Biographies & Memoirs

Award-winning actor, creator of a myriad of memorable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, Miriam Margolyes is a national treasure.... 

The memoir from Australia's much-loved comedian, Hannah Gadsby, whose stand-up show and self-described swan-song, Nanette, played to sold-out houses in Australia, the UK and the US. Its launch on Netflix, and subsequent Emmy and Peabody wins, took Nanette (and Hannah) to the world....

A funny and moving trip through memories, musings and the many delights on the Number 12 route, Between the Stops is also an inspiration to us all to get off our phones, look up and to talk to each other because, as Sandi says, 'Some of the greatest trips lie on our own doorstep'....

An inspiring and intimate self-portrait of the champion of equality that encompasses her brilliant tennis career, unwavering activism and an ongoing commitment to fairness and social justice....

Stephen Fry has moved into a completely new stratosphere, both as a public figure, and a private man....

Graham Norton has been entertaining audiences and having fun with some of the world's biggest stars for nearly 20 years....

A parish priest in Northamptonshire; a former rock-star whose number-one hit with The Communards was the biggest-selling single of 1986....

Star of stage and screen. Tireless supporter of charity. Runner. Political campaigner. Fashion icon. Human. There is no one quite like Eddie Izzard....

A few years ago I was asked if I'd like to make a documentary on the Mekong River, travelling from the vast delta in Vietnam to the remote and snowy peaks of Tibet.... 

In July 2012, aged 30, Juliet Jacques underwent sex reassignment surgery and felt for the first time that her body matched the person she felt she had been since childhood....

Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness dives into his favourite subjects in Love That Story, a new collection of heartfelt and entertaining essays....

Following on from his hugely successful books, Moab Is My Washpot and The Fry Chronicles, comes the third chapter in Stephen Fry's life....

The extraordinary life of history's first modern lesbian who inspired the television series Gentleman Jack....

Richard Coles narrates this witty account of life as a parish priest and Radio 4 broadcaster....

I'd like to emphasise that I have written this audiobook myself, so be assured you're getting the tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth....

When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept some of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it....

When Jill Nalder arrived at drama school in London in the early 1980s, she was ready for her life to begin....

A poignant and hilarious memoir from the cultural icon, gay rights activist, and four-time Tony Award-winning actor and playwright, revealing never-before-told stories of his personal struggles and conflict, of sex and romance, and of his fabled career....

Jill Gutowitz’s life—for better and worse—has always been on a collision course with pop culture. There’s the time the FBI showed up at her door because of something she tweeted about Game of Thrones....

In Trans Like Me, CN Lester takes listeners on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community....

From the incomparable Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Award winner, Unprotected is the story of a singular artist in his own words - a powerful and revealing autobiography about race, sexuality, and art....

Meet Shane Jenek. Raised in the Brisbane suburbs by loving parents, Shane realises from a young age that he's not like all the other boys. At a performing arts agency, he discovers his passion for song, dance and performance, and makes a promise to himself: to find a bigger stage....

In To Be a Gay Man, Will Young speaks out about gay shame, revealing the impact it had on his own life, how he learned to deal with it and how he can now truthfully say he is gay and happy....

This remarkable memoir is the classic account of the transgender journey...

A coming-of-age memoir about growing up queer in a strict Muslim household....

A woman, groomed to be a wife and mother, discovers through her clandestine interaction with a free-spirited foreigner that she has a right to determine her own destiny. Every step Elena takes toward personal liberation is considered treason by her society, driving her deeper and deeper underground and threatening her escape from Russia. Elena Vaytsel is one of the two women featured in BBC's Outlook Weekend: The Voyage of Meg and Elena, and NPR's Snap Judgment: Kismet, for their escape from Russia and yearlong planet-crossing run for their lives and freedom.

Part butch memoir, part ekphrastic travel diary, part queer family tree, Raquel Gutiérrez’s debut essay collection, Brown Neon, gleans insight from the sediment of land and relationships. For Gutiérrez, terrain is essential to understanding that no story, no matter how personal, is separate from the space where it unfolds.  

Meet Shane Jenek. Raised in the Brisbane suburbs by loving parents, Shane realises from a young age that he's not like all the other boys. At a performing arts agency, he discovers his passion for song, dance and performance, and makes a promise to himself: to find a bigger stage. 

Four years ago, Colton Haynes woke up in a hospital. He’d had two seizures, lost the sight in one eye, almost ruptured a kidney, and been put on an involuntary psychiatry hold. Not yet thirty, he knew he had to take stock of his life and make some serious changes if he wanted to see his next birthday. As he worked towards sobriety, Haynes allowed himself to become vulnerable for the first time in years and with that, discovered profound self-awareness. Now, Colton bravely pulls back the curtain on his life and career, revealing the incredible highs and devastating lows.

Growing up a Guyanese Indian immigrant in Central Florida, Rajiv Mohabir is fascinated by his family’s stifled Hindu history and the legacy of his ancestors, who were indentured laborers on British sugarcane plantations. In Toronto he sits at the feet of Aji, his unlettered grandmother, listening to stories and songs in her Caribbean Bhojpuri. By now Aji’s eleven children have immigrated to North America and busied themselves with ascension, Christianity, and the erasure of their heritage. But Rajiv wants to know more: where did he come from, and why does he feel so out of place?

A story of rough beginnings as I struggled to find gender and sexual identity in a small country town in North Carolina in the 1940s and '50s. I found my way to fame and fortune. My goal in sharing this is to help someone who may find themselves in a similar situation. You can survive.

The Wisdom of Guncles is about queer people and our relationship with family—however we choose to define it. Featuring a diverse pantheon of gay uncles (“guncles”) and other queer mentors, these stories offer unique perspectives about life, love, and personal empowerment. With each chapter, I examine what various LGBTQ+ experiences teach about disrupting norms, exploring identity, and creating chosen families that affirm one’s truth. 

Growing up queer in a conservative Midwestern town, Gabe Montesanti never felt comfortable in her own skin. A competitive swimmer, she turned to perfectionism and self-control to create a sense of safety, only to develop an eating disorder and constantly second-guess her instincts. When she enters graduate school in St. Louis, she is determined to put the baggage of her childhood behind her.

Buddy Cole, the acid-tongued raconteur created by comedian Scott Thompson, earned international fame as one of the most beloved characters on Kids in the Hall. Originally published in 1998, Buddy’s classic faux-memoir was a master class in pushing the envelope and pissing off the censors. Now, 20 years later, Scott Thompson is bringing Buddy back to the stage, with an international tour and also a reissue of Buddy Babylon, presented with new never-before-seen material, introducing Buddy to new generations.

When Putsata Reang was eleven months old, her family fled war-torn Cambodia, spending twenty-three days on an overcrowded navy vessel before finding sanctuary at an American naval base in the Philippines. Over the years, Put lived to please Ma and make her proud, hustling to repay her life debt by becoming the consummate good Cambodian daughter, working steadfastly by Ma’s side in the berry fields each summer and eventually building a successful career as an award-winning journalist. But Put's adoration and efforts are no match for Ma's expectations.  

In Rebent Sinner, Ivan Coyote takes on the patriarchy and the political, as well as the intimate and the personal in these beguiling and revealing stories of what it means to be trans and non-binary today, at a time in their life when they must carry the burden of heartbreaking history with them, while combatting those who would misgender them or deny their very existence. These stories span thirty years of tackling TERFs, legislators, and bathroom police, sure, but there is joy and pleasure and triumph to be found here, too.

Transparency is one of the most effective tools we have that can help us heal. It can also help us understand ourselves better as well as other people.  

Before becoming the actor, producer, advocate, and model that people know today, Nyle DiMarco was half of a pair of Deaf twins born to a multigenerational Deaf family in Queens, New York. At the hospital one day after he was born, Nyle “failed” his first test—a hearing test—to the joy and excitement of his parents. In this engrossing memoir, Nyle shares stories, both heartbreaking and humorous, of what it means to navigate a world built for hearing people.

The body that Robyn Henderson-Espinoza inhabits is a nonbinary body, a trans body, a body in two races—and a body continually in discovery. Theirs is also a body on sojourn invested in experience, body understanding, and engagement in and for human thriving. Henderson-Espinoza relates coming into a new body story, beginning with the deep emotional work of connecting the abstract intelligence of their mind with their body's intelligence, to explore the relationship between living and becoming, doing and listening.

Maria Konner takes you on her journey from living a frustrated and bored straight-dude life to becoming a fabulous trans entertainer in San Francisco. She also begins to discover herself sexually after a Halloween costume feels better than she ever imagined. What starts as a lark, quickly becomes a lifestyle. Told in a frank and entertaining manner, Maria details her experiences at Diva's, the legendary trans bar. There, she enters into a world of alternative lifestyles, sexual experimentation, crossdressing, and hardcore kink as she tests the boundaries of her sexuality.