- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Granta Books; 1st Edition edition (17 April 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 186207688X
- ISBN-13: 978-1862076884
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
486,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #35 in Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Health Issues > Addictions > Smoking
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Product Description
Sunday Times
‘Marvellous mixture of informal diary and autobiographical fragments…extremely funny’
The Sunday Telegraph
‘...Gray’s greatest non-fiction achievement to date...a moving, wildly entertaining classic of the memorist’s art'
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
So here I am, two hours into my sixty-sixth year. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
So here I am, two hours into my sixty-sixth year. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
46 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I enjoyed this book immensely and am rather bemused by the earlier reviews it has received here. The playright Simon Gray begins his diaries in his mid-sixties looking at the world around him and also back to his childhood. This is a hugely funny book, but also full of insight and honesty. Simon Gray has no illusions about himself and does not try to present a sanitised version of himself. He is frank about his faults and weaknesses and it is this that makes the book so special - it is refreshing to read a diary to which the air-brush has not been applied.
Although Simon Gray is deeply involved in the theatre of course, this is not the main theme of the book, as it concentrates more on his daily life and key events from his youth. Despite this, there are some moving accounts of his meetings with his close friend Harold Pinter during the latter's experience of suffering from cancer. Once I started this book I finished it within 24 hours - a rare event these days when few books seem to inspire me.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked this book up with anticipation, having read an extract of it that I thoroughly enjoyed. I expected more of the same laughs and bitter resentments, but was somewhat confounded by the full diaries. The books is more centred around Gray's plumbing of the depths of his past, heaping mockery upon himself, expressing disgust at the man he has become, and thinking about what his 15-year-old self would have thought of his 65-year-old self. The closing 40 pages are a particularly ponderous and heartfelt affair, and for my money the best part of the book.
Gray's musings on growing old, on the changes he has seen in society and youth during his time on earth, are all written down in thoroughly digestable text, rolling on in a way that is practically unputdownable. His death marks a tragic loss.
Gray's musings on growing old, on the changes he has seen in society and youth during his time on earth, are all written down in thoroughly digestable text, rolling on in a way that is practically unputdownable. His death marks a tragic loss.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you have read Simon Gray's other volumes of diaries you will find this is a fitting addition to your collection. Gray's self-lacerating wit is still very much in evidence and despite his documented physical decay he avoids self-pity as he invites the reader into his world of cigarettes, writing and dining.
I first read Gray's volume 'An Unatural Pursuit' and was immediately hooked by his penetrating observations of his fading professional fortunes. Whether or not you like the world of theatre is irrelavent for the enjoyment of this volume. The candid observations of this brilliant and witty man in physical and carreer decline are wonmderful.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I know nothing!
I bought two copies of this book as Ed Smith, journalist with The Times, said it was the book that inspired him to get writing. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Lloyd Williams
The Year of the Jouncer
Utterly hilarious. Simon Grey is cunning, wise and funny. I cannot wait to read 'The Last Cigarette' and complete 'The Smoking Diaries' saga.
Published 13 months ago by Calio
Addictive
Like Jane Austen, this author could make an interesting anecdote out of the loss of a pocket handkerchief. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Clive A. H. Still
A beautiful, full and interesting life
A complete, sensitive and honest confession, funny too and enlightning.
I'm a complete Simon Gray fan.
I'm a complete Simon Gray fan.
Published 23 months ago by Bastien Sabine
A contemplative ramble
This is the ideal way to get to know Simon Gray - there is no fixed pattern to his musings here; he writes at quiet moments of the day, or whilst on holiday, or after getting back... Read more
Published 24 months ago by L. Hennessy
Peculiarly Brave
These diaries/memoirs are a strange beast. I couldn't quite get my head around them if I'm honest. I really wanted to like them. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2009 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
brilliant
this book is fabulous. gray is hilarious and poignant within the one sentence. the ease with which he describes his past could only be achieved by a master. Read more
Published on 17 Oct 2009 by Roisin Byrne
A bit of a rogue
Funny, wry, witty and moving, this memoir of Simon Gray, a playwright and novelist, published when he was 85, is a delight. Read more
Published on 18 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
Very good read
The critical reviews had suggested that this book is quite hilarious, but it isn't really like that. However, it is an excellent read, amusing, wry and elegantly written. Read more
Published on 10 Aug 2009 by Caren Firth
An honest man writing emotional truths - with a few writer's devices
This book first came to my attention a few years ago when it popped up more than once in a newspaper's `My Books of the Year' feature. Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2008 by Andy Miller
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