Product Description

Whatever your opinion of Billy Connolly, his life has been an epic tale of controversy and hilarity, tragedy and comedy. From his working class roots in Glasgow he has worked his way to the top, and now enjoys huge worldwide acclaim and lives a dream lifestyle. From welding to folk singing to comedy to writing to acting, Billy has proved beyond doubt his versatility and sheer determination. And if anyone knows that better than him, it's his wife, Pamela, who gives us an insider's view of this talented musician, singer, TV presenter, comedian and actor. We hear about the highs and the lows, the good times and the bad and she takes us behind the scenes of the films and TV shows he has been in and the sell-out tours that are so unmissable so that we get to see something of the real Billy Connolly.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49259 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Billy Connolly is loud, hilarious and contradictory. His biography, written by his wife, former comedian and practising psychotherapist Pamela Stephenson, is pretty much the same. Over the years Connolly has grown from Glasgow shipyard welder to folk-singing beardy hard man (yes there is such a thing) to darling of the good and great (or at least famous) around the world. That he is so many things to so many people while in no way compromising his core self can only be good. It would be no mean feat for Stephenson, then, to pen a history to that would satisfy Connolly audiences of fans and contemporaries from all periods of his life's journey. In most places, but in truth, not all, the author manages to do this well.

The first half of the biography is somewhat anthropological in tone. Not surprisingly, a post-war Glasgow upbringing is somewhat alien to the antipodean author and Stephenson errs towards Angela's Ashes intonation as she describes her husband's tenement childhood (Scots readers may also find her regular translation of seemingly self-explanatory Scots phrases--which Connolly would use--obtuse). In contrast her examination of her experience of living with the comedian and his life from that point on is much better. Anecdotes which Connolly uses in his live shows pepper the text and laughs are raised as he tells of the time he was mistaken as a drug dealer on Speyside, of his cheeky friendships with cinema's elite and even through the more difficult times; the difficulty of balancing an almost manic humour with a troubled life. Pages turn quickly as we grow to understand more of what makes the man tick.

Certainly fans of Billy Connolly will enjoy this book. It is not perfect but it is certainly entertaining and should fill a gap in the market until Billy--with his half-remembered stories and off-centre view of the world--decides to let us into his head as well as his history. There's surely one ideal way to do this and that's by writing his story himself. --Helen Lamont

Review
Pamela Stephenson, psychologist, former TV comic and wife of the superstar stand-up comedian/actor paints a revealing portrait of Billy Connolly whose life has been an epic tale of controversy and hilarity, tragedy and comedy. Nibbies 'Book of the Year'.

We all know Billy Connolly from his years at the top of the comedy food chain and his legendary TV appearances on the likes of Parkinson. Few, however, can claim to know him as well as Pamela Stephenson, Connolly's wife, the erstwhile Antipodean comedienne and practising clinical psychologist who puts it all down on paper in this enjoyable although often harrowing biography. Conditions ranged from bleak to brutal in the reeking Glaswegian tenements where Connolly spent his childhood; his father was away at war when his mother left him and his sister Florence to be looked after by his two aunts. School memories are peppered with examples of the cruel corporal punishment that anyone educated in less liberal times can remember with a wince, and home life fared little better for the 'Big Yin'. The mental and physical violence meted out by his unhinged aunt was eventually replaced by his father's sexual abuse which he endured for five years from the age of ten. Salvation came at the hands of rock 'n' roll, and he went to work in the shipyards of the River Clyde. The merciless ribbing of his fellow shipyard workers was the perfect place for Connolly to sharpen his legendary wit, and coincided with the developing social conscience that would inform his comedy over the years. A gallery of great photographs enhance the text in this award-winning biography, ranging from the fuzzy images of the 1940s through some unfortunate '70s sartorial errors to a clearly delighted Connolly opening the new Glasgow Celtic grandstand in 1999. A bit wearing on the occasions when Stephenson forgets to remove her psychologist's hat, it's nonetheless the compelling story of a survivor, a true hero for many, who went from welder to world-renowned entertainer without ever forgetting where he came from. (Kirkus UK)

Clinical psychologist and former comedian Stephenson balances wifely affection with professional analysis in her biography of Billy Connolly, who survived abandonment as well as physical and sexual abuse to become a noted musician, comedian, and actor. The narrative alternates between the couple's current life in Los Angeles and Billy's early years in Glasgow, where he was born in 1942 as his father was about to leave for the battlefields of Burma. The Connollys were Catholics who had left Ireland to make a better life in Scotland, but they still could only afford a squalid tenement apartment with two rooms and a communal washroom. When Billy was three and older sister Florence not yet five, their mother walked out, leaving the kids alone in a cold apartment without food. His father's two unmarried sisters eventually took them in, but one of the aunts regularly beat and belittled Billy. Things only got worse when his father came back from the war and began sexually abusing the boy. School was no better; teachers were free with physical punishment and verbal abuse. In his teens, Billy began playing the banjo and singing and eventually left his job as a welder at the Clyde shipyards. He overcame a horrendous childhood to become famous, first in Scotland as a musician and comic, then in London, and now in the US. As Stephenson notes, "Billy's real story is an utterly triumphant one." Known for his outrageous wit and costumes, he initially had difficulty coping with fame. His first marriage failed, he took drugs and drank heavily. Stephenson, who met him while she was acting on British TV, details all the low moments as well as the highs: his doctorate from Glasgow University in 2001, his acclaimed role in the movie Mrs. Brown, and his friendships with stars like Judi Dench, Michael Caine, and Dustin Hoffman. A loving case study, meticulously researched, best on the early years before the accolades began to accumulate. (Kirkus Reviews)

Synopsis
Whatever your opinion of Billy Connolly, his life has been an epic tale of controversy and hilarity, tragedy and comedy. From his working class roots in Glasgow he has worked his way to the top, and now enjoys huge worldwide acclaim and lives a dream lifestyle. From welding to folk singing to comedy to writing to acting, Billy has proved beyond doubt his versatility and sheer determination. And if anyone knows that better than him, it's his wife, Pamela, who gives us an insider's view of this talented musician, singer, TV presenter, comedian and actor. We hear about the highs and the lows, the good times and the bad and she takes us behind the scenes of the films and TV shows he has been in and the sell-out tours that are so unmissable so that we get to see something of the real Billy Connolly.

Customer Reviews

Frighteningly badly written. A wasted opportunity.
What a top subject for a biography. What a terrible shame. At one point Pamela Stephenson laments Billy's being awarded an honorary Doctorate when she's had to work so hard to get hers. Shame she doesn't demonstrate any of her hard work in the book. I was looking forward to reading it but in the end was left bitterly disappointed by the experience.

Lin and Wendy Cook's (separate) books about Peter, anyone?

Very funny but would've been hillarious if Billy had wrote it himself.
Pamela has done a good job of writing this book.She's obviously done plenty of research with Billy's family and friends and you can tell that a lot of the tales have come straight from Billy's mouth by the hillarious way they're told and the very funny phrases used.But the book could've been so much better if Billy had wrote it himself with his amazing talent for story telling.
The book is at its best in the first half about Billy's sad childhood,his days working as a welder,and how he came to be a stand-up comedian.The second half about his life since he became famous is a bit lacking in Billy's hillarious tales.

The Big Yawn
This book left me with the same feeling I get after scarfing candyfloss - unsatisfied and slightly sick.

Billy's childhood story held my attention, despite the annoying psychological analyses and labeling from the author, solely because such topics as overcoming a difficult and abusive childhood are interesting. What 'maketh the man' and so forth. I did find that I had to repeatedly go back and reference who the pivotal people of Billy's childhood were, for some reason their names and the role they played in his development were not sticking. Maybe too many people with a first name beginning with M? Or maybe it was just tediously and poorly written?
I found that his first marriage was rather dismissed - Iris was a drunk, end of that story. Then along came Pamela and everything else is swiped under the carpet. If that part is too personal to reveal then don't write a biography.
And yes, the name dropping - continuous and highly irritating. Once Billy and Pamela had found superstardom the rest of the book seemed to dissolve into disjointed annecdotes of which famous person stopped by for tea and how many houses they own. They are both famous people and therefore they will know other famous people and be able to afford several houses, but it came off more like boasting than interesting.