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
25 used & new from £3.98
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Last Cigarette
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book

The Last Cigarette (Hardcover)

by Simon Gray (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
Price: £12.74 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £2.25 (15%)
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
24 new from £3.98 1 used from £7.74
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback £7.99 £5.99 24 used & new from £3.03
Audio CD (Audiobook) £16.98 £14.43 15 used & new from £3.16

Frequently Bought Together

The Last Cigarette + The Year of the Jouncer (Smoking Diaries Volume 2) + Coda
Price For All Three: £24.32

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Year of the Jouncer (Smoking Diaries Volume 2)

The Year of the Jouncer (Smoking Diaries Volume 2)

by Simon Gray
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £5.99
The Smoking Diaries

The Smoking Diaries

by Simon Gray
4.0 out of 5 stars (8)  £5.59
Coda

Coda

by Simon Gray
4.8 out of 5 stars (5)  £5.59
Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes

Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes

by Ferdinand Mount
4.0 out of 5 stars (7)  £5.39
Fat Chance

Fat Chance

by Simon Gray
5.0 out of 5 stars (1) 
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 312 pages
  • Publisher: Granta Books (7 April 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1847080383
  • ISBN-13: 978-1847080387
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 14 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 144,347 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #65 in  Books > Biography > Novelists, Poets & Playwrights > Playwrights

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

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested in These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)
Teather Tickets
   VisitLondon.com/Theatre_tickets    Buy Teather Tickets & Save when you Book Online! 
Full Outfit £19.99
   www.incredibledevices.co.uk    With 10 refills and UK Charger Next day delivery 
West End Show Tickets
   worldticketsales.eolts.co.uk    Save Up To 50% Off On Tickets To West End Shows 
  
 

Product Description

Sunday Telegraph
'Highly addictive, often wildly funny but also, and this is increasingly the case, deeply moving'

Literary Review
`A pleasure to read... it would be hard to find a shrewder or more humane commentator'

See all Product Description
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Last Cigarette
69% buy the item featured on this page:
The Last Cigarette 5.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£12.74
The Smoking Diaries
16% buy
The Smoking Diaries 4.0 out of 5 stars (8)
£5.59
Coda
8% buy
Coda 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£5.59
Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes
3% buy
Cold Cream: My Early Life and Other Mistakes 4.0 out of 5 stars (7)
£5.39
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

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

 
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Life as it is lived - with humour and insight, 5 Jul 2008
By A Common Reader "See all mybook reviews at ww... (Sussex, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
The Last Cigarette is the third volume of playwright Simon Gray's diaries which he began with The Smoking Diaries.back in 2004. Its not easy to categorise these books - I've chosen "diaries", for most of the time they record daily events over the course of a year or so, but also slip back to descriptions of events in the past. The free-form, conversational style gives the reader the impression that he's almost feel that you're listening to Simon Gray while chatting in a bar - which is not surprising because apparently he writes his diaries on an A4 pad, whenever he finds himself alone in a café, bar or hotel room.

The diaries contain a wide range of topics - descriptions of holidays in Greece and Barbados, the period when his play Butley was being produced on Broadway, stories about student days at Cambridge and early girlfriends, and underlying it all, Gray's love/hate relationship with cigarettes and his attempts to stop smoking. Needless to say, we never actually reach the "last cigarette" by the end of the book, despite countless struggles during earlier chapters.

What is so appealing about the books are their extreme, almost painful truthfulness. Gray makes no attempt to make himself seem a more attractive character. He describes his weaknesses and his failings with complete candour, and many readers will recognise their own behaviour in Gray's diaries.

This is not to say Gray's diaries are all introspective - far from it. There are many humerous sections, and I particularly enjoyed reading about the lost airline baggage, the Greek taxi-driver, the pest controller, and many other amusing episodes.

We also read of many of Gray's literary and theatrical friends, and it is moving to read of dinners with Harold Pinter and his wife Antonia Fraser during Pinter's illnesses. Gray gives many insights into Pinter's character, particulary his rages, which contrast so greatly with his general gentleness and tenderness. I think many of Gray's personal reminiscences of Pinter would provide important material for future biographers.

A final section of the book is set in Broadway, where Gray's play "Butley" was being revived, forty years after he wrote it. We read of a telephone call Gray receives from the producer while on holiday in Greece, asking if Gray could re-write the final scene in order to accommodate the deficiencies of one of the actors, who is having difficulty in mastering the correct English tone to his part. Gray knows in his gut that the real solution is to sack the deficient actor, but everyone on the cast speaks so warmly of him that he goes along with the re-write. This proves to be far more difficult than expected: by changing one line, you affect others, and by changing one act, you have to make sure that earlier acts are consistent with it, and so on. The re-write is typed on a tiny hand-held Blackberry in an hotel bed-room, and Gray rapidly sees that his initial compliance with the director's wishes in not insisting that the actor be fired is escalating out of control.

I find these "Smoking Diaries" beguiling, mostly because of their candour. The books almost give the reader permission to be "real". I seriously doubt that Gray had any outcome like this in mind when he wrote them, but by the end of each volume you might feel that you have felt that one other person at least messes up in the same way as you.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Simon Gray, 18 Feb 2009
By S. Lowe "Sheila" (Manchester UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
One of the funniest (at the same time moving) books I have ever read.
I recommend any / all of Simon Gray's books. Sadly he died just before Christmas last year. Through his books I felt as though I knew him and I will miss him.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars As good as Jeff Barnard, 8 Jun 2008
There is something similar about the Simon Gray diaries and Jeff Bernard's old Low Life column but this is if anything even more readable and it would be hard not to empathise with Gray. I love his observations and frank turn of phrase. His best installment yet. Hard not to love
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
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

Fun for Everyone

Christmas Gifts
Achieve over 15,000 RPM with our great range of Powerballs.

›Shop the Powerball store

  

Beauty without the Beast

Olay Regenerist Daily 3 Point Treatment Cream
From au naturel to party glam, we have all the best names in cosmetics and skincare.

›Discover Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

  

Up to 50% off Dental Care

Braun Oral-B Professional Care 6000 Rechargeable Toothbrush - Pack of 2
Put a sparkle in your smile with up to 50% off selected Oral-B and Philips rechargeable toothbrushes.

›Up to 50% off power toothbrushes

  

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 (75)£3.86
 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
4.1 out of 5 stars (464)£6.49
 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4.1 out of 5 stars (165)£3.99
 The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4.2 out of 5 stars (83)£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