ReadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2025

Seriously Silly

The Life of Terry Jones (the authorised biography)

Robert Ross author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Hodder & Stoughton

Published:6th Nov '25

Should be back in stock very soon

Seriously Silly cover

'An affectionate biography of the polymath includes details of never-produced gems such as Monty Python's Third World War... As an adoring account of the career of one of the men who ran away to join the Flying Circus, it could hardly be bettered'
- Guardian

'Very readable...Ross writes beautifully and unsentimentally...there are factoids
that even big Python fans may not know'
-The Times

'Comedy historian Robert Ross has achieved the impossible, sort of, with all of the surviving Pythons contributing to his new biography on the late Terry Jones.'
- Daily Express
'it provides an extraordinary glimpse into not only Terry's life but the early days of the Pythons'
- Daily Mirror


'This book is timely. I hope it will send people back to his work, whether it be films he's directed, roles he's played ... and everything else that made him everybody's favourite polymath.'
MICHAEL PALIN

'He reminded me of somebody out of a children's story. Out of one of his children's stories. Or out of the children's literature he loved so much' TERRY GILLIAM

'My finest time with Terry was playing Ratty to his Toad in his movie of The Wind in the Willows, which he also wrote and directed, and indeed for the rest of his life we emailed each other as 'Ratty' and 'Toady''
ERIC IDLE








'My finest time with Terry was playing Ratty to his Toad in his movie of The Wind in the Willows, which he also wrote and directed, and indeed for the rest of his life we emailed each other as 'Ratty' and 'Toady'' Eric Idle

Seriously Silly is an intimate portrait of Terry Jones - Python, actor, director, historian, reluctant national treasure and purveyor of sincere silliness - written by the man he chose to tell the story of his life.

From his Welsh upbringing in Colwyn Bay, to meeting his lifelong friend Michael Palin at Oxford through revue sketches, anarchic children's shows and the creative genius of Monty Python, this is the story of a comedy legend. Throughout this journey, Terry's extraordinary determination and resilience shine through, not least in his final years...

This book is timely. I hope it will send people back to his work, whether it be films he's directed, roles he's played . . . and everything else that made him everybody's favourite polymath. -- Michael Palin

ISBN: 9781399742917

Dimensions: 236mm x 160mm x 38mm

Weight: 630g

384 pages