Product Description

Covering Sid's early years in South Africa and life as a ladies' hairdresser, his obsession with gambling and women, his questioning by Scotland Yard in a murder case, Hancock's Half Hour and the Carry On films, and Sid's death on stage at the age of 63, Cliff Goodwin reveals the amazing truth behing the legend.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #91954 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"'fascinating reading and funny' Loaded; 'unpretentious and surprisingly seductive' Daily Telegraph"

Loaded
'fascinating reading and funny'

Film Review
'very good read indeed'

Customer Reviews

A BORING BIOGRAPHY OF AN EXCITING MAN
I thought this a largely uninspired, dull and rather dirty book on a man who was a comic legend. The book is concisely written but that's about all one can say in its favour. James' private life was obviously enormously complicated and the inner sadness behind the crabby, smiling features was a strong part of his nature - yet we learn almost nothing about the real man. James' journey from South Africa to Europe, his psychological journey from a pedestrian life in the suburbs to film stardom, make him an 18th century figure of myth and mystery. But there is no sense of that here. Goodwin propogates James' own inventions about himself, painting him as a fairly ordinary bloke-next-door. Indeed, in Goodwin's reductionism, James might as well have been a tailor or jeweller.

James' chameleon qualities merit a serious study - a work of colour and dimension, not just another "showbiz biog".

a poor effort
The biography is a feeble effort. Some of the sentences don't even make grammatical sense. I had no sense of the warmth and ebullience that was so obviously a part of Sid James' character; just a lot of muck-raking. Goodwin,according to the jacket, worked as a journalist and has tried to graduate to proper writing - and it shows. This is box-standard reporting with none of the insight or literary penetration of a genuine biographer.

Welcome return of the master of British comedy!
I tried so hard to get this book over the last two years and is was such a relief to see it listed with Amazon that i pre-ordered it months ago.I grew up in the era of Sid's Bless This House,which was a favourite in our house and he just seemed like the man next door,Honest Sid.I thoroughly recommend this book to all fans of British movies,Carry Ons etc