Auto/biography is one of the most popular literary genres in the late 20th century, widely supposed to illuminate the study of the individual and her or his personal circumstances. This text is an introductory analysis of the genre which suggests that auto/biography is, in fact, based on fictions, both about the person and about what is possible to know about any one individual. Chapters consider particular kinds of auto/biographical writing such as work on: the British royal family; Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre; and George Orwell the author demonstrates the absences and evasions, indeed the "missing persons" of auto/biography. This text should be valuable reading for undergraduates on social sciences and humanities courses, particularly Women's Studies, Sociology, Literature and Cultural Studies.