Tony Benn's autobiography stretches over a few volumes and is quite good, quite detailed. I'm not sure I'd say it was inspirational but it's certainly an interesting insight into the man and his times. There are a couple of odd moments where I think he was clearly wired up to think differently to what I'd consider the norm (not saying that's good or bad). One instant, I think in the book up 2000, he gets a call that his mother has died in hospital. So he picks up his camera, goes to the hospital and positions her bed so he can get some last shots of her, on her deathbad with the London skyline as a backdrop.
I'm not sure I'd ever of thought of doing that with a dead parent, or actually being able to execute it as a photography exercise.
Also interesting was his relationship with the press. He was getting increasingly annoyed with Murdoch's papers making up crazy left wing quotes and attributing them to him. No number of complaints stopped the lies. So he adopted a simple tactic of always agreeing to talk, comment or quote on anything they wanted. But he would take a name, a photo of the journalist and record everything said on his own dictaphone so he had his own copy. Lies directly attributed to him by Murdoch journalists pretty much dried up after that.
The other side of the coin, we get an insight into what it was like to try and work with him in Bernard Donoughoue's book about the Wilson govt., equally detailed and level headed. But clearly Benn was considered a bit of nut job by just about everyone on his own side.
Always good to get two sides.
Biography of Karl Marx by Francis Wheen is very good.
But I take a lot of my personal philosophy and inspiration from Kerry Katona. Her book 'still standing' is currently available on Amazon for £4.45