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The Smoking Diaries (Hardcover)

by Simon Gray (Author) "So here I am, two hours into my sixty-sixth year ..." (more)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
Price: £12.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

The Smoking Diaries + The Year of the Jouncer (Smoking Diaries Volume 2) + The Last Cigarette: The Smoking Diaries (Smoking Diaries Volume 3)
Price For All Three: £24.21

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Granta Books (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 (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 76,905 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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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'
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Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
So here I am, two hours into my sixty-sixth year. Read the first page
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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Smoking Diaries
85% buy the item featured on this page:
The Smoking Diaries 4.2 out of 5 stars (11)
£12.99
The Last Cigarette: The Smoking Diaries (Smoking Diaries Volume 3)
5% buy
The Last Cigarette: The Smoking Diaries (Smoking Diaries Volume 3) 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£5.99
Coda
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Coda 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
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The Year of the Jouncer (Smoking Diaries Volume 2)
3% buy
The Year of the Jouncer (Smoking Diaries Volume 2) 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)
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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
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4 star:
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3 star:
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2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An amusing and moving personal journal, 15 Jul 2004
By A Common Reader "Committed to reading" (Sussex, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
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.

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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Gray is still at the top of his form !, 5 Mar 2005
By A Customer
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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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A slow burner, 25 Aug 2008
By Ian Shine (England) - See all my reviews
  
This review is from: The Smoking Diaries (Paperback)
I picked this book up with anticipation, having read an extract of it that I thoroughly enjoyed. I expect 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 fifteen year-old self would have thought of his sixty five year-old self. The last forty 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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars 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 22 days ago by Roisin Byrne

4.0 out of 5 stars 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 1 month ago by E. Shaw

5.0 out of 5 stars 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 3 months ago by Caren Firth

4.0 out of 5 stars 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 10 months ago by Andy Miller

3.0 out of 5 stars A book that slowly wins you over
The blurb on the cover of this book says something along the lines of "the funniest book I've ever read". Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2005 by Lis

5.0 out of 5 stars Hysterically Funny
I found myself laughing out loud on public transport but was oblivious to the stares.

The funniest thing I've read in ages - Simon Gray is a comic genius.

Published on 10 Aug 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a diary
I thought this was going to be a proper diary but it isn't. To some extent it's autobiographical but it rambles on and on in very long sentences and paragraphs. Read more
Published on 12 Jul 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars I thought this would help me give up smoking
Sorry, I bought the wrong book. I thought this was going to help me giveup smoking. Yes, it's very funny but it didn't do the trick for me I'mafraid. Read more
Published on 22 April 2004 by bookyboy2

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