Biography bestsellers 2011 and 2020

Make Your Own List. How do you find the perfect subject for a biography? The author, critic and chair of the National Book Critics' Circle biography committee talks us through the books that made their shortlist.

Top 10 best-selling biographies of all time

Interview by Cal Flyn , Deputy Editor. Have you noticed any trends or themes among the intake? There are so many new, diverse voices, and so many interesting approaches. While our committee agreed on these five books, so many others could well have been finalists. There seem to be fewer dutiful biographies of great men revered for their prominence rather than accomplishments.

We are seeing more books that transcend category. Knowing that they were written in the wild kingdom of Vermont, perhaps some of us will be tempted to give those stories in The Jungle Book another try! I discussed the autobiography shortlist with Mark Athitakis recently, and he talked about how memoir has come to the fore, and that could be thought of as autobiography at a slant, as you say: pulling out a portion or theme from a life for close analysis.