Why i’d like to murder my friends and other festive thoughts from our pick of this year’s memoirs

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES by Barbara Amiel (Constable £25) MEMOIRS FRIENDS AND ENEMIES    by Barbara Amiel (Constable £25) ‘Losing status, money, reputation and security is a shock when it happens all within a few days,’ writes Barbara Amiel in her fabulously gutsy and revealing memoir. She takes us from her world of glittering wealth to the … Read more

The little lamb who saved the day: The charming reminiscences in the memoirs of vet James Herriot 

As Britain’s most beloved vet, James Herriot’s delightfully honest and, at times, hilarious reminiscences of a vet’s life during the 1930s charmed millions of book lovers — and were turned into a long-running BBC series. Around 50 years after it was first published, as the second part of our exclusive reprint proves, his magical work is … Read more

Earl of Sandwich’s touching memoirs as he chronicles his father’s decline into Alzheimer’s disease

MEMOIR Mapperton Moments  by John Montagu (Skyscraper £10, 224 pp) Leaking house, leaking pond, leaking puppy, leaking father… these touching diaries of John Montagu (now the 11th Earl of Sandwich), chronicling his father’s slow decline into Alzheimer’s disease and death over eight years, have them all, in dripping abundance. Drip, drip, drip. It’s January 1987 … Read more