David Niven autobiographies

[Adam B]

Moon's a balloon

Hmmm been looking forward to this for a while, about half way through and not overly impressed.

He comes across as a nice bloke who got lots of lucky breaks and mingled with all the stars of the era, but....

He is no great writer (was he ever a great actor, not convinced) and it's all so matter of fact as to be somewhat interesting but not entertaining. It lacks any scandal or gossip which may have added some snap and sparkle - he doesn't even name the big female star he had a fling with, just using an BFS acronym.

Will finish it but unless some zombies suddenly appear and eat some lesbians I won't be reading his follow up

[ClaphamGT3]

Niven was a man of his time; not one to wear his emotions on his sleeve and inherently discreet. Admirable qualities of course but it makes for a bit of an anodyne read.

[Adam B]

Indeed - he comes across as very likeable and an honest genuine bloke.

Discretion is a crap quality for a bio though!!

[bloomen]

Bring on the empty horses is far more fun. His style is better suited to snippets and portraits of others.

[Adam B]

Becoming more interesting after the war and the tragic death of his wife, due to events rather than his writing style

Will be interesting how he describes this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2002324/...

[ClaphamGT3]

I find even the description of his wife's death was very of its time and matter of fact. "It was a ghastly tragedy/I was devastated/my friends rallied round and were amazing" sort of thing; no real sense of the emotion

[Adam B]

Yep

Lot of stiff upper lip although he admits to losing his grip a bit, and should have seen a shrink.

Poignant bit about not being able to tell his kids until they told him mum is in heaven, some sand may have blown off the beach into my eye

[Flip Martian]

Be aware that both books have stories appropriated from others. Niven was a great raconteur in many ways but did have a habit of taking other people's stories and putting himself in them, changing a few details and then retelling them as if they had happened to him. Not in a malicious way, it was just the way he was. There's a biog called Niv by Graham Lord which apparently gives a more accurate record of his life.

[Adam B]

May not be malicious but its a bit dishonest in an autobiography.

It wasn't like it needed more "I met X" stories.

What it did need was more insight, more detail, and more views and opinions on people (who are actually named!). For example he claims to be struggling with the mortgage in LA, but gives little or no detail on finances or career, and how he ended up very wealthy. I don't mean vulgar details but just some sort of insight. It would be interesting to see how his fees for movies changed as he become more established.

It was mostly, "I met X who lent me his house for 6 months, he is a lovely sweet man who looks after his friends". I am sure some of the very famous friends he regularly name drops were complete arses, but the only bad people are minor army characters.

Overall I was pretty underwhelmed.

Edited by Adam B on Monday 5th September 14:23

[Flip Martian]

Hugely popular book, in its day, as there weren't that many books of that type around then, so all those stories about famous people were lapped up. Probably a bit dated judging by today's standards. Ultimately he wasn't from an age where people bared their soul to complete strangers, the way people do these days.

[Some Gump]

I read that years ago, enjoyed it. I'm not that bothered about the gossip and scandal, the rest of his anecdotes are strong enough on their own.

[Halmyre]

Read it as a teenager, thought it was highly entertaining, haven't read it since.

Regarding the matter-of-fact account of his wife's death, Richard Feynman takes the same approach in one of his books, although in his case his wife was long-term (and terminally) ill.

That Daily Mail article is based on a book by Michael Munn, who specialised in bios of dead celebrities, most of whom he claimed to have been friends with, much to the bemusement of said celebrities' real acquaintances, who have no recollection of him.