Biography
Sylvester Stallone’s own rags-to-riches story
Damaged at birth and neglected as a child, Stallone – like his creation Rocky Balboa – eventually found success through dogged determination
Janet Malcolm – an original mind inflected by psychoanalysis
Subtle, penetrating and dispassionate, Malcolm betrays a special kind of understanding in her criticism – derived from listening carefully, like a shrink
One for the Prefab Sprout diehards
Nige Tassell does his best to track down significant objects, locations and players in the rock band’s existence – but Paddy McAloon is notably absent
‘An inspiration to all under his command’: the cheerful courage of Brian Franks
The second world war hero was awarded both the DSO and MC. But perhaps his finest achievement was securing the permanent future of the SAS
Tribute to Granville Sharpe, the father of the anti-slavery cause in Britain
Horrified by the treatment of a black slave in London in 1765, the 30-year-old clerk of the Ordnance devoted the rest of his life to campaigning for abolition
‘There’s a 50-50 chance I’ll get bumped off’: an American scholar foresees his death
Even before Malcolm Kerr took up his post at the American University of Beirut in 1984, he warned his daughter of his potential murder
The intellectual passions of J.R.R. Tolkien
There was something remorseless about Tolkien’s spiritual beliefs, as there was about his love of Old Norse and his obsession with privacy
‘We think you’re the best’ – the actors’ tribute to Michael Gambon
Contradiction was the essence of Gambon’s art – a unique blend of coarse sensitivity, dishevelled elegance and grotesque grace
A bullying monster: the infamous Roy Cohn, Donald Trump’s early mentor
The mob lawyer’s mantra was never apologise or back down – and even though responsible for the execution of the clearly innocent Ethel Rosenberg, he declared: ‘I’d have pulled the lever myself’
Famous for being famous – the scandalous life of the Countess of Castiglione
Spy, courtesan and femme fatale, the Italian aristocrat was considered one of the most beautiful women of 19th-century Europe – as well as one of the cruellest and most profligate
They don’t make men like Erroll Prior-Palmer any more
An archetypal figure of his time, the Major-General never sought – or gained – popularity, though the decisions he took on D-Day saved many comrades’ lives
A life lived to the hilt: Clare Consuelo Sheridan
The daughter of an American heiress and first cousin to Winston Churchill suffered penury and widowhood but went on to lead an extraordinary life as a sculptor, author, journalist and Soviet sympathiser who had affairs with H.G. Wells, Trotsky, Charlie Chaplin, Ataturk and Mussolini among many others
The spellbinding power of the du Maurier family
Daphne du Maurier’s grandson examines his forebears’ imaginative understanding of the collective unconscious and their uncanny feel for what the public wanted
The enigma of Juba II, ‘the most fortunate captive ever taken’
The Numidian prince, raised in Julius Caesar’s household, remains a shadowy figure, but we get some good stories about his contemporaries, including Pliny the Elder and the Emperor Caligula
‘I always had a good life’: the boast of the 1970s’ most notorious terrorist
Carlos the Jackal, responsible for shooting mainly unarmed people point-blank, will live comfortably in a French prison for the rest of his days – a celebrity to inmates and visitors
‘A wonderful, wacky woman’: a tribute to Betty Freedman
The gifted pianist, photographer and art collector had an extraordinary love of the contemporary, and this account of her friendship with David Hockney is deeply moving
Why we must forgive Immanuel Kant his misogyny and racism
All humans are worthy of respect, he taught – except if they are black, Jewish or female. But his views were grounded in what he regarded as ‘facts’, argues Robert Wicks
‘A selfish, ignoble person’ – the dark side of the Nobel prize-winner Mario Vargas Llosa
‘Why so many lies, so many deceptions, so much disloyalty?’ lamented his first wife, echoing the views of many others once close to the Peruvian novelist
Persistent gossip about Brian Epstein’s death risks defining his life
Must the Beatles’ manager’s extraordinary vision be forever overshadowed by unfounded rumours of a contract killing?
The disgrace of Juan Carlos of Spain, a modern-day Don Juan
The once popular king was forced into exile in 2014 when rumours of profligacy, illegitimate children and ‘an unbridled sexual appetite’ finally caught up with him
In the dazzling company of Alexander Pope and friends
For three months in Twickenham in 1726, Pope and his guests John Gay and Jonathan Swift worked on their satirical masterpieces while entertaining each other with their repartee
The sham shaman: the fantastic lies of Carlos Castaneda
An entirely invented memoir, supposedly relaying the wisdom of a Mexican guru, was not only a cult bestseller but was endorsed by anthropologists and even UCLA
Wham! How George Michael shot to stardom straight from school
The singer himself described his career as ‘unreal’, and admitted that one reason for cruising was the rare chance it gave him to meet ‘ordinary people’
Insufferable martinet or inspirational hero? Field Marshal Montgomery was both
An abusive childhood may help explain the contradictory character of Britain’s great second world war commander, says Gary Mead
Caroline Aherne’s comedic genius is much missed
No one today can unmask pomposity and self-obsession as devastatingly as Aherne did in the guise of the faux-naive Mrs Merton
