Biography, Autobiography & Memoirs Bestsellers
Billy T: The Life and Times of Billy T. James By Matt Elliott 
Billy T James was a larger-than-life comedian who gave us some of our best belly laughs. An accomplished singer and musician,
he created enduring characters, poking the borax at the oh-so-delicate state of race relations in New Zealand in a way that stood him head and shoulders above other performers of his era. Like John Clarke's Fred Dagg, Billy T's characters were Kiwi through and through and we loved him for it. When he died in his early forties, of complications following a heart transplant, the nation was shocked - first by his premature death, and then by one of the first highly publicised interracial body-snatching incidents. His Pakeha wife and his iwi disagreed over funeral arrangements, ending in the taking by force of his body from their home in Auckland to a marae in Ngaruawahia. The sight of iwi and family battling in the media and reports of his body being transported in a van made sickening headlines. His widow, Lynn Matthews, and a number of Billy's closest friends who have kept their silence until now, have cooperated with author Matt Elliott to tell the story of the man behind the cheeky grin and the infectious laugh. What emerges is the shy, self-doubting man the public never saw, and the death threats and exploitation of his generous nature that placed intolerablestrain on the man who only ever wanted to make us laugh. The result is perceptive, funny and endearing - just like the man himself. More
Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi
Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure even as he drove himself to become a prodigy, an inner conflict that would define him. Now, in his beautiful, haunting autobiography, Agassi tells the story of a life framed by such conflicts. Agassi makes us feel his panic as an undersized seven-year-old in Las Vegas, practicing all day under the obsessive gaze of his violent father. We see him at thirteen, banished to a Florida tennis camp. Lonely, scared, a ninth-grade dropout, he rebels in ways that will soon make him a 1980s icon. By the time he turns pro at sixteen, his new look promises to change tennis forever, as does his lightning fast return. And yet, despite his raw talent, he struggles early on. We feel his confusion as he loses to the world's best, his greater confusion as he starts to win. After stumbling in three Grand Slam finals, Agassi shocks the world, and himself, by capturing the 1992 Wimbledon. Overnight he becomes a fan favourite and a media target. Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match, and every public relationship. Alongside vivid portraits of rivals, Agassi gives unstinting accounts of his brief time with More
Peter Bush: A Life in Focus by Paul Thomas & Peter Bush
Have camera will travel. For over 50 years this has been Peter Bush's guiding maxim. Remarkably, he shot his first rugby match for the New Zealand Herald in 1949. Sixty years later he can still be seen on the sidelines of all major All Blacks matches. He is a true living legend in New Zealand photojournalism. A raconteur par excellence, Bushie's anecdotal tales from his years in the army, merchant navy and as a news photographer attached to numerous rugby tours, make for absorbing reading. While he has always been happy to have his photographic work turned into books, he has, until now, resisted all offers to produce a fully-fledged biography. His life has been one long adventure. This biography promises to be a special book on a special New Zealander.
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Ali's Book of Tall Tales by Ali Williams & James Griffin
Ali Williams breaks the mould as an All Black tight forward. A confirmed urbanite, Ali Williams switched his Super 14 allegiances from Auckland to Christchurch in 2007 after a much-publicised bust-up with Australian coach David Nucifora. In this book Williams will take a light-hearted look at rugby at the very top in New Zealand and will touch on some of the more controversial aspects of his career - including his earth-shattering dismissal from the Blues' tour of South Africa in 2007. As well, Williams will revisit the failed 2007 World Cup campaign, look at the All Blacks' rotation and reconditioning policies; the famous incident when his jaw was broken in a collision with Frenchman Sebastien Chabal and analyse differences in the Crusaders and Blues setups. He will also talk of his charity work and explain the reasons why he stayed in New Zealand after the World Cup and thus turning his back on the big bucks on offer in Europe. More
Richie McCaw: A Tribute to a Modern-day Rugby Great by John Matheson
Richie McCaw's standing within the All Blacks team is unmatched. The captain of Graham Henry's team since 2006, McCaw has carved a niche for himself as the modern-day great within the All Blacks - the charismatic, never-say-die leader whom fans of the Men in Black have come to hold in the same light as many of the most revered captains of yesteryear. Richie McCaw: A Tribute to a Modern-day Rugby Great charts the career of the proud Canterbury and Crusaders star who first burst into the national rugby conscience in 2001 when he helped his province to an NPC championship. Soon after, he was making his All Blacks debut in Dublin, beginning a test career that will ultimately culminate at the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand. Author John Matheson tells the story of how the understated McCaw has reinvented himself to emerge as the talisman for his charges in the same way that Buck Shelford, Sean Fitzpatrick and Tana Umaga have done before him. Interviews with teammates, coaches and opponents will help the reader gain a renewed respect for McCaw, as the All Blacks plan their next assault on the Rugby World Cup. Richie McCaw: A Tribute to a Modern-day Rugby Great takes the reader inside More
Charles Kingsford Smith and Those Magnificent Men
Known to millions simply as 'Smithy', Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was one of Australia's true twentieth-century legends. In an era in which aviators were superstars, Smithy was among the greatest and, throughout his amazing career, his fame in Australia was matched only by that of Don Bradman. Among other achievements, Kingsford Smith was the first person to fly across the Pacific, he broke the record for the fastest flight from England to Australia, and at one point he held more long-distance flying records than anyone else on the planet. If that wasn't enough, Smithy was also a war hero, receiving the Military Cross for gallantry in action after being shot - and losing three toes â during one of many flying missions during World War I. Smithy was not the lone adventurer of the skies. Early aviation drew to it a company of daredevils who all challenged gravity and fear. This comprehensive biography, written with typical flair by Peter FitzSimons, covers the triumphs and tragedies of not only Kingsford Smith's daring and controversial life but also those of his companion aviators. More
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Never Say Die (RIP Mr. O' Brien)
In November 2006, Chris O'Brien was diagnosed with glioblastoma multi-forme, a malignant and extremely aggressive form of cancer. As one of the country's most eminent cancer specialists, O'Brien knows that the chances of beating the brain tumour are tiny; even with chemotherapy, surgery and radiation few sufferers survive past 12 months. Nevertheless, he is determined to beat the odds. With the support of his close family and an international network of surgeons, friends and well-wishers, O'Brien took the option of radical brain surgery under the supervision of his friend Dr Charlie Teo. His level of fitness, optimistic outlook and relative youth (he was 55 when diagnosed) give him a shot at survival. Funny, charming and fearless, O'Brien said hewas not afraid to die. Here, in his inspiring memoir, he takes a look back over his life and the forces which shaped him - from his modest beginnings as part of a typical Australian-Irish family, to his early years as a doctor and football player, to life, "living on the smell of an oily rag" as a young doctor with a family in London and the US, through to the shocking news which literally changed his life. More
Parky: My Autobiography
From prize-winning journalist to chat show king on a show voted one of the top ten British TV programmes of all time, Michael Parkinson's starry career spans over four decades. Now an international celebrity himself, the man from a humble but colourful Yorkshire mining family who can tease out the secrets of even the most reticent star guest, at last reveals his own story, with the easy manner and insight that has kept his audiences fascinated. His distinguished career has involved working on highly acclaimed current affairs and film programmes. His wide interests and expertise include jazz, film, football and cricket. Witty, humorous and blessed with exceptional intellectual clarity, Michael Parkinson's memoir is a joy to read.
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Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything
It's 3 a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She's in her thirties, she has a husband, a house, they're trying for a baby - and she doesn't want any of it. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair later, she emerges battered and bewildered and realises it is time to pursue her own journey in search of three things she has been missing: pleasure, devotion and balance. So she travels to Rome, where she learns Italian from handsome, brown-eyed identical twins and gains twenty-five pounds, an ashram in India, where she finds that enlightenment entails getting up in the middle of the night to scrub the temple floor, and Bali where a toothless medicine man of indeterminate age offers her a new path to peace: simply sit still and smile. And slowly happiness begins to creep up on her.
. A Lion Called Christian
In 2008, YouTube.com featured an extraordinary film clip that soon became an internet phenomenon. It showed the emotional reunion of two young men and their pet lion, Christian, after they had left him in Africa with Born Free's George Adamson, who would introduce him into his rightful home in the wild. "A Lion Called Christian" relates how Anthony 'Ace' Bourke and John Rendall visited London from Australia in 1969 and bought a boisterous lion cub in Harrods. For a while, the three of them lived together as flatmates on the King's Road, Chelsea, where Christian became a local celebrity. But he was growing up, fast, and even the church garden in which he exercised was becoming too small for him. How could Ace and John avoid incarcerating him in a zoo for the rest of his life? A chance meeting with Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers, stars of Born Free, led to Christian being flown to Kenya and placed under the expert care of Adamson. Ace and John did not return to see him for a year. Now, thanks to the internet age, their incredible reunion is again being enjoyed by millions. Originally published in 1971, "A Lion Called Christian" has been fully revised and updated, telling Christian's remarkable story in words as well as stunning photographs. It is a unique and extraordinary tale of its time that resonates again today with a worldwide audience, and is destined to become one of the great classics of animal literature
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. Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
The son of a black African father and a white American mother, Obama was only two years old when his father walked out on the family. Many years later, Obama receives a phone call from Nairobi: his father is dead. This sudden news inspires an emotional odyssey for Obama, determined to learn the truth of his father's life and reconcile his divided inheritance. Written at the age of thirty-three, "Dreams from my Father" is an unforgettable read. It illuminates not only Obama's journey, but also our universal desire to understand our history, and what makes us the people we are.
. Forever in My Heart: The Story of My Battle Against Cancer
Jade's heart-breaking diary of her fight against terminal cancer and her final precious months with her beloved family. In August 2008 Jade Goody received the shattering news that she had cervical cancer. She was only 27 years old. But with her usual strength of character, Jade was determined to beat the disease and carry on with life as normal with her two little boys Bobby and Freddy. Neither the chemotherapy, which left her weak and bald, or the hysterectomy that crushed her dreams of having a little girl, could break Jade's sunny personality or her fierce refusal to be a victim. But in February 2009, Jade received the tragic news that any mother dreads to hear: she was going to be torn from her beloved sons. The cancer had spread and was untreatable.
Forever In My Heart is Jade's final 'love letter' to her two little boys. Covering her initial diagnosis while appearing on Celebrity Big Brother in India, their emotional last Christmas as a family, her magical wedding to her partner Jack Tweed and her dying wish to see be christened with her boys, Jade's heart-breaking diary of her final months is set against a backdrop of flashbacks to her difficult early years, her rise to fame in the Big Brother house and those moments of joy and laughter as the nation's darling. It is the powerful story of a young mother's brave fight against a terminal disease, her unique humour, her determination to provide for her sons and her fierce desire to leave a legacy which might prevent other young women being torn from their families in the prime of life. A percentage of profits from the book will be donated to Marie Curie Cancer Care.
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The master storyteller takes readers into his mind in this revealing blend of memoir and a practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. With advice grounded in his vivid memories of childhood through his emergence as a writer, up through his near-fatal accident in 1999, King relates the daily process of practiced creativity that has guided him.
"Long live the King" hailed "Entertainment Weekly" upon the publication of Stephen King's "On Writing." Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported near-fatal accident in 1999 -- and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, "On Writing" will empower and entertain. More
. Dear Fatty
Dawn French was born in Wales in 1957. She trained to be a drama teacher at London's Central School of Speech and Drama where she met Jennifer Saunders, leading to one of the most successful partnerships in British comedy.
Dawn French has numerous television credits to her name, the most notable of which is her role in The Vicar of Dibley. She is married to the comedian Lenny Henry with whom she has a daughter.
My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands
By Chelsea Handler
In this raucous collection of true-life stories, actress and comedian Chelsea Handler recounts her time spent in the social trenches with that wild, strange, irresistible, and often gratifying beast: the one-night stand.
You've either done it or know someone who has: the one-night stand, the familiar outcome of a night spent at a bar, sometimes the sole payoff for your friend's irritating wedding, or the only relief from a disastrous vacation. Often embarrassing and uncomfortable, occasionally outlandish, but most times just a necessary and irresistible evil, the one-night stand is a social rite as old as sex itself and as common as a bar stool.
Enter Chelsea Handler. Gorgeous, sharp, and anything but shy, Chelsea loves men and lots of them. My Horizontal Life chronicles her romp through the different bedrooms of a variety of suitors, a no-holds-barred account of what can happen between a man and a sometimes very intoxicated, outgoing woman during one night of passion. From her short fling with a Vegas stripper to her even shorter dalliance with a well-endowed little person, from her uncomfortable tryst with a cruise ship performer to her misguided rebound with a man who likes to play leather dress-up, Chelsea recalls the highs and lows of her one-night stands with hilarious honesty. Encouraged by her motley collection of friends (aka: her partners in crime) but challenged by her family members (who at times find themselves a surprise part of the encounter), Chelsea hits bottom and bounces back, unafraid to share the gritty details. My Horizontal Life is one guilty pleasure you won't be ashamed to talk about in the morning.
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Other Bestselling
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My Booky Wook
Russell Brand grew up in Essex . His father left when he was three months old, he was bulimic at 12 and left school at 16 to study at the Italia Conti stage school. There, he began drinking heavily and taking drugs. He regularly visited prostitutes in Soho, began cutting himself, took drugs on stage during his stand-up shows, and even set himself on fire while on crack cocaine. He has been arrested 11 times and fired from 3 different jobs -- including from XFM and MTV -- and he claims to have slept with over 2,000 women. In 2003 Russell was told that he would be in prison, in a metal hospital or dead within six months unless he went in to rehab. He has now been clean for three years. In 2006 his presenting career took off, and he hosted the NME awards as well as his own MTV show, 1 Leicester Square, plus Big Brother's Big Mouth on Channel 4. His UK stand-up tour was sold out and his BBC Radio 6 show became a cult phenomenon, the second most popular podcast of the year after Ricky Gervais. He was awarded Time Out's Stand Up Comedian of the Year and won Best Newcomer at the British Comedy Awards.In 2007 Russell hosted both the Brit Awards and Comic Relief, and continued to front Big Brother's Big Mouth. His BBC2 radio podcast became the UK's most popular. Russell writes a weekly football column in the Guardian and is the patron of Focus 12, a charity helping people with alcohol and substance misuse.
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Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog
Grogan's #1 "New York Times"-bestselling chronicle of his life with his wildly neurotic Labrador retriever is now a major motion picture from Fox 2000, starring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston
The Dirt - Motley Crue: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band
Motley Crue was the voice of a barely pubescent Generation X, the anointed high priests of the power ballad, and the pioneers of Hollywood glam. Their sex lives claimed celebrities like Heather Locklear and Pamela Anderson as well as teenage groupies all over the world. When they weren't appeasing their voracious sexual appetites, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil and Mick Mars cultivated their other interests - collecting automatic weapons, creating long and lurid rap sheets, doing every conceivable drug in every conceivable fashion and dreaming up backstage antics that would make Ozzy Osbourne blanch with modesty. Provocatively written and brilliantly designed, this book includes over 100 photos for the most insightful look ever into the Crue - the most infamous band in the world. The Dirt spent four weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and sold over 13,000 copies in hardback in the UK.
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Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the Talibanas backyard
Anyone who despairs of the individualas power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of Pakistanas treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schoolsaespecially for girlsathat offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles Mortensonas quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, "Three Cups of Tea" combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit
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