- Best Memoir Books
- Top Selling Autobiography Of All Time
- Top 10 Best Selling Memoirs Of All Time
- Best Selling Memoir Of All Time Wikipedia
They may now be the least popular type of book, but as recently as 2005, sales of autobiographies were not doing so badly. Last year, autobiographies made up just 0.58% of all book sales, while 'romance and sagas', accounted for 11.26%, due partly to the huge success of EL James' Fifty Shades of Grey.
Nielsen BookScan collected the data directly from over 35,500 bookshops' point of sale systems on a weekly basis. That does mean however that sales of e-books are not included in the data, and second-hand book sales are likely to be under-estimated.
The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great 2013 Book Preview. 80 books — 911 voters Best Memoirs/Autobiography/Travel. While all of the best books give readers a chance to walk in another's shoes for awhile, the best memoirs enable us to live another person's real life for the length of those pages.
The best-selling autobiography since 2001 is 'A Child Called It' by Dave Pelzer, shifting over a million copies and generating over £5.5 million in revenue. Peter Kay's autobiography 'The Sound of Laughter' tops the chart in terms of revenue at £9.3 million. Comedians figure prominently on the list with Paul O'Grady, Dawn French, Russell Brand, Michael McIntyre and Frank Skinner all making it to the top 50.
Many celebrities have taken the time to write or co-write their memoir, giving fans the often surprising and interesting scoop into their private lives. These memoirs are popular and have topped Best Sellers lists over the years. Check out some of the top 12 best-selling celebrity memoirs of all time. 12 Becoming by Michelle Obama. The Vanity Fair Diaries by Tina Brown. Perhaps more of a memoir of brushes with celebrity than. Bestselling author Bill Bryson is one of the funniest travel writers around. His book, A Walk in the Woods is a laugh-out-loud account of his attempt to tackle all 2,100 miles Appalachian Trail with a friend who’s unprepared for the task. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia.
When the publication date is taken into account, the list looks very different. Steve Jobsbiography, though the most expensive on the list at RRP £25, sold on average 535 copies a day since it was published in October 2011, making it the fastest selling book on the biography list. That still appears a weak performance when compared to Cheryl Cole's autobiography 'Cheryl: My Story' which has sold on average 2,308 copies a day since it was released in October last year.
Each of the titles in the top biographies since 2001 sold on average 223,000 copies. For the authors in the top 50 autobiographies, the average number of copies sold was 410,000. The average RRP of the best-selling biographies was £11.01, and £13.61 for a top 50 autobiography though the average selling price for both was consistently lower than the RRP.
Though arts autobiographies have fallen from selling 2.1 million in 2005 to just 649,000 in 2012, this remains the most popular subject. Sales of historical, political and military autobiographies have also fallen considerably during this time.
Autobiographies from royalty, which had been on a downward trend since 2003, almost doubled between 2008 and 2009. Biographies written by religious and spiritual figures about their own lives continue to be the weakest category, representing just 1% of all sales.
• 'Dreams from My Father:A Story of Race and Inheritance' by President Barack Obama is number 4 on the bestseller list, selling 784,000 copies.
• At £25 and the most expensive autobiography on the list, Tony Blair's 'A Journey' ranks 42nd.
• In 11th place in the biography chart, it's not possible to say how many of the 332,000 sales of 'Feel:Robbie Williams' were due to excited fans misreading the title.
Data summary
Title | Vol. | Type of Autobiog. | Av. Sales Per Day | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Child Called It,A | Pelzer, Dave | 1105413 | 5,511,694.28 | General | 36895 | 250.26 |
| 2 | Sound of Laughter,The | Kay, Peter | 853533 | 9,308,665.26 | Arts | 38995 | 368.38 |
| 3 | At My Mother's Knee ...:and Other Low Joints | O'Grady, Paul | 723459 | 7,116,290.73 | Arts | 39715 | 453.01 |
| 4 | Dreams from My Father:A Story of Race and Inheritance | Obama, President Barack | 703727 | 4,670,003.67 | Historical | 39604 | 412.02 |
| 5 | Sharon Osbourne Extreme:My Autobiography | Osbourne, Sharon | 656439 | 7,086,492.32 | Arts | 38628 | 244.57 |
| 6 | Dear Fatty | French, Dawn | 645387 | 6,338,264.47 | Arts | 39730 | 407.96 |
| 7 | On the Edge:My Story | Hammond, Richard | 555829 | 5,779,700.34 | Arts | 39345 | 282.58 |
| 8 | That's Another Story:The Autobiography | Walters, Julie | 537392 | 5,466,425.28 | Arts | 39723 | 338.20 |
| 9 | Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid,The | Bryson, Bill | 522834 | 2,961,650.28 | General | 39235 | 251.73 |
| 10 | David Beckham:My Side - The Autobiography | Beckham, David | 517579 | 6,152,265.55 | Sport | 37876 | 150.63 |
| 11 | Sickened:The True Story of a Lost Childhood | Gregory, Julie | 505091 | 2,402,833.30 | General | 38260 | 165.50 |
| 12 | My Booky Wook | Brand, Russell | 502984 | 5,178,610.01 | Arts | 39401 | 263.20 |
| 13 | Parky:My Autobiography | Parkinson, Michael | 479051 | 4,838,297.83 | Arts | 39723 | 301.48 |
| 14 | It's Not About the Bike:My Journey Back to Life | Armstrong, Lance | 448592 | 3,381,041.24 | Sport | 37014 | 104.37 |
| 15 | Two of Us,The:My Life with John Thaw | Hancock, Sheila | 432138 | 5,360,344.19 | Arts | 38264 | 141.78 |
| 16 | Sound of Laughter,The | Kay, Peter | 424682 | 2,317,787.42 | Arts | 39268 | 207.77 |
| 17 | Fry Chronicles,The:A Memoir | Fry, Stephen | 411852 | 4,249,222.23 | Arts | 40434 | 469.08 |
| 18 | Being Jordan | Price, Katie | 398162 | 2,156,542.75 | Arts | 38534 | 143.33 |
| 19 | Life and Laughing:My Story | McIntyre, Michael | 385712 | 3,928,354.16 | Arts | 40465 | 455.39 |
| 20 | Man Named Dave,A | Pelzer, Dave | 378579 | 2,067,432.63 | General | 37043 | 88.68 |
| 21 | Frank Skinner Autobiography | Skinner, Frank | 364210 | 2,090,084.56 | Arts | 37378 | 92.58 |
| 22 | Don't Tell Mummy:A True Story of the Ultimate Betrayal | Maguire, Toni | 358809 | 1,710,620.78 | General | 39146 | 165.66 |
| 23 | Bad Blood:A Memoir | Sage, Lorna | 352872 | 2,015,985.36 | Literary | 37074 | 83.26 |
| 24 | Eat, Pray, Love:One Woman's Search for Everything | Gilbert, Elizabeth | 341814 | 2,106,047.42 | General | 39146 | 157.81 |
| 25 | Untold Stories | Bennett, Alan | 341621 | 4,173,207.78 | Literary | 38628 | 127.28 |
| 26 | Road to Nab End,The:A Lancashire Childhood | Woodruff, William | 341484 | 1,936,791.05 | General | 37259 | 84.25 |
| 27 | Being Jordan | Price, Katie | 335698 | 4,191,267.36 | Arts | 38113 | 104.94 |
| 28 | Ooh! What a Lovely Pair:Our Story | McPartlin, Ant & Donnelly, Declan | 329969 | 3,268,584.35 | Arts | 40079 | 267.61 |
| 29 | Call the Midwife:A True Story of the East End in the 1950s | Worth, Jennifer | 328558 | 1,661,776.51 | General | 39513 | 182.63 |
| 30 | Blessed:The Autobiography | Best, George | 326415 | 1,890,473.47 | Sport | 37469 | 84.94 |
| 31 | Humble Pie | Ramsay, Gordon | 325553 | 3,759,347.66 | Arts | 38934 | 136.90 |
| 32 | What You See Is What You Get:My Autobiography | Sugar, Alan | 318417 | 3,404,610.62 | Business | 40451 | 369.82 |
| 33 | Dear Fatty | French, Dawn | 314672 | 1,664,558.62 | Arts | 39996 | 239.11 |
| 34 | Two of Us,The:My Life with John Thaw | Hancock, Sheila | 313112 | 1,729,206.27 | Arts | 38509 | 111.71 |
| 35 | Margrave of the Marshes | Peel, John & Ravenscroft, Sheila | 309371 | 3,470,054.85 | Arts | 38642 | 115.87 |
| 36 | Kindness of Strangers,The:The Autobiography | Adie, Kate | 303856 | 2,097,262.84 | Arts | 37774 | 85.88 |
| 37 | Humble Pie | Ramsay, Gordon | 300240 | 1,654,359.77 | Arts | 39203 | 142.36 |
| 38 | Life:Keith Richards | Richards, Keith | 300084 | 3,203,776.79 | Arts | 40477 | 359.38 |
| 39 | Mad World, My Masters,A:Tales from a Traveller's Life | Simpson, John | 300070 | 2,150,298.03 | General | 37141 | 71.94 |
| 40 | Look Who it Is!:My Story | Carr, Alan | 295400 | 2,911,862.98 | Arts | 39720 | 185.55 |
| 41 | Lucky | Sebold, Alice | 292719 | 1,908,099.75 | General | 37591 | 78.67 |
| 42 | Journey,A | Blair, Tony | 291847 | 4,033,842.73 | Historical | 40422 | 327.92 |
| 43 | My Booky Wook | Brand, Russell | 291018 | 1,584,510.65 | Arts | 39639 | 173.95 |
| 44 | Piece of Cake,A | Brown, Cupcake | 290006 | 1,425,313.39 | General | 38992 | 125.00 |
| 45 | Sharon Osbourne Extreme:My Autobiography | Osbourne, Sharon | 281556 | 1,530,702.85 | Arts | 38840 | 113.90 |
| 46 | Jade:Fighting to the End | Goody, Jade | 278019 | 1,183,160.10 | Arts | 39895 | 196.20 |
| 47 | Robbie Williams:Somebody Someday | Williams, Robbie & McCrum, Mark | 276234 | 3,521,030.07 | Arts | 37147 | 66.32 |
| 48 | Call The Midwife:A True Story of the East End in the 1950s | Worth, Jennifer | 276102 | 1,320,181.35 | General | 40913 | 691.98 |
| 49 | Gospel According to Chris Moyles,The:The Story of a Man and His Mouth | Moyles, Chris | 275279 | 2,951,545.03 | Arts | 38995 | 118.81 |
| 50 | Cheryl: My Story | Cole, Cheryl | 274666 | 2,467,987.34 | Arts | 41193 | 2,308.12 |
Download the data
• DATA: download the full spreadsheet
NEW! Buy our book
More open data
World government data
• Search the world's government data with our gateway
Development and aid data
• Search the world's global development data with our gateway
Can you do something with this data?
• Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group
• Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk
• Get the A-Z of data
• More at the Datastore directory
• Follow us on Twitter
• Like us on Facebook
Best Memoir Books
Fans enjoy watching their favorite celebrities from the front page of magazines or other media, hoping to catch a glimpse of their daily lives. For some, it’s confirmation that the rich and famous are just like us; they go grocery shopping, pick up coffee and take their kids to the park.
Perhaps more interesting, is to learn about their childhoods, how they got to the position they’re in now and the drama and relationships that have shaped them.
Many celebrities have taken the time to write or co-write their memoir, giving fans the often surprising and interesting scoop into their private lives.
These memoirs are popular and have topped Best Sellers lists over the years. Check out some of the top 12 best-selling celebrity memoirs of all time.
12 Becoming by Michelle Obama
During her time as first lady of the White House, Obama connected with millions and made an impact with the world, preaching women empowerment and healthy lifestyles, all while parenting two pre-teens and partnering with the then President of the United States. It’s not a surprise that Becoming became one of the best-selling memoirs ever published according to Best Life. Learn about Obama’s childhood, growing up on the south side of Chicago, to earning her law degree, to leading the world as a political icon.
11 Bossypants by Tina Fey
The movie star and comedian held the attention of men and women as a star on Saturday Night Live and subsequent award-winning television series, 30 Rock. Her best-selling memoir, according to Cosmopolitan, centered on women succeeding in a world built for men. Fey shares her childhood memories and the beginning days of improv at various comedy clubs around the country to finally, her launch into stardom. She shares the humorous side to parenting and behind-the-scenes details of a woman in comedy.
10 Me by Katharine Hepburn
A post shared by Her history by C (@her_historyct)
Top Selling Autobiography Of All Time
Unlike many young celebrities today, the iconic movie star didn’t release a memoir until 1991 at 84- years- old. Hepburn had 12 Academy Award nominations, earned four Oscars and a lifetime of public relationships. The outspoken actress was just as frank about the details of her life as she was on the big screen. Most notably, Hepburn doesn’t hold anything back on her secret relationship with Spencer Tracy.
RELATED: 10 Celebrity Confessions In Memoirs That Made Us Think “Why?”
9 Me by Elton John
The legendary musician released his memoir in 2019. John reveals personal details about his childhood in London, facts about various relationships over the years and doesn’t shy away from detailing scenes of sex, drugs and suicide attempts before reaching worldwide icon status.
8 Just Kids by Patti Smith
Winner of the 2010 National Book Award, the punk rocker of the mid-70’s details her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe over the course of 20 years and how she rose to fame in New York City’s punk scene.
7 I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
A post shared by Becky (@beckyjean13)
She wrote and directed some of the all-time classics, including When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle but prior to making award-winning films, Ephron was a journalist for Esquire magazine. The 2006 memoir shares details of Ephron’s career, her observations as a woman in the industry and growing older.
6 I.M. by Isaac Mizrahi
A post shared by Isaac Mizrahi (@imisaacmizrahi)
The fashion designer rose to fame in the late 80’s, when he took home the Best Newcomer Award and Best Women’s Designer Award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Fans watched as he became the face of Target ads, offered expert device in a series of reality shows and launched clothing lines people flocked to purchase. His memoir shares details of the young Jewish boy from Brooklyn to the runways of Paris.
5 In Pieces by Sally Field
Field reportedly wrote her memoir without the assistance of a ghostwriter and fans can relate all the more. She talks about a lifetime of loneliness and insecurity, a childhood riddled with sexual abuse and the path that launched her into stardom. Field includes her relationship with Burt Reynolds and of course, her long and successful Hollywood career.
Top 10 Best Selling Memoirs Of All Time
4 Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher
A post shared by ✨Neve✨ (@readbyneve)
The late Star Wars icon wrote three memoirs: Wishful Drinking, Postcards From the Edge and The Princess Diarist. The 2008 memoir was the first for Fisher and details her struggles with addiction, her marriage to Paul Simon and her time making the original Star Wars series.
Best Selling Memoir Of All Time Wikipedia
3 My Life in France by Julia Child
A post shared by Karen Robinson Kimbro (@karenrkimbro)
Child’s fame has been played out in novels and movies over the years. You may think you already know everything there is to know about the iconic chef, but nothing compares to hearing her own account of the woman who left her career in U.S. military intelligence to become a world-famous chef. She recounts the establishment of an American cooking school, her legendary cookbook and her rise to fame in television and more.
2 Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox
A post shared by Calli Coveos (@calli_c)
We watched the popular sitcom and movie star for years as he rose to stardom in Family Ties and Back to the Future and then fans were shocked to learn of Fox’s 1998 diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease. Since then, Fox’s focus has left Hollywood and moved to more pressing research and information to cure the disease that affects millions each year. However, the memoir details Fox’s life, not his diagnosis, and walks fans through his rise to fame.
1 Life by Keith Richards
A post shared by @stylesbookclub
The memoir begins with Richards sitting in a London flat with Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, when three young men shared the love of music and a dream. While fans may not think of Richards as an elegant truth teller, according to Vogue, the novel is straightforward, exciting, glamorous and heartfelt. The No. 1 bestseller is a story of the formation of the iconic band The Rolling Stones, the fame, the addiction, the falling apart and the reunion.
READ NEXT: Elon Musk’s Daily Routine Offers Highly Productive Tips
Sources: Best Life , Vogue, Cosmopolitan
Source: Read Full Article