16 used & new from £0.40
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
Owning Up: The Trilogy: Scouse Mouse; Rum, Bum and Concertina; Owning Up (Penguin Classic Biography)
 
 
Share your own customer images
Search inside another edition of this book

Owning Up: The Trilogy: Scouse Mouse; Rum, Bum and Concertina; Owning Up (Penguin Classic Biography) (Paperback)

by George Melly (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


13 used from £0.40 3 collectible from £10.00
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Paperback £9.99 £6.98 21 used & new from £4.53

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Slowing Down

Slowing Down

by George Melly
4.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £6.30
Take a Girl Like Me: Life With George

Take a Girl Like Me: Life With George

by Diana Melly
£7.19
Goodtime George

Goodtime George

~ George Melly
4.2 out of 5 stars (4)  £2.98
Anything Goes

Anything Goes

~ George Melly
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £2.98
George Melly: The Final Bows of a Legend

George Melly: The Final Bows of a Legend

by Digby Fairweather
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £10.99
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 608 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (27 Jul 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141390018
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141390017
  • Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.5 x 4.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 333,138 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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

Product Description

Product Description

George Melly's three autobiographical memoirs - "Scouse Mouse", "Rum, Bum and Concertina" and "Owning Up" in one volume for the first time. An account of the author's life from childhood in middle-class Liverpool in the thirties, through national service in the navy as an ordinary seaman to his emergence as a connoisseur of surrealist art and his career as a jazz singer.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Search inside this book:

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Owning Up: The Trilogy: Scouse Mouse; Rum, Bum and Concertina; Owning Up (Penguin Classic Biography)
80% buy the item featured on this page:
Owning Up: The Trilogy: Scouse Mouse; Rum, Bum and Concertina; Owning Up (Penguin Classic Biography) 4.9 out of 5 stars (7)
Slowing Down
3% buy
Slowing Down 4.0 out of 5 stars (1)
£6.30
George Melly: The Final Bows of a Legend
3% buy
George Melly: The Final Bows of a Legend 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
£10.99
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Autobiography at its finest, 17 Feb 2004
By Peter Fenelon - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Wit, raconteur, art connoisseur, surrealist, lascivious jazzman, sexual athlete and wearer of some of the most dangerous suits in Britain, Melly's autobiography is every bit as provocative and bizarre as the man himself.

Written in reverse order but rearranged into chronological order in this edition, it's best to tackle the volumes that way round.

Scouse Mouse covers George's upper-middle-class childhood in Liverpool between the wars. This is a fascinating account of his family, the arts scene in Liverpool, and of a city and lifestyle now almost completely vanished; there are plenty of laughs along the way too.

Rum, Bum and Concertina describes Melly's spell in the Royal Navy, his burgeoning sexuality, and his contact and involvement with the London art world, in particular the Surrealists. Probably the weakest of the three, but again a fascinating portrait of two very different aspects of his life.

Owning Up sees George falling victim to the dreaded curse of Jazz, describing in scabrous, lip-smacking and often highly self-deprecating detail his torrid days with Mick Mulligan's band. At the end of this book he decides to forsake the jazz life for writing and broadcasting...

...but of course an afterword describes his subsequent jazz career with John Chilton ;)

George is a national treasure; his books are warm, acerbic, waspish, astonishingly perceptive and almost infinitely readable. A real treat.

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



 
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Immensely pleasurable social document, 24 Sep 2001
By A Customer
Why has nobody reviewed this? Is it because Melly is perceived as a frivolous figure? Or is it, more likely, the silly titles of the first two vols (actually the last two published)? Anyway, it is pure joy, and not in a frivolous, moon's-a-balloon sense but as fascinating social history (like James Kirkup's 4 volumes of memoirs, unhappily not yet gathered together). And you don't need to (a) like jazz (b) think George can sing!
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 Swinging and singing, 18 Oct 2007
By C. J. Marton (Scarborough) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Owning Up: The Trilogy (Paperback)
Owning Up remains the true highpoint for me with its loving evocation of a world that was already vanishing when George wrote it back in the early 60's. To anyone who still thinks the 50's were stuffy and conformist in Britain, such as Daily Mail readers for example, this book will provide the necessary corrective. The only difference with that decade and the 60's was that suddenly everyone was aware of the hedonism going on underneath the surface. Even if you're not a jazz fan, the book will rivet you with its graphic descriptions of Melly and partner in crime Mick Mulligan cutting a swathe through late night drinking clubs, provincial dance halls in such glamorous locations as Grimsby and Boston, (Birmingham's reputation never recovered from the battering George gave it in this volume) and scrubbers - always scrubbers! Is there something in the female psyche that pre-programs them to offer themselves sexually to otherwise physically-unappetising musicians? Whatever, generations of spotty adolescents in rock bands who wish to discover if the best form of willy-warmer is a supermodel's mouth are eternally grateful! Rum, Bum and Concertina shocked me when I first read it back in the 70's but remains an intriguing picture of George - a round peg in a square hole if ever there was one - somehow finding time to fit in National Service in the navy whilst attending art galleries, anarchists meetings, and homosexual orgies. There's even a guest appearance by the great Louis Armstrong - the man who ignited George's mania for jazz in the first place. Buy it. When they made George they threw away the mould - and clean forgot how to sculpt another one.
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 Hilarious
This is a weighty tome incorporating all three of Melly's autobiographies from 1965 onwards. It is a wonderful book, beautifully written, with flashes of humour and perception in... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Thomas N. Orchard

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of British Eccentricity
I read George Melly's three autobiographies more than twenty years ago around the time of the Good Time George series on BBC 2 and his channel 4 quiz programme Gallery (where he... Read more
Published on 17 Jul 2007 by miss waspy

4.0 out of 5 stars Good time George shares all
The first of the trilogies in this collection is especially good and evocative of the times (pre war Liverpool). Read more
Published on 2 Mar 2004 by Mr. K. B. Pell Pell

5.0 out of 5 stars best biography i have read
This is the funniest ,most honest biography i have ever read,George has that rare ability to paint a picture with the minium of words and is not afraid to show his own... Read more
Published on 13 Jul 2003 by Roy Clarke

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

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


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject
















i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Ad

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

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