MICHAEL PALIN DIARIES 1969-1979

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 (forthe Two Ronnies, David Frost etc). Monty Python was just around the corner. This first 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 ofBritish comedy. But this is but only part of Palin's story. Here is his growing family, his home in a north London Victorian terrace; here, too,is his solo work - as an actor, in Three Men in a Boat, his writingendeavours (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that produces RippingYarns and even a pantomime. Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: thehugely successful movies that follow the TV (his account of the making ofboth The Holy Grail and The Life of Brian movies are pager-turners), theat times extraordinary goings on of the many powerful personalities whocoalesced to form the Python team, and much more - all this makesperceptive, funny and riveting reading.