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Advantages: A great read, if you like his humour, you'll love this book
Disadvantages: Sad in places

...fan of the 2 Ronnies, and was gutted whenever Ronnie Barker died. This is the story of the 2 Ronnies, how they met, and their career in showbusiness. This is autoboigraphical in a way, it catalogues Ronnie Corbett's life, but soon, Ronnie Barker's presence takes over the story,and it seems more of a memoir than a biography. This book is written in a very conversational style, you can hear Ronnie's voice as he tells the story, and he paints some ...
...up to the present day, and paints a very different side of the 2 Ronnies than we have seen on TV. You see their lives offscreen and what sort of people they really were. This is an excellent tribute to Ronnie Barker, well written, and both laugh out loud and poignant. I did giggle through some parts of it, including some of the sketches that were included in full, and also some of the stories. Really worthwhile read for any 2 Ronnie's fan ... Read review

Advantages: Very funny and enlightening
Disadvantages: sometimes a bit too honest

...saying it Graham Chapman was a “poof”. To avoid that as an issue and as a word would be to ignore a large part of what made Graham Chapman what he was. The reason I choose the word is that, amongst other things, “a poof about town” is the way he chose to portray himself in this non too serious (or is it) autobiography. The trouble is the title, “A liars autobiography” and numerous references to Biggles (and his ...
...a large pinch of salt when reading it. It certainly isn’t a dull read and goes to unusual lengths to avoid the kind of name dropping present in other autobiographies such as David Nivens “The Moons a Balloon”. In fact Nivens ego massaging opus is lampooned on many occasions, the last, slightly psychedelic chapter is titled “The moods a full baboon”. Chapman describes his life from childhood, Biggles fixation and a nasty ... Read review

Advantages: wonderfully frank interviews, witty and fresh.
Disadvantages: none

...probably have him pegged as a stereotypical drunken paddy, fronting The Pogues as a whirlwind of frenzied punk inspired folk music and alcohol try to beat him to the floor in a dishevelled and undignified manner. This is because at the time that the band had reached its highest commercial success, it had also become the thing that he had tried to avoid all along, a serious band with one eye on the cash till and the other on the front cover of NME. ...
...and delivering a tongue in cheek party style performance had long since gone out of the window and in an effort to get through the sad fact that his creation had been hijacked by less imaginative souls, he had taken to sabotaging the band with his drunken and unreliable antics. If that is how you perceive Shane MacGowan then you must read this book. Even the attitude of the book is chaotically in keeping with this innovative and unpredictable character. ... Read review

Advantages: Informative
Disadvantages: None

People have the impression of Gordon as an arrogant, foul mouthed chef. However, this is the persona he adopts to achieve his goals successfully, and this read highlights how he has got there. A follow on from Humble Pie, the book goes in to more depth on the business side of his life, where risks were taken to get where he is today. Lessons that he has learnt along the way are both informative and amusing. His plight to go from a well known UK ...
...What we do learn about Gordon is his passion to develop the people who have been most loyal to him. Angela Hartnett is mentioned a few times throughout the book, as it goes from him owning his first restaurant right through to his MNC Gordon Ramsay Holdings. Loyalty is shown to be a key factor in his life, and as he has progressed, so have the people who have helped him get there. A great read and very inspiring! ... Read review

Advantages: Well written, easy to read
Disadvantages: Nothing new, its all been written before

Madonna - love her or loathe her, it seems that everyone has an opinion about her. With a career that now spans over 25 years her rise to fame from the early days when she first arrived in New York, penniless but with huge ambitions has been well documented many times. Madonna - Queen of the world by Douglas Thompson could at first glance quite easily be dismissed as yet another regurgitated account of Madonna's rise to fame but from the sleeve notes ...
...that everyone claims to already know everything there is to know about. Madonna has given many interviews throughout her life. Usually these interviews are carefully timed to coincide with her latest project, be it a new album, movie, book or other project and the new image that compliments the project is always flaunted to its maximum effect. When it comes to being interviewed Madonna always calls the shots, so how can anyone really expect to know ... Read review