For Angela
Halfway To Hollywood
MICHAEL PALIN
Table of Contents
Section One:
Section Two:
Section Three
3
HandMade Films Partnership
While every effort has been made to trace copyright holders, if any have inadvertently been overlooked the publishers will be pleased to acknowledge them in any future editions of this work.
As with the first volume, 1969-1979,
The Python Years
, I have had to reduce over a million words of diary entries to something nearer a quarter of a million. In this task I have, as before, been sagely advised and supervised by Ion Trewin. Michael Dover at Weidenfeld and Nicolson has been a constant encouragement in the completion and collation of the edit, and Steve Abbott and Paul Bird at my office have been, as ever, hugely supportive.
Once again, I must reserve my most special thanks to Katharine Du Prez for her patience and persistence in the Herculean labour of transcribing the contents of twenty-four close-packed, handwritten notebooks.
FAMILY
Mary Palin
, mother, living at Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk. Father died in 1977.
Helen
, wife
Children:
Tom
born 1968
William
born 1970
Rachel
born 1975
Angela
, sister. Married to
Veryan Herbert
and living at Chilton, Sudbury,
Suffolk. Died 1987.
Children:
Jeremy
born 1960
Camilla
born 1962
Marcus
born 1963
Helen’s family:
Anne Gibbins
, mother
Elder sister,
Mary
, married
Edward Burd
in 1964
Daughter,
Catherine
, born 1966
Younger sister,
Cathy
FRIENDS, NEIGHBOURS AND COLLEAGUES
Richard and Christine Guedalla
, and daughters Louise and Helen, neighbours
Clare Latimer
, neighbour
Terry Jones
and
Alison
Terry Gilliam
and
Maggie
John Cleese
, formerly married to
Connie Booth
, one daughter,
Cynthia
, born 1971, married
Barbara Trentham
1981, separated 1987
Graham Chapman
, partner
David Sherlock
.
John Tomiczek
(adopted)
Eric Idle
, married
Tania Kosevich
1981
Robert Hewison
. Contemporary of MP at Brasenose College, Oxford 1962- 5, during which time he persuaded MP to perform and write comedy for first time.
Simon and Phillida Albury
. Simon met MP after Oxford in 1965. Television journalist, producer and Gospel music fan.
Ian and Anthea Davidson
. Met MP at Oxford. Encouraged him to perform in revue and gave him early work at the BBC. A writer and director and occasional Python performer.
Chris Miller and Bill Stotesbury
. Chris looked after Eric’s son Carey during
Life of Brian
. Bill is a designer and banjo player.
Neil and Yvonne Innes
. Neil, Ex-Bonzo Dog Band. Worked closely with the Pythons especially on their stage appearances. Collaborated with Eric to create the Rutles. Sons: Miles and Luke.
Mel Calman
, cartoonist and friend
George Harrison
. Musician, ex-Beatle. Married to Olivia Arias, son Dhani born 1978.
Derek and Joan Taylor
, Beatles’ publicist and wife
Chris Orr
, artist and printmaker
Charles McKeown
, actor, writer and performer in many MP films and TV shows
Geoffrey Strachan
. Editor at Methuen who encouraged Python to go into print. Also published the
Ripping Yarns
books.
Tristram and Virginia Powell
. Tristram was director/collaborator on
East of Ipswich
,
Number 27
and worked on development of
American Friends
.
André Jacquemin
. Recording engineer, Python recordist, composer (with Dave Howman) of some Python songs. Founder of Redwood Studios.
Trevor Jones/John Du Prez
, musician and composer (Python songs and
A Fish Called Wanda
)
Ray Cooper
, legendary percussionist who became important go-between and general troubleshooter on all the HandMade films
OFFICE
At Mayday Management/ Prominent Features
: