Best ADHD books in the UK: where to start, by what you want

What makes the best ADHD book for you?

The best one matches what you need this month, not what ranks first in a list. Most readers want one of five things, and the books below are sorted by them.

• Length and shape. Entries you can read in five minutes suit a day that does not hold much. Long chapters suit someone who wants the full argument.
• Tactics or story. A manual tells you what to try. A memoir shows you someone else's life. Know which you are buying.
• Who wrote it. Several authors here have ADHD themselves. Others are clinicians or coaches. Neither guarantees a book will suit you.
• UK or US context. Barkley is American, as are some others we list on related guides. Advice about workplaces, schools and healthcare may not match the UK.
• Price. In our data the eight picks run from about £12.34 to about £19.

We chose them from publisher pages and our shop data. We have not read them cover to cover for this guide.

Which ADHD book should you read first?

Start with How to ADHD or ADHD an A-Z. Jessica McCabe's book, 464 pages at about £19, collects the workarounds she uses from her channel. Leanne Maskell's A to Z, about £14.99, lets you open at the letter that is causing trouble today and stop after two pages.

If you would rather have a structured programme, Russell Barkley's Taking Charge of Adult ADHD, second edition, is the more formal option. The publisher says it covers seeking professional help, questions about medication and other options, and strategies for work, family and personal goals. It is 294 pages and about £16.99.

For a deeper look at getting going, our guide to books for ADHD adults who struggle to get started goes through six titles.

Which ADHD book is best if you want practical help?

For something you can try this week, pick a book organised around actions. How to ADHD and ADHD an A-Z are the lightest. Dr James Kustow's How to Thrive with Adult ADHD is more of a plan: Penguin says it asks you to map your own ADHD signature and then work through seven pillars of small habit changes, covering areas including sleep, schedule and surroundings.

Kustow is a London consultant psychiatrist who works in an NHS adult ADHD service. That is useful context, but the book is not a substitute for care from your own clinician.

For the mess at home, KC Davis's How to Keep House While Drowning (162 pages per Open Library) and Tamara Rosier's Your Brain's Not Broken (208 pages) are covered in our getting-started guide.

Which ADHD memoirs are worth reading?

Shaparak Khorsandi's Scatter Brain and Alex Partridge's Now It All Makes Sense are the two on our shelf. Scatter Brain is a comedian's memoir covering topics from shoplifting to attraction to toxic men. Khorsandi was diagnosed in her 40s. It is the cheapest book here at about £12.34.

Partridge founded the social news sites UNILAD and LADbible, and was diagnosed at 34. Now It All Makes Sense blends his own account with what he learned from experts on his ADHD Chatter podcast, including parenting, mental health and money. For more late-diagnosis stories, see our guide to books after a late ADHD diagnosis.

Which ADHD books suit women?

We have no book written specifically for women with ADHD on our shelf yet, so we point you to the women's voices we do have. Khorsandi's memoir is one. Ellie Middleton's Unmasked is another: she was diagnosed with autism and ADHD in 2021, and Penguin describes the book as a guide to masking, the diagnostic process, sensory overload and working life.

The NHS notes that women may be diagnosed less often, partly because inattentive symptoms are harder to spot. That is a reason to read widely, not a reason to doubt yourself.

Laura Kerbey's The (Slightly Distracted) Woman's Guide to Living with an Adult ADHD Diagnosis, from Hachette UK, is aimed squarely at later-diagnosed women. Hachette lists chapters on parenting, menopause, work and relationships. We have flagged it as a book to add.

Which ADHD book is best for partners?

Dirty Laundry, by Richard Pink and Roxanne Emery. Pink does not have ADHD and Emery does, and they are partners. The publisher says it offers tips for partners, parents and friends, and each chapter pairs a common ADHD symptom with the authors' own story. Its aim, per the publisher, is to ease the shame many people with ADHD feel.

It is about 144 pages in the Ten Speed Press paperback, though a separate UK edition exists, so check the page count you are buying. About £14.99 in our data. It works as a book to read in parallel and then talk about.

How do you choose between them?

If money or reading is a barrier

Borrow first. Most UK libraries lend e-books and audiobooks free through an app, and you will know in a chapter whether an author suits you. Audiobook editions exist for several of these titles, including Dirty Laundry, which the publisher lists at 4 hours 3 minutes. The ADHD podcasts guide on this site lists free alternatives from several of the same authors.

Things to know

• Books do not replace assessment. The NHS says to see your GP if ADHD symptoms affect study, work or relationships, and that specialist waits can be several months or years. It also mentions Right to Choose, through which your GP may be able to refer you to a clinic with a shorter wait.
• Medication talk. Some of these books discuss medication. Talk to your prescriber before changing anything because of something you read.
• Page counts differ by edition. We quote the publisher where we could, and Open Library otherwise. Some listings disagree.
• Prices move. Prices are from our shop data on 20 October 2026. Unmasked has a 2026 paperback listed by Penguin at a lower price than our data, so check at the shop.
• Personal accounts are one person's life. A memoir shows what ADHD looked like for the author, not for everyone.