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At My Mother's Knee ... |  | Author: Paul O'Grady Publisher: Bantam Press Category: Book
List Price: £18.99 Buy Used: £0.01 as of 17/3/2010 01:55 CDT details You Save: £18.98 (100%)
New (25) Used (131) Collectible (4) from £0.01
Seller: awesome_books_001 Rating: 87 reviews Sales Rank: 10818
Media: Hardcover Edition: illustrated edition Pages: 352 Number Of Items: 1 Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5 Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 0593059255 Dewey Decimal Number: 791.45092 EAN: 9780593059258 ASIN: 0593059255
Publication Date: September 24, 2008 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review Paul O'Grady, apart from being one of Britain's best loved entertainers, is a classic example of reinvention, as At My Mother’s Knee demonstrates. The young Liverpool entertainer, an altar boy from Irish Catholic Birkenhead, becomes the acid-tongued and outrageous drag queen Lily Savage, and moves from gay pubs to national television, creating something of a British comic institution en route (O'Grady's caustic drag character was a world away from safer predecessors such as Danny La Rue). But O'Grady (like other comic performers such as John Cleese) realised that comic creations can have a limited shelf life, and reinvented himself as âPaul O'Grady’, coming out from behind the false breasts and towering wigs as a toned-down (but still camp), more audience-friendly TV presenter (wisely, he retained the abrasive voice and a Scouse accent that could be cut with a knife).At My Mother's Knee and Other Low Joints is an entertaining autobiography from someone who really does have a life that is worth writing about. Gossipy, sharp and colourful, the cast of characters in Paul O'Grady's life includes rogues and rascals galore, all of whom are evoked here with great comic skill. O'Grady was variously a boxer, a civil servant, a conman and even a cat burglar - all of these failed careers are on display here, as is a surprisingly pungent picture of the Liverpool nightclub scene. When so many showbiz autobiographies these days are written by people who have a barely had a life outside of their fame, it's refreshing to encounter one by somebody whose story would be interesting even if he were not a major TV star. --Barry Forshaw
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 87
At my Mother's knee...and other low joints February 20, 2010 Mrs. S. A. M. Williams This is a fantastic read but you will need a box of tissues for the last chapter cannot wait for the sequal
through out it is a funny ,honest book well written one of the best books I have ever read.The detail of early life growing up in Birkenhead Paul paints a realistic picture of his life with his family with wonderful Aunties ,special parents and great local
participants in his childhood who have helped to provide him with the great wealth of comic detail he injects in to all our lives.
Warm, witty and engaging February 17, 2010 Mrs. J. Ellis (Channel Islands) I have long been a fan of Paul O'Grady and as I was born and brought up in Merseyside his anecdotes about his growing up were particularly entertaining and brought back memories of my own. This book captures his warmth and his natural easygoing manner.
I highly recommend this book to anybody who enjoys biographies and humour.
Looking forward to the next book.
Outstanding & Hilarious! January 30, 2010 P. Martin (Midlands UK) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A brilliant autobiography. Most entertaining, had me laughing outloud, didn't want to put it down! A brilliant read.
Please Welcome... January 27, 2010 Mrs. K. A. Wheatley (Leicester, UK) This is, hopefully, just the first of several volumes of Paul's autobiography, dealing as it does with his childhood and finishing when he is eighteen with the death of his father. There is very little show biz gossip here, although his encounter with Marlene Dietrich surely rates on this scale.
Instead, what we get is the story of a tough, Irish Catholic, working class upbringing in unsalubrious Birkenhead, and a boy who feels like a square peg in a round hole. It's well written, earthy in tone and bitingly honest, often to his own detriment. I look forward to the second volume.
Cover to cover hillarious fun. January 4, 2010 Mr. P. K. Pain (Swindon, Wiltshire, UK) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Such a good read. Once it was started, it couldn't be put down, until it was finished.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 87
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