Travelling to Work: Diaries 1988-1998

Palin Diaries #3

by Michael Palin

The third volume of Michael Palin's celebrated diaries.

TRAVELLING TO WORK is a roller-coaster ride driven by the Palin hallmarks of curiosity and sense of adventure. Michael was not the BBC's first choice for the travel series AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, but after its success, the public naturally wanted more.

Palin, however, had other plans. There was his film AMERICAN FRIENDS, a role in Alan Bleasdale's award-winning drama GBH, the staging of his West End play THE WEEKEND, a first novel, HEMINGWAY'S CHAIR, and a lead role in FIERCE CREATURES. He did find time for two more travel series, POLE TO POLE in 1991 and FULL CIRCLE in 1996, and wrote two bestselling books to accompany them. These ten years in different directions offer riches on every page.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Travel, Memoir, Humor, Diary, Audiobook

563 pages, Hardcover

First published September 11, 2014

About the author

Sir Michael Edward Palin, KCMG, CBE, FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries.

Palin wrote most of his material with Terry Jones. Before Monty Python, they had worked on other shows such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including "The Dead Parrot", "The Lumberjack Song", "The Spanish Inquisition" and "Spam". Palin continued to work with Jones, co-writing Ripping Yarns. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in other films such as A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, he was voted the 30th favourite by fellow comedians and comedy insiders.

After Python, he began a new career as a travel writer. His journeys have taken him across the world, the North and South Poles, the Sahara desert, the Himalayas and most recently, Eastern Europe. In 2000 Palin became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to television.

Reviews

[Darren · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

Still my favourite Python

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐️ = Below Average.
Hardback.
What can I say? Maybe I’m just not interested enough in Michael Palin, to have read this tome.
A few interesting facts that I plucked as I skimmed a few pages.
An interesting life , definitely.

[F.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a bittersweet quality to Michael Palin’s last (so far, at least) volume of diaries, a feeling that life has maybe moved past its prime. In a way that’s curious as this volume covers the aftermath of ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’, Palin’s biggest mainstream success, and it’s various follow-ups: ‘Pole to Pole’ and ‘Pacific’. Yet, there’s also a lot of failure here. So despite those obvious successes, there’s still a sense permeating these pages that Palin is actually either standing still or going backwards.

Yes, he truly becomes a national treasure here and is universally beloved, but these years also cover the release of his film, ‘American Friends’, which he wrote, starred in and shepherded over many years, and which died a death; there’s his play, ‘The Weekend’, which he wrote and shepherded over many years, and which died a death; and there’s his novel, ‘Hemmingway’s Chair’, the response to which ranges the full gamut of underwhelming to middling. On top of all that he is one of the principals in John Cleese’s flop, ‘Fierce Creatures’ (which sounds like a less than fun experience); and has a part that’s so important in the Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan rom-com, ‘You’ve Got Mail’, that it ends up on the cutting room floor. Yes, the travel shows represent highlights (as does the TV drama, ‘GBH’), but reading these diaries is a catalogue of things not going right.

Despite him still being unable to resist noting down every single instance when a similarly famous person tells him how much they love his work, this actually makes for an oddly downbeat read. Apart from the travel programmes, which are really just variations on a theme, most of the projects he’s involved with just end up disappointing. At the end of the book he’s off on yet another filmed journey and having increasingly acrimonious discussions about a Python tour (which never actually came to fruition) and there’s a sense that maybe he’s now living in the past, with nothing really new on the horizon. This being Michael Palin he does handle it with good humour (although given these are edited diaries, the days when he lay on the bed with the duvet over his head might simply be omitted) but there is throughout a colder tone, an undeniable frustration and dissatisfaction – which, if it was another diarist, would undoubtedly be seen as grumpiness.

The first volume does have the rush of the Python years and would probably be my favourite, but this volume being more about failure than success might ultimately be the more fascinating.

[etherealfire · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Kindle e-book. I read this book last year but I cannot find it anywhere in my "read" list. Not sure what happened to it.

[Connie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Source: I borrowed this book from the library.
Cost: Free

Title: Travelling to Work: Diaries 1988-1998
Series: Palin Diaries #3
Author: Michael Palin
Overall Rating: 3 stars

I'm so disappointed.

I wanted so much from this book, I like Michael Palin, as a geographer, I was expecting some great quotes, some insight to his life. Instead a lot of it was so uninteresting I couldn't be bothered even taking it in. Most of it was "I got a taxi here" or "I had dinner here." We get it, you do normal things too.

I just didn't really connect with this at all.

[David Highton · Rating 4 out of 5]

a third in the series of Michael Palin's entertaining diaries - what a talented man he is - comic writer and performer, actor, TV presenter, traveller and travel writer, public speaker and novelist

[Jane Ashford · Rating 4 out of 5]

He has such an engaging narrative voice. I enjoying following his life through these years.

[Daniel Harcourt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have loved all 3 volumes of Palin's diaries.

[Delia Binder · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Don't Call Him 'Nice'! He'll Insist He's NOT at all 'Nice'!"

This is Vol. 3 of Michael Palin's diaries, which he's edited and published over the years, usually between his travel books (based on his travel shows for British Television), screenplays, children's books, and fiction that he's written over the years.

This concerns the period when he started his career traveling the globe and writing bestselling novels about it; his high points as an actor (a BAFTA for the film A Fish Called Wanda) followed by disappointments (the box office failure of Fierce Creatures, which John Cleese based loosely on a sketch Palin had written with Terry Jones back in 1967, and having a supporting role in the Nora Ephron comedy You've Got Mail, which ended up on the cutting room floor); the deaths of members of his family and friends like Graham Chapman in late 1989, both his Mother Mary (on the same days as the deaths of Ian Charleston and Terry-Thomas) and writer Al Levinson in 1990, writer Paul Zimmerman in 1993, writer/Beatles' press agent Derek Taylor (who Palin rushed back from the U.S. mid-author tour to attend the funeral of!) in 1997; his wife Helen's brain cancer scare in 1996, while he was in the middle of shooting the ambitious series FULL CIRCLE; and seeing his children off to University and the first steps in their careers.

A bit of a theme throughout these diary entries is Palin objecting to always being called "nice" in interviews and by his friends, because he knows he's often feels petty and annoyed by life. It's a comment I've heard other people with that reputation, like Tom Hanks, make, and while I get why they feel that way? I don't think they realize how seldom they let their tempers out in public...unlike, say, Palin's friend John Cleese does.

Like the other books, an absorbing read into Michael Palin's life and career, chattily written and filled with details of his family life.

[Hope Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

he does love a good name-drop, doesn't he? he has earned it i suppose

[Ryan Dell]

Got this second-hand and it was just as intimate and gossipy as I wanted it to be

[Chris Boulton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do enjoy these diaries... I think these are the best ones so far, though I'm assuming there will be only one more - for the time being anyway!

I'm sure they've been edited a bit but it must still give you a sense of the real person behind the version we know from the TV. I think my favourite bit is when he's in Ireland on his 50th birthday and Mrs Palin turns up as a surprise and he says something like "was so nice of them to get me a woman for my birthday", heh, made me chuckle a lot.

The descriptions of Graham Chapman's illness and eventual passing was painful to read. Not because they were particularly harrowing accounts but from reading the previous diaries and from getting a sense, both written and from TV docs and from imagining what it must be like to lose a friend, of how close they all were.. the pain of that lose sorta bleeds through even if his diary entries weren't tear stained and anguish filled.. it was sorta implied, p'raps?

Or I'm getting soppy in my old age.

And finally.. what made me chuckle the most, and probably intended as such, was the series of entries about a possible late 90s reunion tour. Nearly every thing they didn't want to happen on this tour, happened in the 2014 (2015?) reunion. No more than 2,000 people (how many does the O2 hold?), not in an arena with massive tv screens (it has tv screens), now in the millennium dome (ha!)... okay, there was 16-17 years between that and when it happened but it amused me all the same.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly interesting set of diaries from Michael Palin. My family, and my mother especially have been fans of Sir Michael for as long as I can remember. I myself have read and listened to several of Palin's travel books, but my introduction to him was through his excellent biography of the ship HMS Erebus, which was involved in the ill fated Franklin expedition.

As to this book, I found it very interesting to get an insight into Palin as a man, his true thoughts, feelings and views of life, indeed his comments on the political and world events of the period covered in the book interested me the most.

I started with this last volume of diaries as it is the period of Palin's life I knew best, although I am a great fan of Monty Python and intend to read the earlier volumes at a later date.

Many sections of the diaries proved to be poignant including the deaths of Graham Chapman and Palin's mother, his wife, Helen's illness and Palin's feelings on his children growing up and moving on in life.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Palin's career, especially the period which began his run of now famous travel documentaries. I thoroughly enjoyed these diaries and look forward to reading the earlier volumes as soon as I can.

[Lord Zion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find being in the company of Michael Palin a joyous experience. This is the third of his diaries I have explored and find them fascinating for many reasons. First, being a diarist myself, seeing how other people do theirs is always interesting. Secondly, his life is so busy and varied he has no need to record the minutiae and concentrates only on experiences which, to him, are normal yet to us mere mortals are quite extraordinary.

His writing style is easy and fluid, often amusing and always with a deft turn of phrase. It never feels like he is reaching for his thesaurus, however, with words that are unknown to me seemingly on the tip of his tongue (pen?).

Makes me wonder what I am doing with my life and also ponder the possibility that either a) MP is not human and requires no rest or sleep or, b) time travels at half the speed than it does for the rest of us. Frankly, it is most likely c) I'm, just a bit bloody lazy.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an exceptional book & I loved this book as much as the rest of the series. Palin is a little less sure of himself & his career in this time period & is also a little less busy in terms of acting & comedy roles but this does not mean he is slowing down. You've still got his impressive array of meetings, discussions, filming trips & meals out with friends. And it is still told in his friendly, inquisitive & restless style. I hope his next batch comes out soon.

[Nick Garlick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just as readable and enjoyable as the preceding two volumes. Addictive almost. I kept saying, ‘ Just one more entry and then I’ll stop’ and when I looked up I’d read another ten pages. The ‘ Tea with Alan Bennett’ or ‘Visit to George Harrison’ did begin to wear after a while. But that’s more than likely me being jealous. Who wouldn’t want to have such friends and acquaintances?

[Amy Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Michael Palin! This third instalment of his diaries is as witty and interesting as the others have been. More than the details of his numerous travels and the political developments from 1988-98, I love his anecdotal stories, and of course his unique sense of humour. Looking forward to the next instalment.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing worse than someone telling you how wonderful he is. Palin avoids this by spending a lot of time telling us how wonderful everyone else thinks he is. I like Michael Palin but he is a poor diarist.

[Russell Fox · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the first two volumes of Michael Palin's published diaries before I started keeping track of books on Goodreads. The first volume is the best, or at least I remember it that way, because my first encounter with Palin's wonderfully, and often downright distubringly, detailed daily recollections of people and places and event and feelings gave me a way to think about not just the miraculous mix of personalities which came together to create a comedy phenomenon that has been indescribably important to my life, but a glimpse of a fascinating, distant world--post-World War II England--which was the crucible in which this glorious mixing took place. The fact that Palin was--and through the two volumes of diaries which followed, by all appearances continues to be--so lacking in anger or engagement or conceptual involvement, in terms of his own presence in that changing world--really struck me. It makes him very different from his fellow Pythons: Terry Gilliam, the visionary raspberry-blowing outsider; Eric Idle, the mischievous, always self-promoting extrovert; and most of all John Cleese, Palin's closest friend and a man whose comic drive can only be matched by his own self-critique. In some ways I see Palin's comparative unwillingness to express himself, or even understand himself, in terms of critique as something worth criticizing; but on the other hand, I recognize that Palin's equanimity, his openness, and his unwillingness to judge, is part of what has made him such a spectacular traveler and observer of the world.

I have no idea if there will be another volume of Palin's diaries; the events it records ended over 20 years ago, and the book itself came out 7 years ago. Maybe Palin and his publishers think that the market appetite for seeing how a Python documents the world around him has fallen beneath the profit-line, and they may be right. For myself, I can't say I loved it--but then, this isn't the sort of writing to love: instead, you follow along with it, pleasantly entertained by Palin's encounters in London and Hollywood, and then caught by surprise when you learn something new about this endlessly clever man's life, travels, and passions. One thing that stood out in particular in this volume--which covers the decade of Palin's first three major travel documentaries, the making of Fierce Creatures (the ill-fated "equal" to the great A Fish Called Wanda), his role in putting to end speculation over what probably would have been a creatively embarrassing Monty Python 30th anniversary reunion tour, the death of his mother, and his wife Helen's survival of a brain tumor--was a film of his that I've never seen: American Friends, a story he wrote based upon the life of his great-grandfather, and which made at home in England, pushing away opportunities to Hollywoodize it major stars. It makes me really interested to track it down and watch it (I could only find a few copies available in the U.S.--mostly still in VHS!).

Anyway, in these diaries, I got to see Palin, in his own deeply ordinary, non-judgmental, frequently self-critical but never angry way, pursue his muse, and the neighborly, bourgeois virtues that he obviously values more than anything else, for a decade. Not a bad read at all, that.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

1988 unternimmt Michael Palin seine erste Reise mit der BBC Damals dachte er noch, es würde die einzige Reise dieser Art bleiben. Zum Glück hat er sich geirrt. Ein netter Zufall (zumindest für mich) ist, dass der britische Radfahrer Mark Beaumont gerade die gleiche Reise unternimmt, allerdings auf dem Rad. Sein Bild am Start sieht dem von Michael sehr ähnlich.

Den Zeitraum den Michael Palin in seinen Tagebüchern beschreibt, war eine sehr bewegte Zeit. Von dieser Zeit habe ich selbst sehr viel mitbekommen (bei den früheren Tagebüchern war ich noch zu jung). Ich kenne viele Namen und kann mich an viele Ereignisse selbst erinnern. An die Bedrohung durch die IRA und die Anschläge, an Lady Di, den Rücktritt Thatchers, Tony Blair und und und...

Im Gegensatz zu den früheren Büchern geht Michael Palin nicht so sehr in die Tiefe. Er wirkt gestresster und schreibt mehr über die Arbeit und weniger über die Familie. Während der Reisen führt er zwei Tagebücher, in denen er wiederum mehr schreibt. Ohne die wirkt "Travelling to work" stellenweise unpersönlicher als die Vorgänger. Mit ihnen wird das Bild rund.

Wieder einmal habe ich mich über Palins Bescheidenheit und seinen Humor gefreut. Aber auch er zeigt dieses Mal Nerven und raunzt das erste Mal Fans an, als sie ihn in einer blöden Situation überraschen. Das macht ihn nicht unsympathisch, nur menschlicher.

[Paula · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a long book and took me forever to read. I'm reading slower than ever during this pandemic, which is weird. I'm reading less, not more.
Nothing particularly exciting happens in this installment - the last one, I believe - but the entries here inspired me to look up the art of Cottish artist Anne Redpath, to track down Palin's film "American Friends", and to check "Hemingway's Chair" out of the library. There are several funerals in this one, including his mother's and several close friends and contemporaries. Time marches on. I guess the main takeaway for me from this book is how, no matter how successful Michael Palin is, no matter how famous, how accomplished, he always has room for at least a little self-doubt. At the end of every successful project like "Pole to Pole" or "Full Circle", he is again wondering, 'what next?"
What I learned: Palin was cast in a featured role in "You've Got Mail" and worked for several weeks on the film. Unfortunately, all his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third in a series of published diaries from Michael Palin that cover the years 1988-1998. During this time he filmed 3 of his travel shows, beginning with Around the World in 80 Days, starred in 2 films, wrote his first novel and staged his West End play; The Weekend.
For a lot of people they probably immediately associate Michael Palin with Monty Python but I first became aware of him growing up when I used to watch Around the World in 80 Days on the BBC. This show completely fascinated me, it wasn't an average travel show, it brought home a sense of adventure and urgency and was delivered with great candor and humour. These diaries are not just a repeat of his travel journals published after the show's broadcast but his private memoirs of the struggles and barriers that were put in front of him as well as all of the eccentric characters he met a long his way, not just on his travels but during his time in film, theatre and television too.

[Mike Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wrote longer review, but managed to lost the text file.

In a nutshell this a long collection of diary entries and a part of a longer series of diary entries. It is a enjoyable and at times eye opening peak into the mind the British, well-off, silent generation.

His relationship with his sister, parents aging, among other issues, are universal and heartwarming. Listening to our elders gives us valuable perspective. Especially with people as intelligent and civilized as Sir Palin and the other Pythons. Focus is much more on the man than his work, just like the previous parts in the series.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never really sure about diary format or biographies/autobiographies. This was a wonderful book which you could read and read and read. There was no rush to get to the end of the story and lots of news snippets which had been forgotten. I really enjoyed reading it. It did surprise me that someone as talented as a Python suffers so much from self doubt, maybe it shouldn't have come as a surprise. So often talented people who rely on public opinion for apparent success are not as confident as we assume.

[Sonia Almeida Dias (Peixinho de Prata) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally able to get hold of Michael Palin's 3rd diary. He is as himself, calm and collected, aware of his surroundings and wanting to make a difference in the world he lives. At the same participating in films, series and now travel shows. I have read some of his travel books, so it was very interesting to see how they start, the amount of preparation and post-editing work that goes into them until we are able to see/read the final outcome.

Recommend it to all Michael Palin's, Monty Python, and travelling fans.

[Malcolm Frawley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this volume (the 3rd) of Palin's diaries as much as the first 2, but only because this covers the period of his working life (his travel docos & books, although I did love his 1st novel - Hemingway's Chair - which was written & published during this time) that I have the least interest in. That said, it was still insightful & revealing, especially the ongoing relationships between the surviving Pythons. Not for everyone. But recommended.

[Luke Smart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Palin's diaries are always so easy to read and always encourage me to put some more effort into my own, though my life isn't nearly so interesting. The Python Years (Vol 1) will always be the best as it covers the period of Palin's most famous works, but even when reading about his experiences with projects I have less interest in, it's still a comprehensive look into the life and observations of a very nice man (though I know he hates to be called that).

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about the charm of uncertainty. While it gives plenty of insight into the comfortable life of a certain liberal/artistic celebrity society, its main focus is doubt. Throughout, Palin exhibits doubts about his abilities and a genuine bewilderment about people's reactions to him and his work. The exception is the Python work, which he rightly believes to be good, important and influential. The book gets the balance right between intimacy and distance.

[Hilarie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much to recommend with Michael Palin's diaries! First off, get the audio version. Palin mimicking the various famous people he knows like John Cleese and George Harrison is very entertaining. I also feel in some ways, I learned more about George Harrison from Palin's diaries than I have from any of the Beatle books I've read recently. Also it's a fascinating peek into his creative process, and how over time his career evolved from comedy, to movies, to travel documentaries.

[Jamie Bowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael continues his diaries with quite a momentous decade in the 90s. Reading it now in 2018, it was certainly eventful for him and the world. Reading about IRA bombs in London on a regular basis, seems like an age ago. Michael’s humour shines through, but it also exposes his feelings of self-doubt and wondering where his life is going. An enjoyable read.