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Did You Really Shoot the Television?
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Amazon.co.uk Review
‘Richly rewarding…a minor masterpiece…the book is extremely funny in places, extremely poignant in others and extremely well-written throughout – in fact, I haven’t enjoyed anything so much in ages’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Family histories can often be pretty deadly and journalists memoirs doubly so. Few of them, however, are written with as much skill and sensitivity as this one. Moving without being mawkish, Hastings’s book is a trove of marvellous stories’ Sunday Times
‘This brave and poignant book is the self-portrait of a supremely talented outsider who has spent his life trying to live up to his father’s achievements…what is beyond doubt is that Sir Max has exceeded the pinnacle of his parents’ aspirations for themselves’ Daily Telegraph
‘Regretful, wise and forthright…deals with unnecessary cruelties and self delusions and ends with a sense of completion and understanding’ Andrew Marr, Financial Times
‘Elegiac, reflective and very funny, Did You Really Shoot the Television is both a ceasefire and a reminder that families are rarely safe places for children to be’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Highly engaging’ Independent ‘[A] rollicking memoir’ Mail on Sunday
‘It’s a brilliantly entertaining book, full of funny well-told stories about his talented, eccentric, sometimes rackety predecessors’ Scotsman
‘Deeply moving…an intimate portrait of two people who made [Max Hastings] the great man he is’ Private Eye
‘This is Max Hastings’ most personal book to date, and for all his war reporting and newspaper reporting, it is his bravest…[he] tells his family’s story with great candour and a real newsman’s detail’ Country Life
‘Family histories can often be pretty deadly and journalists memoirs doubly so. Few of them, however, are written with as much skill and sensitivity as this one. Moving without being mawkish, Hastings’s book is a trove of marvellous stories’ Sunday Times
‘This brave and poignant book is the self-portrait of a supremely talented outsider who has spent his life trying to live up to his father’s achievements…what is beyond doubt is that Sir Max has exceeded the pinnacle of his parents’ aspirations for themselves’ Daily Telegraph
‘Regretful, wise and forthright…deals with unnecessary cruelties and self delusions and ends with a sense of completion and understanding’ Andrew Marr, Financial Times
‘Elegiac, reflective and very funny, Did You Really Shoot the Television is both a ceasefire and a reminder that families are rarely safe places for children to be’ Times Literary Supplement
‘Highly engaging’ Independent ‘[A] rollicking memoir’ Mail on Sunday
‘It’s a brilliantly entertaining book, full of funny well-told stories about his talented, eccentric, sometimes rackety predecessors’ Scotsman
‘Deeply moving…an intimate portrait of two people who made [Max Hastings] the great man he is’ Private Eye
‘This is Max Hastings’ most personal book to date, and for all his war reporting and newspaper reporting, it is his bravest…[he] tells his family’s story with great candour and a real newsman’s detail’ Country Life
Review
‘Richly rewarding…A minor masterpiece. His portrait of his absurd and loveable father is extraordinarily touching; that of the failure of his relationship with his mother scarcely less so. The book is extremely funny in places, extremely poignant in others and extremely well-written throughout – in fact, I haven’t enjoyed anything so much in ages.’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Elegiac, reflective and very funny.’ TLS
‘Highly engaging’ Independent
‘Funny and moving…Few [memoirs] are written with as much skill and sensitivity as this one. Moving without being mawkish, Hastings’s book is a trove of marvellous stories’ Sunday Times
‘This brave and poignant book is the self-portrait of an extremely talented outsider who has spent his life trying to live up to his father’s achievements. It is also the emotional journey of a son’s heart-rending non-relationship with his mother.’ Daily Telegraph
‘In this slim, delightful book [Hastings] reveals himself as never before.’ Andrew Marr, FT
‘A brilliantly entertaining book, full of funny, well-told stories.’ Scotsman
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have read and enjoyed Sir Max Hastings work for a while now; his writing is compelling and informative both. So when I saw this book for less than half price, I bought it. Then when I actually went to read it, I thought "hold on, this is just some self-indulgent twaddle about a clan of misunderstood artists and writers, of the sort usually left unpublished in attics". Then I thought, "well yes, but Outdoor Days was a collection of used magazine articles about fishing, and I did enjoy that". So I kept going. All in all, I'm glad I did.
This is not an autobiography, despite the title, but more a "family history" of a particularly strange family not quite worthy of the treatment. Even aggregated together - as you must - I'm not sure there is enough here "of note" to sustain a true history. But throw in some personal memoir and, improbably, you have something both readable and accessable, in part because it's a pretty unvarnished view, and in part because there is simply enough detail to shed light on the world of the past: England and South Africa of the late nineteenth century and onwards.
It is once the book moves on to Max's I can't just say Hastings, or you will never know which one!) parents, Mac and Anne, that the book really shines. It's a paean to his father Mac, while acknowledging - even highlighting - the flaws and self-deceipts of the man, and a critical but ultimately admiring portrait of his mother, Anne. Max says that he wrote the book some time ago, but left it unpublished until her death, which in itself is a noteworthy comment, for all it's a throwaway line.
In the end, this book is a pleasant enough way to spend a few hours, alternatively amusing and troubling, and if nothing else an honest self-analysis of a family that at one glance appears dysfunctional, but as Max says, left him educated and employable (almost despite himself), and, it is clear, made him the man he is today. If that is not tribute enough to all involved...well I don't know what is.
This is not an autobiography, despite the title, but more a "family history" of a particularly strange family not quite worthy of the treatment. Even aggregated together - as you must - I'm not sure there is enough here "of note" to sustain a true history. But throw in some personal memoir and, improbably, you have something both readable and accessable, in part because it's a pretty unvarnished view, and in part because there is simply enough detail to shed light on the world of the past: England and South Africa of the late nineteenth century and onwards.
It is once the book moves on to Max's I can't just say Hastings, or you will never know which one!) parents, Mac and Anne, that the book really shines. It's a paean to his father Mac, while acknowledging - even highlighting - the flaws and self-deceipts of the man, and a critical but ultimately admiring portrait of his mother, Anne. Max says that he wrote the book some time ago, but left it unpublished until her death, which in itself is a noteworthy comment, for all it's a throwaway line.
In the end, this book is a pleasant enough way to spend a few hours, alternatively amusing and troubling, and if nothing else an honest self-analysis of a family that at one glance appears dysfunctional, but as Max says, left him educated and employable (almost despite himself), and, it is clear, made him the man he is today. If that is not tribute enough to all involved...well I don't know what is.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a candid, warts and all portrait of a family in the media industry in the mid twentieth century. Hastings' childhood was not particularly happy - one school report declares that "his contemporaries do not like him...and they are not bad judges of character" - and his attitude to his parents remained deeply ambivalent, but his affection, particularly for his father, shines out from the text, and he pays them a moving tribute at the end.
He also treats his childhood nanny with great fondness. Her gentle nature and love of the football pools hid personal sadnesses and loneliness. Yet, typically, his mean-spirited mother wrote in a newspaper column that nannies "dominate the house to an absurd degree."
If I have any criticism of the book it is that takes a while to get into its stride. The earlier chapters, concerning Hastings' grandparents and family, are less interesting than the later ones, but overall this is a vivid and enjoyable read.
He also treats his childhood nanny with great fondness. Her gentle nature and love of the football pools hid personal sadnesses and loneliness. Yet, typically, his mean-spirited mother wrote in a newspaper column that nannies "dominate the house to an absurd degree."
If I have any criticism of the book it is that takes a while to get into its stride. The earlier chapters, concerning Hastings' grandparents and family, are less interesting than the later ones, but overall this is a vivid and enjoyable read.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Yes I'd recommend it. It's not going to be a classic but it's easy and entertaining and you can safely give it to your maiden auntie. It's now hardly this year's present so go for the paperback, if there is such.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
High Noon Encounter with a Television Set.
How generations of Hastings and Scott-James's came to produce a very naughty boy. The fantasising father then predicts a knighthood, editorship of a national newspaper, and the... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Grr
Max Hastings
I bought this book as I was interested to find out what the man who is called by Private Eye, Max Hitler Hastings tick. Read more
Published 19 months ago by H. W. Jeffery-leech
Happy Families not of great interest to the great admass (me)
Well written and expensively presented, but when the author describes his family in the introduction as the 'Nearly people'I am afraid the categorisation is probably accurate... Read more
Published on 7 May 2010 by Headley J. des Forges
Max Hastings
This is an extremely entertaining book which made me laugh out loud. Much of the early reports of his childhood were very reminiscent of my own especially stories of that wonderful... Read more
Published on 1 May 2010 by Jenny
Did You Really Shoot the Television
I have seldom enjoyed a Book as much as I enjoyed this one. A fascinating
History of a talented family. Read more
History of a talented family. Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2010 by Wd Graeme-coutts
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