Biography & Memoirs

Dame Alison Holst holds more titles than her damehood suggests: she's been invariably described as 'Mother of the Nation', 'Queen of the Kitchen' a...

"admiring and ferocious" - France Inter "This first biography, fed by many first-rate witnesses... we laugh, we shudder, we admire." - Elle On the ...

Many people know that Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican artist, a feminist icon who lived in the famous Blue House and whose work includes The ...

Summary Specs A tribute to her father, Makaziwe Mand...

Summary Specs "Her life was a bridge from the ninete...

Summary Specs Born in Greece and abandoned as a chil...

This lively biography narrates the story of Louis Vuitton (1821-1892), who, at the age of 14, set out on foot for Paris from his native village in ...

In 2014, Joko Widodo - popularly known as Jokowi - was elected the seventh president of the Republic of Indonesia, going on to win a second five-ye...

In this unique memoir, Charles Higham, one of the great archaeologists of his generation, describes the inside story of how his many excavations ha...

In this insightful and revelatory new book, the author of the highly acclaimed, award-winning international bestseller Wizard- The Life and Times o...

Gossamer Years is a remarkably frank diary written by an unnamed noblewoman in Tenth-century Japan-the same period as Murasaki Shikibu's celebrated...

Frank Edwards has one of those faces Kiwis recognise. A working actor and writer for over fifty years, he's been part of projects like blockbuster ...

Bill Andersen was one of the most significant figures in New Zealand's trade union movement in the later twentieth century. Cybele Locke's biograph...

Auckland chef Simon Gault opened his first restaurant aged 22, piling up awards and accolades at Bell House, Gault's on Quay, Euro, Giraffe and mor...

The first compilation of Bruce Lee photographs published in association with the Bruce Lee estate. This book reveals the full range of Lee's talent...

Words of the Dragon is an anthology of newspaper and magazine interviews from 1958 to 1973 revealing Bruce Lee's own fascinating words and explanat...

I Know I Am Rude: Prince Philip on Himself, the Queen and Others

One of the first writers to speak with an authentic New Zealand voice, Blanche Edith Baughan (1870-1958) was known as a poet and local travel write...

In February 1945, with no veterinary training available in New Zealand, Graham Wallace braved a German raider in the Tasman Sea to begin his studie...

Many people know that Vincent van Gogh (1853-90) was a 19th-century Dutch artist, a leading light of the Post-Impressionist movement who painted 'S...

Born in 1919, Prince made Djelantik witnessed pivotal moments of history: the twilight of the feudal age, the Second World War in Nazi-occupied Hol...

The Biographies series presents an entirely new way of looking at the lives of the world's greatest thinkers and creatives. It takes the 50 definin...

The Biographic series presents an entirely new way of looking at the lives of the world's greatest thinkers and creatives. It takes the 50 defining...

Special effects superstar Ray Harryhausen elevated stop-motion animation to an art during the 1950s to 1980s. With material drawn from his incredib...