One Flew Into The Cuckoo’s Egg by Bill Oddie
The autobiography of British entertainer Bill Oddie; who clearly states he has written enough books about the Goodies and his wildlife shows so sets out to cover new ground, such as his childhood with a largely absent mother and an overly stoic father, and his late-in-life nervous breakdowns.
The accepted test for a biography is: would it be interesting even if you didn’t know who the subject was? While I think that is somewhat narrow, there are worse criteria one could use, especially in this instance. My only experiences with Oddie were watching him when I was a small child (where he was, damningly, my third-favourite Goodie) and seeing him a few years ago on a very good episode of Who Do You Think You Are. That having been said, Oddie details his life in an engaging way, skipping over the boring bits and writing in a pleasant and conversational fashion. Hell, he even manages to make the long chapter on bird-watching, well, maybe not interesting, but a lot less painful than it had any right to be.
A quick read, but a fun one.
Somethingarchy 