I’ve made mention of Robin’s autobiography so I may as well include it in my reviews of his work!
Maybe it’s just because I’m a huge fan, but I found this highly engaging and could barely put it down! Upon starting it, I was a little confused, though. He jumps right in at the beginning with how he got the part in “Confessions of a Window Cleaner”. At this time, I had not even seen all the Confessions movies and was a little confused by the people he mentions. Was he not going to talk about his family and childhood? I flipped through the chapters and right around the middle of the book he does a jump back in time and fills us in on his birth, genealogy, getting polio at age 4, schoolday shenanigans, etc. So that’s where I started reading. He continues on with his early acting jobs, and so on. At the end of all that I started back at the beginning and the “Confessions” stuff was then a lot more comprehendable! Maybe if all you liked about Robin was those movies that’s what you care about finding out first. Who knows.
Anyway, I love his style of writing. Not sure if he did it all himself or had help, but it sounds like it’s just all him, telling his story. He definitely has a very cute, wry, “British” sense of humor. And yes, you can tell he’s writing it for a British audience, making references that he takes for granted people will understand. At least I have the internet to look up stuff like the actors who may be famous over there but unknown in the U.S., sporting teams, areas of London or towns in England (thoroughly confused about what he meant getting "Ruislip Lido" in his lungs, ha ha).
The book ends with you wanting to know MORE!!! He published it in 1999 and at the end just gives us a brief overview of the years 1981-1998, promising a few things that he’ll be covering next, implying that there WILL be a next one? Yet here it is, 2011 and still nothing, humphs.
Any fans who are in communication with him, please urge him to write a part two! Or, if he thinks anything that doesn’t have to do with the “Confessions” years wouldn’t sell well, perhaps Republish this one, with a part two added on!
I loved the book too, but like you, I'm a big fan. I first met Robin when he was in "Dead Funny" at a local theatre, and got him to sign the book and DVDs.. (he wrote "enjoy this... I did!" in the book). I asked him about a second part, and his response was "someone has to pay me first!" so I'm guessing without a publisher prepared to give him an advance to write it, he is not too bothered about doing it. He wrote a forward to a book about the producer Richard Gordon (Tower of Evil/Horror Hospital) who recently passed away, you can pick it up on Amazon, it's called "The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon"
ReplyDeleteAhhh, I guess I need to start pestering publishers now - telling them that there is indeed a HUGE (hehe) interest in a part two!
ReplyDeleteWhen I talked to Robin for the old website, (this was 3 years ago) he hoped to get part one republished in paperback with some additional content then work on part two. This was hampered that his commissioning agent had left Random House and sales of part one had been disappointing.
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