Vivienne Ulman’s memoir is an often painfully personal, autobiographical account of a daughter coming to terms with the death of her mother from Alzheimer’s disease. The themes of family history, memory, love and loss are explored through short, episodic chapters which move back and forth in time, creating a collage-like family portrait that revolves around her parents’ love for each other and their children. Central to the story is Vivienne’s father, who selflessly dedicated his life to caring for his wife during her slow disintegration from Alzheimer’s. Just as central is the way in which we deal with grief, and how as individuals we create a system of coping when faced with the challenges of losing a loved one.

Clive James’s fifth memoir begins in 1982, with his departure from Fleet Street and the world of print journalism to ‘the madly glamorous medium of television’. He writes thoughtfully about the mechanics of this new world – how television was made – including details like the editing of footage, writing of scripts and business of interviewing. There are also encounters with lions and elephants in Africa, observations and gossip on various celebrities (he lunched with Roman Polanski and found it ‘hard to admire’ him) and reports on his ongoing Friday lunches with the likes of Martin and Kingsley Amis, Christopher Hitchens and Julian Barnes. This seamless memoir is James at his raconteur best: witty, incisive, dryly self-deprecating and marvellously entertaining. An absolute pleasure.

Subtitled ‘J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals and the search for a baroque masterpiece’, the first book by Canadian journalist and filmmaker Eric Siblin pays homage to Bach and his six suites for the cello. Having closed the chapter in his life as a pop music critic, Siblin attended a recital of Bach’s suites in 2000. The result was a new obsession, as he fell in love with the music and became increasingly intrigued by the story behind the suites’ composition and their later revival by Catalan cellist, Pablo Casals. Like the six suites, each of the six chapters has six movements, moving from past to present, biography to music history, Barcelona to Brussels as the author travels across the globe in pursuit of a lost manuscript and the source of his passion.

George Orwell was an inveterate keeper of diaries. Eleven of these are presented here in one volume, providing a new insight into Orwell’s character and understanding of his great works. Covering the period 1931–49, Diaries follows Orwell from his early years as a writer up to his last literary notebook. The hop-picking diary covers some of Orwell’s time spent down and out; and the notes from his travels through industrial England, which formed the basis of The Road to Wigan Pier, show the development of the gifted young novelist and impassioned social commentator. His trademark acute power of observation is evident in his diaries from Morocco, and the wartime diaries make fascinating reading, from descriptions of events overseas to the daily violence closer to home and his astute perspective on the politics of both.

When Blue Mountains–based Charlotte Smith inherited a priceless collection of vintage clothing from her American godmother, couture collector Doris Darnell, she became the custodian of more than 3000 pieces dating from 1790 to 1995. In Dreaming of Dior, these special-occasion outfits are brought to life in classic fashion illustrations by Grant Cowan. Along with the ultimate dress-up box of jewelled cocktail gowns, micro minis, taffeta crinolines and designer ensembles, Darnell also bequeathed detailed catalogue notes on the collection to her goddaughter. Smith’s text and Cowan’s brightly coloured sketches combine to capture a moment in time, shedding light on the outfits and the women who wore them.

Fifty-five years have passed since the death of Frida Kahlo, and the legends and mystique surrounding the iconic Mexican artist continue to grow. Adding fuel to the fire, Finding Frida Kahlo reproduces a previously undiscovered cache of letters, drawings, paintings, notebooks and ephemera that curator and collector Barbara Levine found stored in five dusty suitcases in a Mexican antique shop. Dealers and art experts alike have queried the authenticity of this fascinating haul of artworks, erotica and knick-knacks, but a Q&A with the antique-dealer custodians reveals how the collection came to be in their possession and details the steps they have taken to prove its provenance.

Almost a century after the international design competition for the national capital, Walter Burley Griffin’s design – and its implementation – is still hotly debated. Who was this man and what was his vision? How did he come to Canberra, what happened once the Australian establishment tore him to shreds, and what was the role of his wife, helpmate, fellow architect and creative partner, Marion Mahony Griffin? In this definitive new biography, Alasdair McGregor delineates the role each played in the production of their greatest works – Canberra, Castlecrag, Newman College and the rest – and charts their lives, from their childhoods and meeting in Chicago in the employ of the larger than life Frank Lloyd Wright, to their battles in Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney, and their swansong in India.

Rather than writing a conventional autobiography, the charismatic director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales reveals insights into his passions, opinions and life experience by reflecting on his long-time fascination with art and artists. Capon touches on a diverse range of topics, including the contemporary art world’s fascination with conceptual art. There are personal encounters with artists including Henry Moore and Sidney Nolan, his top 10 museums, his love for football and Chinese art (not necessarily in that order), and studies on a diverse range of artists from Bellini to Henson that make compelling reading. More than 50 artworks are reproduced, and the book itself is packaged as a clever homage to Duchamp’s readymade art.

Pop icon Morrissey is as revered as he is reviled by music fans and aficionados around the globe. Music journalist and author Simon Goddard is widely accepted as one of the foremost experts on the artist, and this new tome-like world according to Morrissey and The Smiths is as close to the last word as you’ll find on Mozza and Co. Although unauthorised and hindered by a continued refusal from Morrissey to speak to Goddard, this obsessively researched work would surely impress the great man himself. With entries covering everything from the complete back catalogue of Morrissey/Smiths songs to his vegetarianism and love of the Carry On movies, it’s a truly eccentric and eclectic portrait of the boy with the thorn in his side.

This witty, well-designed and keenly priced book brings together the answers to almost 200 questions put to Charles Saatchi, founder of global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi and probably the most influential art collector of our time. Whether the questions are related to art or his personal life, Saatchi answers them all with disarming and sometimes brutal frankness, creating an entertaining and enlightening portrait of a famously publicityshy man and offering a unique insight into today’s art world. We learn of his frappaccino habit, his views on Damien Hirst’s plummeting career, what he thought about the National Gallery of Australia’s action in cancelling the 2000 ‘Sensation’ exhibition, his reaction to the assertion that painting is dead and what it’s like being married to a domestic goddess.

Tony Martin’s first book, Lolly Scramble (Pan Australia. PB. $24.95), revealed that his mastery of the comedic anecdote translates as beautifully on the page as it does on the radio and screen. A Nest of Occasionals delivers another serving of hilarious memoir, in bite-size chapters that spin seemingly ordinary experiences from childhood and beyond into touchingly funny entertainment. He recalls being crowned ‘Poof of the Century’ after declaring his hero as the guy who ‘did all the sound effects for Star Wars’; trying to meet girls in a series of amateur drama productions; and having his braces (which he got aged 17) repossessed by the government. A Nest of Occasionals confirms that Tony Martin is infectiously likeable – and infectiously readable, too.

Moving, instructive and more compulsively readable than any book about death has a right to be, this memoir is both a meditation on the nature and experience of grief and a tribute to the author’s late husband, who died of lung cancer. Kay Redfield Jamison is a professor of psychiatry, author of four books on brain chemistry, including a lauded memoir about her manic depression (An Unquiet Mind. Picador. PB. $22.95) and a recipient of a Macarthur ‘genius grant’. Her husband and partner of nearly 20 years, Richard Wyatt, was a renowned scientist and expert on schizophrenia. This intelligent and accessible book is reminiscent of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (Harper Perennial. PB. $25) in celebrating a close marriage and mourning its passing in an insightful and heartfelt fashion.

In this saucy and scintillating memoir (or bibliomemoir – a term and genre he has more or less invented), dealer in rare books and BBC broadcaster Rick Gekoski takes us on a fascinating literary journey in which he reveals the intricate relations between his reading and his life. Gekoski’s wide knowledge of literature, psychology and philosophy is cheerfully enlivened by his enthusiasm, humour and frankness. Tracing the role books have played in his life, Rick selects 25 that are special to him and trains the same ironic and analytic eye on these chosen few (and their authors) as he does on himself. The result is unique – a sustained and witty work dedicated to the proposition that reading is one of life’s great formative influences.

Brenda Niall, who so magnificently captured an Australian arts dynasty in The Boyds (MUP. PB. $45), has unearthed an important piece of Australian history while digging through the archives of this exiled Irish Catholic. Forced out of Ireland for his involvement with the Irish Nationalist movement, Father Hackett soon found himself at the centre of Australian political life through a friendship with the influential Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel Mannix. Hackett became known as a ‘meddling priest’ to politicians of the day for his activism and convictions. As well as uncovering correspondence with B. A. Santamaria and revolutionary Michael Collins, Niall also brings her own reflections on a man who was a regular visitor to her childhood home.

The surviving member of the Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright could never be accused of not telling it like it is. Rifling Through My Drawers is no less forthright, honest and entertaining than her previous autobiographical musings, Spilling the Beans (Hodder. PB. $25). Taking the form of a month-by-month diary over the course of one year, Clarissa heads off on an entertaining journey around the British countryside. Along the way she covers all manner of rural events and traditions close to her heart, and includes recipes for such idiosyncratic fare as venison Scotch eggs and Bath buns. Never one to be politically correct, there are plenty of anecdotes told in the author’s down-to-earth, jolly hockey sticks voice that will raise more than a few eyebrows.

Anne Manne’s memoir depicting ‘scenes from a country childhood’ is told in a series of vignettes, focusing on a particularly emotional time in her life. Following the break-up of her parents’ marriage, Anne travelled with her mother and sisters to rural Victoria to start a new life, leaving her father and brother behind in Adelaide. Lucidly and keenly, she teases out the pain and confusion of this traumatic yet vibrant time, when her love for rural Australia and its people and animals was formed. In doing so, she scans the literary landscape of writings on memory and loss, from Proust to Woolf, Helen Garner to Clive James, identifying the colours, tastes, sounds and smells that conjure up the past. Manne’s previous book was Motherhood (Allen & Unwin. PB. $29.95).

Janine Burke is renowned for her engrossing books exploring and explaining the lives of artists, illuminating their work with her investigations into their psyches. While writing The Heart Garden (Vintage. PB. $24.95), one of her series of books on the Heide circle of artists, she was inspired to explore the beloved landscapes and locations of other artists and writers, to gauge the connection between art and place. Her investigations led her all over the world, to locations such as the New Mexico desert of Georgia O’Keefe, Jackson Pollock’s Long Island, Hemingway’s Key West and the Sussex of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. The result is a deeply thought, passionately explorative look at creativity through the ‘beautiful, memorable’ locations that inspired major works by these creators.

Poet Mark Tredinnick has written a lyrical natural history of the Blue Mountains and a memoir of his attempt to belong there.

The book that inspired the film starring Audrey Tautou. A fascinating look at the life and world of fashion’s ultimate icon.

A memoir of the social and sexual lives of New York City’s cultural and intellectual in-crowd in the tumultuous 1960s and ’70s. NB: December release.

Hanley presents papers of 22 well-known Australian literary and artistic figures, giving an insight into their creative lives.

The Pre-Raphaelites’ bohemian lifestyles and intertwined love affairs broke19th-century class barriers and bent the rules governing the roles of the sexes

A collection of actor Dirk Bogarde’s frank, gossipy, funny and often malicious letters.

From vaudeville performer to London couturier and Australian landscape painter, the many lives of Florence Broadhurst were as varied and extravagant as the flamboyant wallpaper patterns that eventually gave her fame. Her graphic swirls, peacocks and flowers are cropping up in hotels and restaurants around the world, as well as on designer couture and accessories. Sporting a bold silver and black cover, this new edition of the bestselling 2006 biography is lavishly illustrated with reproductions of her famous designs. The book unravels Broadhurst’s compelling life story, from her roots in rural Queensland and the establishment of her wallpaper business in 1960s Sydney to her vicious murder in 1977, a crime which remains unsolved. A fascinating biography and gorgeous design resource in one.

The winner of the 2006 European Poker Championship describes her 20-year-long obsession with the game.

The co-founder of Joy Division and New Order has written an entertaining memoir about the Hacienda club in Manchester.

The second volume of the affable Python’s diaries covers events including the making of A Fish Called Wanda and the first of his celebrated journeys for the BBC.

The story of the Hemingses, a slave family with close blood ties to President Thomas Jefferson. Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for History.

The great Australian poet gives a courageous account of his struggle with depression, accompanied by especially selected poems.

Traces the life of vodka pioneer Pyotr Smirnov, recounting the personal lives of the Smirnov family against the backdrop of events leading up to the Russian Revolution.

The war experiences of a very young man – and the relationship between a son and his mother – during the horrors of Gallipoli and its aftermath.

This family memoir by the author of the muchloved Untold Stories (Faber. PB. $27.95) is both heartrending and at times irresistibly funny.

The story of media-buyer Harold Mitchell’s remarkable personal journey from son of a saw miller to owner of a $100 million business.

When feminist writer and commentator Anne Summers inherited a childhood portrait of her late mother, her curiosity about how the portrait came to be painted took her on an unexpected journey of detection into the lives of the painter, Constance Stokes, and her patron, Lydia Mortill. It would also force Summers to confront the true nature of her often-troubled relationship with her mother. With accompanying black-and-white and colour illustrations to help tell the story, this enthralling book is at once a memoir, art history and detective story as the lives of the women unfold and the mystery of a lost second painting of Summers’ mother emerges.

Acclaimed music critic and historian Hoskyns has written the definitive biography of enigmatic, gravel-voiced musician, Tom Waits.

Chabon presents his autobiography and vision of life in the form of a series of insightful and provocative essays.

Goldsworthy recalls her first steps towards a life in music, from childhood piano lessons to international success as a concert pianist.

The story of Afghani women’s rights activist and politician Malalai Joya, whose outspoken criticism of war lords in her country has led to several assassination attempts on her life.

Michael Gawenda is one of Australia’s best-known journalists and writers. Rocky is his small furry dog of indeterminate breeding. This is their story.

Documents the writer’s concealment of his homosexuality, disastrous marriage, escape to the Far East and WWII work with British Intelligence.

A personally revealing and complete biography of ‘The Oracle of Omaha’, legendary businessman Warren Buffet.

Iranian author Azar Nafisi garnered readers around the world with her bestselling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran (Hachette. PB. $25). In her new, more personally revealing, memoir she takes us back to her childhood in Iran to chronicle her troubled relationship with her complex mother and womanising father. Now that her parents are dead, she looks back over their turbulent lives and considers the gift of storytelling they gave her despite their estrangement, and the foibles and failings that inspired her to follow a different path in life. Personal photographs sprinkled throughout add poignancy to this moving account of family life in a time and place of political and social upheaval.

Edward Kennedy didn’t live to see his autobiography in print, dying at Hyannis Port on 25 August 2009 less than two weeks before publication. His much-anticipated memoir is the definitive firsthand account of America’s first family, drawing on 50 years of diaries and notes. Kennedy paints a picture of family life with his parents and eight older siblings, and recounts their profound influence on his life and 46 years as a progressive liberal senator. For the first time, he reveals the years of heartbreak he suffered following the deaths of his brothers. With equal candour he tells of his later career in the Senate, including his endorsement of Barack Obama, and retraces the events that occurred at Chappaquiddick in July 1969, which closed the door on his own place in the presidential race.

In this honest, provocative and uplifting treatise, expatriate Nikki Gemmell writes about what it means to be Australian right now.

In this caustically funny, nostalgic, poignant and moving book, Burroughs (Running with Scissors. Hachette. PB. $25) recounts Christmases past and present.

An account of Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of long-time New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun.