Bright Side

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The New Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 85 Years Old is his diary for 2015 detailing his life in a care home in Amsterdam. This book follows on from The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 ¼ Years Old, which was his 2013 diary. Hendrik did NOT publish a diary for 2014. This book can be read as a stand-alone and covers similar ground to the first book. I will start by saying that I am not the biggest fan of biographies - of any kind. Yes there are numerous ones out there and no doubt covering off some of heroes and other fascinating people but at some point or other I feel they descend in to name dropping narcissistic demonstration of why they are famous and you are not.

Bright Side by Monica Parpal, Kim Holden | Waterstones

Immediately, there’s a chemistry that comes alive between them. Kate tries to suppress her intensifying feelings for him, but the more she gets to know him, the more she falls for everything about him. He’s smart, funny, caring, but also a bit of a mystery. The truth is, both Keller and Kate are keeping secrets. The kind of secrets that can change everything. “My life will not follow a fairy tale, and that’s okay. My life is reality. And in my reality people don’t fall in love and get married and live happily ever after, because life is complicated. And messy.” As you can tell from the title, the main achievement of his was the song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life that he wrote for Monty Pythons’ Life of Brian. It has become a part of life around the world. It is the number one piece played at funerals in the UK, for example. Sports fans sing it loud when their team is losing. What would Spamalot have been without it? It’s the Greensleeves of the 21st century. I must say, I’ve never been one for clubs but if I’m fortunate enough to get to the ripe old age of 86 or thereabouts, I would absolutely jump at the chance to join the Old-But-Not-Dead Club. Their sheer determination to keep living life to the fullest does really prove that age is nothing but a number as they keep broadening their horizons, stay active as best as they can, laugh and have a good time.

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The first, and only truly difficult step, is to become famous. I’m not talking about the clichéd 15 minutes of fame here. That may be good for couch time on Good Morning America, but not a full length book. I think the bar for celebrity renown probably needs to be set high enough to appear on Saturday Night Live. Short of that, sales would be meager. Note that I’m excluding politicians and other infamous figures in this analysis since their memoirs are of a different sort. Of course, Eric Idle is a pretty recognizable name, at least among those old enough to know Monty Python. And he did host SNL several times. Eric grew up hating Christmas as his father survived WWII but On Christmas eve 1945 was killed outside Darlington. For those of you not familiar with Hendrik, he's now 85 years old and lives in a care home in Amsterdam, where he's one of the founding members of the Old But Not Dead Club! They're a determined bunch, arranging day trips and sampling fine dining at various themed restaurants, amongst other things. They also cause mayhem within their care home, resulting in some hilarious moments. Hendrik and his friend Evert are akin to a pair of naughty schoolboys - the proverbial pain in the posterior of the care home manager. Evert doesn't care what others think of him, and comes out with the most outrageous ( though amusing ) comments. Hendrik on the other hand has a more gentle, caring side, and displays a charm that's something of a rarity today. He's made a pledge to be more assertive but he remains a thoughtful, giving person and he and Evert complement each other perfectly.

Bright Side by Kim Holden - AbeBooks Bright Side by Kim Holden - AbeBooks

The getting soaked while filming The Holy Grail, trying to sign coconuts & John Leaving to make ghastly TV series about boring Hotel manger which all thought sound ghastly. If you love Python, or saw the title of this book and began to whistle, or just know him as the guy from the Figment ride at DisneyWorld, you can’t go wrong with this one. It’s entertaining, hilarious, and insightful. Highly recommended. When I was given the opportunity to read this sequel to The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83¼ Years Old I hurried to read the first book before I embarked on the second. Wondering now whether the second would work as a stand-alone I am inclined to think it would but a great deal of the poignancy of Hendrik’s story would suffer. When On the Bright Side opens, one of his friends has died and one is suffering from dementia and has been moved to a different part of the home. His friendships with both continue to be very important to him and that doesn’t quite come across in the sequel. Nor do the experiences he has already shared with the other members of the Old But Not Dead club. Read the first one first is my advice. Basically, it's everything you could want from a celebrity tell all, and yet LOVELY. I can only think of one story that is unflattering to anyone (*cough*Deeprak Chopra is a prat*cough*). Instead Idle writes with love, with kindness, with admiration, and above all with humor, about the people and events that have shaped his life. He freely admits to his own mistakes, he brushes aside his own jealousies and frustrations in favor of telling the story that will make the reader smile, laugh, and even tear up. (I have never cared one way or the other about George Harrison, but I was ugly crying at the gym over his tribute to him.) It's really difficult to say too much about the story without giving much away; it's written in a funny, yet touching and moving way. It is insightful into the life of many elderly people, and although I'm quite a long way off retirement, it does make you ponder slightly about your future care and of your parents/grandparents.Hendrik and his friends are still keen to have as much fun as they can manage given their advanced years and infirmity, and I found their camaraderie and exploits endearing. “Stop spending so much time studying life’s instruction manual. Just do it!! Yes, you may fall down a few times, but so long as you get up again, you’ll be ahead of where you were.” Hendrik writes with humour, insight and charm about often painful subjects - quite an achievement - and hints that his next project is to be a novel, I can’t wait for its publication. Having said that, this isn’t a sad story. I knew very little about much of Idle’s fame. For me, the Pythons were a troupe and I didn’t know much about any of them individually. They always seemed funniest when together, a chemical reaction that brought lightness into a dark world. Monty Python and the Holy Grail, their earlier movie, has always been my favorite, but learning just how many famous people befriended Idle has a way of making an aspiring writer jealous. The world loves people who can make you laugh. His description of Graham Chapman’s death was heartfelt, as was his writing of non-Python’s George Harrison. Idle survives as people he knows die. Robin Williams, another fallen comrade. While reading this book new of Terry Jones’ death hit the news. Trivia - "His (David Frost’s) unexpected call to John Cleese in New York asking him to be on The Frost Report secured John’s future in television, away from his mother’s ambitions to make him manager of a Weston-super-Mare Marks & Spencer. Grocery’s loss was comedy’s gain. Frostie gave all of us great jobs as writers on his new BBC TV show, for which we remained highly ungrateful. This is just what I needed after a year in a global pandemic and I’m sure many people have been feeling the same these past 12 months! From many weeks of isolation and stressors in the world it has been nice to escape reality to read about other people’s lives. However this is not a depressing read and Cathrin brings humour all the way. After reading this book I actually felt quite lifted and grateful for the life I live! It’s not very often I read a book and find myself laughing out load, but this certainly did it for me. Funny highlights for me were Cathrin’s two ageing parents in their 90’s and her description of the quirky electrics in her house. I think what makes it so great is that Cathrin’s writing is very believable.