The literary landscape of 2025 has been profoundly shaped by an exceptional crop of memoirs and biographies, offering readers intimate glimpses into the lives of cultural icons, political leaders, and literary giants. From Margaret Atwood's long-awaited personal reflections to raw accounts from actors and former prime ministers, this year's selections are defined by their candour, depth, and compelling storytelling.
Literary Icons and Celebrity Revelations
Leading the charge is literary powerhouse Margaret Atwood with her 624-page memoir, Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts. Despite initial reservations about the genre, Atwood delivers a masterful chronicle of her life and work, packed with her signature wisdom and wit. Similarly, Helen Garner's diary collection, How to End a Story, which won the Baillie Gifford prize, provides a starkly honest, twenty-year snapshot of her life and the dissolution of her marriages.
The theme of formidable motherhood is explored in two significant works. Arundhati Roy examines her mother's complex legacy in Mother Mary Comes to Me, portraying a woman who fought patriarchy yet showed cruelty to her daughter. Meanwhile, Jung Chang returns with Fly, Wild Swans, a sequel acknowledging her mother's pivotal role in sharing the family stories that made her earlier bestseller possible.
In the realm of celebrity, Anthony Hopkins offers a remarkably thoughtful and unvarnished account in We Did OK, Kid, delving into his struggles with anxiety, alcoholism, and the burdens of fame. Kathy Burke's terrifically entertaining A Mind of My Own recalls a childhood in an Islington council flat with an alcoholic father and her rise in the acting world, refusing any trace of self-pity. Music legend Lionel Richie traces his journey in Truly, while Tim Curry delivers a brisk and sweary memoir in Vagabond, though he keeps his private life firmly off-limits.
Political Power and Personal Tribulation
Two of the year's most anticipated political memoirs come from former leaders who faced intense public scrutiny. Nicola Sturgeon's Frankly and Jacinda Ardern's A Different Kind of Power both lay bare the misogyny endured by women at the highest levels of politics. Sturgeon writes of battling the internal voice that told her she wasn't good enough, while Ardern details the immense pressure of hiding her early pregnancy and later balancing new motherhood with the premiership.
Several memoirs tackle profound grief and resilience. Yiyun Li's Things in Nature Merely Grow is a revelatory account of losing two sons to suicide and finding a path to "radical acceptance". Similarly, Miriam Toews's fragmented memoir, A Truce That Is Not Peace, deals with the suicide of her father and sister. In a moving shift to nonfiction, The Essex Serpent author Sarah Perry chronicles her father-in-law's death from cancer in Death of an Ordinary Man, finding profound depth in an unremarkable life.
Biographies of Cultural Giants
2025 is also a standout year for biographies, offering deep dives into the lives of seminal figures. Ron Chernow presents a monumental, 1,000-plus page life of Mark Twain, promising unparalleled depth on the American author. Art history is enriched by Andrew Graham-Dixon's Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found, which controversially identifies the subject of Girl with a Pearl Earring.
Other notable biographical works include Frances Wilson's study of Muriel Spark's early years, Electric Spark, and Gerri Kimber's sensitive account of Katherine Mansfield's fiercely independent life. Hanna Diamond's Josephine Baker's Secret War uncovers the star's thrilling work with the French Resistance and Allied intelligence during WWII.
Finally, Ian Penman takes an innovative approach with Eric Satie Three Piece Suite, examining the composer through an eclectic A-Z format that matches its subject's peculiar genius. This year's collection proves that the stories of lives, whether ordinary or extraordinary, continue to captivate, challenge, and inspire.
