The Joy of Autobiography
Yesterday I finished reading Iconic, My Life in Fashion in 50 Objects by my beloved heroine Dame Zandra Rhodes. It is officially a memoir rather than an autobiography, but I’ll go into the definitions a bit more during the week, in my Substack Notes.
My copy of Iconic is a signed copy as I was lucky enough to attend a talk and a book launch by Dame Zandra at the Fashion and Textile Museum in December 2024. While Dame Zandra was giving the talk, I was sketching her (badly) unbeknownst to her. I revealed my drawing at the end of the talk and she was very excited and pleased, in fact she squeezed my arm and told me to “keep drawing, never stop.” I nearly swooned, and have tried to up my drawing game ever since!
My Post this week is going to be a big homage to Dame Zandra as I shall be including a photo of the day I met her at my day-job as well as my drawing of her and my signed copy of Iconic.
The memoir is beautiful; funny and moving and very surprising in parts. It motivated me and made me cry, like probably the best memoirs and autobiographies should. I definitely recommend it.
A few hours later I picked up my next memoir to read, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry. However, I may have to put it back on the shelf for a little while. It feels like too much of a comedown after the monumental high of Dame Zandra. Perhaps because Perry talks about the miracle of being alive but tragedy was not far away. It feels too soon to read it.
Prior to Iconic, I read Shattered by Hanif Kureishi which I bought at an author event- when I saw him give an interview to Mishal Hussein at the South Bank. Sadly this cannot be a signed copy, but I did read on his Substack somewhere that he and his family are experimenting with some kind of digital signature, which would be cool. Though I can’t imagine how it would work. Like a tracker??
Shattered is motivating too, it also gives lots of advice and insight into the writing process, as well as intimate details of Hanif’s life before and in the immediate aftermath of his accident. Another one I recommend!
Melanie Sykes’ personal story, Illuminated- Autism and all the Things I’ve Left Unsaid is an amazing read, and I think that she wrote it in only ten days. It is certainly written at a compelling pace and makes you want to read on and forget about everything else you have to do. I shall be eternally grateful to this book for helping me to stop dreading Christmas. And if you’ve ever not looked forward to Christmas, or felt the pressure of FOMO for whatever reason, then I think this book might help you too.
Auto da Fay by another of my beloved heroines, Fay Weldon (why wasn’t she made a Dame?), is one of my favourite memoirs- though I can’t remember a thing about it! In fact, I might make a return to this one whilst Matthew Perry rests on the shelf next to the Dalai Lama, who will look after him. Yes, Auto da Fay will be my next book to read at home.
I won’t list all the autobiographies, biographies and memoirs that I’ve ever read but there is just one more that I’d like to mention. If you were only ever going to read one, then make it this one:
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band (Motley Crue) put together brilliantly by Neil Strauss. It’s thirty years since it was written, twenty years since I read it and I still remember every single word (ish).
Coming up next week, in my daily notes, will be some exploration of Autobiography, Biography and Memoir. Do chip in! Who’s your favourite?
Meanwhile, here’s Zandra…
