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    Biography and memoir

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    • Tuesday, 14 March, 2023
      Nilanjana Roy
      The persistence of the trauma memoir

      Where should the lines be drawn in the encouragement, promotion and marketing of stories about the misery of others?

    • Thursday, 9 March, 2023
      Africa special
      ‘The Famished Road’ and my quest for the imaginative richness of Africa

      When Ben Okri won the 1991 Booker prize, it was the culmination of a writing journey defined by literary experimentation — and upheaval

    • Wednesday, 1 March, 2023
      Review
      Manchester Unspun — the story of the city’s resurrection

      From the opening of the Haçienda to the property boom, adopted Mancunian Andy Spinoza tells a vivid story with the pride of a native

    • Tuesday, 28 February, 2023
      FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival
      Confessions by Edward Stourton — the journalist re-examines his life

      The BBC presenter reminisces about the scrapes and japes of a life lived inside the establishment

    • Friday, 24 February, 2023
      Review
      Metamorphosis — a magical memoir of a life in pieces

      Robert Douglas-Fairhurst’s account of living with multiple sclerosis is driven by his formidable intellect and humanity

    • Friday, 17 February, 2023
      Review
      Voyager — the memory of Pinochet’s victims, written in the stars

      In her extraordinary memoir, Chilean writer Nona Fernández combines astronomy and neuroscience with a refusal to forget

    • Monday, 13 February, 2023
      Review
      Two Sisters by Blake Morrison — the challenge of family memoir

      The poet’s latest book tackles the subject of his sister, who died in 2018 of heart failure

    • Thursday, 2 February, 2023
      Review
      Still Pictures — Janet Malcolm turns the lens on herself

      A sort-of memoir by the pioneering journalist who died in 2021 evades a traditional narrative

    • Tuesday, 24 January, 2023
      ReviewHistory books
      Parisian Days by Banine — model citizen

      Swept along by revolutionary forces, the young émigré seeks to realise her dreams of ‘freedom and fantasy’ in 1920s France

    • Friday, 20 January, 2023
      Review
      Toy Fights: A Boyhood — Don Paterson’s memoir

      The Scottish poet delves into the murky waters of his life and emerges with clarity and wisdom

    • Friday, 20 January, 2023
      FT Weekend podcast30 min listen
      Surviving US healthcare. Plus: Prince Harry’s 'Spare'

      Claire Bushey explores the cost of US healthcare after her treatment for breast cancer. Then, Henry Mance reviews Prince Harry’s autobiography

    • Tuesday, 10 January, 2023
      Review
      Spare by Prince Harry — complain and explain

      The memoir is arguably the most insightful royal book in a generation, yet still leaves readers with many questions about the monarchy unanswered

    • Thursday, 5 January, 2023
      ReviewKatherine Mansfield
      All Sorts of Lives — Katherine Mansfield through her stories

      Biographer Claire Harman uses the great proto-Modernist’s fiction to illuminate her dramatic, short life

    • Friday, 16 December, 2022
      Review
      Confessions by AN Wilson — a ‘multiple personality’

      Essayist-biographer’s memoir evokes Rousseau and Augustine as it charts his life’s dramas and traumas

    • Friday, 9 December, 2022
      ReviewNon-Fiction
      Dickens and Prince — Nick Hornby’s love letter to prolific genius

      Apart from a prodigious output, what artistic traits did the 19th-century novelist share with the late pop musician?

    • Thursday, 8 December, 2022
      Review
      Wild — the wayward life of Peter Beard

      Graham Boynton’s biography turns the spotlight on the American artist and adventurer

    • Wednesday, 7 December, 2022
      Review
      Come Back in September — a literary education in New York

      Darryl Pinckney’s memoir fondly recalls his friendship with Elizabeth Hardwick, the doyenne of the world of letters who mentored and supported him

    • Friday, 2 December, 2022
      Review
      Shirley Hazzard by Brigita Olubas — a writer who felt the weight of history

      A deft biography of the Australian-American author illuminates the alchemical interplay of her life and fiction

    • Friday, 2 December, 2022
      Review
      John le Carré: the lover and the letters

      Two very different books reveal the relationship between the former spy and his fiction

    • Thursday, 1 December, 2022
      Review
      Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story — Bono’s heartfelt but wordy memoir

      The U2 singer tells the story of his rise from working-class Dublin lad to rock star activist

    • Friday, 25 November, 2022
      FT SeriesBest books of the year 2022
      Best books of 2022: Classical music

      Richard Fairman selects his must-read titles

    • Wednesday, 23 November, 2022
      FT SeriesBest books of the year 2022
      Best books of 2022: Literary non-fiction

      Carl Wilkinson selects his must-read titles

    • Thursday, 17 November, 2022
      ReviewNon-Fiction
      The unintended memoirs of Paul Newman and Alan Rickman

      Would the actors have wanted private conversations and diaries repackaged and published?

    • Wednesday, 16 November, 2022
      Review
      The Successor — Lachlan Murdoch’s inheritance of a media empire

      Paddy Manning’s biography of Rupert Murdoch’s heir-apparent is colourful, but leaves some questions unanswered

    • Friday, 28 October, 2022
      Review
      Faith, Hope and Carnage — Nick Cave on life and loss

      The Australian musician releases a book of interviews conducted with the critic Seán O’Hagan

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