Graham Chapman (with Eric Idle) wrote much of the Monty Python material, and so much more as well. But he also founded 'Gay News' as the first publication for the gay market after the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK in 1967, suffered (and recovered from) alcoholism -- three bottle of gin a /DAY/ ?! ) and generally lived an entertaintaining life. Buy this book, it will restore your faith in humanity.

And Biggles ;)

I am ECSTATIC that this is being re-released - I read a friend's copy a few years ago and have been searching for my own ever since. This is a very frank analysis not only of the Pythons but of alcoholism, sexuality, life, death and medical school. It's funny in the traditional "embarrassing if read on public transport" sense, but at the same time a truly intriguing look into the character of a complex man. It's also (eek, I'm English, i don't say this!) very moving. You'll never ask the question "why don't Monty Python reform?" again.

Methuen is reissuing all the classic Monty Python books and scripts in October 1999 to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Iincluded will be this gem of an autobiography by Graham Chapman.

This book shows quite clearly exactly what Chapman's role in Python was: to show up late, do very little work, but contribute one or two outrageously out-there ideas to really stir things up. The Our Show For Ringo Starr script (too bad this was never produced!) reads much more like Douglas Adams than Python, but with occasional bizarre Chapmanisms to keep things interesting (and completely absurd.) The rest of the book echoes things that Chapman has worked on before, and even includes a few lines lifted directly from Python sketches. All that said, however, the book was a bracing, inspiring read -- a refreshing blast of insanity that makes for great (easy) (...) browsing.

If there is any doubt left that Graham Chapman could write effective comedy outside of his partnership with John Cleese, this delightful collection of unreleased scripts should do the trick. Sadly, unlike Cleese, Chapman could never get his solo projects truly off the starting blocks (we'll skip the sub-par flop that was YELLOWBEARD), and as a result he never had the solo success each of his fellow Pythons have enjoyed in various degrees. Nevertheless, this book is a vivid demonstration of the uncompromising comic spark Graham brought to Python and to Cleese's writing in particular. Without Chapman's brilliantly intuitive and raging insanity, Cleese's humor became safe, formulaic, smug and user-friendly (as in FIERCE CREATURES and -gulp! - WANDA). By the same token, Cleese's shrewd grasp of language and structure were sorely missing from Chapman's undisciplined, inaccessible and scattershot script for YELLOWBEARD. Still, if you're a fan of the blond, pipe-smoking doctor, this is a must-own. There are four separate pieces here, each compiled by Jim Yoakum, who collaborated with Graham on and off in the years before Chapman's death. Graham's longtime companion, David Sherlock, also offers commentary. "Our Show For Ringo Starr," a TV special written by Chapman with Douglas Adams kicks things off, and it is by far the longest piece. It's awkward in places, but the best of it has a manic narrative feel that would not be out of place in a series four Python episode. The story concerns Ringo's adventures with a robot that behaves like an early version of Marvin the Paranoid Android. In fact, Adams recycled the B-Ark sequence from this script for one of his Hitchhiker books, "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe." Ringo is mistakenly given powers by this robot, who confuses him with a Rinog Trars. The script is punctuated by proto videos featuring songs from Ringo's (so-so) album GOODNIGHT VIENNA. Some of it is very funny, but after a while the story begins to chase its own tail. The pilot script for "Jake's Journey" is next, and it is my favorite piece in the book. The story centers around an American teen who is sucked into a surreal adventure with a crusty old knight called Sir George (who comes across as a wised-up, more assured version of Chapman's King Arthur from "Holy Grail"). It has a warmth and gentleness that's unique for Chapman, whose humor was usually more aggressive and disturbing. He'd clearly come a long way since the "The Undertaker Sketch". Graham wrote this with Sherlock, who no doubt played a hand in toning down his partner's excesses. It would have made an imaginative TV series, had CBS had the nuts to put it into their schedule (and Graham not had the gall to die from cancer). "The Concrete Inspector," the script for a surreal short film, was mainly penned by Yoakum, but Chapman's touches are nevertheless distinctive. The 'It's technical' joke came directly from Terry Southern's novella MAGIC CHRISTIAN (the film version of which Chapman contributed material to). According to Yoakum, Chapman conjured a scene involving the unfolding of an "actual size" map of the Earth on his own. "Concrete Inspector" tells the story of a man who records cracks in concrete sidewalks. An original idea, but the story's shaggy dog aspects (what's the deal with that pink cabinet anyway?) don't really come off. Frankly, this reads like more of a Yoakum solo project than a true collaboration with Chapman. Finally, there's "Tonight: VD", a short sketch in which a TV announcer tries to dispell myths regarding sexual diseases, only to be cut off by TV censors. Oddly, the collection omits the script from OUT OF THE TREES, Chapman's one-shot BBC comedy special from 1976. It's a shame, for sketches like "Peony" and "Ghengis Khan" (penned with Douglas Adams and Bernard McKenna) would fit in perfectly here. All in all, a mixed bag, but as Chapman's output (barring LIAR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY) is the most obscure of all the Python alumni, it's a godsend to all of us fans who wondered just what happened to him after YELLOWBEARD.

This is a really funny book. No kidding. Really funny. I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. Why doesn't some clever producer snap up these sketches and put them on TV then we'd be spared another season full of dreck!

Well, the Python Fellows have done it again! They have produced a book so funny, so rue to nothing, that it could be just a figment of a madman's imagination. If they think that someone will want to buy this book, they are definetly right on, chaps! I hope everyone will buy this book, read it, and then send it to me! (Just kidding!)

This is the companion book to Monty Python's most outrageous film. Great color photos illustrate the script, but the REAL reason to own this is that it is the only place you may ever get to read/see some sequences cut from the film. These are "The Adventures of Martin Luther," in which Jones plays a very randy Martin Luther making the Jewish parents of two young daughters (mother Chapman and father Palin) quite nervous and an extended version of the "Middle Age" sequence featuring Carol Cleveland as a waitress in the Dungeon Room waiting on Idle and Palin. The text to these scenes is what warrants the high rating - otherwise, it's simply a souvenier.

The format is a mass-market paperback, but this isn't a novelization but rather the screenplay as the movie was made. You'll notice that last has a subtle distinction. Oftentimes screenplays differ notably from the movies as you see them--scenes are cut because they didn't work, cost too much to do, or just because of the limits of time. The screenplays of Brazil and Monty Python and the Holy Grail are full of wonderful little tidbits that didn't make it to the screen. Unfortunately, for Life of Brian, there's only the parts that did get made, which are funny indeed, but you've already seen them.

Inevitably, this is a big blue book. My hardback copy dates from 1971, and originally cost 1.50 ukp. It's a fairly slim collection of material based around the first couple of series of the show - an advertisement for 'Whizzo Chocolate Assortment', a series of introductions from increasingly-flustered newsreaders, pages of classified ads, and more than a few naked women. It's much less effective than the television show - the transcriptions lose a lot without the delivery, and the original bits seem rushed. It has recently been re-released, and you can probably read it all whilst standing up in the shop.