Product Description

Michael Palin has kept a diary since newly married in the late 1960s, when he was beginning to make a name for himself as a TV scriptwriter (for the Two Ronnies, David Frost etc). Monty Python was just around the corner. This first volume of his diaries reveals how Python emerged and triumphed, how he, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, the two Terrys - Jones and Gilliam - and Eric Idle, came together and changed the face of British comedy. But this is but only part of Palin's story. Here is his growing family, his home in a north London Victorian terrace, which grows as he buys the house next door and then a second at the bottom of the garden; here, too, is his solo effort - as an actor, in Three Men in a Boat, his writing endeavours (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that produces Ripping Yarns and even a pantomime. Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: the hugely successful movies that follow the TV (his account of the making of both The Holy Grail and the Life of Brian movies are pager-turners), the at times extraordinary goings on of the many powerful personalities who coalesced to form the Python team, the fight to prevent a American TV network from bleeping out the best jokes on US trasmission, and much more - all this makes perceptive, funny and rivetting reading.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56356 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-03
• Released on: 2006-10-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 696 pages

David Baddiel, THE TIMES
'This combination of niceness, with his natural volubility, creates Palin's expansiveness.'

Review
'This combination of niceness, with his natural volubility, creates Palin's expansiveness.' (David Baddiel THE TIMES )

'Palin's style is so fluid, and his sincerity so palpable, that it is often easy to underestimate just how talented he is as a comedian, a broadcaster and a writer..... they are just too good and his is too modest.' (Ruth Cowen THE SUNDAY EXPRESS )

'a real delight to read;' (SAGA MAGAZINE )

'his showbiz observations are so absorbing..... Palin is an elegant and engaging writer.' (William Cook THE GUARDIAN )

'Palin's steady eye, contemplative bent and instinct for honest appraisal make him the perfect chronicler of a frequently insane period which saw the 'Monty Python' team become the most celebrated comedians in the world.' (John O'Connell TIME OUT )

'a slow burn, revealing its pleasures only gradually, and allowing readers the warm glow of hindsight denied its writer...... this book will be the perfect present.' (Marcus Berkmann THE SPECTATOR )

'the charting of the haphazard and often perilous ascent of the Python phenomenon up the greasy pole of fame makes for delightful and often extraordinarily funny reading.... An entertaining and at times deeply moving read. With nearly two decades of recent dairies still untapped, we may confidently sit back and wait for more.' (Michael Simkins THE MAIL ON SUNDAY )

'a wealth of fascinating stuff about Monty Python.' (William Cook THE INDEPENDENT )

'our favourite TV explorer shows us the workings of an unstoppable machine.' (DAILY EXPRESS )

'a riveting commentary to a remarkably creative decade.' (ACADEMY )

William Cook, THE GUARDIAN
'his showbiz observations are so absorbing..... Palin is an elegant and engaging writer.'

Customer Reviews

I Can't Wait To Read About the Next 10 Years
Michael Palin writes as he speaks, without pretension, and with a great deal of humor. These are his diaries - not initially meant for publication and thus full of honest, blunt observations regarding films, books, his own performances and the foibles of his fellow Pythons. Nobody escapes unscathed here, though I doubt anyone who Mr. Palin wrote about would dispute his conclusions.

The years 1969-1979 are some of the most amazing in Python history; they begin as Monty Python starts filming its first television series, and concludes as Life of Brian is released and there is backlash from the religious folks who don't understand the premise (and many of whom proudly state that they haven't even bothered to see the film they're condemning). Between these two seminal events are discussions of filming on other projects, the need and the attempt to write, and a man's deep and abiding love for his wife, children and parents. Reading the passages about Palin's father weakening was moving in the extreme, and his pain was palpable as the roles between father and son slowly reversed themselves.

This is a hernia farm of a book at over 600 pages hardcover, exclusive of introductions and index, but you soon forget your aching arms as the pages fly. The life that Michael Palin has built for himself and his family is so layered, rich and interesting (while still being fairly "normal") that you only want the best for him and can't wait to read what happens next. I understand that the next segment of diaries will be released in September 2009, and I'm very excited to read about that next decade in my favorite Python's life.

Despite copious footnotes explaining the backgrounds of the people mentioned, those who are not familiar with British comedy and culture may find the narrative a little hard to follow, at least initially. Because I've been living in London for a year or so, the people that Palin encounters (and then writes about) have become more familiar to me. Even more interesting were his mentions of favorite bookshops, restaurants and London haunts which he enjoyed with his children (and, in some cases, continues to enjoy to this day). In that respect, the Diaries became a bit of a travelogue for my future travels around my adopted hometown.

Great, inspiring read!
Palin's diaries take in everything from Python meetings, filming, touring, and interesting analyses of the political climate of the time.

What comes across is that Palin is quite possibly the lynchpin that holds Python together. He acts as a sounding board to every Python member's upsets and troubles, mediating as best he can. This places his diaries in a unique position in that it gathers a wealth of insiteful information about all of them.

Palin himself comes across as very likable, very interested in the people he meets and what makes them tick. Only occassionally do you lose empathy with him. Firstly there is hardly any insite in the diaries to his family, with the exception of his father. This could well be down to editing, to keep his private life out of it, but the weighting is largely on his work and the impression given is of someone who puts this first.

But what work it is. Palin is enormously self-motivated, generating work for himself off of his own back, whilst his fellow Pythons wallow in depressions and neuroses.

This book nearly had me wanting to keep a diary myself, and did have me buying a load of Python on DVD. So for that it must be doing something right!

When can we have volume two?
This thick volume is a delight from page 1. We already feel we know MP through his air of general bemusement in his travels, but there is so much more to him than this.
Covering the Python Years, we hear all about the difficulties in getting six different personalities to agree and the creative struggle to behind Python - the relationships are often tense between the team.
We also learn about MP's family, the arrival of his children, and the sad decline of his father to Parkinsons.
We're so lucky that MP has written up his diary nearly every day and it appears that the hand of the editor has been light, making it even more of an achievement.