Join Amazon Prime and get unlimited Free One-Day Delivery. Already a member? Sign in.

 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
23 used & new from £1.89
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

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
Price: £8.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £1.00 (10%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Want guaranteed delivery by Tuesday, July 14? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
15 new from £1.89 8 used from £2.99

Frequently Bought Together

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: £22.47

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook

Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook

by Peter Cook
3.7 out of 5 stars (14)  £6.74
Peter Cook - The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer [2006] [DVD]

Peter Cook - The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer [2006] [DVD]

DVD ~ Peter Cook
4.6 out of 5 stars (7)  £7.68
Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's)

Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's)

by Harry Thompson
4.8 out of 5 stars (17)  £6.74
Peter Cook in His Own Words (Radio Collection)

Peter Cook in His Own Words (Radio Collection)

by Peter Cook
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £7.49
Why Bother?: Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling in Conversation with Chris Morris (BBC Radio Collection)

Why Bother?: Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling in Conversation with Chris Morris (BBC Radio Collection)

by Peter Cook
4.5 out of 5 stars (11)  £6.99
› Explore similar items

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: 92,888 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #10 in  Books > Humour > Computers & Internet
    #12 in  Books > Biography > Science, Mathematics & Technology > Computers
    #16 in  Books > Humour > Cooking

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

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.

See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
See all 12 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It
60% buy the item featured on this page:
How Very Interesting!: Peter Cook's Universe And All That Surrounds It 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£8.99
Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's)
17% buy
Biography of Peter Cook (Sceptre 21's) 4.8 out of 5 stars (17)
£6.74
Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook
10% buy
Tragically I Was an Only Twin: The Comedy of Peter Cook 3.7 out of 5 stars (14)
£6.74
Why Bother?: Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling in Conversation with Chris Morris (BBC Radio Collection)
8% buy
Why Bother?: Sir Arthur Streeb-Greebling in Conversation with Chris Morris (BBC Radio Collection) 4.5 out of 5 stars (11)
£6.99
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
5 star:
 (4)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
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.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
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
Published 18 months ago by K. A. Laity

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
Published 21 months ago by Peter K. Henson

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

The Body Shop

The Body Shop - Vitamin C Skin Boost
Protect and boost your glow with The Body Shop Vitamin C Skin Boost.

›Shop The Body Shop

  

Up to 75% off Shoes

Shoe Clearance - 75% off Shoes
Save up to 75% on shoes for the whole family.

›Shop clearance shoes

  

We've Got Converse

Converse
Stock up on your favourite styles with great deals on Converse shoes.

›Shop Converse

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4.5 out of 5 stars (72)£3.86
 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
4.1 out of 5 stars (460)£6.49
 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4.1 out of 5 stars (162)£3.99
 The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4.2 out of 5 stars (80)£3.86

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates