Cleese as a young chap

“Candid and brilliantly funny, this is the story of how a tall, shy youth from Weston-super-Mare went on to become a self-confessed legend.”

This is how John Cleese’s autobiography So, Anyway is billed on the cover and you might be forgiven for thinking that contained within it’s pages would be details of his life in the spotlight.

You would be wrong however as it details only his childhood, university years and the couple of years before he became famous.

There is no interesting detail about his time with Monty Python or as Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, rather it is a book about how he got there, rather than what he happened once he had “arrived”.

Cleese regales the reader of tales from his youth, describes in details the oddities of his family, teachers and fellow school boys.

He informs about his university years and how he became involved in acting and the ultimate decision to take to the stage as a career rather than the more boring option of working in a bank.

And right when he starts to tell the reader about forming the crew which would be come the world-famous Monty Python, he just stops, leaving the reader hanging.

It ends right where you would prefer it to start – with the interesting stuff.

It’s not a bad read but as a fan of his comedic work, I was sorely disappointed that the book featured all the boring minutiae of his youth and not a single page about the well-known actor and the work his fans enjoy.

While it isn’t badly written, I wouldn’t hasten to grab a copy if all you are interested is his TV and film work.