Synopsis
In 1952, a young Australian stepped off a ferry in Dover with dreams of being a famous portrait painter like his grandfather. He too could paint, but also play the piano, write songs, ride a bike with no hands and swim 110 metres backstroke in 80 seconds flat. If Rolf Harris seems to have been with us for ever, that's because he has. After nearly 50 years on stage and screen, he is one of the most loved, respected and enduring figures in British showbusiness. He was there at the very beginning of television in the UK and is still there. And although he calls himself "a lucky amateur", millions would disagree. We have grown up watching him draw cartoons, paint big pictures, wobble his board and talk to animals and their owners. Now, in his autobiography, Rolf Harris charts his rise from the dusty streets of Bassendean in Western Australia to becoming a household name on both sides of the world. Along the way there are triumphs and disasters, revelations and regrets. He has worked with the likes of Tony Hancock and Woody Allen, jousted with John Lennon and had the Beatles singing "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" with their own lyrics. Thirty years later he was voted the most popular act ever at Glastonbury and had 86,000 people screaming his name. Reborn as a rock singer and award-winning television presenter, Rolf Harris was labelled by one newspaper the "Ultimate Renaissance Man". In reality, he is proof positive that if you live long enough, real talent will give you more than one bite at the cherry.
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Review
Rolf Harris is loved by millions. Reading his autobiography Can You Tell What It Is Yet? will show you exactly why. Tracing his life path from humble beginnings in a Perth suburb, Rolf Harris takes his reader along a journey of wonder towards his 71st achievement-packed year. Songwriter, comic, superb artist (and no we don't mean just cartoons), Harris has nestled in the a heart of his adopted nation by turning his creative brush to any subject... for his talent is not cold artistry and craftmanship, instead his appeal is as one of the people, his empathy channelling his emotion to all around. Here is a man who, while many might think of retirement, has enjoyed a renaissance as the host of the BBC's Animal Hospital. For once the "personality" is not an overstatement; contained within Can You Tell What It Is Yet? is the same easy style and disarming honestly which is the cornerstone of Rolf's screen secret success. Even so all the regular provisos of the celebrity biography are here. He (like many others) had a brush with the Beatles--but not everyone burst into their dressing room and gave them what for!
More valuable, in fact, is the way the reader discovers, page by page, that Rolf "does exactly what he says on the tin". Yes, famous names are included but it his family that influences him most. There is a conscience here that wrestles priorities given to work over homelife, there are regrets over mistakes made long ago with regard to his wife and daughter Bindi. Don't get the wrong idea, though--Harris is one who avoided scandal and sensation. The success of Can You Tell What It Is Yet? lies in the writer's ability to tell the small stories well. Just as Harris succeeds in bringing the Animal Hospital tales come alive in his questions, so he pulls the reader into his own private world. It is a story most will identify with, and as such may just hold the power to make you laugh--and cry.---Helen Lamont.
Review
At one time, Bob Monkhouse was derided as the worst kind of smarmy, lightweight family entertainer. His reinvention as a cult figure for the young came about through his canny tailoring of his material for a new audience. Rolf Harris is similarly enjoying a popularity with an audience that once would have rejected him, but this is almost entirely due to the naffness of his image. His new admirers are laughing at him, rather than with him. Nevertheless, there is no gainsaying the entertainer's longevity, and being slightly skilled at a whole variety of things (painting, singing, etc.) has ensured that he has never been out of work. For those who can take the cloying aspects of the entertainer (in everything from the nauseating Two Little Boys up to Animal Hospital), this is a frank and diverting autobiography, reminding us that Harris worked with such stellar company as Tony Hancock, Woody Allen and John Lennon. The style is standard for this kind of memoir, and whether or not Rolf is the ultimate Renaissance man as his publishers claim, this is definitely the work of a survivor.
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