This is the final volume of the trilogy that began with "The Smoking Diaries". Simon Gray is determined to give up smoking. Really. At last. Can he kick the habit of sixty years? Will he, sometime soon, be able to leave his house without nervously feeling for his two packets of twenty and his two lighters? As this wonderful, wayward record of Gray's life progresses, these questions are overtaken by much larger ones. What was sex like before 1963? Will his name be in lights on Broadway? Why leave the bedside of his dying mother? With their combination of comedy and serious reflection, of sharp observation and painful self-disclosure, Simon Gray's diaries have reinvented the memoir form and are destined to become classics of autobiography.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"- 'A new volume of diaries from Simon Gray is always a rare treat' Evening Standard -'A great achievement, a terrific read, every page crammed with jokes, philosophical observations... Volume III is keenly awaited' Lloyd Evans, Spectator - 'His apparently spontaneous, but I suspect meticulously crafted journals are highly addictive, often wildly funny but also, and this is increasingly the case, deeply moving.... they are works of rare honesty, humanity and wit that are surely destined to be read with pleasure a hundred years from now' Sunday Telegraph - '**** There are few things more enjoyable than reading the diaries of Simon Gray... (they) are very, very, funny.' - Irish mail on Sunday"
About the Author
Simon Gray was awarded a CBE in the 2005 New Years Honours list. He is the author of over 30 plays, including Butley (1971), The Common Pursuit (1984) and Cell Mates (1995). He has published several volumes of diaries and books about the theatre, including The Smoking Diaries, Enter a Fox and Fat Chance all published by Granta. He lives in London.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as sparkling as the Smoking Diaries,
By Sirin (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Last Cigarette (Smoking Diaries Volume 3) (Paperback)
This, volume III of Gray's ,lacks the pace of the first spectacular volume. Gray still crams in his mordant and funny observations on life and culture (my favourite is his musings that the woman rubbing suncream in the back of a skinhead on a Greek beach, all the while jabbering in her mobile phone, is the man's parole officer).
But Gray has used up much of the good material in the Smoking Diaries, and such high points are rarer. Mostly this book is a fairly mouldy rumble through his time in New York as his play Butley gets a Broadway revival. There is lots of name dropping as Gray does things like dine with Tom Stoppard, which I found a bit tedious, and I think Gray on top form would have made more of his material.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The genius of Simon Gray,
By a guy (Florida) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Last Cigarette (Smoking Diaries Volume 3) (Hardcover)
These autobiographical "Smoking Diaries" are the most moving and simultaneously hilarious accounts of the sad ending of a wonderful writers' life
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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tall young assistant, last cigarette, dialect coach Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Simon Gray, New York, Nicholas Martin, Shubert Alley, Holland Park Avenue, Michael Stumpfield, Booth Theatre, Times Square, Diet Coke, Miss Bosanquet, Nathan Lane, Chorus Line, Tom Stoppard, Silk Cut, Clear Water Bay, Harley Street, Crown Prosecution Service, East Coker, Otherwise Engaged, Simon Callow, Hong Kong, The Holy Terror, Green Street, Yves Montand, Middle East Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
tall young assistant, last cigarette, dialect coach Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Simon Gray, New York, Nicholas Martin, Shubert Alley, Holland Park Avenue, Michael Stumpfield, Booth Theatre, Times Square, Diet Coke, Miss Bosanquet, Nathan Lane, Chorus Line, Tom Stoppard, Silk Cut, Clear Water Bay, Harley Street, Crown Prosecution Service, East Coker, Otherwise Engaged, Simon Callow, Hong Kong, The Holy Terror, Green Street, Yves Montand, Middle East Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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