Mr Lonely
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Review
– ‘Sparkling. Spicy.’ THE SUN
– ‘Magnificent. Bittersweet.’ SPIKE MILLIGAN
Product Description
A long-overdue reissue of this debut novel from a comedy legend.
Mr Lonely follows the exploits of a lowly two-bit comedian, Sid Lewis, through his strange and eventful life.
Sid plays dingy smoke-filled clubs, earning next to nothing and chasing after the dancing girls. He meets the woman of his dreams and ties the knot – but still has an eye for the ladies.
One night, in front of a particularly rough crowd, he tries out a new character… and Mr Lonely is born. The act is seen by someone from the BBC who offers Sid the chance to perform on television. He becomes an overnight success, quickly taking to a new life of champagne and stardom – and continues to chase anything in a skirt.
But great comedy is often laced with tragedy and Sid's life is no exception as his excesses and philandering threaten to catch up with him.
Mr Lonely was Eric's first novel, written while he was recovering from his second heart attack and contemplating a career away from the stage. It has all the hallmarks of his legendary comic talent and is being brought back into print for the first time in nearly thirty years.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I like this book because it was written by Eric when he was thinking about giving up comedy following illness. Therefore it is darker than one would imagine. Okay - it's hardly literature, but it wasn't intended as such. It IS entertaining, slightly odd, very dark and strangely compelling. I like it for all the reasons I hadn't expected.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I vaguely remember hearing Eric Morecambe being interviewed on the radio about this book, and his being asked why he had written such a sad tale. This must have put me off , because I had not read it, even though I am a lifelong M&W fan, loving their "Two of a Kind" shows when I was a child, and then of course their marvelous BBC series in the 70s. The excellent BBC2 play "Eric & Ernie" at Christmas somehow reminded me that Eric had written a couple of books, so I decided to search for them.
Sid, "Mr Lonely", is an unpleasant character, but a brilliant comedian. He habitually deceives his wife, treats women as commodities, and his racial attitudes are antedeluvian. At his heart is a void.
This book seems to me to be about the futility, emptiness and transience of fame, the fragility of life; of how you tend to reap a bitter harvest from your misdeeds. It is also about the tragedy of how happiness evades us because the timing of events is slightly out, like a farce gone awry.
It is a mistake, I think, to confuse the attitudes of the character, Sid, with the intentions of the author. Sid is meant to be unpleasant (but talented), and is depicted as such, although with some sympathy as to why he became more like that than he could have been.
"Mr Lonely" seems more relevant today than it perhaps was when it was first published, because the culture of celebrity has taken over our society almost completely. People will, it seems, sell their souls for a few minutes in the spotlight. Eric was well ahead of his time in putting his finger on that one. This book is, after thirty or so years, an interesting social history document, because it describes the now disappeared mid-twentieth century world of club/end of the pier/early TV entertainers, and it was written by someone who was there.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Mr Lonely", and had to keep picking it up and reading a bit more until I reached the end. It is a forgotten gem, a tragic farce, which should be more widely known.
And lastly - we've got a particularly cute teddy bear in our church, for the children to play with. He is known as "Gladly-the-Cross-Eyed-Bear", and once he had a sermon preached about him. Now, with some astonishment, I know where his name came from! You'll have to read the book to find out.
Sid, "Mr Lonely", is an unpleasant character, but a brilliant comedian. He habitually deceives his wife, treats women as commodities, and his racial attitudes are antedeluvian. At his heart is a void.
This book seems to me to be about the futility, emptiness and transience of fame, the fragility of life; of how you tend to reap a bitter harvest from your misdeeds. It is also about the tragedy of how happiness evades us because the timing of events is slightly out, like a farce gone awry.
It is a mistake, I think, to confuse the attitudes of the character, Sid, with the intentions of the author. Sid is meant to be unpleasant (but talented), and is depicted as such, although with some sympathy as to why he became more like that than he could have been.
"Mr Lonely" seems more relevant today than it perhaps was when it was first published, because the culture of celebrity has taken over our society almost completely. People will, it seems, sell their souls for a few minutes in the spotlight. Eric was well ahead of his time in putting his finger on that one. This book is, after thirty or so years, an interesting social history document, because it describes the now disappeared mid-twentieth century world of club/end of the pier/early TV entertainers, and it was written by someone who was there.
I thoroughly enjoyed "Mr Lonely", and had to keep picking it up and reading a bit more until I reached the end. It is a forgotten gem, a tragic farce, which should be more widely known.
And lastly - we've got a particularly cute teddy bear in our church, for the children to play with. He is known as "Gladly-the-Cross-Eyed-Bear", and once he had a sermon preached about him. Now, with some astonishment, I know where his name came from! You'll have to read the book to find out.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
I'm a fan of Eric Morecambe, please make no mistake. I love to watch the old shows, which have lost none of their magic. He was a superb entertainer, on stage. His death was far, far too soon. A recent biographical film in which Victoria Wood played his mother prompted me to buy his novel "Mr Lonely" to see what it is like. It is a work of fiction (possibly including some real life incidents lightly dressed up as fiction) which would never have made the grade or been published if it had been written by an unknown. The only point in reading it is to get a glimpse into the creative mind of Eric Morecambe, but I'm not sure I like what I see. Page after page is crammed with "gags" as he would call them, jokes that misfire, material that would only have worked on stage and only then in a fast-moving show where you quickly move on to the next gag or routine. Prejudice, racism, snide remarks about Asian stereotypes or women. Where does this stuff come from - the society in which he grew up, the society in which he made it as a world-class entertainer or from within Eric Morecambe's mind, from a man with a fiercely competitive nature? The book has a thin, rather uninteresting plot. Don't expect to be entertained but expect to be surprised and maybe saddened by the loneliness and insecurity in the mind of one of our greatest comic entertainers. You could use this book as an example of how not to write good fiction. The Kindle version is not bad value for money.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent
What an amazingly good read. I was expecting a good insight into working in cabaret in the 60s and 70s, which I got, but was not expecting such fantastic writing. Read more
Published 1 month ago by L. E. Metcalfe
Add half a star if you're a fan of Eric and Ernie
I've been on something of a reading tear recently but hit "Mr. Lonely" like a speed-bump. I suspect part of the problem was my own expectation - I was, like most people of my era,... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Clever Spud
Not what I expected
As the tag says this is not what I expected. Having watched Eric over the years in his shows with 'Little Ern' I expected something lighter. Read more
Published 11 months ago by A. J. Tainty
funny
Eric Morecambe was a very funny man and this is a funny book. It deserves to be read. it's as simple as that.
Published on 10 April 2009 by bart4books
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