Journal Entry 1 by molekilby from BRITHDIR, Wales United Kingdom on Thursday, February 05, 2009

I bought this hardback at a price that was too good to be true. I like Michael Palin and Monty Python, so looking forward to this.

Synopsis:

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. 

Journal Entry 2 by molekilby from BRITHDIR, Wales United Kingdom on Tuesday, February 17, 2009

At first, I found this a difficult read. Very little flow of sorts and a bit start and go. However, after a while it began to settle into a routine, you realise it's a diary and it all makes sense. The fact that it is a diary means you get real feelings and not a picture of events as seen through the lens of time. It was interesting to note MP's take on current events as they happened.

The Python Years, how did MP fit in? What was his role? I always saw him as a minor part of the Pythons, but actually he did a great deal and was often the mediator (or at least his diaries would have us believe). He does seem to have been well rounded and down to earth.

I did enjoy it very much, although not sure if I'd read another Diary!