Questions about the relationship between memoir, what really happened, and public history especially in times of significant societal change and disruption – troubled times  have no doubt been around since the earliest examples of the genre, most likely predating Ceasar’s Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. Memoir and biography readers encounter life’s suffering, dread and loss, alongside hope, achievement, redemption. For life writers, recalling and ordering in memoir, events that shape them, is there a danger of forgetting or expunging the discomfort, pain or distress those events provoked for the self or others? Do writers have responsibility in terms of their self curation to those others either inside or outside of the text? Beyond the text what imperative if any, exists for the reviewer or critic to raise ethical questions arising from the writer’s recollections? This article considers two recent examples of life writing presenting narratives of bohemian lives which have fulfilled requirements for higher degrees in creative writing. The conversational frame of this article, which nods to Ross Watkins’ and Nigel Krauth’s (2016) exploration of new forms for the journal article, is used intentionally to foreground the authors’ personal observations and responses to the texts, particularly as these intersect with the texts. This subjectivity is a springboard for questions about the social value of memoir and life writing in troubled times.