- Hardcover: 720 pages
- Publisher: John Murray; First Edition / First Impression edition (29 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1848543115
- ISBN-13: 978-1848543119
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 5.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 150,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Something Sensational to Read in the Train
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
'Uproarious memoirs'
(Daily Mail )'The deliciously indiscreet diaries of a society insider with a wicked (and shameless) sense of fun...packed with famous names and wildly indiscreet stories'
(Daily Mail )
'Gyles Brandreth is the ultimate insider. In this year's most colourful diaries, he shares his secrets' (Daily Mail )
Praise for Gyles Brandreth:
(--- )'Searingly honest, wildly indiscreet, and incredibly funny'
(Daily Mail )'A touching access to the secrets of the human heart'
(The Times )'A fine and sympathetic writer'
(Times Literary Supplement )'Brilliant'
(Daily Telegraph )'Brilliant'
(Spectator )'Wonderfully sharp....there is something very potent beneath the froth, and a bullet-proof vest beneath the novelty jumper'
(Mail on Sunday )'He's a warmer and more guileless version of Boris Johnson, a smarter and less crooked version of Jeffery Archer, a cuddlier and less punk-rock version of Bungle from Rainbow... he merits the backhanded compliment 'impossible to dislike'. He is happy and he is successful. He earned the latter. The former seems to be temperamental.'
(The Spectator )'full of tales and catty asides about royals and celebrities'
(Sunday Times )'Brandreth has enjoyed unique access to everyone from prime ministers and royalty to pop stars and actors. For more than 50 years he has faithfully recorded every encounter, every secret and wild indiscretion, in his diary. Something Sensational to Read in the Train is a rollercoaster ride through what Gyles happily admits has been, at times, a ridiculous life'
(Daily Mail )'Really rather charming'
'This book is a romp, stuffed with anecdotes and wry reflections on life in the artificial world of Westminster and the real world of show business, TV and the stage. It's a perfect winter read'
(Sunday Express )'Ought to be beside everyone's bed...The man is phenomenal'
(Sunday Express )Product Description
This is a diary packed with famous names and extraordinary stories. It is also rich in incidental detail and wonderful observation, providing both a compelling record of five remarkable decades and a revealing, often hilarious and sometimes moving account of Gyles Brandreth's unusual life - as a child living in London in the 'swinging' sixties, as a jumper-wearing TV presenter, as an MP and government whip, and as a royal biographer who has enjoyed unique access to the Queen and her family.
Something Sensational to Read on the Train takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride from the era of Dixon of Dock Green to the age of The X Factor, from the end of the farthing to the arrival of the euro, from the Britain of Harold Macmillan and the Notting Hill race riots to the world of Barack Obama and Lewis Hamilton.
With a cast list that runs from Richard Nixon and Richard Branson to Gordon Brown and David Cameron - and includes princes, presidents and pop stars, as well as three archbishops and any number of actresses - this is a book for anyone interested in contemporary history, politics and entertainment, royalty, gossip and life itself.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is one of the most consistently entertaining books that I've encountered in a very long time. Although it's a chronological romp through the author's real-life adventures, it reads like great fiction. The experiences are related in a conversational and almost alarmingly candid style. If you can grasp the concept of an up-market Jack Kerouac, that will give you something of an idea of what to expect. Bits of it are quite disgracefully hilarious, and I had to be careful not to disturb the neighbours with eruptions of laughter during my late night reading sessions.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Gyles Brandreth's latest book, "Something Sensational to Read in the Train: The Diary of A Lifetime" is funny, touching, and intensely readable. The section on his career as an MP, taken from "Breaking the Code", his Westminster diaries, is the best account available of how Parliament really works. But that's just one part of Brandreth's varied life. Like Wagner, he really can do most of the things he thinks he can, but unlike Wagner he comes across as an amiable optimist, who is never averse to telling a story against himself.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I think G Brandreth is a sensation and was expecting this to be better than it actually was. I felt like I was revising the musings of Adrian Mole, aged 70-odd. It's an OK read, but was not as funny as certain other autobiographical pieces I've had the good fortune to read ... that said, I'd still watch Mr B when he's on TV simply because I think he's incredibly humorous and for me, this is his best medium for communication with the public
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Entertaining diaries of someone who is thoughtful enough to know when...
Extracts from GB's diaries from 1959 to 1999 (aged 10 to 50), and it is remarkable how little his style changed in all those years. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Grr
Excellent
This was a really good read; touching, endearing and highly entertaining throughout. My only real gripe is to do with the formatting on the Kindle which meant that the huge numbers... Read more
Published 5 months ago by iggy
Angst-free teenager
Gyles Brandreth seems to have sailed through puberty and adolescence without ever experiencing the dark night of the soul -- those surges of anguished rebelliousness, the feeling... Read more
Published 5 months ago by B. McCartney
Gyles Brandreth
What a man Gyles B. is. The book fizzles with joy. I hadn't realised quite how much GB had done from such an early age too. A very warm hearted,enthusiastic and positive book
Published 14 months ago by A. P. Mackay
'Unputdownable'
I absolutely loved this and was sad when it was over. I actually started rationing myself as I realised it was nearing its end. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. John M. Harding
Loved it - a super read
I galloped through this book - it was simply a great, light hearted, easy, enjoyable read. I had no idea about the early formative years of the author - he really has had the most... Read more
Published 20 months ago by J. A. Wyatt
All about ME ME ME!!
Sensational it is not. Unless you actually really like Gyles B don't bother. I expected more but got less!! Read more
Published 21 months ago by G. R. Chapman
Well, what a thing this is!
Like me you probably know Gyles Brandreth but are not quite sure where from. You know you've seen him on HIGNFY, you seem to remember he was an MP at some point but quite why does... Read more
Published on 13 April 2010 by Sir Bob
Not as likeable as he thinks he is
It would take a professional psychoanalyst to sort this one out. A precocious big-headed boastful schoolboy starts keeping a diary when he is 10 and almost 50 years later his diary... Read more
Published on 31 Mar 2010 by Hammersmith Resident
Dear Diary
On several occasions the editors of Gyles Brandreth's diary indicate they have spared the reader many thousands of words which formed the notes on which the diary was based. Read more
Published on 25 Mar 2010 by Neutral
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