Showing titles in Biographies & Memoirs

Throughout LGBTQ+ history, suburbia has been seen as somewhere to escape from: a place where heterosexuality rules; where difference will not be tolerated; where you'll never find a soulmate. But for many, those streets of twitching curtains and pebble-dashed semis were - or still are - a place to call home. From Addlestone to Wilmslow, Tales of the Suburbs explores the relatively untold twentieth century tale of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer people in suburbia.

With intolerance and inequality increasingly normalised by the day, it's more important than ever for women to share their experiences. We must hold the truth to account in the midst of sensationalism and international political turmoil. Nasty Women is a collection of essays, interviews and accounts on what it is to be a woman in the 21st century. People, politics, pressure, punk. Keep telling your stories.

Winner of the Speakies award for the Best Self-Help Audiobook Read by the author, Suzi Ruffell, this audiobook includes exclusive behind-the-scenes conversations between Suzi and special guests, including Romesh Ranganathan, Josh Widdecombe, Tom Allen, Maisie Adams, Rosie Jones, and her mum. 'A...

In the wake of a disastrous two-year relationship, Melissa Febos decided to take a break—for three months she would abstain from dating, relationships and sex. Her friends were amused. Did she really think three months was a long time? But to Melissa, it was. Ever since her teens, she had been in one relationship or another. It was time to focus on herself and examine the lifelong patterns that had got her to this point. When those three months ended, she decided to extend her celibate period, fearing that she had not yet gained the clarity she was searching for.

In this groundbreaking book spanning decades of artistic risk-taking, the inventor of “industrial music”, founder of Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, and world-renowned fine artist with COUM Transmissions, Genesis P-Orridge (1950-2020) takes us on a journey searching for identity and their true self. It is the story of a life of creation and destruction, where Genesis P-Orridge reveals their unwillingness to be stuck—stuck in one place, in one genre, or in one gender.

This remarkable memoir is the classic account of the transgender journey. It is all the more extraordinary because it is the life story of a figure who, it seemed, seamlessly and publicly charted a course through the English establishment - James Morris, outstanding journalist, historian and travel writer, famed for a peerless writing style. But all the while he was concealing a very different inner world: from the age of four he felt that, despite his body, he was really a girl.

Shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards, Christopher Bland Prize and The People's Book Prize A Waterstones Best Memoir of 2024 An Independent and Stylist Best Non-Fiction Book The captivating true story of an underdog business – a feminist bookshop founded in Thatcher’s Britain – from a...

We know Will as a multi-platinum recording artist, Olivier-nominee and the first winner of the Idol franchise. But his story began long before his first audition. Looking back on a world where growing up being called gay was the ultimate insult and coming out after a lifetime of hiding his sexuality, Will explores the long-lasting impact repressing his true self has had. Here you will find a friend, champion and mentor, breaking taboos with frank honesty and offering invaluable practical advice on overcoming the difficult issues too often faced within the LGBTQ+ community.

From comedian and TikTok star Kevin James Thornton comes a hilarious and heartfelt story of growing up in a Christian fundamentalist church, turning trauma into comedy, and finding your own way. Growing up in the 90s in a small town in Indiana, Kevin James Thornton had little notion he would one...

When Greg's straight best friend Dale tells him he's spending the summer at Marine Corps boot camp on Parris Island, all Greg hears is "summer" and "camp." So, he signs up too. Never mind that he's underweight, out of shape—and gay, which is illegal in the U.S. military at the time. Yes, it's insanely dangerous for both of them. But as fate would have it, the Few and the Proud turn out to be a bunch of oddballs and eccentrics—and a brotherhood is born.

Brought to you by Penguin. My friends will respect me, I hope, just as much under my jacket as under my dress... So take me for a man or a woman as you wish. By the age of thirty, the novelist who had been born Aurore Dupin in 1804 had become the internationally renowned George Sand. In English...

Gareth Thomas had it all. He was a national hero, a sporting icon. He was a leader of men, captain of Wales and the British Lions. To him, rugby was an expression of cultural identity, a sacred code. It was no mere ball game. It gave him everything, except the freedom to be himself. This is the story of a man with a secret that was slowly killing him. Something that might devastate not only his own life but the lives of his wife, family, friends and teammates.

Meet Shane Jenek. Raised in the Brisbane suburbs by loving parents, Shane realises from a young age that he's not like all the other boys. At a performing arts agency, he discovers his passion for song, dance and performance, and makes a promise to himself: to find a bigger stage.

Rita Gigante grew up in a world swirling with secrets, lies, and multiple sins. Her father, notorious Mafia boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, was the leader of the Genovese crime clan and the head of all five New York crime families for decades. But until Rita was sixteen, she was kept in the dark about his underworld activities. She unknowingly hung out at mob headquarters and witnessed her dad's whispered meetings around the dinner table, but only knew what she was told by her mother and siblings about his odd behavior: Dad's sick. Keep your mouth shut. Don't talk about the family.

Who was the real love of Freddie Mercury's life . . . ? 'Eyewitness gold' - SUNDAY TIMES Millions of Queen and screen fans who watched the Oscar-winning film Bohemian Rhapsody believe that Mary Austin, the woman he could never quite let go of, was the love of Freddie Mercury's life. But the...

Jackie McCarthy O'Brien has led a truly remarkable life, from being born in 1961 to an Irish mother and Jamaican father (whom she never met) in Birmingham to growing up in Limerick. She was put in an industrial school as a baby by a priest for being an "illegitimate" black child and not recovered by her mother until she was five. As a teen she excelled at sport and played for Ireland in soccer, but when she was sexually harassed by a coach she changed to Irish rugby team.

In 1841, the 'peasant poet' John Clare escapes from an asylum in Epping Forest, where he had been kept for four years, and walks over 80 miles home to Northamptonshire. Suffering from poor mental health, Clare was attempting to return to his idealized first love, Mary, unaware that she had died three years earlier. In 1995, with his life in crisis and his own mental health fragile, Robert decides to retrace Clare's route along the Great North Road over a punishing four-day walk. 

Growing up, Chris Olsen believed his family was perfect. But at thirteen, his mundane life began to unravel when his mother admitted that she was an alcoholic, revealing hidden battles that profoundly impacted their family dynamic. Now, seeking to reclaim a narrative he never felt was truly his, Olsen explores his journey from a contented childhood to an adolescence and adulthood marked by trauma, resilience, and self-discovery.

A heart-breaking and hilarious memoir about the author’s fight to be true to themself WINNER OF THE POLARI FIRST BOOK PRIZE 2020 WINNER OF A SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD Amrou knew they were gay when, aged ten, they first laid eyes on Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone. It was love at first sight...

From Danny Pellegrino, creator of the hugely successful podcast Everything Iconic! Stories that will make you laugh, cry, and dig up all your awkward middle-school pictures. Growing up in small-town Ohio isn't easy, particularly when you're a closeted gay kid surrounded by... no one openly gay...