Eric Idle
Eric Idle has a beautiful list of books he’s read on his website and that fact alone should fill you with delight. The list is made even better by his brief commentary about each book and why he liked or disliked it. But wait a moment, you say. Isn’t he the chap who wrote Spamalot and ran around dressed like a mid-century British housewife on the telly? Why should I care what he has to say about books? Well I’ll tell you.
Before Spamalot and Monty Python and the Holy Grail and that BBC sketch show that captured nerdy hearts around the world there were five graduates of Oxford and Cambridge (ignoring the sole Yank who did artsy stuff). Idle was a smarty pants who overcame a brutal childhood and worked his way into Cambridge. He honed his skills on Monty Python’s Flying Circus and wrote the book and lyrics for Spamalot, which received the Tony Award for Best Musical in the 2004-05 season and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Lyrics. So the man knows writing.
You’ll love his reading list, which has archives that go back for years. But before you go, here’s what Idle’s fellow Pythons had to say about him. Now for something entirely different:
