Autobiographies and memoirs can be a bit of a minefield. Even if you weed out those written by ‘celebrities’ not yet old enough to hold a pen properly, let alone to have actually done anything worth writing about, they can still be a very mixed bag.
This, however, is one of the best and most entertaining I’ve read in a long time.
I suspect like most people, I know Tony Robinson best from Blackadder and Time Team; I was also aware that he had been involved with the Labour Party over a number of years, and that he served a spell on the NEC. (And yes, I do follow him on Twitter.)
But if you had asked me what he had been doing prior to his appearances on Blackadder, I would have been stumped. The actual story is varied and fascinating; full of variety and a real whiff of the era in which he grew up and found his forte.
He was in the cast of the original London production of Oliver, and spent many years acting and directing in some of the new breed of theatres and companies that came out of the 1960s and 1970s. His involvement in the politics of the theatre, and in the struggles within Equity are well told.
He is candid about his personal life. Too often, writers of autobiographies concentrate so much on themselves, that all those around them appear two-dimensional. Tony’s partners (and friends) come across as three-dimensional people, his relationship with them alternately passionate, funny, sad. In other words, real.
His handling of the role that Alzheimer’s played in the life of both his parents is honest and unsentimental (and completely believable to someone with whom it unfortunately strikes a chord).
The style of the book is just right; light, but full of detail; funny and bittersweet. Some of the pen-portraits of others are perceptive, funny and honest.
My only criticism is that the last two or three chapters seem to be a bit rushed; less detail, bigger gaps. This might be because he got bored (?!), or possibly because it is easier to write objectively about old events as opposed to those still fresh in the memory.
But I suspect it’s just that he didn’t want to go into as much detail about what is effectively his current life, and that’s understandable.
Aside from this very minor criticism, it is an excellent read. This is an autobiography where there is so much more to the subject than you might at first suspect, written in an engaging and inviting style.
This is a review of the Sidgwick & Jackson 2016 hardback edition.
It is an extended version of my review first written on Amazon and Goodreads.
