By Steve Martin - well written, concise and illuminating.

Klaus Kinski's? A jaw-dropping read, honestly.

Or Miles Davis? You can actually hear his throaty rasp as you read it.

Or maybe David Crosby's Long Time Gone? Incredibly frank.

David Nobbs - "I Didn't Get Where I Am Today" I was shaking with laughter when I read it.

Art & Laurie Pepper - "Straight Life". A brutal story of a wild wild life, well told.

And I'll second the Miles Davis, too.

Two volumes available in one - Head-on and Reposessed. Brilliant - hilarious insightful and scathingly honest.

An everything book - thoughtful, funny, sad and a great read. And Spinal Tap links as well.

Amazon reviews are positive - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Father-Joe-Man-Saved-Soul/dp/1400061849/ref=sr_1...

"Things The Grandchildren Should Know" by Mark Oliver Everett... just bought a copy of it for my brother-in-law's Christmas stocking. I highly recommend it - even if you are not a fan of his music (Eels)

Harpo Speaks (Harpo Marx) is astonishing. With most autobiographies, the childhood years are generally quite dull - but his stories are told with such lightness of touch that you can almost see what was happening.

Out of terrible poverty, he then achieves obscene wealth with his brothers. As the Great Depression hits hard, he is playing croquet on the roof of a New York building with his buddies from the Alonquin (Dorothy Parker, Alexander Woolcott), with whom he seems to spend all of his non-working days eating and drinking. His extravagance is never tempered by any form of guilt or moves toward philanthropy. He lucked out and now he's got lots of dough. Simple as that.

His stories are totally trivial and self-indulgent with no talk of the films, the scripts, wartime or how the immense talent possessed by his family came about. His relationship with his brothers is rarely discussed. He tells us (between Alonquin stories) that he and his wife and adopted several kids and had none of their own. No reference to why. Maybe the personal stuff is none of our business - the book was written way before sleb confessionals became the order of the day.

So in many ways, although this is Harpo Marx having free rein to speak, he ends up saying not very much - which makes total sense.

As far as music is concerned, I found Adam Ant's Stand and Deliver very engaging indeed. The mental illness, the fame, the ambition and almost total lack of humour or self-effacement is intriguing.

That sounds brillant. I will get that myself,nice one Austin.

Cope is an excellent writer and never less than entertaining . These books are candid, very funny and are a great chronicle of the 80's UK music scene . Sex, drugs,rock'n'roll and lots of toy cars. What's not to love?

Klaus Kinski's autobiog is hilariously insane too.

Footnote* by Boff Whalley

This is a fantastic autobiography about the truly interesting life of a member of Chumbawamba. Really worth reading whether you are a fan (or even really know of) the group (you'll have heard the awfully catchy Tubthumping but really don't let that put you off).

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Footnote-Boff-Whalley/dp/1904590004/ref=sr_1_5?i...

and

+- Nothing by Paul Morley

Again a wonderfully interesting book. He saw Ian Curtis laid out dead but never saw his own fathers body (who also committed suicide). It is honest, moving and funny, covers music, social history and coming to terms with personal tragedy. Really great.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nothing-Paul-Morley/dp/0571177999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=...

And then if you aren't faint hearted and you want a really honest and complex biography how about

My Dark Places by James Ellroy

Though this book is pretty brutal. It is life story as hard-boiled crime novel and explains why this man writes the way he does. The man behind LA Confidential opens up his twisted soul and shocking personal history. Very brave. Very readable. Very dark.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Dark-Places-L-Memoir/dp/0099549611/ref=sr_1_1...

As the review on Amazon has it - "Reading this memoir is like sitting at a bar with a chatty drunk whose nearly incoherent monologue contains a few lucid, wonderful moments.". It is deeply smashing.

If you're interested in the whole Kerouac/Ginsberg/Cassady Beat scene, then Carolyn Cassady's "Off the Road" is an engrosssing read.

Bill Bruford's recent autobiography is excellent - engaging, witty, honest, poignant. Must read it again.

Also, I caught a bit of John Stewart's Daily Show last night and he was interviewing Clarence Clemons about his new book, "Big Man". Neat idea in that the stuff that's the gospel truth is printed on white pages, the taller tales or grey areas are on grey paper... haven't read it but I'm off to find a copy.

Finally, not strictly autobiography, but Norman Mailer di a few books late in life that were musings on his life and ideas - On God, The Big Empty and the Spooky Art. The last one is a must for anyone interested in the art of putting words on paper.

brilliant.

This is excellent: very funny, open and a page-turner. Likewise his 'On The Road' - a diary of his recent comeback tour; again funny and fascinating.

Music-wise, Mark E. Smith's "Renegade" is definitely worth investigating - he has "a singular world view," you might say. Walter Yentnikoff's "Howling At The Moon" isn't well-written, but his staggering stories of 70's/80's music biz excess don't need embellishment. All of Simon Napier-Bell's books are good and gossipy and name names, though they could have stood having a fact-checker. "Black Vinyl, White Powder" is the best, but chronologically start with "You Don't Have To Say You Love Me."

For old-school showbiz, Dirk Bogarde's memoirs run to 6 books but are very well-written - the first half of first volume "A Postillion Struck By Lightning" tests the patience by being a simple evocation of a semi-idyllic thirties childhood in the country, but then he leaps to his beginnings in theatre and it picks up. Eric Sykes' "If I Don't Write It, Nobody Else Will" is very good, but his pathological humility makes it sound like his career is one enormous accident (maybe it was.) Bob Monkhouse's "Crying With Laughter" is just brilliant.

For humour, I don't know if David Sedaris' collections count as autobiogs, though they're all about him and his family, but "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and "Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim" both had me laughing out loud.

Not from this year, but I'll second/third recommendations for Julian Cope and Harpo Marx above (Groucho's "Groucho & Me" is also worth a look if you're a Marxist, but if you only have time for one, go for Harpo's.)

The best autobiography I have ever read. An amazing life. A huge book that only covers up to his 40s and the completion of the Red Shoes. But it's a hell of a page turner. Amazing advebntures as a very young man travelling round the world making silent fimls. Great insights into the making of some of the greatest British films ever - Blimp, Matter of life and death, Black Narcissus, Red Shoes, etc. And plenty of romance with plenty of the most beautiful women of the time. You will be jealous. And it's as beautifully written as his films were shot.

Or you could go with the aforementioned Julian Cope which is a different beast entirely but is the second best autobiography I've ever read.

Or both.

Robert Evans - The Kid Stays in the Picture. What a book! Studio head, producer (of Godfather amongst others), playboy (squired Ava Gardner, Raquel Welch and Ali McGraw amongst others), failed actor, ingester of spectacular amounts of drugs, friend, bizarrely, of Henry Kissinger.
Who knows how much of the book is really true, it's the exact opposite of A Life in Movies, but it's a hell of a good read.

The Life & Times Of Little Richard by Charles White

You'll never listen to Buddy Holly in quite the same way again.

by Johnny Cash

Like him or loathe him a wonderfully entertaining book. Lots of the stories have since "come out" but at the time of publication were unknown. Quite topical again because Jeffrey Archer used to fill out expense forms for people and claim a commission.

by Andy Summers, if you didn't read it when it came out about three years ago. I found the Police years far less interesting than his early days, which were riveting and really made me realise how an overwhelming passion for music and guitars drives some artists.

by Nicholas Craig. Absolutely hilarious.

Lots of great suggestions here. To add three more, the sublime would be Robert Hughes's "Things I Didn't Know". He prefers to call it a memoir, and writes about some events and experiences with the insight he brings to his art criticism for "Time" magazine. He's not an easy person, but he is a brilliant writer and he's as tough on himself as he is on everyone and everything else. His account of life with his first wife is truly alarming! There's plenty on art, as you would expect.

The ridiculous - well, pathetic is more accurate - is "You Cannot Live as I Have and Not End Up Like This" by Terence Blacker. William Donaldson inherited a shipping fortune, was involved in "Beyond The Fringe" as a producer, dated Carly Simon, wrote "The Henry Root Letters" but wound up a hopeless crack addict dodging creditors and the taxman in a seedy flat in Chelsea. Compelling but depressing. If you have a taste for the seedy side of life you could also read "Dandy in the Underworld" by Sebastian Horsley, a possible successor (and friend) of Donaldson. Sex, drugs, Jimmy Boyle and crucifixion.

Baby, I Don't Care about Robert Mitchum, shifts him right up your heroes list

I think Julian Cope could be a winner as I loved that era and I'm sure there will be some Mac and Wylie stuff in there too. Harpo looks like a treat, Peter O'Toole and David Niven would be wonderful.... oh bugger I don't know if I leave to the wife it'll be Peter Andre!

...I'm not that familiar with his music but I liked the cut of his jib in the Word extract from his autobiog last issue and bought it on that basids. Very engaging and honest and entertaining - as good as Bill Bruford's, though I'm sure each would recoil at being lumped in with the other.

All I second the Clive James recommendation above - though I think the one that deals with his entry into writing for a living in the 70s, and his late 60s Cambridge footlights period, is the best (I think it's the third in his memoirs series!).

For film memoirs, Errol Flynn's 'My Wicked Wicked Ways' is unforgettable, even the pre-Hollywood years.

"Owning Up" is one of the best music memoirs about what it's actually like to be in a band: 1950s jazz combos, stage-door alleyway knees-ups, greasy spoons, road life in pre-motorway Britain ... it will lead you back to his naval cadet years, "Rum, Bum and Concertina".

Stephen Fry's life up until he goes to prison. Reading his account of how he had everything - loving family, comfortably off, good educational opportunities and so on yet still felt the need to lie and steal gave me several "something in my eye" moments. And it's very funny too.

"Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman" by Richard Feynman (mentioned above), nobel prize winning physicist and all round funny polymath guy.
Any of Barry Humphries' books, either the straight autobiography(ies) or in character as Edna.
The last is sort of autobiographical..."America" by Joe Queenan as he spends a year trawling the depths of crap in American culture, from Red Lobster to Billy Joel. Hilarious.