Showing 1–16 of 18 resultsSorted by latest
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£25.00
Hunter Davies, the only authorised biographer of the Beatles, revisits his treasured 39 notebooks filled with remarkable interviews to explore the lives of John, Paul, George and Ringo as they were growing up and coming of age. Drawing on a wealth of never-before-revealed, intimate material, and his own experience as a boy of similar age from a working-class Northern background, Hunter now tells the story of where they came from, what it was like, how it shaped their hopes and aspirations.
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£10.99
The story of how Mary Portas transformed Harvey Nichols from a dying department store to an era-defining fashion destination. With her trademark wit and candour, Mary takes us behind the shop window – to the heady glamour and excess of the nineties, to the risks she took and the stunts she pulled, to the people who kept the show on the road and the tough lessons that have shaped her career. It is a story of grit, resilience and vision against all odds.
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£25.00
Born into a famous artistic dynasty, Daphne grew up in an atmosphere of carefree privilege. At a time when girls of her class were not expected to have a career, she defied convention and moved to Cornwall to pursue her ambition to become a writer. There, over six decades, she dreamt up the stories that have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide and still haunt our cultural imagination, including Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and ‘The Birds’. ‘Last Night I Dreamt’ explores how the turbulence and contradictions of Daphne’s own life – spanning war, affairs, a marriage to a renowned but damaged general, and unrequited love – inspired her writing.
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£25.00
Tom Overton got to know John Berger around 2010, after he gave his archive to the British Library: a kind of homecoming to the city of his birth, after a life lived mostly in self-imposed exile in Switzerland and France. Curious about the origin of a piece of writing or art, Tom would scan something in and email it. Then there’d come a call, very early, very late. ‘Hello? Is that Tom? This is John. John Berger. Can I tell you a story?’ Tom realised he was bringing this archive back into John’s life, peering together through holes in time, remembering things he couldn’t himself. And then, at the beginning of 2017, John died. In this book, Overton explores the life and work of one of the great cultural figures of the last century, who came of age in a world threatened by nuclear apocalypse, and grew old in a world dominated by the idea that human life should be ordered with the logic of profit, always looking forward, never back.
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£10.99
Matt Richards and Mark Langthorne dig deep to find out who Sir Cliff Richard really is. In profiling his life and career, his success, his relationships and his beliefs, they uncover a man of contradictions; the rock and roller who rejected sex and drugs, the poster boy for Christianity, the very public performer who gives little away about his private life, the star who’s a national treasure to many yet a figure of ridicule to others. From the stories behind the hit records to the battle to break America, from childhood memories in India to recent abuse allegations and career-threatening headlines, nothing is off-limits in this definitive portrayal, painting a picture of an artist and a man who has become increasingly misunderstood and maligned when he should simply be celebrated for the performer and the person he is.
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★ STAFF PICK!
Selected by Aude
£22.00
Staff Pick!
Aude Says…
I am not the biggest George Michael fan (don’t get me wrong, I love Wham! and “Last Christmas” is my favourite festive song) but this book is so much more: social commentary, historical insight on the 80s, portrait of Queer Britain and Immigrant Britain. It tells the story of a fascinating man and an exceptionally gifted artist.
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In his brilliantly original Tonight the Music Seems so Loud, bestselling author Sathnam Sanghera portrays the extraordinary life, and times, of one of Britain’s most beloved musical icons: George Michael.
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£20.00
Frida Kahlo at Home explores the influence of Mexican culture and tradition, La Casa Azul and other places Frida Kahlo called home, on her life and work.
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£30.00
An irresistible, clear-eyed portrait emerges of a band who, after 60 years, continue to break new ground and command our attention. And at the heart of it all is the remarkable, unique, fractious, co-dependent, alchemical bond between Mick and Keith, the Glimmer Twins. There’s been debauchery, decadence and death along the way. Not everyone survived the journey, but the band was always greater than the sum of its parts, laying down a trail of classic albums and landmark live performances in its wake. Drawing on decades of music industry experience and five years of dedicated research, critically acclaimed biographer Bob Spitz brings a fresh eye to the epic story of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world. In 2026 they remain in a league of their own.
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£10.99
Honest, moving and of course very funny: award-winning comedian Suzi Ruffell tells the story of a life afflicted with anxiety, and asks the experts to answer some of life's big questions along the way. Perfect reading for fans of Strong Female Character by Fern Brady, How to Fail by Elizabeth Day and No Shame by Tom Allen.
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£12.99
A biography as unconventional and surprising as the life it tells. Admirers called her a genius, sceptics a charlatan. Gertrude Stein remains one of the most confounding – and contested – writers of the 20th century. The host of glamorous salons at 27 rue de Fleurus, brushing shoulders with Picasso and Hemingway in her long brown robe, Stein never ceased plotting her own legacy. She would be known as the literary innovator of her time. And her enigmatic partner, Alice B. Toklas, would make sure of it.
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£20.00
A Vast Horizon follows the lives of Pablo Picasso and his free-spirited friends, including Lee Miller and Man Ray, in the tumultuous years around the Second World War.
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£10.99
A gripping, explosive murder mystery by acclaimed true crime writer Susannah Stapleton.
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£12.99
Fernande Olivier, Olga Khokhlova, Marie-Therese Walter, Dora Maar, Francoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque. These six extraordinary women shared Pablo Picasso’s life and were instrumental in his career, yet they have long been dismissed as simply passive models or muses. This title reveals that their lives were – without exception – remarkable. All six were unconventional, independent and talented. All six were tested, both by Picasso’s subterfuges and betrayals, and the wider social turbulence they lived through. The extent to which each influenced Picasso’s art in major new directions has never been fully acknowledged. Sue Roe delves deeply into the truth of the women’s experiences to tell the story of Picasso’s women from their point of view.
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£18.99
Behind this great and famous artist is a volatile, voracious, nervous yet reckless man, largely unknown. Jackie Wullschläger’s enthralling biography, based on thousands of never-before translated letters and unpublished sources, is the first account of Monet’s turbulent private life and how it determined his expressive, sensuous, sensational painting. He was as obsessional in his love affairs as in his love of nature, and changed his art decisively three times when the woman at the centre of his life changed. Enduring devastating bereavements, he pushed the frontier of painting inward, to evoke memory and the passing of time. His work also responded intensely to outside cataclysms – the Dreyfus Affair, the First World War. This rich and moving biography immerses us in that passionate experience, transforming our understanding of the man, his paintings and the fullness of his achievement.
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£25.00
Well-known and loved as a cookery writer and presenter, this is Mary Berry’s deeply personal account of the second great love of her life, gardening. She shares her love of growing plants, visiting gardens, and getting hands-on in her own plot.
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£25.00
An illuminating biography of the Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe, written by award-winning biographer Andrew Wilson.Â
