Product Description

Guy Hunting began his career working as a footman directly for her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace. During a state banquet he was befriended by the Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe. He was hired to work for Noel Coward as his personal butler, and the two men travelled the world together. This is the waspish story of the rich, powerful and famous, and all their crazy adventures.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1038244 in Books
• Published on: 2002-06-24
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 399 pages

Sunday Telegraph, August 2002
Selina Hastings enjoyed this inconsequential memoir of the life - and loves - of a sometime royal servant.

Country Life, September 2002
This book provides holiday reading that slips down as deliciously as the Bloody Marys that are Mr Hunting's speciality.

The Mail on Sunday, July 2002
For the sake of comic literature we must hope that before very long Guy Hunting manages to launch himself back into Royal employment.

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly good - funny, honest, revealing, fascinating!
If you like authors with a sense of humour and an eye for the telling anecdote you'll love Guy Hunting's debut.

He reveals an insider's view of three of the most different and fascinating celebrities of the modern world. From the pen of a trusted friend and confidant you get a new insight into the glamorous world of the Royal Family; the minefields of politics; the intimate life of Noel Coward...

I liked this book because it was uniquely readable; it is as though Guy Hunting is really talking to you. His detailed descriptions of scenes and conversations really give you the feeling of being a spectator at the events he experienced. 'Adventures of a Gentleman's Gentleman' is true to life: Hunting describes celebrities with a mixture of heart-felt warmth and a healthy dose of fascinating criticism.

At first I was dubious about 'Adventures of a Gentleman's Gentleman' because I had not heard of Guy Hunting; but this doesn't make his book any less insightful. In fact his relative obscurity is an advantage: I got the impression that he wasn't trying to boost his own fame or career, but could afford to honestly and amusingly concentrate upon the celebrities he encountered.

I'd love to pass on my recommendations: hope this book enthralls you as much as it did me!

Ducky lays a curate's egg
This is a book which promises much, and falls sadly short in the delivery. Part of this is because of the title. A gentleman's gentleman is a valet or, possibly, a Jeeves-like super-valet. Guy Hunting is variously a silver-pantryman, a footman, a secretary, a shop assistant, an estate agent, a would-be antique-dealer and a companion to a wealthy, titled divorcée. Anything, indeed, but a gentleman's gentleman. In fact, to judge by the way he kisses and tells, he clearly ain't no gentleman at all. All the while, and this is really the heart of the book, he is also a (gentle)man's (gentle)man on the other side of the innuendo - a clearly very active gay man in the liberated sixties and seventies, when guardsmen were available for little more than the price of a drink and excess was a requirement. Hunting is none the worse for that - there is an attractive honesty to his exploration of this side of his personality.
It is a shame, then, that he has chosen to pitch his book as a behind-the-scenes look at Buckingham Palace and Noël Coward's chalet in Switzerland when this part reveals almost nothing new, takes up only about a quarter of the book (if that), and a lot less than that of his life. One is brought to the conclusion that the title is merely there to sell a narrative that otherwise would have made no impression at all on the book-buying public.
The bulk of the book is a recurring betrayal of friendships and secrets that, however titillating they may be (and many of them are), deserved better than to be spread out for all to see, a one-sided monument to a sad need for indiscreet gossip. In the end, they become a somewhat dull recital of how an ex-footman comes to be on first-(nick)name terms with peers, the rich and the famous, and seems to manage to fall out with all of them. As he is never quite accepted by them, it is also rather a sad little story, with little in it to excite much sympathy, and no real sense of a life lived happily. Perhaps one had to have been there...
The book is ill-served by some shockingly sloppy editing. The ending is as bizarre as it is abrupt, and the whole narrative should have been ruthlessly pruned, and given some sense of direction. There are also far too many careless spelling mistakes ("flare" instead of "flair", "Roxborough" instead of "Roxburghe", and so on), so that one has to wonder whether the editor actually read the book with any sort of blue pencil or critical faculties.

This book has its moments, and is told with humour and some style, but it could easily have been so much more.

sour memoirs
This book is less than adequate.Not nearly enough about the royals and how he loves to bite the hand that feeds him - after all they gave him practically his first job and showed him quite a lot of kindness. Their reward here are some rather snide comments. And who cares about this author's years as an estate agent in Shepherds Bush. Not me , really.