Biography & Memoir

Maya Angelou’s empowering and moving memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is newly introduced and illustrated in this beautifully crafted Folio edition.

The Folio Society presents an exquisite gold-and-leather hardback of Essays by Renaissance nobleman and thinker Michel de Montaigne.

Night is one of the first and one of the greatest Holocaust memoirs. The new Folio Society edition is illustrated with art by survivors and witnesses and is published alongside Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

The Folio Society’s three-volume set of the journals of Captain Cook from 1768–1779, published to mark the first voyage’s 250th anniversary, is accompanied by a chart of the voyages bound in cloth.

Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell’s brutally honest account of his experience as a militiaman during the Spanish Civil War. The Folio Society edition is illustrated with 35 black and white photographs sourced from Magnum and Catalan archives.

The Folio Society’s definitive edition of Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl, illustrated with family photographs and featuring the binding design from her original diary. 

The gripping life-story of Douglas Bader, double amputee and Second World War fighter ace.

The captivating memoir of an unusual 19th-century childhood from pioneering wood engraver, and Charles Darwin’s granddaughter, Gwen Raverat.

Novelist and linguist Anthony Burgess’s study paints a fascinating portrait of a man who is both one of history’s most famous figures, and one of its biggest mysteries.

A magnificent, spirited portrait of life as a secret agent in occupied France.

Chateaubriand requested that his memoirs remain unpublished until after his death lest he be forced to be ‘less frank and truthful’. The result is a hugely entertaining autobiography, providing a vivid picture of France during the most tumultuous period of her history.

Paul Brickhill’s account of 617 Squadron’s legendary bombing raid is an exhilarating read, showcased in a suitably dramatic red and black binding.

One of the most fascinating women in history, brilliantly re-examined in a stellar biography.

Blending investigative journalism with the personal approach of a writer both fascinated and appalled by her subject, this is an award-winning portrait of life under ‘one of the most savage surveillance regimes ever known’. With previously unpublished photographs by the author.