Michael Palin

MICHAEL PALIN is a scriptwriter, comedian, novelist, television presenter, actor and playwright. He established his reputation with Monty Python's Flying Circus and Ripping Yarns. His work also includes several famous films with Monty Python, as well as The Missionary, A Private Function, an award-winning performance as the hapless Ken in A Fish Called Wanda, American Friends and Fierce Creatures. His television credits include two films for the BBC's Great Railway Journeys, the plays East Of Ipswich and Number 27, and Alan Bleasdale's GBH. For many years his televised wanderings around the globe have captured record viewing audiences and his subsequent books have dominated the bestseller lists.

'I must thank my editor Ion Trewin for reducing mountains to molehills, and Michael Dover at Weidenfeld and Nicolson for his unfailing encouragement. Steve Abbott, my agent, has been a model of sympathy and naked commercial brutality and my wife and family,lured on by curiosity perhaps, have been trusting, realistic and supportive. The Monty Python team fills these pages and reading through the material made me realise how intricately our lives intertwined. Our differences are not glossed over here but neither is the very close bond of friendship that links, or in Graham Chapman's case, linked us all together. Last, but certainly not least, I owe enormous thanks to Kath Du Prez who typed up over a million words from thirty-eight hand-written note-pads, and not only lived to tell the tale, but more than anyone, convinced me that this might be a tale worth telling. '

 MP