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Re: JAM related auto/biographies

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Dean BedfordMar 5, 2007
 

 
On Tuesday, March 6, 2007, at 01:31 PM, Miriam wrote:

> Pardon if this subject has already been dicussed but I love to read
> auto/biographies. I just read Ian Messiters "My Life and Other Games"
> in January and before that Wendy Richard's 'My Life Story'. Other JAM
> related ones I have read are "Just Williams"/Kenneth Williams and The
> Straight Man/ Nicholas Parsons- (a few yrs back) I also have Freud Ego
> on Cassette. ( I warned you all that I was an Addicted Anglophile)
> I found Ian's very interesting epecially about his 'war' job at the
> BBC.
> Any thoughts or recondmendations?( AmazonUK is a God send for me! I
> also bought and read the ronnie corbett one one the 2 ronnies for
> christmas) Miriam

Hi Miriam

I posted on the blog a big chunk from Michael Palin's recently published
diaries, where he describes in detail his experiences at his one
recording. It's a page and a half in the book, and certainly worth
reading, although I don't know whether you'd buy the whole book for that
section (though someone I know who might have the initials DB did).

The Kenneth Williams Diaries contain many JAM references and are very
revealing as indeed is the whole book. The Williams Letters contain a
long reference to one particular show.

the biography of Kenneth Williams by Michael Freedland includes a
chapter on JAM and is probably the longest section on JAM in a book that
I've seen. It's not without factual errors but is full of insight into
the way Kenny played the game and includes comments from many of his
colleagues.

Sheila Hancock mentions JAM briefly in her memoirs - now 25 years old
( I'm not referring to her recent book about the death of her husband).

Graham Norton's book gives only the briefest of mentions to JAM but is a
fascinating read if you wonder about growing up gay in Ireland and how
he became a big name as a gay star while his parents still thought him
straight.

The recent tribute book to Linda Smith includes an excerpt from Linda on
JAM and brief chapters by Nicholas and Claire Jones which are quite good.

anyway some suggestions...

 
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