Biography & Memoir Books

You've probably heard the rumours about the world ending in 2012 right? Did you know that the smart and powerful people are secretly building three giant spaceships in which to make a getaway but it's only for them? And did you also know that to get on one of those spaceships and escape you've got t...

Dame Alison Holst holds more titles than her damehood suggests: she's been invariably described as 'Mother of the Nation', 'Queen of the Kitchen' and 'a groundbreaker in the culinary world'. In the sixties, Dame Alison singlehandedly changed the way women prepared food for their families with he...

From bestselling author Walter Isaacson comes the landmark biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Walter Is...

Join the UK's hottest new boyband on their rollercoaster ride to superstardom, with the follow-up to the Number 1 bestselling book One Direction: Forever Young: Our Official X Factor Story. Last year they were just five normal boys, who didn't even know each other, dreaming of being up on stage, wit...

Few of us have experienced life with the intensity, fury, and reckless abandon of Nikki Sixx, the wild rock star, driven entrepreneur, devoted father, former addict, bestselling author, and gifted photographer. "This Is Gonna Hurt" is part photo, part journal - but all Nikki Sixx. It is a collec...

'I've been to hell and I'm back. If you're in that same place, then I understand what you're going through.' John Kirwan was one of the most devastating wingers New Zealand, and world, rugby had ever seen. A prominent and revered figure at the dawn of the professional age of rugby, he seemed to ...

'Someone called and said Kurt died. I just f*****g lost it.' He has sold over 40 million albums. He's been in bands that have changed popular music forever. He saw his best friend commit suicide. He starts supergroups. He's the nicest guy in rock. From a bandmate's suicide to drug abuse, from Wa...

At last, the book they said would never be published. Few New Zealand rugby personalities can truly be labelled "legends". Sir Fred Allen, though, is one of those rare exceptions. Along with the great Colin Meads, Allen is an icon of the game, universally loved and a true New Zealand h...

The tale of a year-long journey from straight-talking, hard-bitten journalist to green goddess - complete with fabulous recipes and experimental disasters - all told in a smart, funny and self deprecating fashion. Wendyl Nissen is well-known as a straight talking journalist whose career has seen ...

At 7.22am on May 26th 1998, Bear entered The Guinness Book of Records as the youngest, and one of only around thirty, British climbers to have successfully climbed Everest and returned alive. He was only 23 years old. The actual ascent took Bear over ninety days of extreme weather, limited sl...

If you haven't heard of the success of 42 Below Vodka you must have been living under a rock! Initially brewed by Wellington advertising man Geoff Ross in his garage, everything about this vodka was audacious, from the very notion of making high-end vodka Downunder to its shock-and-awe advertising c...

One of the world's most famous business leaders (and a well-known avian fanatic) explores the pioneers of flight. In Reach for the Skies, Branson examines the history of aviation over the last two hundred years, putting the spotlight on trailblazers such as: * Tony Jannus, who made the first ...

In the sequel to Russell's best-selling biography 'My Booky Wook' we follow the now sober but still scandalous, sex-fuelled star on his electrifying rise to international fame. A roller coaster ride through tours, films, stand up and tabloids - this time, it's personal. “As with the clinica...

Known to millions simply as 'Smithy', Sir Charles Kingsford Smith was one of Australia's true twentieth-century legends. In an era in which aviators were superstars, Smithy was among the greatest and, throughout his amazing career, his fame in Australia was matched only by that of Don Bradman. Among...

This is a true story. It really happened. "The Game" recounts the incredible adventures of an everyday man who transforms himself from a shy, awkward writer into the quick-witted, smooth-talking Style, a character irresistible to women. But just when life is better than he could have ever dreamed...

'After years spent eating like the Hungry Caterpillar, I am sick of it. Days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and months are suddenly years. Then all of a not-so-sudden, I am 100.6 kg. The time has come for transformation.' Former champion netball player and Silver Fern April Ieremia has stru...

"The Big Miss "is Hank Haney's candid and surprisingly insightful account of his tumultuous six-year journey with Tiger Woods, during which the supremely gifted golfer collected six major championships and rewrote golf history. Hank was one of the very few people allowed behind the curtain. He was w...

How is it that someone who gets seasick and loves her two showers a day attempted to sail across the Pacific in a small yacht with her new husband and baby? It can be summed up in two words. Love. Adventure. Yep, there is the love of adventure, which is pretty self explanatory. And then there is lo...

I am about to be left in charge of the office. I'm not sure I am ready for the responsibility, so I double-check with my boss. He reassures me. 'You'll be fine, Marianne. As long as no one kills Amanullah Khan, you'll be fine.' By midday, Amanullah Khan is dead. In 2006 Marianne Elliott, ...

On 5 December 2001 New Zealand sporting and adventure hero Sir Peter Blake was killed by bandits at the mouth of the Amazon River. In this intimate account, Pippa Blake offers a private view of Sir Peter the husband and family man. Unpublished photographs from her personal albums, behind the scenes ...

Fleur Sullivan is a South Island legend, the culinary maven responsible for not one but two iconic local restaurants Olivers in Clyde and the eponymous Fleurs Place in Moeraki. Now, at the age of 72, she's running a third, The Loan and Merc in her home town of Oamaru. Her eventful career has spanned...

One of the key bands of the Seattle-based grunge movement of the 1990s, Pearl Jam broke on to the world stage with their album, Ten, which went on to become an alternative rock classic. For over two decades Pearl Jam have been one of the most influential and popular bands on the planet, but have mai...

From the man whose outrageous comments on TV divided the country, and almost caused an international incident, comes this very funny memoir. Packed with stories from his eventful childhood and his long and adventurous career in journalism, this is a gripping, often hilarious and always entertain...

Sean Fitzpatrick played for the best rugby team on the planet, the All Blacks. His aggressive, uncompromising approach made him one of the greatest players ever. Ruthless, devious and compelling to watch, he was a one-man wrecking machine. He was also an inspirational leader. Between 1986 and 1997, ...

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what Chinese parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it...Amy Chu...

Beloved television star of Fair Go, Kevin Milne's memoir is funny, insightful, incisive, moving and all-round entertaining. He talks of his long television career - 40 years - including 25 years of the long-running, top-rating Fair Go. Kevin writes in a relaxed, laconic style that draws the reader ...

His debut album has already gone platinum. His YouTube videos have received over 10 million hits. He's sung for the President of the United States. His screaming fans have stormed TV studios and shut down shopping malls. Justin Bieber is a global superstar and now, for the first time ever, he's goin...

For the first time in 40 years, the man wrongly convicted of the Crewe Murders breaks his silence to tell the full story. A NEW WITNESS COMES FORWARD: “Dear Ian, I have had information since 1970 that I have been far too frightened to release. I made an effort to inform the Police in 1970 a...

Shrek may be the star of Bendigo Station, but the back-story of the station is rich and fascinating, from its earliest days as the scene of New Zealand's richest quartz reef gold strike in the 1860s to its establishment as a 11,000 hectare sheep station producing many of New Zealand's highest qualit...

In "Business Stripped Bare", Sir Richard Branson shares the inside track on his life in business and reveals the incredible truth about his most risky, brilliant and audacious deals. Discover why Virgin tried to take on one of the world's biggest superbrands, how Virgin Mobile USA holds th...

In Paris on July 25th, 1999, Lance Armstrong made world headlines with the most stunning comeback in the history of sport: winning the Tour de France in the fastest ever time after battling against life-threatening testicular cancer just 18 months earlier. A few months after his historic victory, he...

Chelsea Handler is a woman on a mission. She's smart, sassy and not afraid to speak her mind. From an early age Chelsea knew exactly what she wanted and even in the trickiest of situations, she's never one to pass up an opportunity. Like the time she convinced her third-grade class she was shooting ...

Hunter S. Thompson's Kingdom of Fear is the wild and outrageous autobiography from the world's most notorious journalist. It's an unrestrained and uncensored account of fast living, hard drinking, sharp writing and unimaginable drug taking; of road trips, girls, guns, bikes and being accused of tryi...

'My life is a series of embarrassing incidents strung together by telling people about those embarrassing incidents.' Accolades Winner of British Book Awards: Tesco Biography of the Year Award 2008. Reviews 'Candid, funny and moving.' (Sun ) 'How in God's name did the publishers ever ...

In SCAR TISSUE Anthony Kiedis, charismatic and highly articulate frontman of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, recounts his remarkable life story, and the history of the band itself. Raised in the Midwest, he moved to LA aged eleven to live with his father Blackie, purveyor of pills, pot, and cocaine to th...

There are love stories and then there′s the story of Kristian and Rachel Anderson. When Kristian wanted to show his wife Rachel how much he loved her after learning he was terminally ill, he ended up winning a million hearts around the world, thanks to the now famous YouTube video he made for her...

Long before SKII, La Prairie, or the coveted Creme de la Mer, there was Helena Rubinstein. Your mother or grandmother probably used Helena Rubinstein creams or cosmetics once upon a time. But not that many people know about Helena's Australian connections. She was little known and has been virtuall...

Kay Schubach almost has it all - a great job, a beautiful apartment, a life of champagne and mixing it with Sydney's A-list, and a steady relationship. By chance she meets handsome and charismatic Simon. He sweeps her off her feet with promises the one thing her younger boyfriend won't give her - a ...

The census tells us that 8000 New Zealanders actively identify as Jewish and it is estimated that the broader population is probably around 25,000. There has never been an authoritative history of this country's Jewish population and yet people of Jewish descent (both secular and religious) have pla...

'A good pen can also remind us of the happiest moments in our lives, bring noble ideas into our dens, our blood and our souls. It can turn tragedy into hope and victory.' —FROM A LETTER TO ZINDZI MANDELA, DATED 10 FEBRUARY 1980   The first wholly accurate and authorised record of Nel...