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Michael Palin embarked on filming Around the World in 80 Days with some trepidation – it did not seem like a good time to step away from the career he had spent over two decades cultivating. Travelling to Work reveals his doubts and struggles as he worked on a novel, continued to act, and failed to resist the lure of filming Pole to Pole and Full Circle.

Ryan O’Neal, star of Love Story and Bones, and Charlie’s Angel Farrah Fawcett seemed a golden couple. Their romance was complex though, and fell apart in 1994 only to be rekindled in the years before her early death. This frank memoir addresses the insecurities and unsavoury moments in their relationship while also expressing O’Neal’s love and regrets.

In 2013, tired of shabby flatshares and frenetic London life, Danie Couchman bought a narrowboat. Unable to afford a permanent mooring, she moved every fortnight, navigating the Thames, the Grand Union Canal and the River Lea. In five years of itinerant, off-grid living in this urban wilderness, she reconnected with nature and found friends amid the eclectic, nomadic community of boat-dwellers.

The acclaimed children’s author recalls his wartime childhood on Alderley Edge, the distinctive Cheshire landscape that shaped his fictions such as The Owl Service. He recalls the sounds of German bombers, air-raid sirens and ack-ack guns, his father joining the army, life at the village school, and the arrival of the Americans with sweets and chewing gum. From this vivid evocation of a vanished England, he leaps forward to the 21st century and a reunion with a childhood friend.

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Martin Bell has seen war from both sides, first as a soldier and then as a journalist, reporting from some of the worst conflicts of recent decades. In this personal account he describes his experiences in Vietnam, Bosnia and Northern Ireland, and reflects on the way that journalism has changed. In the face of ‘embedded’ reporting, ‘infotainment’, social media and ‘post-truth’, he issues an impassioned call to put substance back into the news.

As the daughter of an American citizen, Mary Berg belonged to a tiny minority of those held in the Warsaw ghetto during the Second World War who were given some privileges. The diary she started on her fifteenth birthday is a compassionate account of the day-to-day suffering she witnessed there.

After booking The Pretty Things for a student dance and becoming their manager, Bryan Morrison’s career developed organically. His autobiography recalls his rapid rise in the music industry, representing a host of top stars before expanding into music publishing and developing a business empire.

As Director of the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A, Sir Roy Strong was a leading figure in Britain’s cultural life. His second volume of diaries begins as he leaves the public stage to devote himself to writing and his love of gardening. With a rich and diverse cast of characters including Tony Blair, Judi Dench, Elton John, Laurence Olivier, Harold Pinter, Margaret Thatcher and the Queen, it casts a wryly humorous eye over the turn of the millennium.

In this wryly self-deprecating memoir, the former punk musician and TV director turns the spotlight on her family, probing her dysfunctional relationships with parents and siblings, and the secrets and rivalries that made her a lifelong rebel.

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More interested in basketball than cricket when growing up in Antigua, Curtly Ambrose quickly rose through the ranks when he started to take the game seriously, establishing himself as the world’s leading fast bowler in the 1990s. His biography charts his meteoric rise and achievements in international cricket and reveals his opinions on the game, on his teammates and on Caribbean and sporting politics.

Josephine Reynolds was 12 when her family home in west Wales burned down. In 1981, aged 17, she joined the fire service. This memoir tells how she coped in this all-male environment, while dealing with forest fires, escaped zoo animals and unexploded bombs.

James Herriot’s classic tales of veterinary life in Yorkshire have recently inspired a new television adaptation. This second volume continues the stories of eccentric brothers Tristan and Siegfried, and Herriot’s early romantic encounters with Helen in the late 1930s.

Moeen Ali has been one of England’s most popular cricketers of recent years, with high points including wrapping up a 2017 test against South Africa with a hat-trick, and being named Player of the Series. This autobiography discusses his street cricket roots and his journey from county level to international scene, while also giving an extended insight into his family background and personal faith.

Spanning four decades, from an interview with Rock (US) magazine in 1973, less than a month after the release of Springsteen’s first album, to his keynote speech at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival in 2012, this is The Boss speaking to journalists or directly to his audience. Slightly off-mint.

Although less lauded than some of the glamorous players around him, fellow pros and coaches acknowledged that Michael Carrick held a key role in Manchester United’s winning team in the last decade of Alex Ferguson’s reign. This autobiography reveals his thoughts about his time at West Ham, Spurs, United and England, and the players and managers he worked with including Harry Redknapp, Cristiano Ronaldo and David Beckham.

Running a farm in Northumberland with 200 sheep, chickens, barley and wheat crops, and a micro-brewery and wedding venue operating from the outbuildings, requires many skills. Recording the work of the farm through the year, Sally Urwin gives an insight into the challenges, amusements and frustrations she encounters, from bringing in the harvest, lambing and sheep shearing to fixing dry stone walls and attending the village talent contest.

The celebrated performance poet recalls the racism he faced growing up in 1980s Birmingham, how music and poetry rescued him from a life of crime, and how his tribute to Nelson Mandela led to friendship with the man himself.

In his final book, Primo Levi turned once again to his time in Auschwitz, and the lessons to be drawn from it. He reflects on the necessity of bearing witness to the truth, on survivor guilt, his feelings towards the Germans and the futility of hatred, and delivers a sobering reminder that, with would-be dictators waiting in the wings, the unimaginable could happen again.

In a long career working for the BBC, ITN and Sky News, award-winning journalist Jeremy Thompson travelled the world to report on events including the Tiananmen Square massacre and the release of Nelson Mandela. His autobiography offers a glimpse behind the scenes in the newsroom and shares both poignant and amusing moments during assignments, from the Miners’ Strike to the election of Donald Trump.

Chris Adams played a handful of Tests and One Day Internationals for England in 1989 and 1990 but it was on the county scene where he distinguished himself: as a leading run-scorer and championship-winning captain of Sussex in the 2000s. This autobiography reflects on his experiences in domestic and international cricket and his thoughts about coaching and captaincy.

Born in 1947, Wilko Johnson read English at university, hit the hippie trail to Afghanistan and taught Shakespeare in a secondary school before becoming Dr Feelgood’s mesmerizing guitarist in the 1970s. His candid and often funny memoir tells his story from first love in Canvey Island, through rock stardom, to not dying with cancer.

Drawing on his own youthful friendship with the novelist and hundreds of interviews with those who knew him, Andrew Turnbull recreates Fitzgerald’s itinerant childhood as his father sought work, his studies at Princeton, literary success, marriage to the troubled Zelda, and his struggle with alcoholism.

First published in 1946 Wladyslaw Szpilman’s account of his survival in the Warsaw Ghetto inspired the Oscar-winning film The Pianist. Reprinted here with diary extracts by the German officer who saved him, it offers a picture of the claustrophobia and terror of ghetto life.

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The flamboyant director of the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A has been at the heart of Britain’s high society for half a century. Amusing and often acerbic, his diaries chronicle two decades of parties, meetings and tussles over funding, with a cast of characters including Margaret Thatcher, the Royal Family, David Hockney, Mick Jagger and Rudolph Nureyev. This new edition includes entries omitted when the diaries were first published.

Coming to prominence on television at the age of 35, Nick Nolte has since earned three Oscar nominations for his film performances. This autobiography explores his early life in Iowa and years as a model as well as his Hollywood career and high-profile addiction problems. Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Founder and lead guitarist of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones has a good claim to be one of the most influential figures in rock history. His autobiography reveals how he went from petty crime in West London to pop stardom, and most recently, radio host.

Born to sharecroppers in Georgia, Martin Luther King, Sr. (1899–1984) was a prominent Baptist preacher. This memoir, first published in 1980, recounts his struggles against racism, and his fatherly pride and anxiety as his son became the leading light of the Civil Rights movement.

Jonathan Cranston treats cows, dogs, pigs and cats at his Cotswolds veterinary practice, but he has also had a remarkable career working around the world with species including crocodiles, rhinos and pandas, and as an advisor on the Jurassic World franchise. In this anecdotal collection he shares some of his more peculiar and poignant experiences, which include microchipping armadillos, anaesthetising giraffes, birthing calves, castrating a sugar glider and encountering victims of rhino poaching.

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Maud Berridge (1844–1907) made five voyages with her husband, Master Mariner Henry Berridge, from Gravesend to Melbourne and back. One of these, on the clipper Superb, was a trip of 14 months, rounding both the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, and stopping off in Polynesia and San Francisco. Interweaving Maud’s diaries with contemporary reports and a modern commentary, her great-granddaughter has assembled an account of a Victorian captain’s wife’s adventures at sea.

‘Why is this lying bastard lying to me?’ With this question in mind, Britain’s most incisive interviewer has skewered politicians from John Major to Theresa May on national television. Now, in this long-awaited memoir, he reflects on a career that has taken him to many of the world’s trouble spots, from Beirut to Belfast. Funny and poignant, it is packed with revealing anecdotes about the great, the good and the rotters he has met.

First published in 1929, Robert Graves’s classic account of his experiences in the First World War recreates the horror of trench warfare and the shell shock that followed, while reflecting on the irony of his own German ancestry.

Challenges in Matt Lucas's childhood included losing his hair and his father going to prison before he was 11. This autobiography describes how his experiences shaped him and how he has built his career through hit shows such as Little Britain and Shooting Stars.

The actor Robert Webb writes humorously about the often rigid expectations faced by boys and men, and reflects on how his personal experiences and relationships have come to frame his interpretation of what it is to be a man.

First published in 1948, this Second World War reportage relates the experiences of Anita Leslie, the daughter of a baronet and a distant cousin of Winston Churchill. Her account includes descriptions of working for the Mechanised Transport Corps, driving an ambulance for the Free French Forces, writing letters home from Hitler’s office in the Reich Chancellery, and marching in the Victory Parade in Berlin.

Trained as a jet pilot in the late 1950s when Britain was still a leading air power, Richard Johns achieved the top rank in the RAF in 1997, by which time Britain's military capacity had been much reduced. His autobiography examines his key operations as commander, including the First Gulf War and Balkan conflict in the 1990s, as well as reflecting on the evolution of the RAF and the other services during his career.

Wainwright’s Pictorial Guides made him a household name among fellwalkers. Here, he looks back in old age to his Blackburn boyhood, his work in local government and his discovery of the Lake District. Illustrated with his own drawings and photographs.

‘I’d like to get one thing straight. I am not old. I know what old is, and I’m not it.’ This light-hearted guide to retirement discusses the amusing and exasperating points of ageing, from what to do with your spare time and coping with the changing attitudes and manners of younger generations to worrying about declining physical fitness and the perils of social media.

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Chef, television presenter and award-winning businesswoman Prue Leith (b.1940) is one of Britain’s foremost culinary authorities and has helped to revolutionize the country’s eating habits. In this candid and witty autobiography she describes her childhood in apartheid South Africa, her arrival in London in the 1960s and her rapid ascent to restaurant owner, Daily Mail columnist and cookery book author.

Lead singer and lyricist on many of the Beach Boys' biggest hits, Mike Love has often been blamed for the quarrels that divided the group. In this autobiography he offers his side of the story. Off-mint with felt-tip mark on the lower trimmed edge.

As the chief reporter and news editor for the News of the World, Neville Thurlbeck was one of Fleet Street's most prominent journalists for over 20 years. In this memoir he recalls the most sensational scoops and scandals, including the Jeffrey Archer perjury case, the David Beckham and Rebecca Loos affair, and a variety of stories involving politicians, celebrities, serial killers and even MI5.

This collection of essays takes a balanced look at the successes and failures of John Major’s government, and re-evaluates its legacy. Contributions from politicians including Charles Clarke, Paddy Ashdown and John Redwood and commentators such as Peter Oborne and Christian Wolmar reflect on the government’s fragile majority, battles over Europe and the Maastricht treaty, the Exchange Rate Mechanism debacle, the first Gulf War, and the Northern Ireland peace process.

Born in the Welsh valleys, Joan Ruddock went on to lead the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament before becoming an MP and the first Minister for Women in the Blair government. In this memoir, she recalls the hard lives of her parents, which fuelled her passion for social justice, her career as campaigner and politician, the euphoria she felt after the 1997 election, and the frustration and disillusionment that followed.

Something of a national treasure, thanks to her appearances as the archetypal mum in the Oxo television commercials, Lynda Bellingham (1948–2014) was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2013. In this memoir, she reflects on her life and continuing work while undergoing treatment for the disease as well as her relationships with her family, and her quest to find her birth father, having been adopted in infancy.

Jeremy Vine succeeded Jimmy Young as presenter of Radio 2's phone-in show in 2003 and since then has taken over 25,000 calls – including the joyous, the furious and the occasional joker. As well as his radio show, Vine is a familiar face on television, and his book describes working on everything from general election coverage to Strictly Come Dancing, but his emphasis is on his listeners ‘and all the surprises they spring’. Slightly off-mint.

At the helm of EMI Records for 20 years from 1954, Joseph Lockwood transformed the company, focusing on pop music rather than classical and exploiting the phenomenal success of the Beatles. This biography by his long-time personal assistant and friend describes his journey from managing and designing flour mills to his time at EMI, after which he became a member of the Arts Council and Chairman of the Royal Ballet, and was instrumental in the building of the National Theatre.

Admiral Sir Reginald ‘Blinker’ Hall (1870–1943) was the Director of Naval Intelligence throughout the First World War; Room 40 was his Admiralty HQ. In the 1920s he wrote an autobiography, but it was banned by government order. The parts that have survived, published here with commentary by Philip Vickers, give an absorbing account of Room 40's staff and their top-secret work, including the decryption of the Zimmermann telegram and the interception of Kaisermarine’s cypher system.

In 2013 Benedict XVI became the only Pope to resign from office in modern times. In these conversations with the religious journalist Peter Seewald, he discusses the reasons for his resignation and his admiration for his successor, speaking frankly about the controversies that have dogged the Church, including ‘Vatileaks’ and the child abuse scandal, and revealing his thoughts about his life, his philosophy, his mistakes, and the future of Christianity.

Rudolf Hoess was Commandant of Auschwitz from its construction in 1940 until late 1943, and supervised the murder of over three million Jews as part of the Nazis’ ‘final solution’. He was an expert in the administration of concentration camps and mass exterminations. Hoess wrote this autobiography in 1947 while in prison in Poland. He was tried, sentenced and hanged later that year. The autobiography and other documents are translated here by Constantine Fitzgibbon, with an introduction by Primo Levi.

Using his mother’s diary and letters, the novelist Christopher Isherwood relates the story of his parents’ marriage: how Kathleen, the lively daughter of a successful wine merchant, fell in love with Frank, the shy, artistic son of a country squire. This family history evokes an Edwardian world of amateur music-making, rising hemlines and social change – a world brought to an end by the Great War during which Frank Isherwood was killed.

While a junior reporter, Michael Parkinson played cricket for Barnsley and counted Geoffrey Boycott and Dickie Bird amongst his team mates. Detailing his rise from local journalist to national broadcaster, this memoir relates his experiences in the television industry over a 40-year period, including the infamous TV-am launch, and his thoughts about the many famous and influential people he interviewed on his long-running chat show and Desert Island Discs.

The daughter of the founder of the Simon and Schuster publishing empire, Carly Simon, explores her privileged childhood and the experiences of her rise to musical stardom in this memoir of her early life.

John Le Carré has drawn on his years in British intelligence to create a body of fiction that explores the moral ambiguities of our world. In this long-awaited memoir, he provides vivid, insightful, and often very funny cameos of his con-man father Ronnie, meeting Margaret Thatcher, the casinos of Monte Carlo, New Year’s Eve with Yasser Arafat, watching Alec Guinness preparing for his role as George Smiley, and the aid worker who inspired The Constant Gardener. Off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

After a childhood in Chicago overshadowed by his father’s alcoholism, a public school education in England, the return to Los Angeles and a lucrative career in the oil business, Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) turned to writing in middle age. This biography follows Chandler’s uneven path to a late career as a writer and the fame of novels such as The Big Sleep and Double Indemnity, which raised crime fiction to the level of art.

As the host of Radio 4's PM for 15 years, Eddie Mair established a unique style, bringing deadpan humour to the programme alongside hard-hitting political interviews and serious news journalism. This collection of his weekly columns, which were published in the Radio Times between 2010 and 2016, reflects his idiosyncratic wit and mischievous tone, lampooning contemporary political events, poking fun at his fellow broadcasters and musing on the quirks of everyday life.

As a revolutionary players' union rep, innovative manager and pioneering presenter and pundit, Jimmy Hill had a profound effect on football. This new edition of his autobiography, first published in 1998, contains an additional chapter reflecting on his remarkable career.

Escaping the British weather to Corfu, the Durrell family find themselves sharing a ramshackle villa with young Gerald’s menagerie of scorpions, geckoes, bats and butterflies in this captivating account of human and animal eccentricities.

This selection from Pepys’s famous diaries covers the years 1660 to 1666 and includes the diarist’s first-hand accounts of the Plague and the Great Fire of London, as well as descriptions of his day job, running the Navy. Read by Michael Maloney.

Principally remembered as the James Bond of the 1970s and 1980s, Roger Moore (1927–2017) made his first film appearances in the 1940s and was hired and fired from a Hollywood contract in the 1950s before making his name in television. This collection of autobiographical sketches recalls his childhood, wartime experiences and national service, as well as his show-business career, and includes family stories and musings on modern life.

From joining the ‘train boys’ en route to boarding school, aged eight, to ‘Cambridge Scholar Elect’ signing up for temporary teaching work, aged twenty, Stephen Fry narrates his progress through adolescent misery and love affairs, expulsion, prison and criminal conviction. Disarmingly honest and full of engrossing digressions, Fry’s gay coming-of-age autobiography has been described as ‘a pleasure to read, mixing the outrageous acts with sensible opinions in bewildering confusion’ (Financial Times). Felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Diana Athill had read Waguih Ghali’s novel, Beer in the Snooker Club, long before she met and fell in love with him. Love turned to friendship, and Ghali, or ‘Didi’, carried on living in her flat, where he ultimately took his own life. Published 13 years later, this is Athill’s honest account of the three years they spent together.

After stints in regional theatre in Leeds, Birmingham and Bristol, Tony Robinson played small parts on television during the 1970s, including presenting Play Away, and began to make his name as a comedian in the early 1980s with the sketch show Who Dares Wins. The Blackadder star reads his engaging autobiography in this 12-CD set.

As one of Fagin's boys in the original production of Oliver!, Tony Robinson's understudy was Steve Marriott, later of the Small Faces, and he'd had a 20-year career in regional theatre and minor television work before Blackadder and Time Team, for which he is now principally known. In this autobiography he discusses his long professional career as well as his childhood in North London and his political and campaigning work.