Seeing Things

I came to this at some disadvantage because I didn't grow up with Bagpuss or Noggin the Nog and only knew Ivor the Engine and the Clangers when grandparents got them for my children. I was completely entranced by Postgate -- artist and mad inventor, pacifist and collector of old cars, houses, you name it. Wildly eccentric in the very best sense of the word.

I was initially drawn to this book as a means of learning more about the history of childhood favourites such as The Clangers and Noggin the Nog. However I think I would have been fascinated by and warmed to the character revealed here even if I had no previous awareness of his animated creations.

Postgate was a natural storyteller and this comes across clearly in this autobiography. Describing his childhood in a prominent, socialist family, the young Oliver comes across as bright, creative, inventive, adorable and sometimes exasperating. This is actually, more or less, the impression I was left with throughout the book!

The scenes which suggest that Postgate's father favoured his older brother were poignant but he must have been well show more loved by his mother. How else could she have accepted with such grace the constant stream of presents, personally invented and created by Oliver as a young adult which included washing machines which were prone to exploding?!

I found it fascinating to read about how Postgate applied his creativity, intelligence and social conscience throughout his life. His "smallfilms" were only part of the story. I did get the impression that personal relationships was the area where Postgate wasn't quite so smart. There were definite touches of naivity here even in older age.

Overall I am left feeling deep respect and affection for, and gratitude to, the man who added so much to my childhood and to the childhoods of so many of my generation! show less

This is a light-hearted memoir/biography of the man behind children’s TV favourites such as Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine and The Clangers.

Oliver Postgate has written the story of his life and it was an extraordinary one. From adventures as a young boy at school to becoming a conscientious objector during WWII, he was always tinkering, inventing and thinking about things. One of the most interesting things about this book was Postgate’s commentaries and thoughts on the issues of the time and what he felt about them.

I read the first half of this book fairly slowly, dipping in and out every few chapters but in the second half of the book Postgate starts to talk about his time writing and filming the children’s programmes he became so show more famous for and this is where the book really shines; you can tell that he really found his niche here and did some really amazing things.

Although I was slightly too young to remember all the children’s programmes he made, I enjoyed reading this book and it has inspired me to find out more about the programmes he created. You can see a BBC tribute to Postgate here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAftt3UnzoI show less

First of all I must confess that I had never heard of Oliver Postgate before and I blame it on the fact that I'm not living in the UK, thus not knowing about his works. Secondly, I rarely read biographies. Though there was the wish to read this one for one simple reason - to catch a glimpse into the mind of such a creative person.
As much as I don't know the series and characters from TV I was hooked from page one and couldn't put the book down. Postgate's writing is full of humour, warmth and quirkiness, and you immediately realize that he's not only inventive, but also a fabulous storyteller. Sharing memories from early childhood, all through creating his famous characters, straight to his private life, this is one of the most engaging show more books I've read in a while. I can't believe he never considered a career as a writer too, he'd been cut out for it for sure.
Obviously, I wished I had the chance to actually watch his ideas come to live on the screen! For now it's enough that this book made Bagpuss and the rest of the bunch come to live in my mind.
In short: A delightful and moving memoir of a truly creative man! show less

I received this book, which I doubt that I would ever have bought, through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers initiative. I am so glad that I did.

This book is an utter delight. It is well written, insightful and reflective. It moves between autobiography and a recounting of tales of the characters that Oliver Postgate created with effortless ease.

I loved the self-deprecating tales of inventions and creativity, the self awareness that allows us an insight into the inner workings of the mind and soul of this genius. I was moved by the descriptions of the emotionally difficult times in the author's life, because they were not overwritten or over wrought, but because of the openness and transparency of the story that meant that I came to show more care about the hero, and feel what he felt.

A beautiful book, one that has made me want to go our and track down copies of Ivor the Engine, Bagpuss, Noggin the Nog, and the Clangers and watch them with my children. I think that we will all be enchanted and delighted, as I was to read this autobiography. show less

Oliver Postgate is one of the recognised fathers of British Whimsy, as entrenched as A. A. Milne or P.G. Wodehouse. His television creations delighted children, who grew up to be adults who remained delighted by them, because they were endearing and memorable.

Unsurprisingly, his memoir is equally as endearing, often a bit sad, but a reflection of a life in which confusion and anxiety were the flip side of the marvellous imagination and ability to lose himself in the creation of anything that imagination presented him. Rather than let the reader stumble, unaided and unhappy, through the times where that state of anxiety prevailed, he colours everything in for us; the sometimes isolated childhood, a confusing school experience, a diverse show more war-time career at home in Britain (putting the ‘conscientious’ in conscientious objector), a hectic family life, with layers of charming detail. Small anecdotes describe the landscape, making this one of the most gentle and easy-going memoirs I’ve read, but that’s not to say that he was completely unaware of the world’s edges. He just made himself very reasonable when pointing them out (a quick visit to oliverpostgate.com gives a slightly schizophrenic feel to the man’s interests… 70’s children’s characters and global politics are a trippy combination).

There’s a good balance of technical description, career peaks and troughs, family history and, of course, whimsy to Oliver Postgate’s memoirs. I am left with a definite impression of liking Oliver Postgate, not just for the wonderfully absurd legacy of the Clangers and their ilk, but for being the adult version of an early school report comment: ‘a loveable wee fellow’ with ‘delightful manners’.

This is automatically one of my favourite ‘celebrity’ memoirs, if only because Oliver Postgate was (ironically, given his childhood struggle for attention) the antithesis of ‘celebrity’… his writing suggests a chap with talent for creation who meandered gently into public perception with a flattered, friendly, and slightly diffident smile, while trying to forge a career out of a head full of ideas. show less

When Oliver Postgate wrote his first short stories, he left them on the hallstand for his father, the noted journalist Ray Postgate, to find. The young Oliver expected a detailed critique, but instead got the barest of comment. He could, his father noted, write.

For Ray, that was the end of the story. But Oliver pressed him. What about "style", he asked? His father replied that the whole "style" business was a bit of a nonsense. One never tells a story; the story should do the telling, and the author do his best to get out of its way.

So it is with Postgate's autobiography. It motors along at a brisk but relaxed pace, recalling formative moments with clarity and honesty, rather than exaggerated drama. Seldom does he embellish; and the show more only affectation is a typically British false modesty, in which we can sense some small fish hook for a compliment.

Postgate has a sense of how the things we do betray our emotions. For him, to describe a feeling is taking the chicken's way out. To describe what he did, and what others may have said about his actions, tells much more.

That makes the sensation of reading this book quite odd. I feel that I know Oliver Postgate intimately, but have never quite been in his presence. It's a tale that contains many a sad moment, but whose telling never rises above melancholy into actual grief. He comes across a little bit like a spectator in his own life.

Nonetheless, those who grew up with Postgate's creations, will find this biography revealing. Not having grown up with the Clangers, the Pogles, Ivor the Engine nor Noggin the Nog, I took the story at face value.

Such readers as me will find an interesting life recalled in some detail. But it feels more like I'm looking through the author's parlour window, rather than sitting at his kitchen table over a cup of tea, having a chat. show less