Graham Crackers: Fuzzy Memories, Silly Bits, and Outright Lies

by Graham Chapman, Jim Yoakum

Graham Crackers is the hilarious new book from Monty Python's Graham Chapman, who has been dead for nearly 10 years. It contains everything a book should have: words sequentially numbered pages, ink, binding -even a cover- all at no extra charge!

It also contains never-before-published photos, never-before produced comedy sketches, details on Graham's very unconventional life, thoughts on Monty Python, and tales of mad adventure with the Dangerous Sports Club, pals like the Who's Keith Moon, and more.

Includes a foreword by John Cleese, a backward by Eric Idle, and a sideways by Terry Jones.

Genres: Humor, Biography, Nonfiction, Comedy, Biography Memoir

167 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Graham Chapman was an English comedian, actor, writer, physician and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe. He was also the lead actor in their two narrative films, playing King Arthur in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the title character in Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Reviews

[Don Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when it came out, being a massive Monty Python fan. I couldn't stop laughing at the amazing anecdotes tossed out concerning Graham. I ended up writing one of my more obscure scripts for Loose Change during the reading and also approached dealing with the teaching of "Night" with at least more dark humor than usual.

[Rupert Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a nightcap, a tumbler of Port, a snippet, a few anecdotes, a rough sketch here and there, a tale of inebriated joy, Graham Crackers is a spoonful of delight. Having known a fair bit about the dear Graham Chapman, and him having been instrumental to some choices I made in my adolescence, I relaxed into this book compiled by Jim Yoakum with natural ease of wanting to read exactly what I did end up reading, and that was, a tad bit more of Graham from Graham, page by page. It skims across aspects of writing for Python, obscure unfinished sketches by Graham and Jim, a few odds and ends about the Dangerous Sports Club and Keith Moon, and finishes as it should with a epitome of Chapman's untimely death as remarked by Terry Jones.

This book is Banned in Goring-Upon Thames and one must keep in mind that Graham being the youngest of the Python group did nearly finish the second volume (or 7th volume) of A Liars Autobiography so this follow up compiled by Jim only really dapples the surface of what Graham would have put out there towards his end. Please, if you received an old computer in 1987 second-hand, please take it to an IT professional to trawl the hard-drive incase it has Graham's almost complete manuscript, the following part of his first autobiography. Lemon Curry is what I say to Graham Crackers which equals about five stars roughly in curry terms.

[RK Byers · Rating 4 out of 5]

hilarious at turns, but helps if you're already a Python fan.

[Max Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny read, of course.

[Thomas Radigan · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book makes the joke that it was written by Graham Chapman ten years after he died. In actuality, other people have written parts of it, and presumably if Chapman had written any part of it, it was collected bits from years past.

To begin with, the book is quite short, and is basically a bunch of miscellany. The anecdotes would have been amusing if they were real. But are they, or are they just tall tales? And as for the never-before-published jokes such as the overlong one about building a birdhouse, they were clearly never published for a good reason.

You don't actually learn anything about Graham Chapman or anyone else associated with him. Look for Monty Python reference material elsewhere.

[Angela P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about the Dangerous Sports Club and who the opposites were in the Python group. I had no idea Terry Gilliam was picked on the most or that he didn't speak very well.... gossip is fun. The rest was fluff, really, and didn't feel like Graham wrote it continually. More like Graham's friend found bits and compiled it. And the scripts? Meh.