I read this book when it came out in the UK. This is Johnathan Margolis' greatest book. His treatment of the life of Uri Geller creates a feeling of almost intimate knowledge about one of the most controversial and interesting men of this century. The reader is additionaly treated to the story of how the author began with his assumption that Geller was just a magician and struggled during his research with the possiblity that Geller really could do scientifically unexplainable things, finally coming the the conclusion that what Geller does are not magic tricks. It was obviously not an easy journey. The book has all the ingredients to make it fascinating: intrigue, humor, pathos, controversy, and (most of all) an intimate look inside not just the life of Uri Geller, but his family and many of his friends and enemies. I could hardly put the book down to eat and sleep until I had finished it.

Jonathan Margolis has once again amazed all critics with his sensationally professional work, this time having his subject as world renowned psychic Uri Geller. The subject is a controversial one, the biographer a difficult one to please, and the material needed for research would occupy a team of researchers for years. It is therefore obvious that this will be the conclusive article that decides whether Uri Geller is, as the title suggests, a magician or a mystic or whether there is a balance in between the two. It tells of more than the powers that Uri possesses. It also tells something of his amazing character and how he has achieved his wealth, how he started out, what it was like to be a subject rather than a person and how he likes to spend his time. It flows beautifully and is as rich as Bisto, drawing a logical conclusion from a score of different sources. It is surprising that Geller does not make any efforts to influence the outcome or rubbish the other side, but not surprising that CSICOPS try to get the credible journalist to say otherwise. The head of the organisation spent hours in the company of Jonathan Margolis, then rubbishes the book he fell in love with as soon as the 'ending' is made known to him. This comes widely recommended by many people, and I am no exception.

The dispute over the authenticity of Uri Geller is one over thirty years old. Everywhere he goes is a massive sell-out, he works closely with people like the Spice Girls and the England Coach (though these are today rather bad examples!) and whilst he was helping they met success. His opinions on all things paranormal are valued. A bent spoon will fetch hundreds of pounds at auction. His books are all best-sellers and he has been proven to have powers in scientific conditions. But he has been caught cheating, and magicians can duplicate nearly exactly what he does. We could say that the Spice Girls and England's coach were doing well anyway, and they like his team Reading all met a nasty end. People like the charismatic James Randi will have you believe he is a magician. I thought so myself. This book takes people like myself who are against Uri or indecisive and show all the facts. The writer Jonathan Margolis, a highly credible and competent biographer and excellent journalist, takes us through his experiences and does a couple of years worth of research. He compiles it methodically and without prejudice, which has helped me in my various presentations on the paranormal in two languages, and saves his conclusion for the end. No half-truths are in the book and ALL OPINIONS ARE VOICED EXHAUSTIVELY. Anybody who wonders on the issue of whether there is more than the planet we live on to be discovered will find this thought provoking and gripping, not to mention as informative as a study course at Oxford. The evidence presented could go towards a conclusion against Geller if not for the holes that have appeared over time, such as all the replicating magicians being found out, metal-bending being taught by hundreds of people and the millions of effects that Uri has created in peoples own homes and scientific laboratories. Geller has given consent to this conclusive volume, but has not influenced its content or conclusion as we can expect from two credible people as themselves, as did James Randi who is Uri's main thorn-in-the-side until he found the conclusion reached. This is well worth a look and ranks as the best book I have read in years.

Beginning with a history of the last few hundred years attempts at predicting the future, the successes and failures. The failure to predict feminism, inroads against racism and homophobia. The predictions of moon/Mars colonisation and flying cars among others. Then an overview of recent and current predictions for the future, how accurate they are likely to be in light of the history of futurism.

There are chapters on 'the way we weren't', 'is futurology bunk?', 'environment', 'human body', 'mind', 'home and work', 'leisure', 'travel' and a conclusion. This covers the key areas for futurism. The author makes the point that predicting the future is always fraught with peril because so many movements, ideas and inventions have come out of nowhere eg. electricity, feminism, theory of relativity, quantum theory, the internet etc.

It is generally an optimistic book despite the facts mentioned that the gap between the rich and poor is increasing and the large amount of people living close to starvation, he assumes that technological fixes will reduce hunger. There isn't much faith in the majority consensus of climate scientists that global warming is a serious problem, I assume he hasn't read enough of the relevant information. The author comes close to endorsing the views of Fukuyama that capitalism is the complete social system that the human race has been heading towards, but he is too realistic to totally endorse these views. There is a lot of interest, but for sheer futuristic leaps of imagination it doesn't quite match ' Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition' by Ed Regis. However there are some important points made, the entertainment is kept at a premium and there is plenty of food for thought.

Margolis' wit, insight and opinion may present a challenge to more than a few readers but, for my money, this book is an entertaining and thought-provoking journey from statistics and observation to logical and wise speculation. Buy it!

This is a real dark horse of a book. It seemed kind of slim and I wasn't expecting much, but, wow! Not only is it extremely well-researched, but it's beautifully written, and has real wisdom. I can't agree with the reviewer who criticized it as rambling. On the contrary, it's taut and focused, quite brilliant at times, especially (and I also disagree with the previous critic here) when Margolis deals with environmental matters. I work in this field, and I think Margolis's is one of the fairest, most balanced and wisest assessments I've come across. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a serious book about the future that's not a geeky bore.

This is the lousiest book you will ever read about John Cleese or any of the Pythons, period.

I tried to give it zero stars, but the system wouldn't let me.

I understand that when Margolis announced he was doing a Cleese bio, Cleese asked his friends not to help Margolis in any way.

It shows. Margolis replaces insight and nuance with trivia and stupid research tricks. He digs up ancient, brief acquaintances of Cleese's and interviews them (like the girl who was an on-site nurse at one of his film sets, stuff like that).

But most of the book is cobbled together from newspaper and magazine articles, glued together with gobs of suspect, sometimes lurid speculation on the part of the author about Cleese's inner life and psychological motivations.

Oh, and did I mention that Margolis is a writer as smug as he is untalented?

Being an incurable Python fan, I could not resist buying this as a remaindered softback, despite being warned by Friends Who Knew Better.

I still felt as mightily snookered as I would have had I paid full retail hardback.

Run away! Run away!

Packed with brilliantly researched information, beautifully written, deeply insightful, modest and very British, just like its subject. To be fair, there haven't been many negative reviews of this excellent book, but the few I have seen have, I suspect, come from the more earnest kind of Americans who believe they understand Monty Python, but never have and sadly never will. Only too bad this book is out of print in the USA, but we in Britain can buy the updated paperback on Amazon.co.uk Recommended!

John Cleese is arguably the greatest comedian of the 60's to 90's. Best known as a founder of "Monty Python" & "Fawlty Towers",this biography makes fascinating reading and provides many insights into his comic genius. A must for Cleese fans and/or lovers of British comedy.

The only word to describe this bio is "thin'. The book, at only 233 pages (paperback) lacks any real depth or thorough understanding of Palin. The author appears to have gone the easy route and just done a cut and paste of the wealth of material publicly available on the author, and jsut pursues the obvious themes.