Product Description

From welding to folk singing to comedy to writing to acting, Billy Connolly has proved his versatility and sheer determination. Here, his wife Pamela gives the reader an insider's view of this talented musician, singer, TV presenter, comedian and actor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #490823 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Released on: 2007-08-20
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 3
• Binding: Audio CD

Review
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)

From the Publisher
The inside story of the one of the most successful British stand-up comedians, as told by the person best qualified to reveal all about the man behind
the comic, his wife of 10 years – Pamela Stephenson.

Customer Reviews

10 stars if i could
I read this book(paperback) in Italy 2 years ago, and thought it was the most funny/humorous book i have ever read, i vividly remember laughing my head at the side of the pool whilst everyone was looking at me funny. I came back to amazon to find another BIll book for my summer hols to relax and have some fun. I simply could not beleive that another reader had given it 1 star - which spurred me to write this little review. In conclusion: this book is Brilliant, brilliant brilliant. Plus, Billy if u read this if and would like to donate any funds to my overdraft a/c please feel free to email me at anytime :-).

CHARISMATIC SAVAGE
Essentially a visual experience, Connolly's reputation has been built on verbal and visual nuance. Any attempt to portray him through the written word is likely to challenge the best writer. Which brings us to Pamela Stephenson's "Billy".
The first thing to say is that - to put it kindly - the writing style is unsuited to the subject matter.
Stephenson's (purple) prose is shot through with cliche, broad generalization and truism; the whole work underscored with snippets of cod psychological insight whose combined effect is further to undermine the man and his work. The breathless tone is present throughout the 383 pages, and - since its style apes that particular magazine - will quickly grate with all but the most hardened Hello reader.
The tone of the book is established as early as page three, when we read that "Not a day has passed since I met him twenty years ago, without my shaking my head and marvelling at his miraculous survival of profound childhood trauma," and continues in similar vein. My own favourite Pam-ism arrives at page 233, and reflects the meeting of author and subject. .."but here was an alpha-man, a crazy, hilarious, sensitive, charismatic savage. I was desparately wishing I had worn something more feminine than my jeans and oversize man's tweed jacket and tie."
Stephenson's use of the superlative adjective throughout the narrative offers further ammunition to critics of her writing style. Page 240 informs us that "Despite his shocking, chauvinist behaviour, he was really wonderfully kind and his terrible sadness melted me." Or how about this from page 241: "Time creeps as slowly as the giant snails that crossed my night path to pluck a perfect Frangipani flower for my supper-time hair-do."?
Shakira Caine (the relentless name-dropping is a further feature of the book) is described, on page 278, as being "the most exquisite woman in the world." And on and on it goes.
This begs the question of any discerning reader: can we safely assume that Pamsy is the stereotypical blonde bimbo? Not according to her. Page 241 reveals that "It felt as though we were joined at the wound....he had always been punished for being 'stupid', and I had always been punished for being 'bright'". So now we know.
Taking pot shots at this book may be akin to shooting fish in a barrel, but isn't that what the Big Yin is - or at least was - all about: bursting the bubble of pomposity? Taking no prisoners?
Time was, of course, when Connolly would rightly have torn this bio to shreds. It's clear that years of living the celeb lifestyle in the Hollywood Hills have blunted his once razor-sharp objectivity. How else could he allow such toe-curling waffle to slip beneath his critical radar?
Ultimately, for all her efforts on his behalf, this book reveals more about Stephenson than it does about Connolly. Those wishing for a more accurate, a more concise, a more incisive, and an altogether grittier account of his life would be better reading "Gullible's Travels", Connolly's co-written 70's biography. He neither sported a horrid hairstyle back then, nor did he dye it; further proof - surely - of a decline in the quality of the later version!

billy
good condition, quick delivery, but very disapointed that it was not Billy himself talking, Pamela has a very boring, monotonous voice, and I lost interest in the story because of that.