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Amazon.co.uk Review Billy Connolly is loud， hilarious and contradictory. His biography， written by his wife， former comedian and practising psychotherapist Pamela Stephenson， is pretty much the same. Over the years Connolly has grown from Glasgow shipyard welder to folk-singing beardy hard man (yes there is such a thing) to darling of the good and great (or at least famous) around the world. That he is so many things to so many people while in no way compromising his core self can only be good. It would be no mean feat for Stephenson， then， to pen a history to that would satisfy Connolly audiences of fans and contemporaries from all periods of his life's journey. In most places， but in truth， not all， the author manages to do this well.The first half of the biography is somewhat anthropological in tone. Not surprisingly， a post-war Glasgow upbringing is somewhat alien to the antipodean author and Stephenson errs towards Angela's Ashes intonation as she describes her husband's tenement childhood (Scots readers may also find her regular translation of seemingly self-explanatory Scots phrases--which Connolly would use--obtuse). In contrast her examination of her experience of living with the comedian and his life from that point on is much better. Anecdotes which Connolly uses in his live shows pepper the text and laughs are raised as he tells of the time he was mistaken as a drug dealer on Speyside， of his cheeky friendships with cinema's elite and even through the more difficult times; the difficulty of balancing an almost manic humour with a troubled life. Pages turn quickly as we grow to understand more of what makes the man tick.Certainly fans of Billy Connolly will enjoy this book. It is not perfect but it is certainly entertaining and should fill a gap in the market until Billy--with his half-remembered stories and off-centre view of the world--decides to let us into his head as well as his history. There's surely one ideal way to do this and that's by writing his story himself. --Helen Lamont From Publishers Weekly American audiences only know Billy Connolly-if they know him at all-from his HBO comedy specials， or from his role opposite Judi Dench in Mrs. Brown. But Connolly is one of England's most popular and infamous comedians. This biography， written by his wife， explains why. Connolly broke into show biz in the late 1960s with a banjo-comedy routine that he performed in Glasgow pubs. By the end of the '70s， Connolly was booking sold-out shows all around England and appearing frequently on TV and film. His antics were notorious: he looked like a hippie， swore like a sailor (he used "the 'f' word in every single sentence and double on Sundays") and drank incredible amounts of liquor (he named his comedy tours after his drink du jour: the gin tour， the brandy tour， etc.). He was also prone to singing songs like "What Does a Scotsman Wear Under His Kilt" to the tune of "Blowin' in the Wind." But， Stephenson argues， there was considerable pain behind Connolly's headline-grabbing behavior. As a child， he was abandoned by his mother and raised in a slum， subject to physical and sexual abuse from relatives. It's Connolly's past， and his strength in overcoming it， that rescues this book. What could have been a humdrum biography turns into a triumph of the will， an Angela's Ashes with punch lines. Apart from an annoying tendency to name-drop American celebrities who just adore Billy， Stephenson admirably describes a man who manages to be very funny despite very unfunny beginnings. Photos. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information， Inc. See all Editorial Reviews