Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years

The amazingly insightful, funny and brilliant record of Michael Palin's prime years as a member of the famed comedic group, Monty Python.

"Charming and at times revelatory . . . A voice of (relative) sanity in the eye of a comedic storm, Palin paints so vivid a picture that the reader becomes a Python by proxy." -The New York Times Book Review

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, and Monty Python was just around the corner.

This 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 only part of Palin's story. Here, too, is his growing family, his home in a north London Victorian terrace, his solo effort as an actor, and his writing endeavors (often in partnership with Terry Jones) that produce Ripping Yarns and even a pantomime.

Meanwhile Monty Python refuses to go away: his account of the making of both The Holy Grail and the Life of Brian movies are page-turners, and the sometimes extraordinary goings-on of the many powerful personalities who coalesced to form the Python team makes for funny and riveting reading.

A perceptive and funny chronicle, the diaries are a rich portrait of a fascinating period.

"It is terrifically good: funny, astute, and wonderfully written." -The Boston Globe