In 1771, at the age of 65, Benjamin Franklin sat down to write his autobiography, having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity. The result is a classic of American literature.

Reissue of Frank McCourt's sad, funny, bittersweet memoir of growing up in New York in the 30s and in Ireland in the 40s.

In July 1942, thirteen-year-old Anne Frank and her family, fleeing the horrors of Nazi occupation, went into hiding in an Amsterdam warehouse. Over the next two years, Anne describes not only the daily frustrations of living in such close quarters, but also her thoughts, feelings and longings as she grows up.

From hustling, drug addiction and armed violence in America's black ghettos Malcolm X turned to the puritanical fervour of the Black Muslims. He became identified in the white press as a teacher of race hatred. This autobiography reveals his integrity and the fierce idealism which led him to reject both liberal hypocrisies and black racialism.

New edition.

* One of America's most important classics, the first and best loved volume of Maya Angelou's bestselling six-volume autobiography is reissued in a new look to coincide with the publication of Celebrations

Born into a Jewish ghetto in Hungary, as a child, Elie Wiesel was sent to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald. This title presents an account of that atrocity: the ever-increasing horrors he endured, the loss of his family and his struggle to survive in a world that stripped him of humanity, dignity and faith.

Details the life of the internationally famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass, from his birth into slavery in 1818 to his escape to the North in 1838 - how he endured the daily physical and spiritual brutalities of his owners and drivers, how he learned to read and write, and how he grew into a man who could only live free or die.

A hilarious work that evokes the terrible beauty of youth like a young Bob Dylan, frothing with furious anger.

A candid portrait of a global leader who decided in early life to devote his intellectual and political gifts, and his extraordinary capacity for hard work, to serving the public. This book presents the life of a great national and international figure, President Bill Clinton revealed with all his talents and contradictions.

Winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1965, Richard Feynman was one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists, but he was also a man who fell, often jumped, into adventure. This work presents the taped conversations that Feynman's had with his friend Ralph Leighton over a period of years.

The first volume in a series of memoirs by an influential musician and songwriter.

Lewis was for many years an atheist, and in this text he describes the spiritual quest which eventually convinced him of the truth and reality of the Christian faith.

Tells the story of Marjane Satrapi's life in Tehran from the ages of six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. This title paints a portrait of daily life in Iran and of the bewildering contradictions between home life and public life.

An autobiography of Stephen Fry's first twenty years, this book talks about his family, about his homosexuality, about the agonies of childhood.

An autobiography of Vladimir Nabokov. It presents recollections - of his comfortable childhood and adolescence, of his rich, liberal-minded father, his beautiful mother, an army of relations and family hangers - on and of grand old houses in St Petersburg and the surrounding countryside in pre-Revolutionary Russia.

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.

Presents an account of the author's life up until that 'bitter leave-taking': from his childhood and desperately unhappy school days at Charterhouse, to his time serving as a young officer in the First World War that was to haunt him throughout his life.

At last...the Number 1 bestselling writer offers a unique insight into his life and work as well as inspiring advice and instruction on writing.

This is the story of a boy whose mother (a poet with delusions of grandeur) gave him away to be raised by her psychiatrist, a dead ringer for Santa Claus and a certifiable lunatic. Suddenly at the age of 12, Augusten found himself living in a dilapidated Victorian house in perfect squalor.