Tag: memoir

Who and Me

Who and Me

by Barry Letts [New, Expanded Edition] (Fantom, 2021)

Book cover: Who and Me by Barry Letts (2021 edition)

The first half of Barry Letts’s unfinished Doctor Who memoir. There’s not much here that Letts didn’t offer up during assorted DVD commentaries, but his conversational style nonetheless makes this slim volume a pleasant read. The ‘new’ material is largely just repetition.

Don’t Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs

Don’t Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, She Thinks I’m a Piano Player in a Whorehouse

by Paul Carter (Allen & Unwin, 2005); audiobook read by Paul Carter (Bolinda, 2012)

Carter_Don't Tell Mum

Less the story of life on the oil rigs, more a series of anecdotes celebrating the lifestyles (on, away from, and in transit) of those who work them. Carter has an easy writing style but a curiously hurried delivery (in the audiobook).

 

 

Always Looking Up

Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist

by Michael J. Fox (Hyperion, 2008)

Fox_Always Looking Up

Much-loved film and television star Michael J. Fox seems, if anything, even more likeable in this memoir covering his post-acting life with Parkinson’s. The titular optimism comes across not only by way of his actions but in his engaging, companionable writing style.

 

Lolly Scramble

Lolly Scramble: A Memoir of Little Consequence

by Tony Martin (Pan, 2005)

Martin_Lolly Scramble

The best comedians are those whose humour derives from perspective. Kiwi turned Aussie Tony Martin is one such person, shunning the celebrity world to glean amusement from his everyday life. (Read aloud, his recounting of an amateur theatre mishap becomes life-threateningly funny.)

 

Derelict Space Sheep