Ricky Gervais: The Story So Far

by Michael Heatley

It's been an unorthodox road to the top for Gervais, who was brought up the youngest of four brothers in rough public housing in the early 1960s. He studied philosophy at London University and, after graduation, worked for the university as entertainments manager before embarking on several other short-lived jobs that included managing nascent Brit-pop stars Suede. Gervais became a presenter on London alternative radio station XFM in 1996, where he met his writing partner and long-term collaborator, Stephen Merchant. Television rungs on the stepladder to fame included Comedy Lab and an unsuccessful chat show, Meet Ricky Gervais , all in the late 1990s. Then The Office became the talk of the water cooler in offices all over, and Extras followed in 2005, attracting guest stars of the caliber of Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Stewart, and Kate Winslet. This biography is a must read for all fans of the man and his work. Michael Heatley has written numerous books on the rock and pop world with subjects that include Elton John, Guns N' Roses, David Gray, Queen, Justin Timberlake, Eminem, and Robbie Williams.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 2006

About the author

Michael Heatley is the author or editor of over thirty biographies, including Backstreet Boys: The Unofficial Book, Bon Jovi: In Their Own Words and Rolf Harris: The Most Talented Man In The World. In 1995, he wrote the liner notes to Rolf's best-selling album Rolf Rules OK!

Since 1977 he has written more than a hundred music, sport and TV books.

He has written for magazines including Privileged View (for viewers of UK Gold and UK Living), 442 and Fultime (Fulham FC), Music Week, Billboard, Goldmine (US record collecting magazine), Radio Times, Daily Record and the Mail on Sunday color supplement.

In addition, Michael runs a fanzine in honor of legendary Welsh psychedelic rock band Man called The Welsh Connection which is circulated to a small but fervent fanbase on a bi-monthly basis.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 1 out of 5]

An unfortunate waste of time. First half reads like an embellished Wikipedia entry. Second half reads like a 14-year-old recapping the plot of every episode of The Office. Boo. I'm sure Ricky Gervais' life is much more interesting than this book.

[Daniel Chesters · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts off quite promising with an insight to Ricky's early years and his life prior to his rise to fame from the likes of "The Office" and his highly popular podcasts.

Unfortunately after several chapters the majority of the content there after feels like a review of "The Office" and "Extra's" which are extremely unnecessary as I'm sure the intended audience of the book know the plot of both series respectively.

All in all I'm glad I read it purely because of the insight to his early life but I would only recommend fans of Ricky Gervais to read the first few chapters and stop before you get to the walkthroughs.

[Rob Howes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a whole bunch of interviews collated together to resemble a biography.

[Nyasha Chifamba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth reading - essentially a more elaborate version of a Wikipedia page.

[Jae · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was readable in that it flowed and wasn't hard to read but it really only needed to be two or three chapters long ( or a magazine article at best). The majority of the book was pointless waffle - either Ricky a Gervais is quite dull and difficult to write about or the writer went way off track doing tv show reviews.

[Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

- a pretty fair biography of the star of the original (AND FAR SUPERIOR!) British T.V. Series 'The Office'
- The Office was, in my estimation, one of the 10 best series ever to be broadcast on television

[Mitchan · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5⭐️
Not awfully written and easy to read but not a particularly good biography. If you want an episode by episode synopsis of The Office this is the book for you (entire chapters are Office episode recaps), most bizarre.

[Jan-Len · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wikipedia in print. Truly terrible stuff.