Diaries 1969–1979

The amazingly insightful, funny and brilliant record of Michael Palin's prime years as a member of the famed comedic group, Monty Python.

 

“Charming and at times revelatory . . . A voice of (relative) sanity in the eye of a comedic storm, Palin paints so vivid a picture that the reader becomes a Python by proxy.” —The New York Times Book Review

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, and Monty Python was just around the corner.

This 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 only part of Palin’s story. Here, too, is his growing family, his home in a north London Victorian terrace, his solo effort as an actor, and his writing endeavors (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that produce Ripping Yarns and even a pantomime.

Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: his account of the making of both The Holy Grail and the Life of Brian movies are page-turners, and the sometimes extraordinary goings-on of the many powerful personalities who coalesced to form the Python team makes for funny and riveting reading.

A perceptive and funny chronicle, the diaries are a rich portrait of a fascinating period.

“It is terrifically good: funny, astute, and wonderfully written.” —The Boston Globe