Rating: 
Summary: Not a very insightful nor inspiring book...
Review: I just finished this book last night & I'm left with a strange emptiness wondering if maybe Monty Python was always less than the sum of its parts. A lot of these "interviews" (they seem more like random joyless reminiscences) are repetitious and dwell excessively, in my view, on personalities, but maybe it's cultural divide. One is left wondering why people want to reunite the Pythons after all those years. They seemed to be going in 5 or 6 different directions almost from the beginning. Comparing them to the Beatles or Stones is ludicrous, they were definitely not a band, more a collection of comic egotistical intellects who tolerated one another except when acting outrageous. They were talented and funny, but best to watch their old shows & avoid the petty gossip.
Rating: 
Summary: great book
Review: I loved this book. It is a great buy for any python fan. It obviously doesn't have any comontary by Graham Chapman, but that was the only bad part.
Rating:
Summary: A must buy for a Monty Python Fan
Review: I recenly bought this book and i would like to say that it is for any Monty Python fan. It tells about the movies, tv shows, each of the python members, in their own words. A must buy for any Monty Python fan.
Rating: 
Summary: Good behind the scenes account
Review: If your intent is to locate and memorize the word play of "The Dead Parrot" sketch and other classic Python routines, well you've come to the wrong place, squire! Instead, this book is an insightful account of how six very diverse personalities gelled to form one of the 20th century's greatest comedic ensembles.I'll second the opinion offered by the California reader from Jan. 14, 2000 - this book is mainly about the Python writing process. In particular, it details the style and output of the 'Oxford team' (Jones and Palin) vs. the 'Cambridge team' (Cleese and Chapman). Then throw Idle's clever word play and Gilliam's revolutionary graphics into the mix. The book details how a side-splitting cohesive whole was formed from these disparate elements. Like earlier reviewers, I'd like to see more on the post-Python careers. Terry Gilliam gets a fair shake with mentions of 'Brazil,' 'Jabberwocky,' and 'The Fisher King,' but the Cleese/Palin team gets short-changed with no mention at all about 'Fierce Creatures,' their under-rated 'Fish Called Wanda' follow-up. Furthermore, as a fan of Michael Palin's BBC travelogues, it was disappointing not to get some snippets about some of those excellent works ('Around the World in 80 Days,' 'Pole to Pole,' etc.) All in all, if you're a Python fan, this is a quick bit of enjoyable reading that will fill in and broaden your knowledge of the group.
Rating:
Summary: Not a great book
Review: It seems that this book is far too concerned with Terry Gilliam's and Terry Jones' ways of directing and getting the shots right. Furthermore the author has only interviewed a couple of the Pythons himself and largely have depended on old articles and books by and about the group.
Rating:
Summary: NOW HEAR THIS!
Review: Look no further,squire!To Mickey Pylon fans,new and old I say:"Here is the Pythong book for you,ducks!!" Finally,the Morty Pything boys speak for themselves! Who better? Loads of wonderfully,rare photos! And even appearnces by the handsome Carol Cleveland and the lovely Neil Innes! (say no more!). Buy this book NOW! In fact buy 2 or 3!! Use one to balance that leg under your coffee table.Ten copies on your car seat will help you see over the steering wheel! Yes the ideal book for motorists everywhere!!! AA & RAF approved!!** ** unfortunately,this cannot be varified.
Rating:
Summary: Python Speaks tells the team's story in their own words
Review: Monty Python member Michael Palin says, "I think there's a danger in Pythons analyzing their own work. I think we shouldn't do it." Unfortunately for him, he and the other Pythons spend 315 pages doing just that, in a delightful new book titled MONTY PYTHON SPEAKS. For the uninitiated, here's a quick history. Monty Python is the collective name for a group of five Britons--Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin--and a transplanted American, Terry Gilliam. They are responsible for 45 of the funniest half-hours ever broadcast on television (in Britain beginning in 1969, America in 1974) and some equally inventive movies. Chapman died of cancer on the very eve of the group's twentieth anniversary--"Worst case of party-pooping I've ever seen," said Terry Jones. For Python fanatics (I count myself among them), the new book is akin to the Holy Grail that the group sought in their infamous 1975 movie. The surviving group members and many of their associates are interviewed by David Morgan, and as befits their comedic style, the Pythons are quite open and frank about the group's highs and lows. Among the many illuminated topics and tidbits are: * Graham Chapman's alcoholism, about which he was quite open himself. (While filming one of their movies, Michael Palin came across a half-empty bottle of gin belonging to Chapman. Palin had seen the bottle completely full earlier in the day.) * Their first American TV appearance. It was on a 1972 "Tonight Show," where guest host Joey Bishop introduced them with the immortal line, "This is a comedy group from England. I hear they're supposed to be funny." * Python didn't have a chance in America until a PBS station manager in Texas--"Dallas, of all places," says Cleese--took a chance on them. Friends of the station manager were afraid his station would get burned down. * Their then-manager absconded with the funds from their 1980 appearance at the Hollywood Bowl. They made no money from the gig until they released their 1982 movie of the concert. * When ABC-TV brutally edited three of their TV episodes for a 1975 special, the Pythons sued the network, on the grounds that they'd rather make less money than have someone else censoring their work. The ABC incident points up two concrete truths about Python: (1) Like them or not, their particular world view is uncompromised, and their fans appreciate their honesty. (2) Said view shouldn't be left in the hands of people who just plain don't understand them. The people who would "sanitize" it are the same kind of people that Python's comedy satirizes. But maybe I romanticize Python only because I grew up with it. I completely don't get the followings for "South Park" or THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY, but I can still recite reams of Python dialogue. For others with similar bents, the new book is must reading.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: Monty Python Speaks!
To this date, the best Monty Python resource available, it consists of interviews with the five surviving Pythons, along with some interviews with folks close to the Pythons (Graham Chapman’s partner David Sherlock, leading lady Carol Cleveland, Chapman’s friend Douglas Adams). There are interviews for the films, the TV shows, Chapman’s death, and an invaluable section about the future of Python (which looks pretty bleak.)
Rating:
Summary: a nice brisk change of pace (with pictures!)
Review: Normally the python books (or books on Monty Python) are the usual sort: prehistories of the show that include 'The Frost Report,' 'At Last the 1948 Show'; summaries of all the Flying Circus Episodes, and theatrical aspects of their solo movies. Things that any self-respecting python fan would know offhand. And who reads summaries of episodes anyway? It all grows very dull, for the most interesting thing, the quotes from the pythons themselves, are usually quite sparse. This, however, is just one very long interview with all the pythons (except the one that croaked, bless his soul) and some other collaborators. Very, very interesting, infinitely rereadable, and I like the way they agree on things like the movies, even though they are interviewed seperately. Plus the biographies of each of them are not some person reciting their birthdates and schooling - its the other pythons talking about them. And, thankfully, the only summaries of the episodes are at the very end in front of the bibliography section, that highlight the 'best' sketches from each show.
Rating:
Summary: okay for non initiated, but nothing new for python fans
Review: The promise of this book far outweighs what it delivers. While the notion of extended interviews with all the surviving Pythons as well as the various and sundry peopleinvolved in the show/movie production is wonderful, the actual facts revealed are very much what we've heard before. Very little new information is talked about. We learn that Graham Chapman's writing participation was modest at best and that Eric and John wrote a sketch together, but that's about it. Any Python fan would have asked better questions than this fellow. Such as: How did something like the Llama sketch get from concept to filming? These are the insights we'd like to know about. Instead we get lots of repetition between Terrys Jones and Gilliam over their directing styles. Eric Idle seems not to have cared much at all about this project and his entries are sparse and a little too glib. Stick with the earlier books on Python that came out around their 20th and 25th anniversaries. At least there are more pictures.
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