“Great biographies are more than a chronicle of a life; rather, they resonate deeply with and evoke the drama of the time.” —Elizabeth Taylor
In January 2019, Elizabeth Taylor, who chaired the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography, talked us through the best biographies of the past year. Since then, a number of stellar biographies have come out, including, for example, Becoming Beauvoir by Kate Kirkpatrick. All of these wonderful new biographies are listed below.
Also in our biography collection, we have the legendary biographer Lyndall Gordon recommending five biographies that she feels push the boundaries of the genre.
If you’re looking for books about a specific person, you’ll also find highly-recommended biographies amidst our interviews on literary figures, (like the best books on Shakespeare’s life, recommended by James Shapiro of Columbia University), great philosophers and historical figures. For biographies of great scientists, you can browse our science section.
Reflecting the UK location of Five Books, the summit of British politics is well represented. Tony Blair’s biographer, Anthony Seldon, chooses his best biographies of British prime ministers and the former foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd chooses five of the best biographies of Tory prime ministers.
Hugo Vickers chooses the best royal biographies and David Nasaw chooses the best books on the closest US equivalent, the Kennedys.
Justine Picardie, biographer of Coco Chanel, gives us her best fashion biographies while reminding us that “it’s absurd to dismiss fashion as frivolous. What we choose to wear, or conceal, reveals who we are.”
“Brown makes Margaret an interesting, complex figure, and he pushes the traditional form of biography by contending with both a life, and the spectacle of a life.It raises fascinating questions about formation of public impressions and somehow in creating this multi-faceted form, is also profoundly empathic.” Read more...
“A first-hand account of Ruskin from one of his closest contemporaries and collaborators” Read more...
“What a dramatic story, and way to look at America. They arrived as freaks, winning freedom from the oppressive men who brought them from Thailand for a traveling show, until they married two sisters who bore them 21 children, two of whom served in the Confederate army.” Read more...
“what he gives you is a complete picture. You are left with a very clear image of the humanity of Harold Macmillan and I think that he is a very underrated writer because his books don’t come up with saucy and spicy new details. He isn’t one of these people who try to make their books into vehicles for titillation, and the fact is that most lives don’t deserve that, even if serialisation demands it. He is an Aston Martin DB6 kind of writer, who is very English, very stately.” Read more...
The best books on British Prime Ministers
Anthony Seldon, Historian
“This is flat-out one of the most enjoyable—or one of the most enjoyable—books I’ve read this year. It’s fascinating, thrilling, in the sense that it is a thriller, a nonfiction thriller. It has all the elements of a John Grisham novel, but it happened in real life.” Read more...
“Becoming Beauvoir is not just an outstanding philosophy book, it’s one of the best books I’ve read for a while. It’s of interest far beyond the narrow area of philosophy. Whether you love her or hate her, Simone de Beauvoir was a really significant cultural figure and it’s great to have such an interesting new biography of her.” Read more...
The Best Philosophy Books of 2019
Nigel Warburton, Philosopher
Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948
by Ramachandra Guha
“The job of a scholar, and a biographer in particular, is to suppress nothing. Whatever you find that is of interest or importance must be included, even if it makes you uncomfortable or makes your story less compelling or newsworthy” —Ramachandra Guha.
Chaucer: A European Life
by Marion Turner
“People who know a bit about Chaucer tend to think of him as the father of English literature—there’s a famous picture of him as an old patriarch, pointing with a rosary—or they think of him as a genial, middle-aged man telling slightly risqué stories in a pub. That’s the popular image of Chaucer. But really, that image came about after his death. In his lifetime, no one thought of him in that way.”
Read more in our interview with biographer Marion Turner on the best books on The Canterbury Tales.
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper
by Hallie Rubenhold
Hallie Rubenstein’s book, The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper is the
***Winner of the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction 2019***
Philosopher of the Heart: The Restless Life of Søren Kierkegaard
by Claire Carlisle
“Another interesting philosophical biography about an important figure published this year.”
“This may be the best scientific biography I have ever read. It’s just absolutely engrossing.” Read more...
Jerry Coyne, Biologist
“It’s very nicely written, the level of detail is absolutely fantastic. In some ways it’s not ostentatious about the subject. It doesn’t make grand cases for Lucian Freud as an artist. It just says, ‘here is everything, the fabric of his existence, and therefore the fabric of lots of other existences around him,’ and delivers it in a very nicely organised way.” Read more...
“Jim Simons is the hedge fund manager who created one of the biggest and most successful quant funds, Renaissance Technologies. The book is written by a journalist from the Wall Street Journal, Gregory Zuckerman. Again, this book gets my admiration as a journalist, because he succeeds in opening up an industry, a company and a person that are notoriously private.” Read more...
“It’s a very sympathetically written book with a marvellous instinct for the psychology of the subject. It gives you an intelligible picture of Wittgenstein.” Read more...
The best books on Wittgenstein
Peter Hacker, Philosopher
Orwell: The Life
by D J Taylor
“The question of how and when Orwell obtained his political consciousness is a fascinating one. I would argue that he doesn’t actually become fully politically aware until he goes to Spain in 1937, and lives for a time in Barcelona and sees what he regards as democratic socialism in action.” —DJ Taylor
“Socrates felt that the written word was a bad thing for philosophy (and life) because although it looked intelligent, every time you asked a question it always gave the same response, whoever asked the question.” Read more...
The Best Philosophy Books of 2019
Nigel Warburton, Philosopher
Margaret Thatcher: Herself Alone: The Authorized Biography
by Charles Moore
The final volume (of three) of Charles Moore’s magisterial biography of the UK’s first female prime minister.
Churchill: Walking with Destiny
by Andrew Roberts
If you’re looking for just one book about Winston Churchill, and especially about his role in World War II, Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts is the book for you.
Oscar: A Life
by Matthew Sturgis
Oscar: A Life by Matthew Sturgis is an authoritative and highly readable biography of the Irish-born playwright and wit Oscar Wilde (the last biography was published 30 years ago). In 2019, Oscar: A Life was shortlisted for the prestigious Wolfson History Prize.
“Isaacson has really captured the complex brilliance of one of the most extraordinary humans in the world. It’s a favourite of mine.” Read more...
“I love Robert D Richardson’s book. His tone is warm, judicious, and empathetic, but not overly so. In a biography often laser-focused on Emerson’s intellectual development, the short chapters give you breathing room. “ Read more...
“Gowing adopts what you might describe as a formalist aesthetic approach to characterising the power of these paintings” Read more...
The best books on The Dutch Masters
Adam Eaker, Art Historians, Critics & Curator
“Babe Ruth was an extraordinary baseball player and Leavy makes that case in the context of the emergence of athletic stardom and celebrity. This is not a mere recounting of statistics. Leavy gives Babe Ruth a place in cultural history.” Read more...
“Lamster draws upon his own deep knowledge of architectural history and trends, digs into Johnson’s past and traces his origins in Cleveland, Ohio to Harvard, from curator to modern and post-modern architect and winner of the inaugural Pritzker Architecture Prize. Lamster captures the forces animating Johnson and his quest for celebrity and recognition.” Read more...
“Bonanos entwined Weegee’s evolution as a person and as a photographer and placed this story in the context of the emergence of street photography and crime photography. He vivified that that moment when technology—the camera in Weegee’s hands and imagination, against the backdrop of a rapidly changing New York—captured a rich, stark world in a revolutionary way.” Read more...
“It is a hugely fine biography and I’m a great admirer of Janet Malcolm … She has done something very original here.” Read more...
Lyndall Gordon, Biographer
“I think it was a brilliant idea to approach one’s past through language. She grew up in post-holocaust Poland before she emigrated to Canada.” Read more...
Lyndall Gordon, Biographer
“This is the biography, of all these ones, that I most wish I had written.” Read more...
The best books on Shakespeare’s Life
James Shapiro, Literary Scholar
Dior by Dior
by Christian Dior
Dior’s autobiography is very sober in tone, which is true of the designer’s own personality. But it’s a fascinating insight into the New Look, one of the most important post-war movements in fashion.
King George V
by Kenneth Rose
This is a highly recommended biography of the monarch at the centre of events in the film of Downton Abbey. King George V was the grandfather of the current Queen and ruled from 1910 until 1936. The book is full of insight and humanity, along with dry wit and revelation. It won the Whitbread Prize and the Wolfson Prize. Robert Lacey describes it as “the best royal biography ever written”.
“It’s a great book; it’s a collection of letters to and from Kennedy, most of them from his children (though there are a lot of other letters in there as well).” Read more...
The best books on The Kennedys
David Nasaw, Biographer
Margaret Thatcher
by John Campbell
“It is a very nuanced insight into Thatcher. What Campbell manages to do is be reasoned in his criticism, not just vitriolic and hostile”
“Yes, and he really had this extraordinary commitment to detail. He interwove oral recollections with documentary evidence and had this painstaking commitment to a reconstruction of Winston Churchill’s life. It speaks of a facet of an historian’s work, which is to understand intimately what is going on in the life of the subject they are studying.” Read more...
The best books on British Prime Ministers
Anthony Seldon, Historian
Lloyd George
by John Grigg
“Grigg had this real insider’s understanding of politics, which is what makes him such a good biographer. He also wrote very elegantly”
Baldwin
by Keith Middlemas and John Barnes
A milestone biography that brings this extraordinary man to life. He brought calm to the nation and popularised the modern role of the prime minister. In spite of universal suffrage and the growing political importance of the Labour party, Stanely Baldwin, a small-c and big-C conservative, was the dominant political figure in Britain in the 1920s and 1930s. He kept England safe for the likes of the Crawleys for a generation after the end of World War I.
Jane's Fame
by Claire Harman
A chunk of it is a flashback to Jane Austen’s actual life, but the bulk of the book is about her afterlife, the making of her reputation
The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth
by Frances Wilson
“It’s not the ‘and then, and then’ formulation of the 20th century biography. She just goes for the kernel of Dorothy Wordsworth’s life.”
“he sets out a schema that was of huge importance to Eliot’s life and achievement” Read more...
Lyndall Gordon, Biographer
Chips: The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon
by Sir Henry Channon
“His secret was that he entertained on a truly lavish scale. The king comes to dinner during the middle of the abdication crisis. Churchill comes to dinner both in opposition and as prime minister. Everybody passes through his salon.”
Ask Sir James
by Michaela Reid
“Sir James Reid was Queen Victoria’s doctor and it was said that she consulted her doctor three times a day”
The Memoirs of Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester
by Princess Alice
I just found myself laughing on every page. I was gripped, and it was this wry quality that attracted me
Queen Mary
by James Pope-Hennessy
“The official biography. So beautifully written, it is terribly funny—and you can read a lot between the lines”
William Shakespeare
by Peter Holland
Peter Holland’s entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is the best biography of Shakespeare you’ve never heard of. He is really judicious, really precise and writes like a dream.
Shakespeare’s Lives
by S Schoenbaum
“This is not a life of Shakespeare so much as the lives that others have dreamed of for him. It is hilarious, informative and it tells you once again that it’s impossible to write a great biography of Shakespeare.”
William Shakespeare
by E K Chambers
This is a book I look at once or twice a week, to check facts and just to reassure myself that what I thought was true was in fact true! Chambers was probably the most influential Shakespeare scholar to have ever lived.
“This is the kind of book in which a scholar who is patient enough to plough through the 700 pages will find things that will not appear in recent biographies that should have” Read more...
The best books on Shakespeare’s Life
James Shapiro, Literary Scholar
True Compass
by Edward M. Kennedy
There’s just something about the stories that Ted tells in this book that is so engaging; you get a real sense of this Kennedy mission, this Kennedy commitment to public service – and you also get some idea of what holds the family together.
“Hamilton writes with a verve, an electricity, a passion, that’s rare among academic historians.” Read more...
The best books on The Kennedys
David Nasaw, Biographer
Robert Kennedy and His Times
by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
You know that Schlesinger worked for Kennedy, and admires him; nonetheless, the advantages of being an insider and trying to write from the outside I think outweigh the disadvantages of reading a book by an insider.
Conversations with Kennedy
by Benjamin C. Bradlee
With Bradlee, you really get a sense of the Kennedy administration and of Kennedy’s personality that you don’t get anywhere else.
Diana Vreeland
by Eleanor Dwight
“Vreeland was a hugely influential fashion columnist and editor, working at Harper’s Bazaar and American Vogue. She covered the fashion-rich era from the 30s to the 70s.”
The Unexpurgated Beaton
by Cecil Beaton (Author), Hugo Vickers (Editor)
Beaton was a marvellous writer. He provides wonderful insights into designers like Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. His diaries have the same economy and deftness of touch as his fashion illustrations.
Shocking Life
by Elsa Schiaparelli
“Schiaparelli was, in many ways, closer to the surrealist art movement than fashion. She worked with Dali and several of her designs, including the lobster hat and the skeleton dress, are classics.”
The Allure of Chanel
by Paul Morand
Chanel was an amazing designer and an iconic woman. Her career intersected with key moments of 20th century history: two world wars, the 1929 crash, the expansion of Hollywood, and beyond.
Gladstone
by Roy Jenkins
“Gladstone and Disraeli were the two boxing champions of the Victorian era. They disliked each other and they fought each other. They were in and out of power in turn.”
Eden
by D R Thorpe
“D R Thorpe is a good example of something that British writers are good at which is writing the story of history and the story of their times through the lives of particular individuals. Eden is a straightforward biography. It doesn’t gloss over the bad sides of him as a person. Eden had a bad temper and he was vain. But he was also an extremely skilful diplomat.”
Edward Heath
by Philip Ziegler
“Edward Heath became prime minister in 1970, after somewhat unexpectedly winning the general election of that year.”
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1
Flash: The Making of Weegee the Famous
by Christopher Bonanos -
2
Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret
by Craig Brown -
3
Inseparable: The Original Siamese Twins and Their Rendezvous with American History
by Yunte Huang -
4
The Man in the Glass House: Philip Johnson, Architect of the Modern Century
by Mark Lamster -
5
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created
by Jane Leavy
The Best Biographies: the 2019 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The Best Biographies: the 2019 NBCC Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
Biography is booming, says the longtime book critic and biographer Elizabeth Taylor. Here she highlights the five fantastic books shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle 2019 biography award, and how historical lives provide insight into contemporary culture.
The best books on British Prime Ministers, recommended by Anthony Seldon
It’s their frailty that makes politicians such interesting characters, says Tony Blair’s biographer Anthony Seldon. He tells us about the art of political biography and the writers who’ve best captured leaders such as Churchill and Thatcher
