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Peter Cook: A Biography
 
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Peter Cook: A Biography (Hardcover)

by Harry Thompson (Author)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 516 pages
  • Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (21 Aug 1997)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0340649682
  • ISBN-13: 978-0340649688
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15 x 5.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 678,350 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Guardian

`Unputdownable, level-headed and intelligent' --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


Review

‘Lively and penetrating’

( Independent on Sunday )

‘At last, this book explains the mystery of Peter Cook – how someone so funny, so loveable, so handsome, could make such a total hash of his life. Harry Thompson’s pedigree in television comedy makes him an authoritative commentator on Cook’s performances’

(Lynne Barber, Daily Telegraph )

‘Unputdownable, level-headed and intelligent’

(Nicholas Lezard, Guardian )

‘This definitive biography…as heartbreaking as it is entertaining’

(Jessica Berens, Times Literary Supplement ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
See all Product Description

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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (14)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Utterly compelling biography, 14 Feb 2003
By A Customer
On the presumption that it will mainly be fans of Peter Cook's comedy who pick this book up, I can assure potential readers that you will often laugh out loud at the stream of reproduced work from his long career and anecdotes from his strange life.

More than that though, you get a thoroughly convincing assessment of Cook's long, slow descent into alcoholism (and most other vices you care to name), depression, loneliness, and fear of failure. It is perhaps a testament to 'Cookie' that he could sink so low, and so slowly, and yet remain so loved and admired by anyone, star name or not, who came into contact with him.

It is quite astonishing that a book could be this funny and at the same time so sad. The best biography I've ever read.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, 11 April 2000
By Mr. A. Pomeroy (Wiltshire, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
A top-notch biography of a great comedian, one whose gift for comedic improvisation was too specialised. Like Peter Sellers, Cook comes across as a melancholy, introverted man who constantly felt the need to wear a mask, to act the part of 'Peter Cook'. His life story comes across as a greek tragedy - his rise is meteoric, and his decline and fall are inevitable, and entirely self-inflicted. The imagine of Peter Cook's talent languishing at home, telephoning late-night radio phone-in shows, is extremely depressing. That said, there's an unexpected upturn near the end (his classic appearance on 'Clive Anderson Talks Back'), and the book thankfully doesn't gloss over the brilliant, brutal 'Derek and Clive' LPs.

It would make an excellent film, too.

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A fine biography of a difficult subject, 13 Dec 1999
This review is from: Biography of Peter Cook (Paperback)
...This was of particular interest to me because I wrote a book calledSOMETHING WONDERFUL RIGHT AWAY about Second City, the Americancounterpart to BEYOND THE FRINGE...and I couldn't help but compare and contrast the British "satire boom" with the one in America and think about what was happening in both cultures that a similar response arose simultaneously on two sides of the ocean. I was particularly interested because, though I grew up in Chicago, Cook was an important influence on me, and because I interviewed him and Dudley Moore when they were playing their two-man show on Broadway. According to this book, when I met them their relationship was about to go into a steep decline because of Cook's drinking. I must say that he hid it from me very well, and the interview was a good one (though Moore apparently had been playing too hard the night before and kept nodding off). Anyway, Thompson's biography made me laugh outloud a lot and it pained me as much. Shortly after Cook died, I was introduced to Stanley Donen, who directed BEDAZZLED. I remarked on Cook's death and Donen instantly remarked, "Angriest man I've ever met." Thompson's book doesn't so much convey the anger Donen saw as the profound and soul-destroying cynicism that (to paraphrase a line from Cook) moved him to inertia. Excellent job.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Peter Cook Biog- Harry Thompson
Wonderful book,always gripping. I have read many biogs of TV Comics/Film Stars etc and my interest has waned with irrelevant,wandering facts but not with this book ! Read more
Published on 28 Jun 2007 by Mrs. A. F. Ellis

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Well Researched
Most people will be aware both of just how funny Peter Cook was and how his life fell apart in the late 70's and never really recovered. Read more
Published on 23 Jul 2005 by Paul Johnson

5.0 out of 5 stars Triumphal
Do you want to know an interesting fact? I thoroughly enjoyed this absorbing biography of a truly individual Englishman. Read more
Published on 3 Dec 2003 by stevekerr14

5.0 out of 5 stars A well-researched and understanding biography
Peter Cook was a man of contradictions: an amazing talent who eventually failed in the harsh world of show business; a kind, friendly, good-humoured man who destroyed his... Read more
Published on 9 Feb 2003 by T. D. Welsh

5.0 out of 5 stars Enter the Tragic World of a Comic Genius
I cannot recommend this book highly enough - not only it is wonderfully informative, but unlike some biographers these days (Roger Lewis's The Life & Death Of Peter Sellers... Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoroughly compelling read.
I thoroughly enjoyed this wonderfully fascinating biography by Harry Thompson. He has certainly managed to get to grips with his remarkably gifted and complicated subject. Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2002 by A. B. Pearl

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant account of a brilliant man
This is the best biography I've ever read - a brilliantly written account of a fascinating subject that conveys with economy and sensitivity the highs and lows of a unique... Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Raised by goats
A pure genius in all aspects a man much criticised by the media for in their opinion not fulfilling his potential, something I find bizzare. Read more
Published on 28 Jul 2001 by Mr. J. P. J. Stobbart

5.0 out of 5 stars Moving yet funny
This is one of the best biographies I have ever read. A very funny man autodestructs. The book captures this beautifully. Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2001

4.0 out of 5 stars Top book about yet another sad/funny man
One of the best biographies I've read, it still - like almost every comedian's life story - makes sad reading. Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2000 by Rob Hosking

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