The Best Memoirs and Autobiographies

Writing in the first person doesn’t have to be inward-looking or egotistical, says the author of The Snow Geese. He tells us about his favourite autobiographical works that use the first person to look out into the world

Historian and Sinologist Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor, History at UC Irvine, says that to get a real sense of China you need to focus on individuals and their stories. Here he chooses five books that draw on the country's long tradition of biographical writing.

The first five books in the genre, as picked by a writer, journalist and actor who wrote a memoir about running a newspaper in Yemen.

The Labour MP on political diaries. A nugget from the day of the Norway debate, which brought down the Chamberlain government: ‘Sunny morning, went riding in Richmond Park. Strolled into the House for the Norway debate'