2005 Christmas reads: Biography

My Life
By David Lange
(Penguin $49.95)

We lost the former PM in August but luckily for us he'd just completed this fine legacy, a memoir laden with razor-sharp wit, analysis and gossip, run through with a deep vein of sadness. There are poignant memories of a childhood during more innocent times, then the growth into adulthood and entry into law and politics. His recall of his Labour Government years reviews the good, bad and ugly — with some caustic swipes at colleagues ("what a terrible lot of people they were!") booming from the grave. What a loss.

Chronicle of the Unsung
By Martin Edmond
(Auckland University Press $34.99)

This year's winner of the Montana Book Awards biography section. Poet, writer and former Red Mole man Edmond calls it a "travelogue of the mind", an exploration via various byways of an eventful life (drugs and homelessness figure), the nature of creativity and his connection with other "unsung" aesthetic imaginations.

My Lives
By Edmund White
(Bloomsbury $35)

The master of the autobiographical novel, short stories and travel writing casts his eye over his own life. The result is at times blushingly frank — White has been robustly gay and sexually active since he was young, and he has enjoyed a great deal of variety, to put it politely. Not for the faint-hearted but a mighty powerful read.

Judi Dench: Scenes from my Life
By John Miller
(Weidenfeld & Nicholson $65)

A visual biography, featuring scenes from Dench's photo collection. Her biographer, John Miller, offers a brief introduction; Dench provides the annotations. She starts in 1957, freshfaced at the Old Vic, and a photo of her late husband Michael Williams as a lad. Wedding photos in 1971, a daughter, pets ... it gets more interesting with the production shots from an amazingly versatile career in stage and film. Just like the lady, lovely, but you'd have to be a fan.

Teacher Man
By Frank McCourt
(HarperCollins $50)

McCourt is back on form with this involving saga of how he became a teacher in New York, and how he learnt to engage his students by telling them stories, his methods often the subject of disdain and suspicion by the administrators. A fascinating and eloquent effort by the Pulitzer Prize winner (for Angela's Ashes).

Untold Stories
By Alan Bennett
(Profile Books $59.99)

A collection of Bennett's major writings over the past decade, including a memoir of his parents' marriage, his journey through cancer, essays, reviews, a eulogy for Thora Hird, the odd outburst and rant — all told with that honest, precise, beloved voice. But cuddly? No.

Climbing the Mango Trees
By Madhur Jaffrey
(Ebury Press $59.95)

The world's most famous Indian chef and food writer goes back to her childhood in Delhi, where her large wealthy family's life centred around huge feasts, picnics and weddings. Beautifully written with photos and recipes; this is an India that no longer exists but which is revived through Jaffrey's loving memory.