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  • Published: 9 October 2014
  • ISBN: 9781448149728
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

So, Anyway...

The Autobiography




The autobiography of a comedy giant.

A candid and brilliantly funny memoir...

...of how a tall, shy youth from Weston-super-Mare went on to become a self-confessed comedy legend.

En route, John Cleese describes his nerve-wracking first public appearance at St Peter’s Preparatory School at the age of eight and five-sixths; his endlessly peripatetic home life with parents who seemed incapable of staying in any house for longer than six months; his first experiences in the world of work as a teacher who knew nothing about the subjects he was expected to teach; his hamster-owning days at Cambridge; and his first encounter with the man who would be his writing partner for over two decades, Graham Chapman.

And so on to his dizzying ascent via scriptwriting for Peter Sellers, David Frost, Marty Feldman and others to the heights of Monty Python.

Punctuated from time to time with John Cleese’s thoughts on topics as diverse as the nature of comedy, the relative merits of cricket and waterskiing, and the importance of knowing the dates of all the kings and queens of England, this is a masterly performance by a former schoolmaster.

  • Published: 9 October 2014
  • ISBN: 9781448149728
  • Imprint: Cornerstone Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 432

About the author

John Cleese

John Cleese was born in 1939 in Weston-Super-Mare. He studied Law at Cambridge University and has enjoyed a successful career in comedy, theatre and film and television.

John Marwood Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, writer and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus and the four Monty Python films: And Now for Something Completely Different, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.

In the mid-1970s, Cleese and his first wife, Connie Booth, co-wrote and starred in the British sitcom Fawlty Towers. Later, he co-starred with Kevin Kline, Jamie Lee Curtis and former Python colleague Michael Palin in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. He also starred in Clockwise, and has appeared in many other films, including two James Bond films, two Harry Potter films, and the last three Shrek films.

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Praise for So, Anyway...

Vivid, ridiculously entertaining, and, at times, explosively funny... Cleese is a master of crisp comic prose: his elegant syntax and sudden absurdities would have PG Wodehouse raising a martini glass. So, Anyway... glows with fairness, kindness, gentleness and loyalty.

Nicholas Barber, Sunday Express

So, Anyway… breaks away from the shallow conventions of the famous person's autobiography... The result is a book that is frequently hilarious, occasionally lyrical and always thoughtful. It is a fine and funny achievement.

Herald

Left me wiping away tears.

Helen Brown, Sunday Telegraph

[Cleese's] unrelenting charm and crisp wit make this the hilarious memoir fans expected. The book might as well be coated in glue, as it proves tricky to put down.

UK Press Syndication

This is required reading for his fans.

Lady

John Cleese’s memoir is just about everything one would expect of its author – smart, thoughtful, provocative and above all funny… A picture, if you will, of the artist as a young man.

Washington Post

Like having a long lunch with an amiable, slightly loony uncle. Who also happens to be John Cleese.

Michael Ian Black, New York Times

Told with considerable charm and a refreshing amount of candour, the story is one of a vulnerable soul gradually finding a degree of security from behind a carapace of cutting wit... Remarkably warm and generous.

Graham McCann, Times Literary Supplement

An upfront and hilarious account of the comedy legend's early years.

Choice Magazine