_1786550394.jpg "10 Memoirs to Read on We Love Memoirs Day")
A YouGov survey found that 27% of Americans who read at least one book in 2025 read a biography or memoir. That made biography and memoir the third most-read genre in the survey, after mystery and crime at 35% and history at 30%.
(YouGov)
True stories offer readers something different from fiction. Some memoir books focus on a single journey or part of a person's life. Others look back across several decades. This collection has 10 books published by Austin Macauley Publishers. They cover military service, travel, teaching, family, marriage, identity and healing.
What Is We Love Memoirs Day?
We Love Memoirs Day takes place on August 31 each year. It began in 2013 when memoir authors Victoria Twead and Alan Parks created a community that brought memoir readers and writers together.
(Fulton County Library System)
The day celebrates the reading and writing of personal stories. That does not mean every memoir has to come from someone famous. A person's career and life experiences can all become the subject of a memoir.
That range is one of the reasons the genre has so much variety.
What Is the Difference Between Memoir and Autobiography?
The difference between memoir and autobiography is mainly about the part of a person's life being told. An autobiography usually gives a broader account of the writer's life.
A memoir focuses on a particular period, event, relationship, career or experience.
The distinction is not always strict. Some autobiography books cover a lifetime while still spending a great deal of time reflecting on particular memories and experiences. The books in this list take both approaches. Some cover decades. Others centre on one important journey or part of the writer's life.
A Quick Guide to the Featured Books
The books below cover very different types of personal journeys.
This guide can help you find a story that matches your interests.
|
Reader Interest |
Suggested Books |
|
Military life and service |
The First RAF ‘Top Guns’ at Red Flag, Time Passes, The Unlikely Corporal |
|
Travel and identity |
Travels with Chog, Towards Iraq |
|
Careers and changing society |
The Autumn Years of a Colonial Boy, Life at the Chalkface |
|
Family and personal change |
My Life Without a Nutshell, An Everyday Housewife, Healing Your Inner Child Journey |
10 Memoir Books and Autobiographical Stories to Read
Memoirs can record experiences that might otherwise be lost. These ten books below are some of our top-recommended memoirs.
1. The First RAF ‘Top Guns’ at Red Flag by Sqn Ldr Stuart Ager
Sqn Ldr Stuart Ager looks back at his years flying Buccaneer aircraft with the Royal Air Force during the Cold War. In 1977, 208 Squadron became the first RAF squadron chosen to take part in the United States Air Force's Red Flag exercise. Ager went on to participate in six Red Flag wargames.
The book also covers precision-guided weapons and life away from the operations.
2. Travels with Chog by George Lockyer
In 1983/84, George Lockyer and his companion Chog set out from London on an overland adventure. They begin on 90cc motorcycles and ride as far as Greece before continuing their journey by public transport. Along the way are deserts, mountains, mosques, wildlife and the everyday challenges of travelling before mass tourism. Lockyer also looks back at growing up in working-class London during the 1960s and 70s.
This brings back all the memories of childhood and youth into the journey.
3. Time Passes by Gordon Robert Pryor
Gordon Robert Pryor looks back at a life that went through war, National Service and unexpected changes in fortune. His memories begin with childhood in wartime London and Hertfordshire before moving to his National Service and posting to Cyprus.
Later experiences include sailing, tennis, an unexpected inheritance and studies at Oxford.
The book also tells us about spying, bringing some unusual encounters into an already eventful life story.
4. The Autumn Years of a Colonial Boy by Peter Hunt
The Autumn Years of a Colonial Boy is the final book in a trilogy about Peter Hunt's life and career. Hunt reflects on his experiences in advertising and marketing during decades when technology, consumer habits and working life were changing rapidly.
Computers, television, advertising, credit cards and the growth of the service industry completely changed everyday life. His own experiences run alongside these wider social and economic changes.
5. My Life Without a Nutshell by Andrew Giuliano Lo Russo
Andrew Giuliano Lo Russo writes about forgiveness and the lessons that can take years to understand. His family immigrated from Italy to the United States when he was young. He wanted to fit into American culture, while his traditional parents had different expectations.
After leaving home as a teenager, he experienced opportunities as well as a number of misfortunes.
Looking back, he considers the difficult, funny and sometimes embarrassing experiences that helped shape his life.
6. An Everyday Housewife by Cilla Shiels
Cilla Shiels spent twenty-six years dealing with the frightening outbursts of her husband. Then six words made her decide to leave her marriage. Her autobiography follows the experiences that led to that decision and the courage required to change her life.
The book is aimed at people who may feel trapped because they are afraid they would not cope with change, even though they may already be doing much of the coping themselves.
7. Life at the Chalkface by Graham Lacey
Graham Lacey reflects on thirty-five years working in education. His career begins in one of the most deprived towns in the United Kingdom and eventually takes him to the position of headteacher at a large international school. The experiences he shares helped shape his practical and theoretical views about education.
His anecdotes also show the gap between the idealism with which he entered teaching and the reality he found through experience.
8. Towards Iraq by Hannah Denno
In April 2015, Hannah Denno left London and began a 3,000-mile walk across Europe towards Iraq, the country her grandfather came from. The journey was partly about finding a connection with her family roots.
As she walks, she also thinks about national identity, individual identity and the journeys made by others before her. When political circumstances change the route, the journey takes her towards places and experiences she had not originally expected.
9. Healing Your Inner Child Journey by Suzanne O'Hagan
Suzanne O'Hagan writes about growing up feeling like an outsider and dealing with difficult experiences from childhood. Her story looks at her childhood traumas and the effort required not to repeat harmful family patterns.
The book also follows her attempt to move beyond bitterness and hold on to love and hope. It is a personal account of looking back at what happened without allowing those experiences to determine everything that follows.
10. The Unlikely Corporal by Bill Fairbairn
Bill Fairbairn looks back at his National Service in the King's Own Scottish Borderers between 1953 and 1955. At eighteen, he exchanged peaceful civilian life in Scotland for twelve weeks of infantry training and the possibility of becoming a fighting soldier.
His eventual role in an army orderly room placed him behind a typewriter rather than a rifle.
The book talks about military life, the value placed on different types of service and the feelings of the people waiting for loved ones at home.
Why Can Real Life Stories Be Inspirational Books?
Some inspirational books tell readers directly how to change their lives. Memoirs can work differently.
They show what another person experienced and leave the reader to decide what can be learned from it.
The writers in this list do not face the same problems. One writes about flying military aircraft. Another walks thousands of miles towards the country of her grandfather.
Others write about marriage, childhood, immigration or finding a different direction in life.
Readers looking for inspiring memoir books can therefore find encouragement in these stories. The important part is not that every writer reaches the same conclusion. It is that each person has something different to look back on.
How to Choose a Memoir You Will Finish
Start with the question that interests you most.
What was it like for an RAF squadron to take part in Red Flag during the Cold War?
What happened to two young travellers who left London on 90cc motorcycles?
What could make someone leave a marriage after twenty-six years?
How does a 3,000-mile journey change when the planned route is no longer possible?
What does thirty-five years in education teach someone about the classroom?
A good question gives you a reason to read another chapter.
Try these three steps:
Read the synopsis.
Choose the experience that interests you most.
Start with the first chapter.
You do not need to choose a memoir because the writer's life resembles your own.Sometimes the most interesting real-life stories are the ones that take you into an experience you have never had.
Start With the Story That Interests You
These ten books cover military service, travel, working life, childhood, family and major personal changes. Some writers look back at one important period. Others tell stories that stretch across decades.
That is what gives memoirs their range.
We Love Memoirs Day is a good opportunity to choose one of those stories and hear directly from the person who lived it. Start with the book that made you most curious.
The other nine will still be there when you finish.
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