Curated playlist

English autobiographers

Charlie ChaplinCharlie Chaplin was in a workhouse twice before he turned nine. By 26 he was among the world's highest-paid people.
Agatha ChristieAgatha Christie vanished for 11 days in 1926, and a nationwide manhunt followed. She was found at a Harrogate hotel.
Virginia WoolfVirginia Woolf's father let her read whatever she liked in his vast library.
Michael CaineMichael Caine took his stage name from a cinema sign he saw while phoning from a Leicester Square telephone box.
Keith RichardsKeith Richards, guitarist of the Rolling Stones, began his musical life by stretching toward an instrument he could not reach. His maternal grandfather, Augustus Theodore "Gus" Dupree, toured Britain with a jazz big band called Gus Dupree…
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy's heart and ashes were buried in two different places. The Abbey got his ashes, Stinsford his heart.
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Thatcher kept a portrait of her chemistry tutor on the wall at 10 Downing Street.
Michael OwenBefore he turned twelve, footballer Michael Owen had broken Ian Rush's goalscoring record.
A. A. MilneA. A. Milne accused his old cricket teammate P. G. Wodehouse of near treason.
Ozzy OsbourneOn the 5th of July 2025, Ozzy Osbourne sat on a black throne at Villa Park in Birmingham, because Parkinson's disease had left him unable to stand. More than 40,000 people filled the ground. At its peak, the livestream drew 5.8 million…
Pete TownshendPete Townshend helped make what the Guinness Book of Records once listed as the loudest concert ever. On the 31st of May 1976, the Who played Charlton Athletic Football Club, and a reading taken 32 metres from the stage reached 126…
Nigel FarageNigel Farage told reporters on the 4th of July 2016 that he wanted his life back. The line echoed the slogan of the referendum campaign he had just won, in which he demanded his country back. He also promised that this resignation as…
Wayne RooneyWayne Rooney was five days short of his 17th birthday when he scored the goal that made his name. On the 19th of October 2002, his last-minute strike for Everton beat Arsenal and ended their run of 30 matches without defeat. It also made…
Judi DenchJudi Dench won an Oscar for a role that lasted about eight minutes. She played Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love.
John Stuart MillJohn Stuart Mill was reading Greek at age three. His father was deliberately raising a genius.
George HarrisonGeorge Harrison mortgaged his home to save Monty Python's Life of Brian. EMI Films had pulled its funding in 1978.
Sting (musician)Sting, the English musician and actor born Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, once disowned his own first name on camera. In the 1985 documentary Bring On the Night, a journalist addressed him as Gordon. He answered, "My children call me Sting,…
Christine KeelerChristine Keeler, an English model and showgirl, appeared in The Economist in the summer of 1963 beneath the headline "The Prime Minister's Crisis". The magazine printed her picture and added no further explanation. A young woman had…
Marianne FaithfullMarianne Faithfull spent decades uneasy about the song that first made her famous. Speaking to Jay Cocks of Time magazine, the English singer and actress admitted: "I always childishly thought that was where my problems started, with that…
Eric ClaptonEric Clapton got the nickname Slowhand from a broken guitar string. Fans clapped slowly while he replaced it.
Mick FleetwoodMick Fleetwood is the only member on every Fleetwood Mac studio album. He held the band together as drummer.
Phil CollinsPhil Collins is the only artist who performed at both Live Aid concerts on the 13th of July 1985. He crossed between London and Philadelphia by helicopters and a Concorde to do it. Born Philip David Charles Collins, he went on to sell an…
Marco Pierre WhiteMarco Pierre White, an English chef and restaurateur, moved to London in 1981. By his own telling, he arrived with "£7.36, a box of books, and a bag of clothes". That was the entire stake of a young man who would later be dubbed "the first…
LemmyA bronze figure of Lemmy now stands on Market Place in Burslem, the Stoke-on-Trent district where Ian Fraser Kilmister was born on the 24th of December 1945. Local sculptor Andy Edwards made it. It was unveiled on the 9th of May 2025, with…
Jimmy SavileJimmy Savile ended the last weekly edition of Top of the Pops on the 30th of July 2006 with the words 'It's number one, it's still Top of the Pops.' After the closing credits, he turned off the studio lights. Savile had been a fixture of…
Boy GeorgeBoy George, born George Alan O'Dowd, walked into Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill on the 25th of November 1984 with jet lag still on him. He had come straight from Heathrow Airport after a transatlantic flight on Concorde. At 6 pm he…
Richard BransonRichard Branson, born on the 18th of July 1950 in Blackheath, London, left school at sixteen with a prediction ringing in his ears. On his last day, his headmaster, Robert Drayson, told him he would either end up in prison or become a…
MorrisseySteven Patrick Morrissey, known to the world as Morrissey, once led a tour of Manchester for the Oxford Road Show in 1985. Late in that tour he reached the secondary school he had attended. He described it in harsh terms and closed with a…
Russell BrandRussell Brand, the English comedian and podcaster, faced Jeremy Paxman on BBC Newsnight on the 23rd of October 2013. Asked what a revolution would look like, he gave an answer about money. He said: "I say profit is a filthy word, because…
Colin WilsonColin Wilson finished his book The Outsider while sleeping rough on Hampstead Heath.