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Recommend a biography, please

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I’ve just read biographies on Terry-Thomas and James Roberston Justice. I’m in the mood for another biography and I’m hoping there’s an AWer out there who can recommend a stonking good read.

Anyone got a recommendation?

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Comments

  2. I’m reading David Niven’s “The Moon’s A Balloon” right now. It’s absolutely wonderful.

    Harpo Speaks is probably the best biog I’ve ever read.

    The Caro books on Lyndon Johnson are the best political biography.

    I also love Kai Bird’s book on Oppenheimer (“American Prometheus”), Andrew Hoffman’s biog of Mark Twain, Peter Biskind’s “Star” (Warren Beatty), Lee Server’s Robert Mitchum biog, and Hitch 22 (characteristically brilliant).

    There are probably others that will come to me later.

  3. Some of the best autobiogs I’ve read would be David Niven’s, Clive James’s Unreliable Memoirs, James Delingpole’s Thinly Disguised Autobiography, The Big Midweek by Steve Hanley, Robert Graves’ Goodbye to All That, Diary of a Nobody (ok, not really an autobiography), Churchill’s Early Life and Martin Amis’s Memoirs.

    • I’m reading it at the moment, and I’d second that recommendation, along with Uncle Tungsten, about his childhood.
      If diaries are allowed, I’d recommend everyone to read the wartime diaries of Victor Klemperer (provided that they’ve been translated into English from German).

  7. 3/4 the way through Robert Forster’s bio/auto bio of the Go Betweens . grant and I. reveiw to follow.

    John Collins book on Fela Kuti review to follow

    Banning Eyre on Thomas Mapfumo – review to follow

    Both Ian Bell’s books on Dylan – review of second one in archive

    • You beat me to it, Duc.

      A superb read & noteworthy for the relatively light coverage given to his marriage to Marilyn. Let’s face it, most men on the planet would never shut up about it if they’d had so much as a kiss from MM.

  11. First of all, let me add my seconds to already-mentioned The Moon’s A Balloon, Harpo Speaks, Clive James, Julian Cope, Peter Hook and Andrew Loog Oldham (though Stoned2 is harder work…)

    As you seem to be into old-school showbiz I’d add Frank Muir’s “A Kentish Lad”, and though Michael Caine’s “The Elephant To Hollywood” and Roger Moore’s “My Word Is My Bond” aren’t fabulously written, the stories are great (warning – the latter 20% of Moore’s book is solely about his work for UNICEF.)

    Over the pond, Tony Curtis’ “American Prince” is great, and I love Jerry Lewis’ “Dean & Me: A Love Story”, but I’m a fan, so probably not for everyone.

    Music-wise I’d recommend:
    Mark E. Smith – “Renegade” (contrary bugger slags off Peely and bigs up Pete Waterman)
    Louise Wener – “Different For Girls” (yes, her from Sleeper – I might be biaised as she’s from the same area of Ilford as me, so there was a nostalgia factor involved, but she’s a good writer)
    Giles Smith – “Lost In Music” (great about life as an unsuccessful musician)
    Gary Valentine – “New York Rocker” (Blondie’s first bassist – he obviously leaves the story as it gets interesting, but it’s great on the early days of NYC punk)
    Tony Visconti – “Bowie, Bowie & The Brooklyn Boy” (again, not fantastically written, but fascinating stories of course…)

    • I considered Jerry Lewis’ book, but he’s a bit of an egomaniac and I thought it may be full of Hollywood style mawkishness. I’m more of a Dean Martin fan – the Nick Tosches book was great – but I used to love watching their films when I was young. In fact, I was only weighing up whether my kids would like the Nutty Professor a couple of days ago. The book’s worth reading is it?

      • I liked it. In the past Lewis has erred towards the “Dean was just another crooner going nowhere until he met the genius that is Jerry Lewis” angle. but this book’s a lot more even-handed, giving credit where it’s due, and even being harder on himself than usual. It’s not entirely free of mawkishness, but as I say, I liked it, and it’s especially good on the early days of their partnership…

        As for The Nutty Professor, although it’s clearly his best movie, I’m not convinced how kid-friendly it is (depending on the kid, of course), especially the transformation scenes. which are straight out of Roger Corman… The Bellboy or The Errand Boy might be better entry-level movies, YMMV…

    • I thought the Visconti book (incidentally, it’s one Bolan and not two Bowies 😉 ) revealed him to be a bit prissy at times, and kind of justifies the affectionate piss-taking by Adam Buxton and others of his neediness for recognition. Although, to be fair it seems that he’s become more relaxed about these things in recent years.

  12. “A Man with No Talents: Memoirs of a Tokyo Day Laborer”
    The autobiography of a nobody born into a privileged, middle of the road, Japanese family. He goes to a good Japanese college, gets on the 80’s Japan career track, and quickly drops out to live a borderline homeless life as a day laborer. Twenty years later he writes this manuscript and sends it to Japan’s most prestigious literary contest “on a lark.” He wins and his manuscript published.
    A fascinating read even for non-japanophiles.
    EDIT: An “autobiography” it’s not. It’s more an account of why one would give up the good life, to live with uncertainty, labor, isolation, and shame. A very thought provoking read. Not exactly uplifting, but not a total downer either.

    • Wow, thanks @Rec Room. Had never heard of this, have done the Japanese corporate life and lived there, must read it. I remember being shocked when I first saw homeless people in Tokyo and few people I talked to about it wanted to admit they existed.

      • I recently read something like “…you’ll never see a homeless person in Tokyo beg, rather they are philosphers of the street” or something to that effect. It was in Xenophobe’s Guide to the Japanese, (part of a fun guidebook series)
        I doubt you’d be disappointed with A Man With No Talents. Fly on the the wall observations of a closed world with more than a dash of deft insight and “zen” philosophy. Shogunaiyo.

  14. Another vote for David Niven’s The Moon’s a balloon; wonderfully funny and moving.

    Norman Lewis’s Jackdaw Cake (his early life with his mad aunts is wonderful) and then compare with Julian Evans’s A life apart (his bio of the blessed Norm) who documents his extraordinary life. It’s good because whilst he clearly admires him and was a friend, he doesn’t spare him either.

    If you want monumental and interested in New York, Robert A Caro’s The Power Broker, about the life of Robert Moses. It’s massive but it’s never a chore to read; a brilliant book on how power corrupts.

    Last year I read Dadland by Keggie Carew, a daugther’s biography of her dad – a war hero, but it’s the post war life and his fall into dementia which is best. It’s not in the least bit sentimental and really interesting.

    • The thing about The Moon’s A Balloon is – I think I’m right in saying – that it’s full of total bollocks and belongs in “fiction”, apparently. Not that it’s not still terrific. It is.

  15. Famous for being the creator of Luther, Neil Cross has written some great novels before the Luther character was ever created. He also wrote a stunning biography called Heartland which I urge anyone to read. It is one of the best I have come across.

  16. A few years back I was hugely impressed by and enjoyed reading American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin.
    A story of a very complex individual, whose interests stretched way beyond physics, who drove the Manhattan Project then found himself villified by the establishment (and the significant role of the hideous Edward Teller in this) he had been very much a part of.
    Another Oppenheimer biography was published not very long after Bird & Sherwin’s book titled J. Robert Oppenheimer and the American Century which was also highly praised.
    I’d just note that Bird & Sherwin won the Pulitzer Prize for their work.

  17. Afterworders who enjoyed Rob Young’s book “Electric Eden” about folk musics in Britain may be interested to know that he has a biography of the German band Can coming out later this year.

        • *SPOILER KLAXON, Y’ALL!*

          I read it too. The headline news that he was a miserable misanthropic bastard with atrocious OCD, but once you get past that it’s just hugely entertaining, that scabrous wit is everywhere.

          It’s full of surprises – like the fact that he uses the word “gay” almost exactly as we would in his 40s diaries, 20 years before most other people did. He rhapsodises about any film involving Clint Eastwood and, bizarrely, the early novels of Melvyn Bragg. The only Carry On star he has a good word to say about is, of course, Bernard Bresslaw. He is ferociously anti-apartheid and yet when a black family move in next door… you can guess the rest.

          An interesting moment for AW-type people: he watches John & Yoko on Parkinson in 1971 and is not only deeply unimpressed, but he doesn’t have a clue who Lennon is or why any kind of pop star should be interviewed on television.

          Funniest of all is his strenuous attempts to get his fees for The Good Old Days reduced because he thinks the show is terrible and he’s overpaid. A unique and extraordinary man – reading the diaries doesn’t diminish that.

  19. I Came I Saw by Norman Lewis. The greatest twentieth century UK writer you have never heard of. His parents were religious nutcases, he was a spy, a soldier and a travel writer (at one point married to an Italian countess). On top of that Norman Lewis was the first person to document an ongoing genocide of native Amazon forest people by the Brazilian government.

    And he wrote a few books as well. He was probably the greatest travel writer of the last century. Not bad for a boy from Enfield.

    Anyway, I Came, I saw is his autobiography and it’s brilliant,

    • I read Norman Lewis’s “Naples ’44” thanks to a recommendation on the old Word site.

      Sure ’nuff it was a cracker of a book.

      I really must read some more Lewis.

      • Other Norman Lewis books to read

        A Dragon apparent; travels in Vietnam, Laos.
        Golden Earth, about Burma.
        Voices of the Old sea, about the loss of the traditional way of life in Spanish fshing village.
        Thed Honoured Society, about the Mafia.
        The Missionaries, as above.

        Don’t forget his novels, I’d recommend The Volcanoes above us and The Sicilian Specialist.

        The bio I mentioned above is not A Life Apart, but Semi Invisible Man by Julian Evans, the book does credit to his extraordinary life. He was quite a rogue.

  20. The Shoemaker by Flora Rheta Schreiber.

    As a young adherent of JG Thirlwell and Nick Cave, I thought, ‘I must read this book that has inspired my heroes,’ and so I did, and it’s the story of US serial killer Joseph Kallinger told in forensic detail, the horror of his upbringing outweighed only by his ghastly deeds later in life. I’ve read a fair bit of true crime, but The Shoemaker is the one that really takes you down the rabbit hole. Finishing it I felt changed at some cellular level.

  21. As you seem to be into biogs about comedians of yesteryear, Bob Monkhouse’s autobiography is fab. I’d never have considered reading it until it was recommended to me, but well worth seeking out.

    • Oh yes, Crying With Laughter is excellent, good pick… I think it was the first appearance of the gag:

      “People used to laugh when I told them I was going to be a professional comedian – they’re not laughing now…”

  22. Two I’ve read recently which might appeal to those who enjoy the seedier side of life:

    A Very English Scandal – John Preston is about the Thorpe / Scott affair. As such it’s not really a biography, though the lives of both men, and a cast of other eccentrics is inevitably covered in detail.

    Fast and Louche: Confessions of a flagrant sinner – Jeremy Scott. I might as well jus quote the Amazon blurb – you’ll know if it will appeal to you or not from that

    P.G. Wodehouse wrote that: ‘the three essentials for an autobiography are that its compiler shall have had an eccentric father, a miserable misunderstood childhood and a hell of a time at his public school and I had none of these advantages’. Jeremy Scott had them all and then went on to: * Have an Evelyn Waugh like youth * Poison a battalion of the British Army (deliberately) * Work as a gigolo (well, he tried, amongst the glitterati of New York) * Get Edward Heath stoned on amphetamines * Tangle with Lord Lucan; and work with David Bailey and Terry Donovan; and have Paul Newman’s daughter fall in love with him * Live with Peter Mayle, his best friend in Provence This is a wildly funny, hugely entertaining and, in part tragic, memoir of an accidental life spent in the fast lane (an E type Jaguar in fact) with everyone who was anyone in the 1960s and 1970s.

  23. ‘Fast & Louche: Confessions of a Flagrant Sinner’ by Jeremy Scott.
    Simply brilliant, I’d recommend it to anyone.
    Check out the reviews online, they do not lie.

  24. Prick Up Your Ears by John Lahr is an account of the life and death of playwright Joe Orton. Gives an impression of 60s London that isn’t quite the usual Carnaby St etc background…if you like it you can move on to The Orton Diaries (edited by Lahr).

  25. Just finished the Bruce biog, which is very good indeed. As was Tony Robinson’s No Cunning Plan (both very honest books where both men are not afraid to address their shortcomings as people).

    Melvyn Bragg’s Richard Burton biography, Rich, is very good and includes extracts from Burton’s diaries.

    Under The Ivy: The Life and Work of Kate Bush by Graeme Thomson is excellent.

    Another great Orson Welles biog is Citizen Welles by Frank Brady.

    Finally Come Together: John Lennon in His Time by Jon Wiener is a great biography that focuses on Lennon’s political involvement both during his time with the Beatles and afterwards through the 70s.

  26. An autiobiography/memoir that’s stayed with me is ‘And When Did You Last See Your Father?’ by Blake Morrison. A very moving examination of the complexities of familial bonds.

    Not a biography, but another riveting book by the same author is ‘As If’. It’s a detailed exploration of the James Bulger murder, with particular focus on the wretched childhood of both of his killers, how their environment impacted on their individual and collective psychology, and perhaps provocatively, it mounts a highly critical challenge to the way that the case was managed by the judicial system. Not easy reading at all, but for me an enlightening and important book.

  28. They are not full autobiographies, only a slice of a life, but Patrick Leigh Fermor’s books about his walk across Europe in the 1930s (A Time Of Gifts, Between The Woods And The Water, and the posthumous fixup The Broken Road) are excellent. Fermor was an excellent observer and stylist, and he brilliantly captures his experiences in a Europe that was about to be utterly swept away by the Second World War.
    There is also, for the purposes of the OP, a biography of him by Artemis Cooper that covers this period as well as his wartime adventures with SOE. All are well worth a read.

  29. Here Comes The Sun by Joshua M. Greene is probably one to give a miss. It’s the spiritual journey of George Harrison. The author is a Krishna devotee and goes into much detail. Nothing wrong with the book actually but a bit heavy for my liking.

    Hank Williams by Colin Escott is good if you are a fan. Lots of details about his records and tours but the best bits are at the end with a quack doctor, divorce, marriage, children out of wedlock and when the poor fella pegs out, everyone wanting a piece of the estate….and still fighting over it yet.

    • I’ve just finished that book about the Quiet One (a Christmas gift). The cover says spritual and music journey – the contents are weighted about 99% in favour of the former.

      Think a whole chapter about the day an Indian guru came to George’s gaff, what they said and ate, with “at the same time, George went into Abbey Road and made an album” squeezed somewhere in the middle.

      Not recommended, unless you are already a Krishna desciple with a vague interest in the Fabs.

  30. On the Music front:
    I’ve always kept a Unicorn – Biography of Sandy Denny – by Mick Haughton – probably the saddest book I ever read.

    Chronicles – By Bob Dylan – Prose as poetry – beware – Bono warning.

    On my intray is:
    Without Being Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark by Tamara Saviano – looks fascinating.

  32. I’ve recently finished reading George Melly’s ‘Owning Up’, written in 1965 about the period of his membership of the Mick ‘King of the Ravers’ Mulligan Band (1949-61) – during the trad jazz era (actually a series of three ‘booms’ with troughs in between, culminating in the Acker Bilk led Trad boom, with funny hats, of circa 1960). It’s splendidly written and observed and although based on a musical milieu it’s not really a music (auto)biography, more a reminiscence of a unique era in British social/cultural life – written only 4 years after, but the impression is, for Melly, it was already almost a different lifetime.

  34. I would definitely recommend A Life too Short: The Tragedy of Robert Enke by Roland Reng.
    It is the story of Robert Enke, the German international goalkeeper who committed suicide in 2009 at the peak of his career. It is not just a football book, but looks very closely at depression and mental health.
    It is engrossing but utterly heartbreaking.

  35. Genius, the biography of Richard Feynman is a masterpiece. It’s not a dry, physics oriented book, although that’s in there. It’s a balanced celebration of a fascinating and very human genius.

    Most of the Neil Armstrong ones are good. But the best two of the NASA program books are the Scott Carpenter one, and Mike Collins, which is brilliantly dry.

    if you like well written sports bios, the four are Brian Moore’s Pitbull, Simon Hughes’ A Lot of Hard Yakka, and Simon Halliday’s City Centre. Michale Lynagh’s is quite moving and a great explanation of his recovery from his stroke as well as the psychological pressure he felt himself under as a kicker.

    Not a biography so much, but Diane Perkiss’ The English Civil War: A People’s History is worth it. See also Beard’s SPQR

    S C Gwynne on Quanah Parker is an interesting look at Native American history. In that vein, Dee Brown (on just about everything) is excellent, and Nathaniel Philbrick on Custer’s Last Stand is as much biography as it history.

    Martin Gilbert’s Churchill series is a multi month/year labour of love that is rewarding.

    I tend to read non fiction

  36. The biography of Charles Lindbergh by A, Scott Berg is a fascinating read of an extraordinary life, from the flight to the baby-napping, to his America First nonsense and his redemption in his old age. Brilliant.
    Notes on a Cowardly Lion: Biography of Bert Lahr by his son, John Lahr. From Vaudeville to Hollywood , no punches pulled. Great theatre bio.
    and another shout out for Harpo Speaks , which is the greatest biography I´ve ever read

  37. As recommended by @DaveBigPicture, Roger Lewis’ Sellers biography is excellent, as is Christopher Stevens’ Kenneth Williams biog “Born Brilliant”. Cliff Goodwin’s Tony Hancock book “When The Wind Changed” is very good.
    For some unaccountable reason Strobe Talbott’s “Khrushchev Remembers” has been out of print for ages, but if you’re lucky enough to find a copy it is an absolutely fascinating glimpse into Stalin’s Russia. I’d also recommend William Taubman’s “Khrushchev: The Man And His Era”.
    Also recommended:
    Ian Kershaw’s two volume biography of Hitler (Hubris & Nemesis)
    Hitler & Stalin: Parallel Lives by Alan Bullock
    Peter Guralnick’s superlative Elvis biographies (Last Train To Memphis and Careless Love)
    Vera Brittan’s “Testament Of Youth” (although from a modern perspective her rather strident pacifism in the face of the rise of fascism grates a little – not that she was alone in that, of course…)
    Robert Massie’s “Nicholas & Alexandra” is a fine read, although it paints a rather more sympathetic picture of the last Tsar than he perhaps deserved)
    Adrian Goldsworthy’s “Caesar – Life Of A Colossus” and “Augustus – First Emperor Of Rome”
    “My Autobiography” by Charlie Chaplin

  38. Dry January saw me read:
    The Outrun
    Pour Me – AA Gill
    Never Enough – Barney Hoskyns
    …all of which suggest we are addicts of one sort or another and all of which contain some fine writing on growing up, parenting, keeping on keeping on, and the damage we do to ourselves, driven my a misguided sense that our lives must have egotistical meaning and that we will arrive at a destination at some point. There is wisdom in all these memoirs.

  39. Previously read bios that I tried to force others to read:
    Frank Skinner by Frank Skinner (not the most imaginative title, but definitely worth reading)
    Arthur Smith – My Name Is Daphne Fairfax
    Mark Ellen – Rock Stars Stole My Life
    John Peel – Margrave Of The Marches
    Pete Townshend – Who I Am
    Glen Matlock – I Was a Teenage Sex Pistol
    John Lydon – Anger Is An Energy
    Steve Jones – Lonely Boy
    Wilko Johnson – Don’t You Leave Me Here
    Ian Dury: The Definitive Biography (Will Birch)
    Lee Brilleaux: Rock’n’roll Gentleman (Zoe Howe)
    Stan Bowles – The Autobiography

      • Took a while to “get” where he was coming from, and yes it was a bit intense.
        Ultimately worth it – and like the Keith Richard bio, once you got the sound of Pete talking (whinging? philosophising?) in your ears, it was easier to digest

  40. I’d recommend Who On Earth is Tom Baker – the best Doctor Who tells of his Liverpool upbringing, his time training as a monk and his descent into alcoholism.

    Graham McCann also wrote biographies of Morcambe & Wise and the story of Dads Army which are worth a read.

    • Wonderful book! The empaphasis is far most of silent skating nuns and laughs than squalid Soho Barflies. I met him a couple of times during the book tour (I was a bookseller at the time) and he’s every bit as good company as you would want him to be.

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