- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; New edition edition (5 Nov 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571203612
- ISBN-13: 978-0571203611
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 353,482 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Christopher Logue has had an extraordinary and varied career. After turbulent schooldays he was court-martialled out of the army for illegally being in possession of Pay books, and spent two years in a boot camp--except this was no ordinary boot-camp, but the Crusader castle of Acre. He sat in a dungeon and read Shakespeare. Later he lived in Paris and wrote pornography for a while, including such unforgettable works as Lust--which he doesn't recommend. Later still he was imprisoned again for his involvement in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and joined Private Eye producing the True Stories and Pseud's Corner columns for decades. His most important achievements have always been in poetry, though: his own work, and his brilliant, universally acclaimed translations of Homer. Logue is so honest, so hard on himself and his (admittedly plentiful) faults, that it can sometimes make you wince. But the honesty is also what makes this a brilliant self-portrait of a man at odds with the world, a natural drifter and bohemian, somehow contriving to survive in a difficult age, and produce some magnificent poetry along the way. --Christopher Hart
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'They don't get much better than this...Logue is a great storyteller.' Gerald Dawe; 'It's assumed nowadays that autobiography will uncover hidden areas of a life, be sexually candid and reveal its author to be vulnerable and self-doubting at heart. Prince Charming meets these requirements but achieves much more...It rescues from the wreckage of various phases and crazes (where is Jazz poetry now?) a man indisputably and agonisingly committed to his art.' Alan Brownjohn, Observer
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I am reviewing this since no-one has thought to do so. It is a delightful - and disarmingly frank - 'alternate take' on the 20th century that has been allowed to pass disgracefully undernoticed; I can only assume this is because Logue sees himself as a poet rather than sings falsetto like George Melly (to whose Owning Up trilogy I also award 5 stars). But you don't have to like his poetry to appreciate this - it's partly the slenderness of his talent (and of redeeming features in general) that makes him so appealing.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
Charming ?
16 Jun 2011
Format:Paperback
"Prince Charming" Review
In his very brief forward to this autobiography the author more or less cuts the ground from under the critic. "Nothing in these contexts is made up", he writes. But of course all of it is carefully selected and even when the names are unfamiliar almost all is interesting.
Most interesting for me were Logue's recollections of his time in Paris in the early 1950's. I was lucky enough to spend some time in Paris in the latter part of that decade; although by then the formidable individuals connected with Merlin magazine and later the Paris Review had mainly departed. Meeting Alexander Trocchi would have been an alarming experience!
His memories of the literary folk gaining prominence in England such as John Osborne and Ken Tynan at about that time are also very revealing.
But most of all the impression that we are given of the author, observant, talented, insecure, uneasy and perhaps somewhat inept in his relationships with women is fascinating. I think he pulls his punches occasionally in some of the narrative about others but he is certainly very frank about himself.
Anyone who looks at this review may find the following two books interesting:
"Paris Interzone" by James Campbell (whose help is acknowledged in Logue's preface) and which provides a very enjoyable introduction to the American writers in Paris between 1946 and 1960.
"Life Itself" by Elaine Dundy, who was married to Ken Tynan and whose cheerfully revealing autobiography is a pleasure to read. She makes a couple of mentions of Christopher Logue describing him as a 'seasoned left-wing activist'.
In his very brief forward to this autobiography the author more or less cuts the ground from under the critic. "Nothing in these contexts is made up", he writes. But of course all of it is carefully selected and even when the names are unfamiliar almost all is interesting.
Most interesting for me were Logue's recollections of his time in Paris in the early 1950's. I was lucky enough to spend some time in Paris in the latter part of that decade; although by then the formidable individuals connected with Merlin magazine and later the Paris Review had mainly departed. Meeting Alexander Trocchi would have been an alarming experience!
His memories of the literary folk gaining prominence in England such as John Osborne and Ken Tynan at about that time are also very revealing.
But most of all the impression that we are given of the author, observant, talented, insecure, uneasy and perhaps somewhat inept in his relationships with women is fascinating. I think he pulls his punches occasionally in some of the narrative about others but he is certainly very frank about himself.
Anyone who looks at this review may find the following two books interesting:
"Paris Interzone" by James Campbell (whose help is acknowledged in Logue's preface) and which provides a very enjoyable introduction to the American writers in Paris between 1946 and 1960.
"Life Itself" by Elaine Dundy, who was married to Ken Tynan and whose cheerfully revealing autobiography is a pleasure to read. She makes a couple of mentions of Christopher Logue describing him as a 'seasoned left-wing activist'.
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