Just A Minute

Some find Gyles Brandreth irritating; others admire his wit, erudition and tenacity. I was somewhere in the middle until I read his edited diary "something sensational to read in the train"*. To be honest, I still am (but I'm just much more inclined to give more weight to the positives).

Gyles has always been a high achieving and driven individual. Top exam results, Scholarship to Oxford, President of the Oxford Union, accomplished after dinner speaker, TV star and published author by 20, he ends the diaries by announcing that he is going to do one thing of quality before he dies. Passionate about Shakespeare, ballet and hi-brow culture, he has however spent a lot of his life in fluffy jumpers doing game shows. I'm not sure in these diaries whether he truly recognises that this is due to choices that he himself has made and that he has made these choices because he has chosen to value money highly. He does recognise that his passion for doing lots of different things means that he is unlikely to excel at any one thing.

Boy, has he tried to do many things. The breadth of his activities is astounding. Businessman, prolific writer**, theatre impresario, politician, TV interviewer, biographer to Prince Philip, tireless after dinner speaker, charity worker etc etc. This man works hard indeed; it's in his genetic make-up and he believes that he's only happy if he continues to do so.

Gyles appears to be a very honest individual, both ethically and in his judgement and observations on himself and others. He has a great strength in disambiguating his version of what happened from his wider analysis on why and how it happened. One of his strongest traits is his non-judgemental attitude to others. He will gossip about others, but does so typically by looking for and finding the positive aspect of the other person's character. One gets the feeling that Gyles has probably edited the diary to spare the feelings of others. He doesn't do this however to spare his own feelings and some of the diary is a little uncomfortable to read, especially the early years. I would have been inclined to edit out some aspects of the diary that didn't show me in a positive light. He hasn't, and that's to his great credit.

This desire to see the good in others also restricts his effectiveness in some areas. He is a hopeless politician. He aspires to be Home Secretary (so that he can implement prison reform), but the diary is littered with his poor judgements about others (Archer, Neil Hamilton, Hurd).

He makes a few references to Just a Minute, and he seems to know just about everybody who has ever played Just a Minute (he wrote for example Kenneth Williams' Acid Drops). He held the joint worked record with Nicholas Parsons for after dinner speaking (adjacent rooms) etc etc. Some of the new guard are not mentioned, but this is because the diaries stop, somewhat abruptly, in early 2000.

Gyles knows everybody with any fame in the UK (and many outside the UK too). He has outstanding stories too; ones that will make you laugh uproariously in a train. The stories are enough to warrant you buying the book, but there is more than that too. Gyles has had a successful life. This is not due to fame and achievement (which he shows are transitory and largely worthless), but to the fact that he has a very successful marriage, multiple very close relationships and seemingly happy children.

Gyles both values good entertainment in others and seeks to provide it to others. He has done this in these diaries and I recommend them highly. They will make more sense to those from the UK, but it can be enjoyed by anyone. I read it on kindle; and they are available from Amazon.

Julian

www.julianxbishop.wordpress.com

*referencing the famous Oscar Wilde quote
**really very prolific. Hundreds and hundreds of (largely inconsequential) books