Step into the extraordinary lives of individuals who’ve shaped our world. These memoirs and biographies span political frontlines, global adventures, rock stardom, survival stories, and groundbreaking innovation. Each narrative reveals the triumphs and challenges that transformed ordinary people into extraordinary figures, offering unique perspectives on history through the eyes of those who lived it.
Notable Memoirs and Biographies
Kitchen Confidential: 25th Anniversary Edition
9781526692528 | Bloomsbury Publishing | PB
Anthony Bourdain

The classic bestseller from the star of Parts Unknown and No Reservations: 25th Anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Irvine Welsh.
BEFORE THERE WAS THE BEAR, THERE WAS BOURDAIN.
‘Elizabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino’ A.A. Gill
‘Fantastic: as lip-smackingly seductive as a bowl of fat chips and pungent aioli’ Daily Telegraph
After twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine, chef and novelist Anthony Bourdain decided to tell all – and he meant all.
From his first oyster in the Gironde as a child, to his lowly position as a dishwasher in a honky-tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown; from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop the Rockefeller Center to drug dealers in the East Village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain’s tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable, as shocking as they are funny.
Kitchen Confidential will make your mouth water and your belly ache with laughter and leave you wanting more.
The Warrior
9781399811514 | John Murrary | TPB
Christopher Clarey

From the bestselling author of The Master, longlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
An intimate, original biography of tennis legend Rafael Nadal, and the first to cover his entire career.
After his award-winning look at Roger Federer, Christopher Clarey, one of the world’s pre-eminent tennis writers, focuses his lens on Nadal, the Spanish force of nature. When he arrived on the scene in 2005, the record for men’s singles titles at the French Open stood at six. Nadal more than doubled that total to a mind-blowing fourteen titles: one of the greatest sporting achievements in history.
Nadal won big and won often on all of tennis’s surfaces: securing two Wimbledon titles on grass and six on the US Open and Australian Open hard courts. But clay, the grittiest of the game’s playgrounds, is where it all came together best for his whipping forehand and warrior mindset.
Clarey, who has covered Nadal since he was seventeen, draws on interviews over twenty years with Nadal, his team and rivals like Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Brimming with behind-the-scenes insight, The Warrior tells the story of a global sporting icon, interlacing man and place in a unique, must-read account of the evolution of excellence.
Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil
9781399416290 | Bloomsbury Continuum | TPB
Harry Freedman

From the day that Bobby Zimmerman first turned on the radio in his parents’ home in Hibbing, he’d had a pretty good idea that big things were happening.
When Bob Dylan arrived in New York one winter morning in 1961 he was a complete unknown. His music and spirit would go on to capture the hearts and minds of a generation, but what no one knew then was that, like so many before him, Dylan was concealing his Jewish origins.
Covering the same turbulent years as the hit film starring Timothée Chalamet, this entertaining biography offers new insights into Bob Dylan’s early career. For Harry Freedman, Dylan’s roots are the key to grasping how this young musician burst onto the scene and reinvented not only himself, but popular music. The instinct for escape and reinvention has defined Dylan’s long career.
Freedman traces the heady atmosphere of the 1960s and the folk-rock revolution spearheaded by Dylan. Right up until the moment in 1966 when Dylan stepped out onto the stage and went electric – exploring how his musical decisions, genius for reinvention and his Jewishness go inescapably hand in hand.
Champion Mindset
9781399727709 | Hodder & Stoughton | TPB
Patrick Mouratoglou

The new book from legendary tennis coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, using lessons from tennis which can be applied to your everyday life.
Make your biggest weaknesses become your strongest strengths’
Tennis is the most emotionally demanding and challenging sports in the world. To succeed, players need to embrace failure and learn to stay committed and confident, point after point. It is a sport which most reflects life.
Drawing upon a lifetime of coaching experience and a deep understanding of the game, Patrick Mouratoglou presents the invaluable principles, skills, and mindsets that have made tennis championships and applies them to challenges and opportunities we face every day.
Taking you on a transformative journey, Patrick guides you through a series of insightful anecdotes and practical advice that will help you unlock your true potential. You will discover the depth of your inner strength, your discipline, your tenacity and how to handle your emotions.
You’ll discover how to:
– How to harness your focus and concentration to achieve your goals
– Develop a winning mindset that turns setbacks into stepping-stones towards success
– Cultivate resilience and learn to bounce back stronger from defeat
– Embrace the importance of teamwork and collaboration to achieve greatness
And much more
Whether you’re an aspiring athlete, a professional in search of a competitive edge in the workplace, or simply seeking to improve your life, Championship Mindset will empower you to redefine your limits and unlock your true potential.
Gallagher
9781408723883 | Sphere | TPB
PJ Harrison

‘WHEN AN ARTIST IS RELENTLESSLY AUTHENTIC, IT ALLOWS PEOPLE TO BELIEVE IN THEM AND TO BELIEVE IN THEIR WORK. AND THE GALLAGHERS BELIEVE IN EACH OTHER ONCE MORE.’
Gallagher chronicles the fall and rise again of one of the world’s biggest bands: Oasis. With a focus on Noel Gallagher and Liam Gallagher’s individual journeys, this absorbing biography starts from the shattered remnants of Oasis in 2009, taking fans through 15 years of high and lows as the brothers become formidable solo artists, pinpointing the significant events that allowed them to bridge their fraternal rift and stage the greatest comeback of all time.
Inside, PJ Harrison, a former label owner and artist manager (but above all Oasis fan) who spent time on the road and in the studio with the band, takes fans on a journey to the heart of Oasis and everything they stand for. Through meticulous research, exclusive interviews and inside access, Harrison strives to understand how two brothers rose from a council estate in Manchester to create the dominant musical force of their generation throughout the 1990s and 2000s and why they have such enduring legacies both together and apart.
For three decades, the question of why Liam and Noel, two brothers with the world at their feet, simply couldn’t get along has fascinated the world. Gallagher aims to explore that question and offer some answers. What drove them apart in 2009, and what led to their reunion in 2024?
With a foreword from legendary Rolling Stones manager and producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, this unique telling of the Oasis story allows fans new and old to draw their own comparisons between two very different brothers; casting a new light on how they navigated fame, feuds and family to create music history before shocking the world with the reunion nobody thought could happen.
Notorious: History’s Villains and Why They Matter
9781035420322 | Headline Welbeck Non-Fiction | TPB
Otto English

History loves a villain.
Across the entire span of human civilisation, certain people and groups have been identified as being responsible for the ills of the world, and have remained hated for it. In his continuing desire to separate out the facts from the fiction of history, Otto English looks at how these legacies were constructed and who told us that they were evil.
From how Bloody Mary became the figurehead of uppity women and how Judas’s betrayal became a template for religious tensions for centuries to what the Peasants Revolt and the Illuminati shows us about power struggles throughout the ages, English exposes the agendas behind the ‘truths’ we’ve been told to believe. And in looking at how xenophobia was weaponised during the ‘Spanish’ Flu, he reveals how our past sometimes bleeds into the present day.
Fascinating and fearless, Notorious will re-examine some of the history’s biggest villains and change the way you see the world forever.
I Am A Mob Boss
9781035426195 | Headline Welbeck Non-Fiction | PBO
Anonymous

I could’ve died a thousand times. People were out to get me, as they always are when you run the show.
It’s kind of silly that it’s cancer that’s going to get me, but now I know the end’s not going to come from a sudden bullet to the skull one night, at least I have enough time to tell my story.
It’s a story that would have had me locked up long ago, if anyone knew I was at the top.
It all started innocently enough, with a few smash-and-grabs and some card games, but then moved into armed robbery and then eventually drugs. And that’s when things changed. When the money came rolling in. When we would do anything to hold onto power.
This is my last confession. A way to atone for what I’ve done. Let it be a lesson to you.
The Story of McLaren
9781035423965 | Welbeck | HB
Alex Kalinauckas

Explore the revolutionary history of one of the biggest names in motorsport in this photographic tribute to McLaren.
For more than 60 years, the McLaren name has been synonymous with racing success and automotive innovation. The Story of McLaren gives readers a fascinating look into the people, the technology and, of course, the cars that have propelled this marque to the pinnacle of motorsport.
From its founding in 1963 by legendary Bruce McLaren, right through to its current position as one of the world’s premier motoring brands, this beautifully designed pocket guide celebrates McLaren’s major achievements across Formula 1, the Indianapolis 500, the 24 Hours of Le Mans and beyond. It also highlights the host of legendary drivers who have sat behind the wheel of a McLaren on the grid, from Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost to Kimi Raikkonen, Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris.
The brand’s phenomenal road cars are also included here, from the record-breaking McLaren F1 to the revolutionary GTS. Filled with beautiful photography and insightful text, The Story of McLaren charts the history of this extraordinary marque in perfectly giftable package.
Champion Mindset
9780571391004 | Faber & Faber | BPB
Jan Gradvall

Through exclusive interviews and over a decade of deep research, renowned music journalist Jan Gradvall explores the secrets to ABBA’s success.
More than half a century after their songs were recorded, ABBA still make people the world over dance and sing their hearts out. After interviewing the four members for an article in 2013 – at which time the band had not been interviewed for over thirty years – Jan Gradvall was granted unique access to them for the next decade. In The Book of ABBA, the band share their thoughts and opinions more openly than ever before, while Jan reveals the context in which their sound developed – and shows how the story of ABBA is also the story of Sweden and the globalisation of pop culture.
From their chart-topping ABBA Voyage – their first album in forty years – to the two-million-ticket-selling concert-experience of the same name, it is undeniable that, in the history of pop culture and music, there has never been a group like ABBA. With remarkable intimacy, Gradvall’s book brings readers closer than ever to one of the world’s most notoriously private music icons.
Taylor: Era by Era
9781789297584 | Michael O’Mara | TPB
Caroline Sullivan

Celebrate the incredible career of pop music’s biggest star in this sparkling biography.
We’re all living in the Taylor Swift Era. Since her 2006 debut album she’s sold more than 200 million records, sold out countless arenas and become one of the most influential artists of her generation. Her Eras tour is on track to gross more than $1 billion by the time it concludes in December 2024, and her most recent studio album hit No. 1 in more than 25 countries.
In this revealing and entertaining biography, author and music journalist Caroline Sullivan charts Taylor’s journey from budding country starlet to pop music phenomenon, encompassing her evolution as an artist, her high-profile relationships and the stories behind her songs. Each of Taylor’s Eras is explored in depth, detailing her influences, her collaborators and the aesthetics that have become such a crucial part of her performance.
Featuring a stunning photographic section with pictures spanning her entire career, this is the most complete portrait yet of one of the most popular artists on the planet.