Can anyone recommend a good autobiography?

[pominoz]

Hitler, my part in his downfall - Spike Milligan

Remember reading this decades ago and crying with laughter. Sheer genius. The film with Jim Dale was ok and gave a hint of the comedy, but the book is superb. And it has sequels!

Top shout, funny as fuck. All the other books are just as good.

 

[Bigg Bigg Blue]

Try Bob Geldorf's, I think its called " Is that it "

 

[pominoz]

Hitler, my part in his downfall - Spike Milligan

Remember reading this decades ago and crying with laughter. Sheer genius. The film with Jim Dale was ok and gave a hint of the comedy, but the book is superb. And it has sequels!

Top shout, funny as fuck. All the other Milligan books are just as good.

 

[gazhinio]

One of the very best autobiographies I have read was The Grass Arena by John Healy.
He was a talented young amateur boxer who joined the army, then got kicked out and hit the skids.
He became an alcoholic and a vagrant in 60s and 70s London, boozing, thieving and brawling his life away in the streets and parks of the capital.
The tales of the weird camaraderie and code of honour among the winos and the violence, brutality and contempt he experiences at the hands of his fellow hobos, police, doctors and prison guards are at times genuinely shocking.
Somewhere along the line, a kindly soul teaches him to play chess. And he is a natural. So good that he is soon entering top level competitions, and winning them. But this damaged soul knows he will never be truly accepted in that world either.
The BBC made a film of this brilliant book in the late 80s and Healy was also the subject of a feature length documentary last year.
We'll worth a read.

Just ordered that online mucca....good shout L13

 

[Bluemoon dan]

The 2 that Chris Evans has done are very interesting. Proper rise and fall stuff. I knew he had done pretty well from selling the radio station but I didn't realise how well and what he did to balls it up afterwards!

 

[bluesteve1964]

I've got 2 of Lance Armstrongs', thought they were a good read at the time, what a wanker!!! You can have them. Apparently they are now in the fiction department at Waterstones.

 

[Joliet Jake Blues]

Stan Bowles' autobiography is superb. Rough inner-city Manc kid to England international via City, Crewe, Carlisle, QPR, Brentford, women, booze and gambling.

A nice example, Stan is in his flat watching the racing

Knock on the door, it's his landlord

Landlord: "Mr. Bowles, I'm looking for your rent"

Stan: "Come in, I'll help you look for it"

 

[AustinBlue]

sweynforkbeard's is a rollicking yarn across the ages with wild gypsy love, a quick window into the inner workings of high finance, revenge killings by rival troubadour clans, tears, laughter, home-made spam recipes, and at least one or two facts that may or may not be facts.

 

[MikeBlue]

I enjoyed Ronnie O'Sullivans and like somebody said Bartons will be worth a read when he does it.

 

[jamiegrimble]

An Evil Cradling,Brian Keenan; 1991.
Brian Keenan went to Beirut in 1985 for a change of scene from his native Belfast. He became headline news when he was kidnapped by fundamentalist Shi'ite militiamen and held in the suburbs of Beirut for the next four and a half years. For much of that time he was shut off from all news and contact with anyone other than his jailers and, later, his fellow hostages, amongst them John McCarthy. A Good enough read to occasionally open it up again after all that time.