Diaries 1969-1979

The Python Years

By: Michael Palin

Narrated by: Michael Palin

Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

Michael Palin's diaries begin in the late 1960s when he began writing for hugely popular programs. He recounts how Monty Python emerged and triumphed. From the success and cult status brought by Monty Python, Palin shares stories from their world tours, their stay at hotels recently trashed by Led Zeppelin, their battles over censorship, and how individually the Pythons went their separate ways. Yet at the same time they were working on the now celebrated series of films, including The Holy Grail, many of whose lines are known by heart to a considerable portion of the English-speaking world. 

The birth and childhood of his three children, learning to cope as a young man with celebrity, his friendship with George Harrison, and all the trials of a peripatetic life are also essential ingredients of these diaries. A perceptive and funny chronicle, the diaries are a rich portrait of a fascinating period.

©2006 Michael Palin (P)2006 Orion Publishing Group Ltd.

Critic Reviews

"Michael Palin is not just one of Britain's foremost comedy character actors, he also talks a lot. Yap, yap, yap he goes, all day long and through the night. Then, some nights, when everyone else has gone to bed, he goes home and writes up a diary." (John Cleese)

"A wealth of fascinating stuff about Monty Python." (The Independent, UK) 

The Diary of a Sometime Python

Would you consider the audio edition of Diaries 1969-1979 to be better than the print version?

I haven't read the print version of Michael Palin's diaries, so I only have the audio version to go on. And that's fine with me. I've always loved Python since my high school days, which of course it the best time of life to discover Python.

I was excited to find Palin's diary on Audible, especially since it deals with the years during which Python came together up through the Life of Brian. The Meaning of Life and their post-Python projects are covered, I'm guessing, in the sequel to this diary, which is not available on Audible. (I'd be glad if Mr. Palin decided to record that diary, by the way.)

This is not a juicy, detail-rich account of Palin's life as a Python. It's a very real diary of those years, though. The story proceeds through journal entries, entries much as anyone would write. Palin references writing sessions with Terry Jones (his usual writing partner), waking up to watch the lunar landing broadcast with his wife Helen, a celebratory picnic lunch with the young Pythons and their significant others, family events.

Because Palin was using his diary as a basis, a lot of the narrative tricks biographers use were missing. There was no foreshadowing. No building up to some climactic moment of Palin's Python years. No elaborate backstories. Rather, Diaries was a restful and--as I got more involved in it--warm and likeable account of the everyday work of comedy.

Palin doesn't give character sketches of his colleagues. Why would he? This was essentially the author writing to himself. But the reader starts to form impressions as the Pythons pass in and out of the story.

John Cleese stood out as being a very tall man, who was interested in psychology and increasingly ambivalent about his role in Python. Occasionally, Cleese would announce he was quitting the group, only to come back.

Eric Idle was almost absent from the first part of the book. As the reader, I was wondering, ew, wonder if those two didn't get along. But it was more a case of whom Palin spent his time with. He seemed to have a strong friendship with Terry Jones, possibly because they were the two who came from Oxford. (Cleese, Chapman and Idle, I believe, met at Cambridge.) But Palin and Jones also seemed to be the two who were strongly attached to home and kids, low-key writing sessions and sessions in the squash court.

If you're a Beatles fan, you'll like the passages that deal with George Harrison, who financed The Life of Brian when no one else would.

Palin's Diaries isn't for you if you're looking for a thorough-going biography of the Pythons or their histories or an analysis of their comic sketches and films. But you'll enjoy the book if you're a Monty Python fan and are interested in a contemporary account of one of the greatest comedy groups of the 20th century.

What other book might you compare Diaries 1969-1979 to and why?

John Cleese has published a memoir, So, Anyway...(2015), which as of today is not available on Audible but probably will be. I haven't read it but I plan to. Graham Chapman published A Liar's Autobiography in the 1980s. In 2013, it was adapted to an animated film, using Graham's own recording of the text (which you can hear on youtube) with additional voices provided by Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese and Michael Palin.

A great romp.

What a treat to have Michael Palin read his own diary. The audio format of this book adds in another wonderful dimension to a great story of the ascension to fame, and the difficulties of keeping five incredible comedic geniuses focused and from flying apart at the seams.

The telling of his hosting of Saturday Night Live had me crying from laughter in my car. Other things such as John Cleese' apparent desire to branch out, Graham Chapman's alcoholism, and how Michael deals with the death of his father, are deeply touching and show that he is still an ordinary guy that just happens to be an international icon.

A great listen, and a great performance from Palin in the reading.

Too Short

Loved it and wish it lasted longer. John Cleese's "So Anyway.." is 9+ hours and lead me here.

Disappointed

I realize it is to be a diary but it lacked emotion , which would have helped.
Very hard to not just turn it off.

Annotated

It was not clear to me before I purchased that this is heavily annotated..... 600 plus pages, it took Michael 4 hours to read... enjoyed it very much, just wish this was more clear

Wonderful listen!

Being a huge Monty Python fan myself, I found this fascinating. Mr. Palin’s diary (and it really is presented and read as a series of diary posts) has so many good vignettes, it’s quite the treasure trove of Python-related content. Most of it is day-in-life sort of stuff and Mr. Palin’s take on a variety of things, so it’s hardly wall-to-wall hilarity, but I found even that to be extremely satisfying to listen to. It includes a lot about his personal relationships with the rest of the Python troupe, as well as numerous other famous entertainers (George Harrison of course, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Ron Wood and Mick Jagger, Sherri Duvall, etc.). While the book is subtitled “The Python Years”, it stops after The Life Of Brian and doesn’t include their work on The Meaning Of Life or their later reunion shows. Oh, and there *are* hysterically funny scenes recounted, and extremely funny observations by Mr. Palin. FYI, I came to this book after listening to John Cleese’s autobiography, “So, Anyway” (which I also highly recommend) because Mr. Cleese gave relatively minuscule book space to the Python years, and I think Mr. Palin’s book fills in that period nicely. I suppose I’ll be listening to Eric Idle’s “sortabiography” next for completeness. Hope it’s good, too.

Loved it

Loved listening to Michael read his story.
Makes me want to go back and watch the series and movies again.
Just made me smile.

If you're a Pythoneer, you know...

Loved every bit. Michael is an angel and I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would. I started it as a dutiful Python fan having just finished John Cleese's autobiography (also brilliant)

But this is fascinating in that it's about the time, not a person.

Highly highly highly recommended...

Heavily abridged

I immensely enjoyed this, but I wish an unabridged version was available. This was marked as unabridged, but it is heavily abridged. I have the paperback and was shocked at how much was cut out. Palin is, as always, wonderfully engaging, observant, and sympathetic.

I was surprised how much I liked it

Though I've been a lifelong Python fan, I never realized how observant and interesting Michael Palin really is. I was expecting a long recitation of dates and mundane events with a few gems here and there. Instead, I was immediately sucked in and transfixed by Michael's descriptions and impressions.

Besides filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of the Pythons through the years, this book also reinforced my sense of just how deep the intellectual and artistic veins run through these guys.

A very enjoyable, enlightening and memorable listen. Really hope there's going to be a 1980-now sequel coming.