Did You Really Shoot the Television?: A Family Fable - Hardcover

Hastings, Max

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007271719 ISBN 13: 9780007271719

Publisher: HarperPress, 2010

Synopsis

Rare Book

About this title

Review

‘Richly rewarding...a minor masterpiece...the book is extremely funny in places, extremely poignant in others and extremely well-written throughout – in fact, I haven’t enjoyed anything so much in ages’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Family histories can often be pretty deadly and journalists memoirs doubly so. Few of them, however, are written with as much skill and sensitivity as this one. Moving without being mawkish, Hastings’s book is a trove of marvellous stories’ Sunday Times

‘This brave and poignant book is the self-portrait of a supremely talented outsider who has spent his life trying to live up to his father’s achievements...what is beyond doubt is that Sir Max has exceeded the pinnacle of his parents’ aspirations for themselves’ Daily Telegraph

‘Regretful, wise and forthright...deals with unnecessary cruelties and self delusions and ends with a sense of completion and understanding’ Andrew Marr, Financial Times

‘Elegiac, reflective and very funny, Did You Really Shoot the Television is both a ceasefire and a reminder that families are rarely safe places for children to be’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Highly engaging’ Independent ‘[A] rollicking memoir’ Mail on Sunday

‘It’s a brilliantly entertaining book, full of funny well-told stories about his talented, eccentric, sometimes rackety predecessors’ Scotsman

‘Deeply moving...an intimate portrait of two people who made [Max Hastings] the great man he is’ Private Eye

‘This is Max Hastings’ most personal book to date, and for all his war reporting and newspaper reporting, it is his bravest...[he] tells his family’s story with great candour and a real newsman’s detail’ Country Life

Review

‘Richly rewarding...A minor masterpiece. His portrait of his absurd and loveable father is extraordinarily touching; that of the failure of his relationship with his mother scarcely less so. The book is extremely funny in places, extremely poignant in others and extremely well-written throughout – in fact, I haven’t enjoyed anything so much in ages.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘Elegiac, reflective and very funny.’ TLS

‘Highly engaging’ Independent

‘Funny and moving...Few [memoirs] are written with as much skill and sensitivity as this one. Moving without being mawkish, Hastings’s book is a trove of marvellous stories’ Sunday Times

‘This brave and poignant book is the self-portrait of an extremely talented outsider who has spent his life trying to live up to his father’s achievements. It is also the emotional journey of a son’s heart-rending non-relationship with his mother.’ Daily Telegraph

‘In this slim, delightful book [Hastings] reveals himself as never before.’ Andrew Marr, FT

‘A brilliantly entertaining book, full of funny, well-told stories.’ Scotsman

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperPress
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0007271719
• ISBN 13: 9780007271719
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278