Memoir

Jealousy by Catherine Millet

15 Oct 2009

The success of her 2002 memoir, The Sexual Life of Catherine M, propelled French art critic Catherine Millet into the spotlight as one of Europe’s most celebrated contemporary sexual libertines. Indeed, this blisteringly honest dissection of her…

My Shit Life So Far by Frankie Boyle

1 Oct 2009

Apparently, Glasgow’s cherished cheeky-man Francis Boyle showed a talent for ‘the offensive non-sequitur’ from a young age. At school, he was the nerdy, fantasy-novel reading smartarse making people laugh so hard they spat their drinks out. His…

Jane Bussmann - The Worst Date Ever

25 Jun 2009

‘You know you’ve arrived when Britney Spears snubs you and Nicole Richie congratulates you.’ Journalist and comedy writer Jane Bussmann is smiling as she peruses the LA stomping ground, which so mercilessly provides fodder for her memoir, The Worst Date…

Virginie Despentes - King Kong Theory

8 Jan 2009

SOCIAL MEMOIR If ever there was an antidote to the pointless posturing of the Pussycat Dolls, it’s the work of Virginie Despentes. While they embody everything that is wrong about being female in the 21st century, this controversial French author…

Luke Haines - Bad Vibes

8 Jan 2009

MUSIC MEMOIR ‘I am a cruel and pious man,’ mourns Luke Haines. History hasn’t had much time for the 90s-vintage indie iconoclast, instead celebrating the more palatable same-but-different likes of Jarvis Cocker. Yet those whose memories stretch back…

A quiet life

13 Nov 2008

It would seem that we’ve all become a little wary of silence. The sizeable majority of British society who own mobile phones may agree. Plug in, jump online, talk in libraries, and you’re doing OK. Withdraw however, and you have issues. Accomplished…

Cosmo Landesman - Starstruck

16 Oct 2008

SHOWBIZ MEMOIR Fran and Jay Landesman sound like a tough set of parents. She a poet and jazz singer, he a producer and comedian. Together they fled the US due to a perceived lack of success, viewing Swinging 60s London as a kinder, less competitive…

Andrew Anthony - The Fallout

16 Oct 2008

SOCIAL MEMOIR In 2001, Andrew Anthony was just another member of the liberal-left intelligentsia, dutifully filing his anti-conservative copy to The Observer and Guardian. Then a pair of planes swung into the World Trade Center and the belief systems…

SMITH Magazine - One Life, Six Words, What’s Yours?

2 Oct 2008

MINIMALIST MEMOIRS Ernest Hemingway, challenged to write a six-word story, came up with ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’. Inspired by that, literary website SMITH Magazine accumulated six-word memoirs from everyday punters and authors alike. This…

Janice Galloway - A Selfless Act

Interview

4 Sep 2008

After an absence of six years, Janice Galloway has returned with a memoir rather than a novel. Her fans won't be disappointed, though. Kirstin Innes meets her

Steve Martin - Born Standing Up

29 Nov 2007

MEMOIR Born Standing Up (Simon & Schuster) Great comedy and psychological problems normally go together like Bill Hicks and nicotine. Nice guy Steve Martin’s ‘funny but weird’ schtick means he’s pulled off the near impossible by delivering…

Blame it on Fidel!

15 Nov 2007

Paris in the early 1970s and nine-year-old Anna de La Mesa (Nina Kervel) is having problems coming to terms with her radical political activist parents. Her Spanish-born lawyer father Fernando (Stefano Accorsi) and journalist/writer mother Marie (Julie…

Lavinia Greenlaw

16 Aug 2007

Lavinia Greenlaw’s latest book, The Importance of Music to Girls, is a memoir recalling her girlhood rendered through music. Beginning with her first musical memory of waltzing on her father’s feet, it meanders through the musicals and recorder practice…

Ryan Knighton

Cockeyed (Atlantic)

19 Dec 2006

MEMOIR Maybe it has ever been thus, but the cult of an individual neither you nor I have ever heard of telling us all about their unfortunate life seems to be spreading. We may wish to blame Frank McCourt for it all, but the misery market is flooded…

Christopher Rush

Hellfire and Herring (Profile)

19 Dec 2006

CHILDHOOD MEMOIR Christopher Rush’s previous work has been widely acclaimed with his travelogue-memoir To Travel Hopefully being lauded on publication last year, and his novel, A Twelvemonth and a Day, making it into this publication’s 100 Best…