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Original Title: A Kentish Lad: The Autobiography of Frank Muir
ISBN: 0552141372 (ISBN13: 9780552141376)
Edition Language: English
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A Kentish Lad: The Autobiography of Frank Muir Paperback | Pages: 427 pages
Rating: 3.68 | 101 Users | 18 Reviews

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For more than twenty-five years Frank Muir, in partnership with Denis Norden, produced some of the most sparkling and original comedy ever written for radio and television. On programmes such as My Word! and My Music his distinctive voice became familiar to millions as he displayed an astonishingly well-stocked mind and a genius for ad libbing and outrageous puns. Later, working at the BBC and then at London Weekend Television, he produced some of the best television comedy of the 1960s and 70s. He has written highly successful books for children, and two bestselling anthologies of humour.

Frank Muir recalls, in glorious detail, a happy 1920s childhood in the seaside town of Ramsgate, where he was born in his grandmother's pub in Broadstairs, and in London, where he attended an inexpensive but excellent school of a kind no longer to be found. He remembers his very first joke at the age of six, when he knew that his destiny was to make people laugh. He also knew from an early age that he wanted to write, but it took a childhood illness for him to discover that humour and writing could be combined. The death of his father forced him to leave school at the age of fourteen and work in a factory making carbon paper. Then, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the RAF as an air photographer and his memories of the war years, as might be imagined, are engagingly different from the usual kind. It was during those years, with their rich fund of comic material, that he began his career as scriptwriter and performer. At his demob in 1945 he moved naturally to London and the Windmill Theatre, that remarkable breeding ground of talent where new comedians like Jimmy Edwards and Alfred Marks vied with nude girls for the attention of the audience. In story after story he recalls the lost world of London in the 1940s and early 50s, when the laughter and creative ideas seemed to explode out of post-war shabbiness and austerity. Then came the BBC, the legendary partnership with Denis Norden, and half a century of fulfilling the boyhood ambition of that Kentish lad. 'All I ever wanted to do was to write and amuse people.'

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Title:A Kentish Lad: The Autobiography of Frank Muir
Author:Frank Muir
Book Format:Paperback
Book Edition:First Edition
Pages:Pages: 427 pages
Published:1998 by Corgi (first published 1997)
Categories:Nonfiction. Biography. Autobiography. Memoir. Humor

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Ratings: 3.68 From 101 Users | 18 Reviews

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An amusing jaunt through the author's life. The anecdotes are excellent and the memories of the early days of radio and TV are always interesting and fascinating, all told in Frank Muir's inimitable style. As with a lot of showbiz autobiographies, the book gets less interesting as you read on but clearly Frank Muir was one of those one of a kind people who would have been wonderful to know.An excellent, amusing and witty read.

As others have stated the first half or so covering childhood and the air-force years paint the type of picture of life I enjoy reading about. The second half was tougher to get through, listing programs and people with the odd tasty morsel of a humorous anecdote to keep you going.For reference I knew a fair few of the names and shows mentioned but mostly from reruns and retrospectives in the 90s as almost all the material was originally broadcast before my time.

Amazing that one of the funniest people ever on radio could write such a boring memoir.

I was never a fan of Frank Muir during his lifetime: he was too Establishment for my taste. I inherited this book from my stepfather, Eric Tipping, another Kentish lad, and started to read it for clues to the dear departed, and found them in a love of words. That carried me into the book and its humour carried me the rest of the way, despite that fact that I have precious little interest in radio or television, never mind nostalgia for the way they were. Muirs wit and wordplay make even the

I enjoyed this book when I read it a long time ago. It contains some hilarious anecdotes. Definitely worth a look if you enjoyed My Word.

Frank Muir is a hugely talented man, but it also goes to show how large a part luck and encountering the right people plays in a life. The perfect example is his wife of fifty years, Polly. Muir had that Midas touch of turning opportunity to gold. One other plus is to recognise early what general path you want to follow. He knew at six. He gives very little away on the mechanics of his trade: the source of his material, how he and Norden managed to accumulate and develop the humour to conjure up

This reminded me of The Road to Wigan Pier: vivid, thoroughly absorbing first half, dull second half. On childhood, Muir is spellbinding: describing the types of sweets he and his boyhood friends ate is a high aesthetic adventure. He's less interesting on his journey up the entertainment ladder; an era in which working with Dennis Norden counts as a career highlight.