|
Loading... 149 | 4 | 185,074 |
(3.47) | 4 | This is Julian Clary's story, in his own words - the tale of an awkward schoolboy who became a huge worldwide success on stage and screen.After a sheltered suburban upbringing, Julian was sent to St Benedict's, where beatings from 'holy' men gave him some brutal life lessons, and other 'unholy' boys his first awakenings of sexuality. He had just one true friend and ally, Nick - to his other school peers, Julian's aloof demeanour made him an enigma or simply a figure of ridicule. In school he was just another pained adolescent, but inside Julian was a new Jean Genet or Quentin Crisp bursting to get out.Leaving St Benedict's thankfully behind him, Julian went on to college where he found his true vocation as an entertainer with a peculiar comic brand of smut and glamour. At the same time, he was finding as much sex as he could, sometimes with remarkably less-than-glamorous characters.Periods in community theatre and the singing telegram industry followed before Julian hit the big time with cabaret co-star Fanny the Wonder Dog as The Joan Collins Fan Club. Soon, the world was his oyster. But fame came at a price, as Julian struggled not only with the reality of being a high-profile gay man in the 1980s but also the pain of losing his lover to terminal illness.Far more than just another celebrity autobiography or 'funny book', this is a touching, beautifully written and wryly witty account of a unique progression from shy child to comedy icon.… (more) |
▾LibraryThing Recommendations ▾Will you like it?
Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. ▾Conversations (About links) No current Talk conversations about this book. » See also 4 mentions ▾Series and work relationships
|
Canonical title |
|
Original title |
|
Alternative titles |
|
Original publication date |
|
People/Characters |
|
Important places |
|
Important events |
|
Related movies |
|
Epigraph |
|
Dedication |
For Nicholas Reader | |
|
First words |
No one told me I had become an old queen. | |
|
Quotations |
|
Last words |
|
Disambiguation notice |
|
Publisher's editors |
|
Blurbers |
|
Original language |
|
Canonical DDC/MDS |
|
Canonical LCC |
|
▾References References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (2)▾Book descriptions This is Julian Clary's story, in his own words - the tale of an awkward schoolboy who became a huge worldwide success on stage and screen.After a sheltered suburban upbringing, Julian was sent to St Benedict's, where beatings from 'holy' men gave him some brutal life lessons, and other 'unholy' boys his first awakenings of sexuality. He had just one true friend and ally, Nick - to his other school peers, Julian's aloof demeanour made him an enigma or simply a figure of ridicule. In school he was just another pained adolescent, but inside Julian was a new Jean Genet or Quentin Crisp bursting to get out.Leaving St Benedict's thankfully behind him, Julian went on to college where he found his true vocation as an entertainer with a peculiar comic brand of smut and glamour. At the same time, he was finding as much sex as he could, sometimes with remarkably less-than-glamorous characters.Periods in community theatre and the singing telegram industry followed before Julian hit the big time with cabaret co-star Fanny the Wonder Dog as The Joan Collins Fan Club. Soon, the world was his oyster. But fame came at a price, as Julian struggled not only with the reality of being a high-profile gay man in the 1980s but also the pain of losing his lover to terminal illness.Far more than just another celebrity autobiography or 'funny book', this is a touching, beautifully written and wryly witty account of a unique progression from shy child to comedy icon. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description
|
Current DiscussionsNoneGoogle Books — Loading...
|
I think a good biography should consist of several elements.1. What happened to them.2. What they did with that.3. What they make of it all.
What happened to them.This is the mundane details of their life like: where they were born, what their family was like, what school was like etc.
What they did with that.This is normally the full description of their career/chosen path and their struggles to overcome both their own limitations and external obstacles to finally achieve their goal.
What they make of it all.This should contain some reflection about the bigger things in life and point to a deeper understanding about their life.
Sadly many biographies, especially of living subjects, contain only the first two of the above elements. Not so this one though.
I cannot imagine this is ghost written because Julian's voice comes through so clearly, complete with asides in that deadpan delivery. As you can imagine it is very frank and no prisoners are taken along the way. What else would you expect? Anything else would be a let down.
( )