I spotted this today in a charity shop in Downham Market.

Because of the size of my To Be Read pile, it's going out on a bookring, as follows:

1. Jalna
2. WistfulDragon
3. mrsbridgewater
4. Dizzy Dormouse
5. drift-words
6. Normy
7. herrgirl
8. Gooner

It's not too late - any more takers, please?

Mmm - no consideration for the size of other people's TBR piles, I notice! Mine is pretty horrendous, but I shall place this as near the top as possible and trust that those coming after me will be patient.

I have to admit that much as I always enjoyed listening to Peter Ustinov recount tales of his life, I did find the book rather heavy going. The reader can, though, recognise his well-known voice in every phrase. I think I would have got through it more easily had I had it as an audiobook.

I will be sending it on to WistfulDragon as soon as I have an address.

Thank you! I received this in the same post as a book by Joyce Grenfell - also a ring, if you are interested? - so have a veritable literary feast in store! As there are more people on this ring, this one gets read first.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It isn't a comedy book as such, although I did laugh aloud a couple of times. Nor is it a sensationalist, name-dropping celebration of celebrity. Instead it is what I had hoped for; an intelligent, witty, often amusing insight into the formation of the man behind the familiar figure seen on screen. I may not agree with all of his opinions, and certainly am not cultured enough to appreciate all the subtleties of his work (which ranges far wider than I had realised), but this book did nothing to alienate me from a man I have always admired, although I did not 'know' him well. Thank you for letting me read this book!
I will post on to Mrs Bridgewater on Saturday.

Uh oh - another ring I'd forgotten about! Looking forward to reading this as soon as possible!

I just could not get into this book :-( I love listening to Peter Ustinov but found the book to be very heavy going.

'Interesting' is probably the best way to describe this one. I'm still not entirely sure biographies are my 'cup of tea' but this one (as you'd imagine) is full of wicked humour (Without being overworked!)

Be warned though - it's very hard-going & takes forever!

Received w/ Thanks.

Gosh! I've had this over a year and still not read it through. I dipped in now and again, and found some hilarity, mixed with the poignant humanity of the author. On to the next person now.

Arrived safely today. Thanks Drift-words for passing this on, and for the lovely card (did you know I was Buddhist?). Thanks to Gooner for starting the Bookring.

Third on my TBR list - the other two are Gooner's too. If anyone else joins any of the rings I'm on, Gooner, let me know and I'll make sure that gets priority.

Read for the A-Z Authors Challenge (a late substitution).

The book was written in 1977, and Ustinov died in 2004, shortly before his 83rd birthday, so we miss out on the last 27 years of his life.

I found parts of the book fairly interesting, although after his childhood Ustinov focuses on his career rather than his personal life. Either Ustinov had a phenomenal memory or he journalled everything. I suspect possibly a mixture of both. Although many of the 'famous' names meant nothing to me, it did, however, stimulate my previously latent (some might say non-existent) desire to become more 'cultured'(although, in fairness, some of that credit goes to Bookcrossing). I even went out and bought a Guardian Review! We'll see if anything else comes of this development!

I found the book easy enough to read, and the chapters were short, which made for good use of time, but if it weren't for the bookrings to follow I don't think I would have had enough drive to get to the end. I found the literary style too flowery - he seemed to be from the 'why say one word when ten will do' school of thought. He also seemed to lose himself in his sentences, and would quite often miss out a word which jarred when reading. I would have to re-read the sentence to realise that a preposition was missing. This probably wouldn't be noticeable in written speech, and he does actually mention something about someone else being fussy about their grammar, so maybe it wasn't a big deal to him, but he does ~seem~ to be presenting himself as a wordsmith.

The device of talking to himself in dialogue could have worked better. He was able to use it to present two sides of the story - both his. He presents himself as a man of humility, and yet here he is talking about himself and his achievements (and, to be fair, failures).

I was left with the feeling that I didn't know the man (as opposed to the details of his career) much better than before - was he arrogant; was he humble? I suspect the answer is yes; and yes. What were his aspirations? I don't really know. He seemed to me to be sexist, but maybe this was just a sign of the times he was born it - he was certainly aware that that could be levelled at him. He also left some interesting facts out, and I was left to wonder why.

All in all, I was a little disappointed, but pleased to have had the opportunity to read the book, and I ~do~ feel inspired to explore more about film and theatre.

Awaiting Gooner's instructions as to the book's next destination.

On it's way to Herrgirl as soon as I get to a Post Office (hopefully tomorrow).

Arrived today, thanks to Normy for sending it on. I'll start it as soon as I've finished my current read.

I had wanted to read this as a colleague had spoken well of it, but I was rather disappointed. As a raconteur Peter Ustinov was without equal, but I found his style of writing rather too wordy for my taste, and I ended up skipping and dipping, rather than reading it right through.

Awaiting instructions from Gooner as to its next port of call.

In the post today, on its way home to Gooner.

This book arrived home safely some weeks ago. Apologies to herrgirl for my failure to record its safe receipt.

Anyone else want to read it, as it's currently not even reached base camp on Mt TBR?

Because of unforeseen space & time restrictions, I have had to donate BC books which I registered years ago to charity shops. This is one of them which I've never managed to get round to reading.