My Name is Barbra: The Sunday Times Bestselling autobiography of the living legend (Hardback) - Barbra Streisand

A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. The exhilarating and startlingly honest autobiography of the living legend.

THE TIMES MUSIC BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023

'Over almost a thousand pages, the diva to end them all documents her rise to the top and the tears and joys that went with it: growing up in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn; hitting it big with Funny Girl at 21; calling up Apple's Tim Cook to demand that Siri pronounce her name right (it's Strei-sand). What really brings this alive is Barbra Streisand's admission of the insecurity that drives her. With a mother from hell who belittled her at every turn, no amount of fame and success could ever fill the hole in her heart.' The Times

'Exhilarating ... leaves blood on the page ... My Name Is Barbra is 992 pages of startling honesty and self-reflection, deadpan parenthetical asides (including a running bit about how much she loves going to the dentist), encyclopedic recall of onstage outfits, and rigorous analyses of her films' Vanity Fair


'I have been patiently waiting for Barbra Streisand's autobiography for 54 years....My Name is Barbra is a Streisand obsessive's dream come true. It addresses all the rumours and misrepresentations of her long and extraordinary life, from nearly missing out on A Star is Born to dating Pierre Trudeau, Omar Sharif and Marlon Brando. The wait has been worth every word!' - Richard E Grant, Sunday Times

'The mother of all memoirs' New Yorker

'Glorious, exuberant, chatty and candid, a 970-page victory lap past all who ever doubted, diminished or dissed her, with lingering high fives for the many supporters . . . generous dollops of chutzpah ... Nobody puts Barbra in the corner' New York Times

'Mystical, messy, bawdy and funny ... My Name is Barbra confides her insecurities and a ravening hunger for fame...silent but eloquent and vociferous writing' Peter Conrad, The Observer

'An extraordinary life - you couldn't make it up' The Guardian

'This enormous, poignant memoir from the ultimate showbusiness trouper shows that you can never have it all (even if you're Barbra). The writing is great and the likeable formidable personality shines through . . . deeper than the average celebrity memoir' The Times

'The book is crammed with delicious details of backstage arguments, bewildered suitors and at least one incident of falling off a London bus' BBC

'A glorious doorstopper... the sheer ambition of this intricately woven memoir makes it a fascinating read. The delicate pages bring to mind a Russian novel or, perhaps more appropriately for the many who view Streisand as akin to a deity, a bible. And yet, Streisand writes relatively succinctly, with warmth and wit. Behind the sequins, beneath the wigs and through the glass of the recording studio, there's just a woman who dreamed of being famous and make it happen, on her terms. It's an accomplished and entrancing walk through a life well lived' Evening Standard


'Streisand is no less than a living legend, one of a handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and now, she's taking us all back to where it began. Streisand's story is truly inspirational and it's one that you'll want to pick up again and again' Glamour

Barbra Streisand is by any account a living legend, a woman who in a career spanning six decades has excelled in every area of entertainment. She is among the handful of EGOT winners (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) and has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in popular music. She has been nominated for a Grammy 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. In My Name Is Barbra, she tells her own story about her life and extraordinary career, from growing up in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl (musical and film) to the long string of successes in every medium in the years that followed. The book is, like Barbra herself, frank, funny, opinionated, and charming. She recounts her early struggles to become an actress, eventually turning to singing to earn a living; the recording of some of her acclaimed albums; the years of effort involved in making Yentl; her direction of The Prince of Tides; her friendships with figures ranging from Marlon Brando to Madeleine Albright; her political advocacy; and the fulfillment she's found in her marriage to James Brolin.

No entertainer's memoir has been more anticipated than Barbra Streisand's, and this engrossing and delightful book will be eagerly welcomed by her millions of fans.

'A brilliant memoir' Hillary Clinton

Sunday Times Bestseller, November 2024

About the Author

Barbra Streisand is an American singer, actress, director and producer, and one of the most iconic figures in music and film, the only recording artist in history to have earned number one albums over six consecutive decades.


She has received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honor, the National Medal of Arts, France's Legion d'Honneur, and America's highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She founded The Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai, helping to raise awareness and push for more research into women's heart disease, the leading cause of death among women.


Through the Streisand Foundation, which she established in 1986, she has supported national organisations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women's issues, and nuclear disarmament. In 2021 she launched the Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA, a forward-thinking institution dedicated to finding solutions to the most vital social issues.