Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 17 December 2009.

Now this would be a test for those celebrities who write their memoirs in between massages and manicures: keep a diary every day and make it interesting. Not just interesting, but stoked with a subtle power to pull the reader in and hold them. Admit to your intellectual ambitions, your bank account concerns. Show that you’ve got a good heart and a sharp observational wit; that you can’t stand Janet-Street Porter’s eating habits; reveal without a hint of luvviness that you’ve acted in impressively big films; written comedy with a dedication that is staggering…  Michael Palin has managed it all here in his second set of diaries.

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The second volume of Michael Palin’s diaries following his time through the 80’s when the pythons split up and Michael found himself entering a time of successful acting with film and television parts establishing him as one of our best loved actors. You know you’re going to get a good one here so need we say more?

Synopsis

The second volume of Michael Palin's diaries covers the 1980s, a decade in which the ties that bound the Pythons loosened as they forged their separate careers. After a live performance at the Hollywood Bowl, they made their last performance together in 1983 in the hugely successful Monty Python's Meaning of Life. Writing and acting in films and television then took over much of Michael's life, culminating in the smash hit A Fish Called Wanda, in which he played the hapless, stuttering Ken (for which he won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor), and the first of his seven celebrated television journeys for the BBC. He wrote much of the dialogue and acted in Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits and acted in his next film, Brazil. He co-produced, wrote and played the lead in The Missionary opposite Maggie Smith, who also appeared with him in A Private Function, written by Alan Bennett. For television he wrote East of Ipswich, inspired by his links with Suffolk. Such was his fame in the US, he was enticed into once again hosting the enormously popular show Saturday Night Live, in one edition of which his mother makes a highly successful surprise guest appearance. He filmed several journeys for television and became chairman of the pressure group, Transport 2000. His family remains a constant as his and Helen's children enter their teens.

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About the Author

Michael Palin established his reputation with MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS and RIPPING YARNS. His work also includes several 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 and, more recently, 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. He has written books to accompany his six very successful travel series, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, POLE TO POLE, FULL CIRCLE, HEMINGWAY ADVENTURE, SAHARA and HIMALAYA. He is also the author of a number of children's stories, the play THE WEEKEND and the novel HEMINGWAY'S CHAIR. More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation