Michael Palin
Michael Palin is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter. He is a member of the Monty Python group.
His books are now also available as downloadable audio books:
Michael Palin MP3 Audio Books Download Online
Contents at a Glance
- Michael Palin Audio Books Download - The Travel Series
- Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Audiobook Download
- Michael Palin Diaries, 1969-1979: The Python Years - Printed Book
Table of Contents
- Michael Palin Audio Books Download - The Travel Series
- Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Audiobook Download
- Michael Palin Diaries, 1969-1979: The Python Years - Printed Book
- Michael Palin Biography - Michael Palin Bio
- The Pythons -Autobiography
- Quick, what do you think of Michael Palin?
- Monty Python Sound Clips - Monty Python's Flying Circus MP3
- Michael Palin Travel Reports
- The Latest Yahoo News on Michael Palin
- Michael Palin Stories - Michael Palin Novels
- Michael Palin Videos
- Michael Palin Books
- Michael Palin Photos - Michael Palin Pictures
Michael Palin Audio Books Download - The Travel Series
When Michael Palin starts to tell about his travel adventures, it's like sitting in a bar with him and listening to great stories of a seasoned traveller!
You may listen in to any of these audiobooks by simply clicking the corresponding link below:
- Around the World in 80 Days - Michael Palin - MP3 Audio Book - Biography Audio Books / Adventurers & Explorers Biographies
- Download this Michael Audio Book: Michael Palin set out from the Reform Club with an ambitious plan: to circumnavigate the world, following the route taken by fictional hero Phileas Fogg 115 years earlier. - Michael Palin - Narrator: Michael Palin - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
- Full Circle - Michael Palin - MP3 Audio Book - Biography Audio Books / Adventurers & Explorers Biographies
- Download this MP3 Audio Book: The actor and writer reads the account of his third and most ambitious world adventure: an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of the world's largest ocean, the Pacific. - Michael Palin - Narrator: Michael Palin - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
- Himalaya - Michael Palin - MP3 Audio Book - Biography Audio Books / Adventurers & Explorers Biographies
- Michael Palin MP3 Audio Book: Michael Palin reads his own account of an epic journey across the Himalaya in his sixth international expedition. - Michael Palin - Narrator: Michael Palin - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
- New Europe: Michael Palin - Michael Palin - MP3 Audio Book - Biography Audio Books / Adventurers & Explorers Biographies
- Download this MP3 Audio Book: In his latest voyage of discovery Michael Palin reads his own account of a journey into a new Europe. - Michael Palin - Narrator: Michael Palin - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
- Pole to Pole - Michael Palin - MP3 Audio Book - Biography Audio Books / Adventurers & Explorers Biographies
- Palin Travels Audio Book: Three years after going Around the World in 80 Days, Michael Palin was off again. - Michael Palin - Narrator: Michael Palin - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
- Sahara - Michael Palin - MP3 Audio Book - Biography Audio Books / Adventurers & Explorers Biographies
- Download this MP3 Audio Book: Periods of difficult travel will be repaid with new sights and sounds, people, languages, food and customs. - Michael Palin - Narrator: Michael Palin - Quality Audiobooks from AudioBooksCorner.com
Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Audiobook Download
Hera the stories in the Original voice of Michael Palin:
MICHAEL PALIN's diaries begin in the late 1960s and tell how Python emerged and triumphed. Enjoying an unlikely cult status early on, the group then proceeded to tour in the United States and Canada, appearing, like pop stars, at sold-out stadiums coast to coast and on national chat shows. They even stayed in hotels newly trashed by Led Zeppelin, later investors in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, With this growing fame in the United States came the move from local public broadcasting to national television there and battles over censorship followed as up to one line in four was cut from the Python sketches, rendering them incomprehensible.As their popularity grew, so Palin relates how, individually, the Pythons also went their separate ways. John Cleese wrote and acted in the now classic Fawlty Towers, while Michael Palin acted in an adaptation of Three Men in a Boat as well as creating, with Terry Jones, the memorable RippingYarns series. But, at the same time, Michael and the others were working to help keep the group together so they could reform for stage shows and the now celebrated series of films including The Holy Grail and The Life of Brian, many of whose lines are known by heart by a considerable proportion of the English-speaking world. A perceptive and funny chronicle, the diaries are a rich portrait of a fascinating period.
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
Michael Palin Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years - Audiobook Download
Michael Palin Diaries, 1969-1979: The Python Years - Printed Book
This doubtless will seem a pity to those who believe that the proper reward of success is celebrity, but it has permitted Palin to lead what is, considering his circumstances, a remarkably normal life. He is busy all the time and away from home more frequently than he would like, but he has been married to the same woman for more than four decades, is a devoted father to his three children, and in his corner of London is just one of the neighbors, indeed is an active member of the Oak Village Residents' Association -- or at least he was in the last year of this exceeding long yet (to my taste) not long enough 10-year diary.
Palin tells us up front that "I have kept a diary, more or less continuously, since April 1969," when he was 25 years old, married with a six-month-old son, and "had been writing comedy with Terry Jones since leaving university in 1965." He has continued the diary for "nothing more complicated" than "to keep a record of how I fill the days." A diary, he says, "is an antidote to hindsight," and continues:
"It seals the present moment and preserves it from the tidying process of context, perspective, analysis and balance. It becomes history, but quite unselfconsciously. What proves to be important over a long period is not always what a diarist will identify at the time. For the historians' sake I should probably have noted every detail of the birth of Monty Python, but it seemed far more important to me to record the emergence of my new family than the faltering steps of a comedy series that would probably last no more than two years. And that, I feel, is as it should be. Legends are not created by diaries, though they can be destroyed by them."
This is slightly misleading. Though the emergence of the Python show and the subsequent phenomenon is traced here in fits and starts, there is more than enough in these 600-plus pages about the show, its cast members, its ups and downs to satisfy all but the most ravenous Python addicts. Not merely is there a lot of Python, there is a lot of show-business maneuvering, infighting and gossip, much of it immensely entertaining. We have no way of knowing what was cut from Palin's 38 notebooks -- "five times the amount of material reproduced here" -- but presumably cuts were made out of discretion as well as for length, and perhaps some tart nuggets about people who crossed Palin's path were left on the cutting-room floor. Still, readers who enjoy the higher gossip -- mea culpa -- will find much here to amuse them, and readers interested in the inner workings of a highly successful troupe of actors, writers and eccentrics will also find much to their satisfaction.
Python began inauspiciously, early in 1969, when Cheese phoned his old friend Palin and suggested it was time to "think of something new." The BBC took on the new show and apparently was unenthusiastic about it at first, programming it late at night and giving it little support, but gradually it caught on. The original cast -- Cleese, Palin, Chapman, Idle, Jones and Terry Gilliam -- got swept up in it almost immediately. The first filming was in July 1969, and by the following February Palin told his diary: "Somehow, since Monty Python, it has become difficult to write material for more conventional shows. Monty Python spoilt us in so far as mad flights of fancy, ludicrous changes of direction, absurd premises and the complete illogicality of writing were the rule rather than the exception. Now we jealously guard this freedom, and writing for anyone else becomes quite oppressive."
Though there were, inevitably, moments of tension and disagreement within the cast and crew, Python seems to have been a genuine collaboration from the beginning and to have remained one even as its members drifted their separate ways, reuniting ever less frequently for shows, movies, tours and other events. It's difficult to imagine Python in the beginning absent any one of the original six, yet it can't be said that a single person was absolutely essential to its success. The closest to that was the immortal Cleese, but Python rolled on without him as his movie career began to take off, though it is my considered opinion that no one on earth is as capable of a silly walk as he is.
To be sure, my enthusiasm for Cleese is not solely aesthetic. It happens that he and I were born on exactly the same day in the autumn of 1939, and thus I feel entitled to a measure of reflected hilarity. He casts beams in other directions as well: "John is a good traveling companion in so far as he is nearly always recognized by stewards and stewardesses who pamper him blatantly; and Eric and I were able to catch a little of this reflected blandishment." Like many exceedingly funny people he can be difficult -- "he can be incredibly self-centered, and, if he wasn't so charming with it, I would have told him so" -- and insecure: "John is still tense and unrelaxed with people, which compounds his problems. He has more defenses than Fort Knox." But Palin's affection and admiration for him are self-evident: Once a Python always a Python.
Other members of the troupe are given similarly candid but affectionate portraits. The most troubled, and in some ways the most interesting, was Graham Chapman, "the high priest of hedonism," who reluctantly acknowledged his homosexuality and "seems to feel that having stated his position he now deserves the good life." When he "is faced with the extraordinary complexity of his private life it seems to sap his energies totally," a problem for the rest of the cast when Python went on tour. Yet he rather heroically stopped drinking, and by the late 1970s "he's now become a model of co-operation and efficiency, and his avuncular presence is calm and reassuring. In fact John today suggested that Graham was reminding him more and more of a vicar."
Python quickly became a mainstay of the BBC -- the bureaucracy of which is well roasted here by Palin -- but it wasn't until the show caught on in the States that its immense success was assured. Being a Python devotee but scarcely a certifiable lunatic, I had not known that it was first discovered by a public-television executive in Dallas, and only after it found an enthusiastic following there did PBS take it on, making it available to "far away places with strange-sounding names -- to Pensacola, Florida, to Utica, Illinois, Syracuse, NY, Athens, Georgia and so on. It sounds as though there's been a mistake and we've sold it to Greece." Soon "the news from America daily lends an extra air of unreality to the situation for, by all accounts, Python is catching on in the States as the prestige programme to watch."
For Palin it has been one hell of a ride, but he seems to have maintained his equilibrium all along the way. "My life is here in London, with my family," he writes in 1977. "I love travel, but I love them more." That may be a slight oversimplification, as these pages show business in various aspects taking Palin away from his wife and their kids frequently, occasionally for long stretches, but his heart always has been at home. It also is worth noting, and not merely in passing, that he is a constant and ardent reader. He loves the work of Vladimir Nabokov, "one of my literary heroes," and Charles Mingus's autobiography, Beneath the Underdog. He wants to "read more German novels -- for here if anywhere is a chance to try and prove Solzhenitsyn's point that art and literature are the only spiritual ambassadors between countries." He's "acquiring an enormous taste" for authors he found "heavy, worthy and boring" when he was younger -- Dickens, Austen, Eliot -- and he gets "vivid impressions of South East Asia in Paul Theroux's The Great Railway Bazaar."
In sum, it's tempting to call him a Renaissance Man. But that, as any Pythonite would be quick to tell you, would be silly. - Washington Post - Jonathan Yardley
Diaries, 1969-1979: The Python Years
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Release Date: 09/04/2007
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Michael Palin Biography - Michael Palin Bio
Michael Palin Timeline - Michael Palin Life
Michael Edward Palin, CBE (born 5 May 1943) is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries.
Palin wrote most of his material with Terry Jones. Before Monty Python, they had worked on other shows such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "Argument Clinic", "Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition" and "Spam".
Palin continued to work with Jones after Python, co-writing Ripping Yarns. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in other films such as A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedians Comedian, he was voted the 30th favourite by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.[http://www.spiritus-temporis.com/the-comedian-s-comedian/the-list.html The Comedian's Comedian]'', URL accessed 13 December 2006
After Python, he began a new career as a travel writer and travel documentarian. His journeys have taken him across the world, the North and South Poles, the Sahara desert, the Himalayas and most recently, Eastern Europe. In 2000 Palin became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television.
The Pythons -Autobiography
Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Bob McCabe
We get reminisces about childhood, university days, early successes, and rich details about the landmark Flying Circus TV series and subsequent films. The voices are fresh (with expectation of Michael Palin's insightful diary entries), not just complied from earlier publications. "Due to his insistence of being inconveniently dead," Chapham's voice is heard through his longtime partner David Sherlock, his brother and sister-in-law (and some archival materials).
As a whole, the six impart a refreshing ability to deal honestly with the frustrations that arose over the years and it comes out in the text even when events are recalled differently. The book is not a light read (figuratively and literally), perhaps a smaller size would have been better for the amount of text; a cursory glance at the coffee table is tough.
What does fill the book is an abundance of photos (over 1,000), most never published and many from the troupe's private collections. Along with concept sketches, Gilliam's drawings and doodles, and a few correspondences, this is a keepsake memento of the legendary group. --Doug Thomas
The Pythons: Autobiography
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 12/19/2009)
Say no more!
This is a really big book, in nearly every sense. It won't be easy to carry it to the beach, but the Python fan will definitely find enough within these hard covers to keep her entertained and informed for a good long time.
The book consists almost entirely of excerpts from interviews with the Pythons. In that sense, it is indeed an autobiography. The Pythons go in depth about their pre-show lives, what it was like doing the program, and the process of making the movies, live shows, and other Pythonalia. It's not a *funny* book in the sense of being full of deliberate jokes. But they people themselves are all entertaining, and the references and many, many photos -- including personal snaps and show outtakes -- will certainly trigger countless happy memories.
As I say, the interviews go very in depth about a lot of things, and so it can get just a little tedious at times, with details about movie shoots, legal arrangements, and the rest. At the same time, they don't seem to be holding anything back, and the force and nature of each man's personality really comes through. It's interesting not only to see how mix, and clash, of characters shaped the Python product, but also to see personal tensions wax and wane over the years.
If there is a drawback to this book, apart from the occasional tedium and the sheer weight of the thing, it's some of the chapter headings, captions, and other material not written by the Pythons themselves. People who write about Monty Python seem afflicted by a need to try to be as funny as the Pythons themselves, and it seldom works. And so we get chapter headings like "In Which the Pythons Meet the Pythons" or "In Which We All Become Starlets" -- it just gets a little tiresome.
Apart from that, though, it's hard to imagine any Python fan not coveting this book, and carefully preserving it next to his copy of "Thirty Days in the Samarkand Desert with the Duchess of Kent" by AEJ Eliott, OBE. It's definitely worth the price to purchase (and the effort to carry around), and is sure to be treasured. -- Andrew S. Rogers, Seattle, Washington, USA
Quick, what do you think of Michael Palin?
Monty Python Sound Clips - Monty Python's Flying Circus MP3
Perhaps the ultimate in TV comedy madness and absurdity, this cult series began in 1969, it was conceived, written and performed by Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones. It was innovative and ground-breaking comedy.-
Monty Python Sound Clips
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Monty Python Sound Clips for download online: Monty Python is the most funny comedian I know. Perhaps the ultimate in TV comedy madness and absurdity, this cult series, which began in 1969, was conceived, written and performed by Graham Chapma...
Michael Palin Travel Reports
Pole to Pole
Actor Michael Palin has managed to keep busy since his days with the British comedy group Monty Python. First, he traveled Around the World in 80 Days while a BBC crew filmed his adventures; in Pole to Pole, Palin once again straps on his old kit bag--this time to traverse the globe from north to south. Accompanied once again by a dauntless film crew, Palin begins in the far, frozen wastes of the Arctic Circle, then passes through 17 countries, including Norway, the former USSR, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, and Chile, before standing at last at the South Pole. Along the way the company is faced with revolution, illness and injury, and not a few bumpy plane rides--occurrences they meet with the obligatory stiff upper lip. Palin also rides in a hot air balloon, acquires a camel, consults a witch doctor, and plunges into the heart of a South African diamond mine, two kilometers beneath the surface of the earth.
These adventures and more are related in Palin's journal entries and illustrated by dozens of color and black-and-white photographs. The best travel stories often chronicle trips no sane person would care to experience herself; in Pole to Pole, Michael Palin has done the suffering for us, leaving readers to enjoy the humor, excitement, and joy of exotic climes from the comfort of our armchairs.
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New Europe
Until the early 1990s, when the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, travelling behind the iron curtain was never easy. In undertaking his new journey through Eastern Europe, breathing in its rich history, and exquisite sights and talking to its diverse peoples, Michael fills what has been a void in his own experience and that of very many others. NEW EUROPE is very much a voyage of discovery, from the snows of the Julian Alps to the beauty of the Baltic sea, he finds himself in countries he'd barely heard of, many unfamiliar and mysterious, all with tragic histories and much brighter futures. During his 20-country adventure Palin meets Romanian lumberjacks, drives the 8.58 stopping train from Poznan to Wolsztyn, treads the catwalk at a Budapest fashion show, learns about mine-clearing in Bosnia and watches Turkish gents wrestling in olive oil. As with all his bestselling books, in his uniquely entertaining style, Palin opens up a new and undiscovered world to millions of readers.
Not "New" but Certainly Interesting
Of course, the term "New Europe" is said largely tongue in cheek. There is nothing "new" about "New Europe". It's just new to western visitors. For decades, western tourists have been denied or hindered in their access to Moldova, Georgia, Kaliningrad, Albania and so on. Michael Palin's task has been to put this to right.
Palin spent some six months wandering through eastern Europe (to use a more commonly applied moniker) meeting an array of fascinating people and musing sometimes whimsically upon his travels. His book, "New Europe" is a direct tie in with a BBC series of the same name. So, don't expect some detailed analytical work. But then again, why would you? Palin was one of the original Monty Python crew. No, this book is simply a pleasant stroll through some interesting apparently "new" places.
I guess that, by and large, Palin's work is a coffee table book. That's certainly where it will rest in my house. But, having said this, please don't think that I'm trying to denigrate it. Take it for what it is; namely, a beautifully pictured travelogue. It has been a joy to read over the past week and has certainly whetted my appetite for travel beyond the seemingly more staid confines of Paris, London and Rome. -- Andrew Desmond, Neutral Bay, NSW Australia
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Amazon Price: $13.06 (as of 12/19/2009)
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Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday: My Life with Brian
In 1978, Kim "Howard" Johnson ran away to join the circus---Monty Python's Flying Circus, that is. The Pythons converged on Tunisia to film their timeless classic, Life of Brian, and Howard found himself in the thick of it, doubling for nearly all the Pythons, playing more roles in the film than John Cleese, and managing to ruin only one shot. He became the unit journalist, substitute still photographer, Roman soldier, peasant, Biggus Dickus's double, near-stalker, and, ultimately, friend and confidant of the comedy legends. He also kept a detailed journal of what he saw and heard, on set and off, throughout those six weeks.
The result is a unique eyewitness account that reveals the Pythons at work and at play in a way that nothing else written about them could do. Now, for the first time ever, the inside story of the making of the film is revealed through the fly-on-the-castle-wall perspective. Even the most diehard fans will get a fresh take on the comedy greats through some never-before-revealed nuggets of Python brilliance: what John Cleese offered to exchange for suntan lotion; Terry Jones directing in drag; Michael Palin's secret to playing revolutionaries and peasants; Graham Chapman gets naked; Terry Gilliam gets filthy; Eric Idle haggles; the secret of the Thespo-Squat; Mrs. Pilate; talk of George Harrison; the cake-flinging that jeopardized the production; badminton, impromptu cricket, and erotic frescoes; and the first-ever presentation of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life."
Here, uncensored, are the legendary Pythons in their prime. It was a period of comedy history that will never be duplicated, and Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday captures the wit, the genius, and the sheer silliness of the six men that comprised Python.
A must for "Life of Brian" Fans
Kim "Howard" Johnson has written much about the Pythons, but it has taken him 30 years to publish the journal that he kept while working as an extra during the filming of "Monty Python's Life of Brian".
This is a day-by-day account of his time on the set in Tunisia interviewing the Pythons and the supporting cast as well as reporting on the progress of the filming.
Johnson gives the rest of us the closest thing we will ever have to spending time in the company of the Pythons both at work and at play. Despite the African heat, the long, hard hours and the tedium that went with making the film, no true Python fan will read this book without envying Johnson his unique opportunity.
This is a great gift for yourself or anyone you know who is a Python fan. -- William D. Freeman, Southern California, USA
Release Date: 10/28/2008
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Himalaya
Michael Palin's travel books have repeatedly topped the bestseller lists. In this book he is back at his adventurous best tie-ing in with a major BBC TV series. The book/series will travel through many countries little known to the West, providing opportunities for Palinesque adventures to please the large and loyal audience who followed 80 Days, Pole to Pole and Full Circle.
In the beginning when Palin first stumbled into the travel documentary genre with "Around the world in 80 days," I don't think anyone at the BBC realised what a money spinner this was going to become! So Palin's first couple of books where a real companion guide to the program - those books were HIS personal impressions including little gems of insight into the making of the show.
With Himalaya, it's like he handed over his diaries and someone else wrote them up, culling his personal observations and somehow the end result is Palin seems distant from his own diaries! Given how much he seemed to have enjoyed his romp through the Himalaya's in the DVD, you'd think the same enthusiasm would have been captured in his journal of the trip, but alas... Somehow its been blandified. A lot to references to the journey itself with a BBC crew in tow heading into politically trying areas would have made fascinating reading, but there is very little reference to it. Furthermore, there seems to be whole chunks of history dropped in as if someone thought they ought to pad out the entries with bits of historical triva. In places, this renders the book little more than just another travel novel.
Its still an interesting book, but somehow, the personal feel that existed in his first couple of travel books is missing. And having seen the show, there seems to have been more personal observations mentioned in the show than in the book! The daily entries absolutely fly by at supersonic speeds with hardly any mention of the people he is meeting - the same people which seemed to have made such an impact on him in the actual Himalaya program! In fact, the only place where the show and journals conincided was over his meeting with the Dali Lama - here at least, we learn of Palin's nervousness as the clock counts down to meeting this great man!
I still enjoyed this book, but not as much as the show or his original books and really felt it was more like reading anyone else's travel novel on the bookshelf. What made Palin different in the beginning was the insight it provided into making a program like this and he didn't dwell on historical snippets. Anyone with a bit of time, money and connections can make the journey Palin did and write about it, but few do it with a BBC crew in tow and with a Pythonesque viewpoint! That adds a whole layer of interest, humour and logistical complexity greatly downplayed in this book. -- Cybamuse, Fuzzy Europe
Release Date: 05/26/2005
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Around the World in Eighty Days
For a TV series, the BBC dispatched Monty Python comedian Palin to travel the world in 80 days, following in the steps of Phileas Fogg--Jules Verne's hero in the novel Around the World in 80 Days --who made the voyage in 1872. Palin's notes on the journey are collected here in chronological order. Forbidden to use modern transport, he made the trip by means available to his predecessor--train, boat, camel, etc.--and handily crossed the globe in the time allotted, passing through Italy, Greece, Egypt, India, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and the U.S. The results in prose are improvisational, amiable, anecdotal and yet curiously flat--Palin's characteristic wit is missing. Photos are mostly conventional tourist shots, though a few color glimpses of Shanghai and other sights are vivid. - Publishers Weekly
Palin, a member of the Monty Python comic troupe, is the most recent voyager to be inspired by Jules Verne's famous novel. His journey (filmed by the BBC), which barred airplane travel and tried to loosely follow Phileas Fogg's route, was much more of a lark than an adventure. It takes a fair amount of planning to circumnavigate the Earth in 80 days, even today: while technology has added greatly to travelers' comforts, political and bureaucratic obstacles may be even worse than in the past, and ocean travel is also more difficult to arrange. Palin writes in diary format, and he maintains his good humor throughout. The book is richly illustrated but needs a better map of the route traveled. - Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland
Monty Python's Excellent Adventure
In 1988, Michael Palin (of Monty Python and "A Fish Called Wanda" fame) set out to recreate the voyage described in Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days". The trip was recorded for a BBC series, but Palin's book stands on its own. The book is a journal written aboard the ships, boats, trains and dog sleds Palin used to make his way from London through Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, America, and the Atlantic Ocean, back to London again. The journal is whimsically illustrated in the manner of a family album: with maps, stamps, ticket stubs and lots of photos.
Palin is an excellent tale-teller, and even the delays are good reading. At each port, Palin makes an effort to get to know the place and its inhabitants. The results are always interesting, and often hilarious. My favorite part of the book? Palin's description of the rite of passage he went through upon crossing the International Date Line. He and the other novice sailors donned burlap loin cloths and were forced to pay homage to the god Neptune (really, the ship's electrician). During a particularly extreme portion of the initiation, Palin remarks, "this is worse than being in a Terry Gilliam film". All in all, Palin's "Around the World in 80 Days" was the idea travel book: funny, informative, and in the end, a nail biter! Does Palin make it back to London in time? Do you think I'd actually tell you?! -- Sara A. Johnson, Chicago, IL, USA
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The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus; All the Words Volume One
If you haven't yet memorized any of Monty Python's scripts, here's your chance. It's difficult to read this book without breaking into a broken English accent -- or at least without laughing aloud. Alarm luckless pedestrians as you gesticulate wildly with an halibut, learn how to determine whether a parrot is really dead or not...
"Nudge, nudge. Snap snap. Grin, grin, wink, wink, say no more". ...
I laughed until I stopped
As a fan of MPFC since it first aired on PBS in 1973, these two volumes sort of put a cap on a 30 year fascination with the team. Maybe like me, you've watched every Python-Marathon or taped every show, but having these scripts really is the icing on the cake.
What's striking to me is the simplicity of the scripts. When you watch the episodes, the gags seem so complicated. Then to see The Dead Parrot sketch reduced to just a few pages, you realize how brilliant those guys were in terms of compression, and in terms of acting. An added plus, for me at least, was to finally see the words and phrases that I never quite "got" because they were unique to British English. From there, I logged on to a few websites on British slang and, boy, I realized what MPFC got away with...some of it was pretty raunchy. Anyway, this is two-volume set is priceless for any fan. -- Rocco Dormarunno, Brooklyn, NY, USA
"And now for something completely different."
If you are not a fan of Monty Python than I can say to you "The Raymond Luxury Yacht interview" and you will not know how to say his name properly, but this book can tell you. If you are a fan of the show, and if you are not why are you reading this, this book is a wonderful companion to The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus All The Words, Volume Two. These two books together have all the scripts from all four seasons of the Television show, Volume one the first and second then Volume Two the third and fourth seasons. This is a great book for those of you that did not catch all the words when you watched the show. I highly recommend this book for every Monty Python fan -- Johann Gombolputty, Ulm, Germany
Release Date: 11/12/1989
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Monty Python's Flying Circus: Greatest Skits
Perhaps the ultimate in TV comedy madness and absurdity, this cult series, which began in 1969, was conceived, written and performed by Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, and Terry Jones. Its innovative and ground-breaking comedy inspired many of today's writers and performers. Its sketches, songs, and catchphrases are legendary, and this "best of" disc features: the dead parrot, the Ministry of Silly Walks, The Lumberjack Song, And Now for Something Completely Different, and many more.
Presented on 1 CD, starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.
And now for something completely different ...
This is a very funny collection of material from our friends in the UK. I highly recommend that you play this CD on the way to work in the morning, to give you a non-caffeine "lift". - Art, New York, NY, USA
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Monty Python's Big Red Book
Monty Python's Big Red Book has a lot of material from the show, which makes it a good one. This may not take you that long to read, but I think it'll be worth it. I first read this over my friend's house a few years ago, and I thought it was cool, so I got myself a copy.I'm surprised the spam song is in it with the lumberjack song. It's a nice thing to read right before you go to bed.Look, just read it yourself and see what you think. -- Robin Goodfellow, Land of the Fairies
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A Pocketful of Python: Volume 3
not just for brits
since i saw "holy grail" 6 years ago, (i was 10) i have been hell bent on finding everything the pythons ever did. unfortunately most of my friends don't share my enthusiasm for british comedy, but i think it should be known that the occasional american recognizes comedic genius when she sees it. for all those who live in areas where mention of the pythons is scarce, this is a must have. you'll be quoting them in your head at school, at work, on the bus, wherever. just ignore the people who turn and look when you burst out laughing. -- "stupidgnat", San Fransisco, CA), USA
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Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure
Written while filming his TV series retracing the travels of America's literary titan, Michael Palin's Hemingway Adventure is a masterpiece in its own right. And it's just as eye-delighting in book form, thanks to Basil Pao's wanderlust-arousing photography and vibrant design. The witty, literary Palin, a Monty Python alumnus-turned-professional adventurer, takes us on the journey of a lifetime--Papa's and his own. "Hemingway's world was close and uncomfortable and itchy and sweaty and frequently exhausting," writes Palin. "It was, I felt, the real thing. To experience it would require the ability to absorb a little punishment, it would demand an open mind and a degree of recklessness. But it could and should be done."
Palin visits the restless Hemingway's many residencies, drinks (less excessively) in the same charming Parisian bars, tries boxing and Cuban marlin fishing, but he's really trying to discover what made Hemingway tick--what inspired him to write. In Spain, Palin examines Hemingway's passion for the country and the character of the matador in Hemingway's work while studying with young matador apprentices in a dusty Madrid bullfighting school. In Africa, which inspired and almost killed Hemingway, Palin learns spear throwing from Masai warriors, flies in a small plane around Mount Kilimanjaro, and searches for the site where Hemingway's own plane crash-landed. At the end of the day, drinking Hemingway's preferred beer, brewed still in Nairobi, Palin muses, "Mortality, of one kind or another, always feels close at hand in Africa. Maybe that's why Hemingway liked it, student of death that he was."
Palin begins in Hemingway's Illinois birthplace and ends his journey standing on the spot in Papa's Idaho kitchen where he shot himself, having recently broken down in tears, unable to complete JFK's request for a few simple words commemorating his inauguration. This isn't just a lively travel or TV tie-in book; it's a thoughtful, emotional biography. --Michele Norton
Michael Palin made me love Hemingway! (Well, LIKE him.)
I didn't care much for Hemingway (yes, yes, I know he's the greatest writer of the twentieth century, or so everyone tells me)--so why would I pick up this book, you might ask? The man and his work never interested me much--UNTIL I read Michael Palin's new travel adventure! It took the ex-Monty Pythoner's love of Hemingway to get me interested in him. I picked this book up because I'd loved Palin's previous travel books, especially 'Around the World in Eighty Days.' Palin's off again on a journey with a specific theme--to follow in the footsteps of Ernest Hemingway on his world travels throughout his life, from Oak Park in Illinois, to Spain and France and Africa, to Key West, Florida, with dozens of stops and Hemingway anecdotes, history, and literary appreciation along the way. Palin's a HUGE Hemingway fan (if you like this, check out Palin's novel 'Hemingway's Chair') and his love for the man and his work are absolutely infectious.
Gorgeous colour photos by Palin's usual colleague Basil Pao make this an attractive gift book. In short, while I shrugged at Hemingway the writer in college lit classes, it took Palin to introduce me to Hemingway the MAN...and my appreciation for him has grown considerably. Sometimes it just takes a great literature teacher to awaken your interest in a writer...but I never thought one of my teachers would be a Python! -- John DiBello, Brooklyn, NY, USA
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Michael Palin Books
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