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How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It
 
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How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It (Paperback)

by Peter Gordon, Dan Kieran Paul Hamilton (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
RRP: £9.99
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How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It + Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook + Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's)
Price For All Three: £19.43

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Product details

  • Paperback: 536 pages
  • Publisher: Snowbooks (2 Oct 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1905005237
  • ISBN-13: 978-1905005239
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 4.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 101,316 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #15 in  Books > Humour > Computers & Internet
    #17 in  Books > Biography > Science, Mathematics & Technology > Computers
    #20 in  Books > Humour > Cooking

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Product Description

Review

"Glorious... superb stuff" -- Bizarre


Product Description

Who is The Zsa Zsa Man? What are the demands of The Sydney Darlow Dancing Troupe? What lurks Behind The Fridge? What was The Glidd Of Glood's true nature? Why can t we go to Heaven when we die? What was the true genesis of Monty Python's Parrot Sketch? Why is Morton P. Fergleberger terrified of titanium rods? Who is Morton P. Fergleberger anyway? The Peter Cook Appreciation Society has the answers. How Very Interesting contains interviews with those who worked with Cook during his long and varied career and who saw him as an inspiration: his colleagues, collaborators, co-writers, producers, directors, fans and friends, including John Fortune, Barry Fantoni, Eleanor Bron, the staff of Private Eye, Trevor Baylis, Robyn Hitchcock, Chris Morris, Will Self, Jerry Sadowitz, Malcolm McLaren, Elvis Costello, Nigel Planer, Mel Smith, John Cooper Clarke, Barry Cryer, Auberon Waugh, Clive Anderson, and more - including the great man himself. Alongside the interviews, revelations and slanging matches, How Very Interesting unearths rare pieces of Cookiana, cocks an ear at Private Eye's Famous Flexies and Derek & Clive, sits through The Hound of the Baskervilles and Cook's many screen outings, and otherwise digs, delves and disappears into the universe of Peter Cook, and all that surrounds it.
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How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It
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Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook
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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great collection, 30 Oct 2006
By Harry Bowen (Staffs, UK) - See all my reviews
I've read a lot of Peter Cook books, being a big fan of his for years, and this is definitely one of the best. A lot of the others are too personal - not surprisingly, being written by his ex-wives - and concentrate on the bleaker periods of Cook's life. This not only celebrates the bleak bits - how bad could it have been when he was still phoning late-night radio with the hilarious 'Sven' stories - but remembers all the good times too, which are, in the end, what we love him for.

Everyone from Cook's history appears somewhere, from the Pythons to Clive Anderson and even the brilliant Chris Morris. Mel Smith's stories about the bets he used to make with Cook - balancing ice cubes on babies' heads, for instance - are worth the price alone. A must for fans of British Comedy.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Dan Kieran's Masterpiece!, 9 Jul 2007
I'd been a fan of Dan Kieran's books about Crap Jobs and Crap Towns (not least 'cos I have a crap job in a crap town!) but Peter Cook was an unknown quantity to me. But I risked getting How Very Interesting because I thought if Dan the Man's got something to do with it, then it's gonna be a bit mad, not the usual 'So-and-so was born at the age of one, went somewhere, did this thing and died' type of biography. And it IS a very strange book, and brilliantly so. Instead of a straight story from soup to nuts, Dan gets people from certain moments of Peter Cook's performing career to give their eyewitness accounts. The fun begins when two or more interviewees talk about the same incident but from totally differing perspectives. Cook was famed for his rambling style of comedy, and this book echoes that. We get the producer of Beyond The Fringe talking in great detail of the cast's visit to a brothel, Soft Boy Robyn Hitchcock discussing how Yellow Submarine was a prophecy of the rise of Margaret Thatcher, someone else seeing PC and Keith Richards so out-of-it they're conversing in caveman grunts. In a very subtle way it tells not only Cook's story but the story of the times, and puts a unique slant on the perceived rise and fall of a comedy genius. In the 60s when Cook and Dudley Moore were making the TV shows that influenced the future Pythons, the BBC never once asked to see the scripts (mainly because there weren't any; they would improvise stuff during the week, perform it on a Friday and screen it on the Monday) because they trusted the duo. Compare that to now where everything has to meet the approval and vetting of various quangoes and departments. No wonder the mercurial Cook barely worked in his last years - he couldn't bear having to wade through all that red tape. In addition to the interviews there are some essential chapters on his major films that shed new light on Cook's impulses and ambitions. (Dan Kieran isn't afraid to treat comedy seriously.) Amongst the jollity - and Cook seemed almost manically driven to find the fun in any situation, he was a positive lifeforce (the chapter about Yellowbeard is uproarious) - there is a deep humanity and sensitivity in these pages, the pieces by QI producer John Lloyd and Martin Lewis being, for me, the emotional apexes. They miss him deeply - and, after reading about this amazing man - I miss missing the opportunity to miss him. More than a biography it's a crucially insightful guide to his work. Keep a copy by your computer when you're checking all the Cooky stuff on youtube. From this book I have discovered Derek & Clive, Bedazzled, the loopy Consequences concept album he made with Godley & Creme, and so much more. All hail Dan Kieran for doing the right thing! A treasure trove of riches and delights.
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3 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Best Cook So Far, 10 Jan 2007
By C. Mcsloy "I baptised a dog" (Nowhere in particular today) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Great collection of interviews and recollections from colleagues and friends. It sticks mostly to the professional aspects of the great mans life and gets many bonus points from me for including quite a lot of material on his collaboration with Chris Morris which had he lived (would according to Morris) surely have been repeated. It's great to hear of funny moments that were never captured on film or audio, such as the story of Cook phoning up the BBC to complain about onscreen female nudity. It was shown at 10:30pm when his son was in bed, he was not given significant warning and by the time he woke up his son and got him downstairs it was over. I did have a geordie friend who whenever he was drunk and Never Mind the Buzzocks was on used to phone up the BBC and make receptionists cry by demanding to know what Phil Jupitus's job description was.

My Friend

"I mean what does it say on his passport like?"

BBC Receptionist

"Comedian"

My Friend

"Well, da you find him funny."

BCC Receptionist

"Not personally, no"

My Friend

Well, then. Anyway I thought this was the BBC not the BCC?

BBC Receptionist

It is that was a typing error.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Up Against the Wall Magazine (4)
If, like me, you agree with Stephen Fry's assessment that Peter Cook was indeed "the funniest man to ever draw breath," then you'll welcome the publication of this tome from the... Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars A gem!
I really enjoyed this collection - it is a delightful, rich and enlightening survey of many of those work brought them into contact with the great Peter Cook, and, combined, the... Read more
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