Biography & Memoir

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.

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 With previously unpublished photographs by the author.

Nepotism, murder and debauchery abound in this gripping portrait of a family that bribed their way to power in Renaissance Italy. The first illustrated edition, this is designed in series with Hibbert's The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici.

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

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

An exquisite edition of Dorothy Wordsworth's journal, famous for its nature writing and invaluable insight into the lives of the Romantic poets.

The food memoir that inspired a new way of thinking about what we eat and how we live. Illustrated with 12 pages of black and white photographs chronicling the author's remarkable life.

An inspired biography of the great naturalist and explorer, by the author of the much-loved Aubrey-Maturin novels.

Eric Newby’s story of escape and evasion, dedicated to the ordinary Italian people who saved his life, remains funny, vivid and deeply moving.

Chateaubriand requested that his memoirs remain unpublished until after his death lest he be forced to be ‘less frank and truthful’.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.

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

In a newly revised edition, Seward’s riveting biography breathes new life into one of English history’s most divisive and infamous figures.

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.

The first illustrated edition of Steinbeck's absorbing dispatches for the New York Herald Tribune.

A captivating memoir of the early days of flight, by the author of The Little Prince, with an introduction by Cecil Lewis.

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

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

Van Gogh’s famous letters transform our understanding of one of the most haunting figures in western culture. 

The gripping first-hand account of the turbulent history of Imperial Rome told through the lives of the Caesars, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, vividly translated and illustrated with wood-engraving portraits.

The bloodthirsty biographies of the world’s most infamous pirates are reproduced in this new edition of the pre-eminent piracy book, including original woodcut illustrations and the lives of Blackbeard, Kidd and many more.

The Bauers explores the fascinating history of this family of talented botanical artists who defined the genre.

The fascinating wartime correspondence of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill is brought together in The Kremlin Letters.