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Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
 A soothing read, but... March 6, 2010
Friend of Dorothy (Hampshire, England)
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I have been a fan of Michael Palin for almost 40 years, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first volume of his diaries, which records the rise of Monty Python. That volume has several things going for it:
1. It opens when he is still very young, and so is full of wide-eyed enthusiasm (reflected in his diary entries).
2. It covers the prime Python years, culminating with Life of Brian (probably their best work).
3. It provides a lot of insight into the other Pythons e.g. Graham Chapman's drink-fuelled high jinks.
4. Interesting and moving things happen in Palin's family life: the birth of two children; their early years; the illness and death of his father.
5. The reader shares Palin's pleasure in his burgeoning career and resulting prosperity.
The latest volume has more of the same, but in a diminished form: he's older and has seen it all before; Python is winding down; Chapman is now sober; the children are older and less endearing; his career is long established and, reading between the lines, he is now a wealthy man. All this makes the second volume something of an anticlimax after the excitement of the first, while still providing a soothing and enjoyable bedtime read.
Events leading up to and after the suicide of his sister Angela are dealt with in some detail. However, the published entries do not address the one question that kept flashing across my mind: how much, if at all, did the fact of her brother's fame and enormous success during the 70s and 80s contribute to her growing depression and sense of worthlessness? Perhaps it's unfair to ask Palin to publish thoughts of this nature, however interesting they would be for the reader. I suspect he has asked himself the same painful question on many occasions, and may have written about it in his diaries - although these reflections understandably did not make it into the heavily edited published version.
My one major gripe with the diaries is that Palin comes across as a champagne socialist; saying he 'cannot stomach' Margaret Thatcher, but enjoying the full fruits of the economy she created (£33,000 for a few weeks' filming at a time when the average wage was about £10,000 - nice work if you can get it). If there is a swanky London restaurant he didn't patronise during the 1980s, the owners can justifiably feel neglected. And he was no stranger to Concorde. Or, bizarrely, the Turf Club.
There is an unintentionally amusing section where Palin portrays the author George Orwell as a remote toff simply because he went to Eton. A moment's reflection would have told him that the fact he himself attended Shrewsbury School places him in the same category for 99.99% of his readers. Later in the diaries he becomes friends with the TV director Tristram Powell. I'm pretty certain that Powell also went to Eton (like his father Anthony, the novelist and another noted diarist) but Palin doesn't refer to this and it doesn't appear to be a barrier to their friendship.
Like all good socialists (except those in government) Palin sends his own children to local state schools, but then seems bewildered when his eldest son fails to emulate his father's academic success. Public schools seem to imbue their pupils with much more confidence than state schools, muses the ex-Shrewsbury man without apparent irony. Luckily for Tom Palin, his dad is able to fix him up with a job at the Python production house. None of this makes the amiable diarist a bad man, but somehow it grated on me (an ex-comprehensive man whose own, partly disabled, father had zero educational advantages, wealth, fame, contacts or clout).
Despite the above, I remain a firm fan and I'll definitely buy the third volume when it appears. However, I'm already steeling myself for disappointment. It will cover the years when he made most of his travel documentaries, which in my view are the equivalent of televisual wallpaper (albeit from Laura Ashley).
Perhaps Palin has been the victim of his own immense likeability. The BBC only has to point a camera at him to attract a viewing audience of 10 million. I suspect he knows, in his heart of hearts, he could have done something more worthwhile with the last 20 years than trail round the world making wry remarks about men on camels. In my view, his entire post-1988 output does not amount to a single new half-decent episode of Python - although the diaries are some compensation.
P.S. Re-reading the above, I realise some might conclude that I don't like Michael Palin. On the contrary, I think he is a splendid fellow. So why criticise him? Well, I suppose there is something about the intimacy of the diary format that invites an open and occasionally critical response. It's to his credit that he generates this impulse in his readers, which is one of the reasons he is so damn likeable. Incidentally, despite my swipes in the previous paragraph, I'd happily exchange my career for his (if not my home life, which is right up there with his).
P.P.S. Have recently seen/heard MP on TV/radio promoting the paperback version of this book. He looked/sounded totally bored (although unfailingly polite) and completely on autopilot. Wake up Michael!
 Palin book February 28, 2010
Ms. Veronica Simpson
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
After ordering this book weeks before Christmas and it still had not arrived, I was to let Amazon know by the 20th Dec if it did not arrive.
They were fantastic and sent another book out immediately and we got it on Christmas Eve.
Fantastic book and excellent customer care from Amazon.
Another Palin Winner January 30, 2010
Mike R. Heath (Long Beach, CA)
Carrying on from where he left off in his 1969-1979 Diaries, the 1980-1988 book is readable, enlightening, humourous and a must for any Palin and Python fan.
Brilliant account of the experiences of a star. January 30, 2010
DDH255
I really enjoyed reading the second volume of Michael Palin's diaries in which he charts the aftermath of the Python years as he moved from his success in television comedy to focus on acting and writing films and making documentaries. Palin's writing is sensitive and controlled as he wear the hats of successful performer, struggling writer and proud father and the balance between the public and the private is well-controlled. The section about the tragic death of his sister is particularly moving.
Palin manages to balance the everyday concerns such as problems with his car or decorating his house with the superstar moments such as working with Kevin Kline and Robert de Niro.
If I was being picky, I would have to say that I didn't enjoy this volume as much as the first but I'm looking forward to more.
Nostalgia January 23, 2010
Brian G (Brisbane Australia)
This book is a must for anyone that remembers Britain in the 80s - and not only Python or Palin fans. I'm not sure I was really that aware of Michael Palin's prolific output in the 80s but I now realise that I've loved pretty much everything he's ever done. His diaries make much passing comment about events outside his own world of entertainment and very often he seems to get dragged into all sorts of causes and issues of the day. I was at the Free Nelson Mandela concert and had forgotton that Palin was on the stage that day but his diary recalls all the behind the scenes shenannigans. I once slept overnight on Southwold beach before a village cricket game and the chances are that Palin was in the Sole Bay Inn that night having a pint on one of his visits to his mother. Familiar TV shows, music, movies, plays from that era and everone who was anyone at the time seem to pass through Michael's orbit although sometimes just tantilisingly out of reach. Michael Palin comes across as a very modest man with a lot of talent and a life that seems to take him constantly by surprise. A typical day can involve a jog past Michael Foot on Parliament Hill then lunch with George Harrison, a bit of writing for his next big movie followed by the parent teachers evening at his daughter's school. Many diary entries reveal a slight anxiety about the things he hasn't managed to do with his day rather than the many things he has. The only constant in the diaries are his family and the various members of Python who become increasingly fragmented as solo and splinter projects take priority. All his thoughts are captured with quiet humour and un python like straightforwardness. Even better than his first volume of diaries!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 15
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