Autobiography: general

  • Captain Tom’s Life Lessons

    £12.99

    ‘One small soul like me won’t make much difference’. If Captain Tom’s big heart and generosity of spirit helped see us through difficult days, this was his parting gift. Full of the wit, warmth and wisdom that made him so special, his reflections and guiding principles form a long life, well lived; this book will be a source of reassurance, hope, and encouragement for generations to come. And a reminder, whenever times are hard, that tomorrow will be a good day.

  • Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn

    £9.99

    The trajectory of Suede – hailed in infancy as both ‘The Best New Band in Britain’ and ‘effete southern wankers’ – is recalled with moving candour by its frontman Brett Anderson, whose vivid memoir swings seamlessly between the tender, witty, turbulent, euphoric and bittersweet. Suede began by treading the familiar jobbing route of London’s emerging new 1990s indie bands – gigs at ULU, the Camden Powerhaus and the Old Trout in Windsor – and the dispiriting experience of playing a set to an audience of one. But in these halcyon days, their potential was undeniable. In ‘Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn’, Anderson unflinchingly explores his relationship with addiction, heartfelt in the regret that early musical bonds were severed, and clear-eyed on his youthful persona.

  • Friends and enemies

    £25.00

    Barbara Amiel’s long-awaited memoir is shockingly honest, richly detailed and pulls few punches. An instinctive feminist and now a foe of feminism’s political correctness, her own memoirs cover a formidable array of experiences – political, sexual, marital and material. Born in London during the Blitz, the only consistent strain in her early life was a fierce belief in her identity as a Jew even as the Jewish community disowned her and an unquestioned view that women were free to do anything in any arena they chose without any need to win society’s approval. Which she very often did not.

  • Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day: My Autobiography

    £20.00

    Captain Tom Moore is an inspiration. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in early April this 99-year-old Second World War veteran came up with a big idea: he’d walk laps of his garden to raise money for the NHS. Despite using a walking frame as well as recent treatment for cancer and a broken hip, he was determined to hit 1000 by his 100th birthday on 30th April. By the time the telegram from the Queen arrived, he’d raised over 30 million. In this, his official autobiography, published in support of the creation of the Captain Tom Foundation, he tells us of his long and dramatic life. How his spirit was forged on the battlefields of Burma where victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat. How he fearlessly raced motorbikes competitively. How, in his 90s, he took off for the Himalayas and Everest, simply because he’d never been. And, finally, how this old soldier came to do his bit for the NHS.

  • House of Music: Raising the Kanneh-Masons

    £18.99

    The most talented musical family in the world

  • Year of the Monkey: The New York Times bestseller

    £10.99

    A profound, beautifully realised memoir in which dreams and reality are vividly woven into a tapestry of one transformative year. Following a run of New Year’s concerts at San Francisco’s legendary Fillmore, Patti Smith finds herself tramping the coast of Santa Cruz, about to embark on a year of solitary wandering. Unfettered by logic or time, she draws us into her private wonderland, with no design yet heeding signs, including a talking sign that looms above her, prodding and sparring like the Cheshire Cat. In February, a surreal lunar year begins, bringing with it unexpected turns, heightened mischief, and inescapable sorrow.

  • Diamonds at the lost and found

    £14.99

    For readers of Hideous Kinky, Dadland and Bad Blood; the astonishing, beguiling story of Sarah Aspinall’s harum scarum childhood, and a love letter to a woman who defied convention to live a life less ordinary.

  • Lady in Waiting

    £10.99

    From Maid of Honour at the Queen’s Coronation to Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret, Lady Anne Glenconner is a unique witness to royal history, as well as an extraordinary survivor of a generation of aristocratic women trapped without inheritance and burdened with social expectations. She married the charismatic but highly volatile Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, who became the owner of Mustique. But beneath the glitz and glamour there has also lurked tragedy. On Lord Glenconner’s death in 2010 he left his fortune to a former employee. And of their five children, two grown-up sons died, while a third son had to be nursed back from a coma by Anne. In this book, she exposes what life was like in her gilded cage, revealing the role of her great friendship with Princess Margaret, and the freedom she can now finally enjoy in later life.

  • My Name Is Why

    £9.99

    At the age of 17, after a childhood in a fostered family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. This is Lemn’s story; a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph. Sissay reflects on a childhood in care, self-expression, and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family, and the meaning of home.

  • Tasting Victory: The Life and Wines of the World’s Favourite Sommelier

    £25.00

    A memoir by the late Gerard Basset, OBE, the greatest sommelier of his generation and founder of the Hotel du Vin Group

  • Rake’s Progress: My Political Midlife Crisis

    £16.99

    Rachel Johnson’s dramatic plunge into the family business of politics – and how it all went spectacularly wrong.

  • Things I Learned From Falling: The must-read true story of 2020

    £12.99

    Claire Nelson was in her 30s and beginning to burn out – her hectic London life of work and social activity and striving to do more and do better in the big city was frenetic and stressful. Although she was surrounded by people all of the time, she felt increasingly lonely. When the anxiety she felt finally brought her to breaking point, Claire decided to take some time off and travelled to Joshua Tree Park in California to hike and clear her head. While hiking, Claire fell 30 feet, gravely injuring herself and she lay alone in the desert – mistakenly miles off any trail, without a cell phone signal, fighting for her life. She lay there for four days until she was miraculously rescued – the doctors saying she had only hours to live when she was eventually found. In this book, Claire tells her story and what it taught her about loneliness, anxiety and transformation and how to survive it all.

Nomad Books