Parky this is your life (Parky: My Autobiography - Michael Parkinson)

Member Name: falcon1959

Product:	Parky: My Autobiography - Michael Parkinson
Date:	05/07/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A warm and enjoyable read

Disadvantages: There is a lot about cricket in it

Michael Parkinson born in 1935 in a small pit village in south Yorkshire tells his life story from his humble beginnings as a son of a coal miner to hob knobbing with the stars from film, stage and sport.

Parky is famous for his late night chat show that used to be on every Saturday night. In the book he does touch on some of the big name stars he has interviewed over the years, and tells what affect they had on him. I found the early years of his life to be interesting and Parkys tongue in cheek humour does shine through at certain times.

His father was obviously someone that had a great meaning in his life and its no surprise that Parky grew up loving cricket. It is only when reading someone's autobiography that we get a real insight in to a person we may feel we know from the telly. I for one grew up watching Parky, but i did not know that he started off a s reporter, and that he even done a stint as a war correspondent.

We tend to forget that he was also involved in presenting those first breakfast news programs that helped shape the morning TV of the present day. There is both warmth and humour in the book, and i found it be a very enjoyable read.

Parkinson for me has had a great career on TV, there are not many people that remain at the top of their profession as long as what he has. This is all down to his ability to ask certain questions and then just let the person he is interviewing to carry on talking.

In the book Parky does say that what he does is easy and anyone can do it, and I think he really believes that, which is the mark of someone that is good at what they do, in other words he is a natural and he does not even understand that himself.

What comes across from the book is that Parky has never really taken himself seriously and freely admits that on more than a few occasions he has been in absolute awe of his guests. This just goes to show his feet have always been firmly planted on the ground.

There are sections in the book which contains photographs of Parky, family and friends, some of these carry little tongue in cheek anecdotes to them, with parky poking fun at himself or what he is wearing. This is one of the presents i put on my list for Christmas and i was not disappointed when i read it. If you have ever watched the Michael Parkinson show then this will give you a very good insight in to what makes him tick.

The Book

412 Pages

Hard cover £11.46 at Amazon

Paperback £4.04 at Amazon

Summary: The book is warm and bouncy a bit like parky comes accross