Life of Python [Paperback]

George Perry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1984

George Perry takes a fresh look at the past achievements of the Monty Python team, tracing their progress from student days, through the heady times of the "Flying Circus", right up to the most recent events in their lives. Despite the completion of the fourth and final series in 1974, the Python's have remained at the forefront of the entertainment business, spanning many different media. Their careers may change direction but all are informed by the same irreverence and humour which marked their early work. In addition to the four Monty Python movies the team have been both hugely creative and amazingly prolific: John Cleese wrote and starred in the hugely successful TV series, "Fawlty Towers" and oscar-winning "A Fish Called Wanda"; Terry Gilliam directed the critically-acclaimed "Brazil" and "Baron Munchausen"; Terry Jones wrote and directed "Personal Services" and scored a great hit with his children's books, including "Eric the Viking"; Michael Palin wrote, directed and starred in a multitude of films and TV programmes including "The Missionary", "The American Friend", "Around the World in Eighty Days" and "From Pole to Pole"; and Eric Idle established his acting career appearing in, amongst others, "Splitting Heirs" and "Nuns on the Run". But the eighties were marked by tragedy with the early death of Graham Chapman. With the help of archive material, a profusion of illustrations and firsthand access to the Python team, George Perry takes an informed look at the history of the extraordinary band of humorists who made up "Monty Python's Flying Circus".

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

George Perry, author, journalist, fellow Oxbridge graduate and expert on all matters Pythonical, has revised and updated his biography of the phenomenal team whose ongoing influence changed the face of British comedy forever. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown & Co (P) (May 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316700150
• ISBN-13: 978-0316700153
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,877,902 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Like a biography of a rock band, January 26, 2003

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Life of Python (Paperback)

Perry's first version of this biography of the Monty Python comedy team was published in 1983 and I read it in 1987. Some good friends who knew that I was python phanatic gave me this, not knowing of an earlier version--and how would they, because there is no indication on this book that it is a rewrite/reprint of anything. The indica page even states that this is a first edition and doesn't list the earlier book as the source of any material. Strange are the ways of publishers. The subject of Perry's writing deserves the update. The team has only grown in popularity over the intervening years and the members continue to entertain audiences with new work, from Gilliam's directing/writing career to Cleese's acting. The Life of Python reads like a biography of a rock band, which Python actually is more similar to than the traditional comedy group such as the Marx brothers. They are also, like the great rock groups of the sixties, now missing one member, making the chance of a true reformation impossible. Graham Chapman's death is not preventing Eric Idle from attempting a reunion "concert," this time to be presented in Las Vegas (the very idea of which appeals to the members' sense of humor).

The basic material of the book is to try to track each member of the group from their comedic beginnings to the formation of the troupe and then to the work following the cancellation of the TV series, all interwoven by time. Sounds like a mess, but it works. Perry interviewed all the members, sometimes more than once, and the book is liberally sprinkled with quotes. This new version has color photos as well as black and white, which fills the book (every page has a picture on it). This is probably the definitive biography of the group, although Kim "Howard" Johnson's The First 20X Years of Monty Python is a close second.