck.... A vivid portrayal of a family's brushes with history, from the Jews of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the importance of cake.
A memoir of his time at Slough Comprehensive, aka Eton. Okwonga is a writer and journalist now based in Berlin, a city "that leaves you alone" and the location of his recent auto-fiction 'I... read more
Frost is a prominent designer/decorator who set up the Aids Ark charity with his partner Jeremy Norman, the man who set up the Embassy Club and Heaven. They met in the 1980s, when AIDS began... read more
A memoir from one of the world's great handbag designers: a hugely successful entrepreneur, Anya is also a trustee of the Royal Academy and of the Design Museum; she's a Greenpeace ambassado... read more
The author's father was an American soldier who fell in love with a Japanese girl on the devastated island. This affecting book probes her own complex feeling and the attitudes among which s... read more
A memoir by the cultural historian and Maltravers Herald Extraordinary, redhead and exultant non-driver, whose arms include three stags trippant. His book on James Wyatt is still the best; ... read more
Published in February, we missed this from our last list. Jeremy Heywood served under four Prime Ministers in various roles including as the first and only Permanent Secretary of 10 Downing ... read more
Duncan has been in politics for three decades and must therefore wot what of - and whom of - he writes. He was Johnson's deputy at the Foreign Office for two years. The diaries cover the yea... read more
The strange life of the Manx shearwater, who nests in burrows before setting off on a 4,000 mile trip to the South Atlantic, and repeats this every year for the duration of its life.
In praise of curiosity: the author's investigations began when she found herself living next door to its two-acre remnant. Part biography, part memoir, part history of science, this is as in... read more
MS is an outstanding literary voice in contemporary Russia: here she creates a portrait of three Russian-Jewish generations sifted from the detritus in a late aunt's flat. This book is diff... read more
KnD was born in Derry, on the border between the Five Counties and Eire; one parent was Catholic, the other Protestant. This is a remarkable debut that combines memoir, nature writing and th... read more
"It may be that all borderlands hum with the frequencies of the unconscious; after all, borders are where the fabric is thin". This one is that wild, once barbed strip between Turkey, Bulgar... read more
In this inspired recreation of her parents' hopes and lives, MW has created a vivid memoir of post-war childhood and adventure in Cairo, Italy and London.