Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years

Michael Palin has kept a diary since the late 1960s, when he was beginning to make a name for himself as a TV scriptwriter. 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 of British comedy. But this is but only a 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 writing endeavours (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that brings Ripping Yarns and even a pantomime. Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: the hugely successful movies that followed, the at times extraordinary goings on of the many powerful personalities who coalesced to form the Python team, and much more—all this makes perceptive, funny and riveting reading.