Literary biography

Will Smith's transformation from a fearful child in a tense West Philadelphia home to one of the biggest rap stars of his era and then one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood history, with a string of box office successes that will likely never be broken, is an epic...

Now adapted for young readers, Senator Kamala Harris's empowering memoir about the values and inspirations that guided her life.As the first woman, African American, and South Asian American to become attorney general of California, and the second black woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate, Kamala Harris has blazed trails...

100 fascinating and brilliantly written stories about history's bravest, baddest but little known 'nasty' women from across the world.These are the women who were deemed too nasty for their times, too nasty to be recognised, too nasty to be paid for their work and sometimes too nasty to be allowed...

The life fates of the people who, during their childhood, experienced the Nazi extermination of the Jews, escaped the planned destruction and got into the castle sanatoriums of the Christian humanist Přemysl Pitter, wrote Pavel Kohn and was first published in Czech in 2000. This book has already a German...

Inspire kids with the glittering story of pop superstar Taylor Swift! This talented singer–songwriter started as a little country girl with a big dream to become a star. Little Taylor grew up on her family’s Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania. Then, at age six, she went to her first concert –...

Meet the Murdochs and the disastrously dysfunctional family of Fox News. Until recently, they formed the most powerful media and political force in America. Now their empire is cracking up and crashing down. In his irresistible trilogy on the chaotic Trump presidency - Fire and Fury, Siege, and Landslide -...

In November 2018, the New York Times published a bombshell in-depth investigation that exposed, with disturbing insider detail, how leadership decisions at Facebook enabled, and then tried to cover up, massive privacy breaches and Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The story quickly shot to the top of the paper's...

Some friendships need celebrating, some are hard to navigate, and some need a bit of tender love and care. Delve into this anthology for a tour of all aspects of friendship by your favourite classic authors.Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning pocket size classics. These beautiful...

'Unmissable. Like chancing upon an oasis, you want to drink it slowly... Subtle, unpredictable, surprising' Guardian. Things I Don't Want to Know is the first in Deborah Levy's essential three-part 'Living Autobiography' on writing and womanhood. Taking George Orwell's famous essay, 'Why I Write', as a jumping-off point, Deborah Levy offers her own indispensable...

Conflict between father and son is one of the oldest themes in literature, and in this open letter to his father - a letter which was never sent - Kafka tries to come to terms with one of the most deeply rooted obsessions of his troubled soul. Written as a...

“Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead.”So begins the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, taking us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath...

The seven rules to follow to realise your true purpose in life-distilled by Arnold Schwarzenegger from his own journey of ceaseless reinvention and extraordinary achievement, and available for absolutely anyone.The world's greatest bodybuilder. The world's highest paid movie star. The leader of the world's sixth largest economy. That these are...

Source Code describes with unprecedented candour Bill Gates’ life from his childhood in Seattle to dropping out of Harvard aged 20 in 1975. Shortly afterwards he wrote, with Paul Allen, the programme which became the foundation of Microsoft and eventually for the entire software industry, changing the way the world works and...

In one of the great English war memoirs, we learn what it is to cross the Pyrenees through freezing snow to fight fascism in Spain; to narrowly escape execution by your own side; to kill a man with a borrowed rifle and feel nothing but shame. Moving and shrapnel-sharp, A...

On a defining evening of the 1980s, Donald Trump hosted celebrities and high rollers in a Jersey Shore town to witness 21-year-old Mike Tyson knock out Michael Spinks in just 91 seconds, earning more than the annual payrolls of the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics combined. Only eight...

Kate Middleton's life's story seems like a modern-day fairy-tale. An attractive, clever, and ambitious girl from unexceptional beginnings meets and falls in love with a wealthy prince destined to be King when they are both university undergraduates. Now, with the British monarchy in transition, Catherine is Princess of Wales and...

The official illustrated history of Depeche Mode by Anton Corbijn. In November 2020, Depeche Mode were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Dave Gahan, accepting the honour, said: “I’d like to thank Anton Corbijn who thank God came in at the right time and actually made...

This unusual fictional memoir - in good part autobiographical - narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down-and-outs of two great cities. The Parisian episode is fascinating for its expose of the kitchens of posh French restaurants, where the narrator works...

I am not a man, I am dynamite Weeks before his final mental breakdown, Nietzsche set out to compose his autobiography, and Ecce Homo is the result. A summary of his life’s work as a philosopher, with chapter headings including ‘Why I Am So Wise’ and ‘Why I Write Such...

Soon to be an AppleTV+ series, this is the definitive account of how Enzo Ferrari became the master of motor racing, and one of the most complex, important and imposing figures in the 20th century. The book draws upon years of original research, conducted in Italy and abroad, and...

With a foreword by McLaren CEO Zak Brown and written with inside access, this is the real-time, unfolding story of one of F1’s greatest ever teams, as they rise back up from oblivion.Few names in motorsports carry the same authority as McLaren and, with their remarkable victory in the 2024...

'Every piece feels beautifully sewn together and complete' BERNARDINE EVARISTO'Truly insightful, conversational and unique... Absolutely brilliant' ORE AGBAJE-WILLIAMS'Intimate and moving... Elegant in tone and finely wrought in form' EKOW ESHUNCrafted over twenty-five years, I Want to Talk to You invites you into a conversation about literature, art and music, identity,...

On the morning of 12 August 2022, Salman Rushdie was sitting onstage in upstate New York, preparing to give a lecture on the importance of keeping writers safe from harm, when a man in black – black clothes, black mask – rushed down the aisle towards him, wielding a knife....

From an impoverished childhood in the Scottish highlands to Victorian London, this is the inspiring story of brothers Daniel and Alexander Macmillan who built a publishing empire - and brought Alice in Wonderland to the world. Their remarkable achievements are revealed in this entertaining, superbly researched biography. Daniel and...

How does a band come into being? What are the myriad forces that shape their sound, look and identity? In 1993, Oasis signed to Creation Records and were shortly to begin recording their first album. The following year began with a masterplan - the creation of Oasis. At the centre...

Part memoir, part masterclass 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. 'The childhood memoir is a triumphant display of wit, story-telling and guts. His...

By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair, through 1930s nuclear physics, to Flanagan’s father working as a slave labourer near Hiroshima, this chain of events culminates in a young man finding himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river, not knowing if he is to live...

Imagine your life changing in a second: one minute you are watching the football with a beer, the next you are on the floor in a pool of blood, deprived of the use of your arms and legs. This fall renders you paralysed, robbed of your independence, entirely reliant on...

‘I walked in a daze of illusions toward my future.’Deeply felt and told with an intrepid spirit, Tales from the Heart are the intimate, formative stories from the childhood of the legendary Caribbean writer, Maryse Condé. These affecting vignettes follow Condé’s early encounters with love, grief, friendship, as she navigates...

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions.In her second volume of essays, Virginia...