Absolute Pandemonium The Autobiography

There's no one quite like Brian Blessed: actor, storyteller, mountaineer and coffin-maker. In this frank, riotous memoir he recalls his childhood in a Yorkshire mining town, his breakthrough on Z-Cars, falling for Katharine Hepburn, raising hell with Peter O'Toole, meeting the love of his life, the actress Hildegard Neil – and punching Harold Pinter down a flight of stairs. ‘No long dramatic pauses this time, Harold; he got one right on the side of the jaw. Wham!â€

Brian Blessed grew up in Goldthorpe, Yorkshire, and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His television appearances include Z-Cars, Boy Dominic, I, Claudius, Cold Comfort Farm, The Little World of Don Camillo, Blackadder, My Family and Other Animals, The History of Tom Jones and Peppa Pig. His films include The Trojan Women, Flash Gordon, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, As You Like It, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Brian is also an explorer and mountaineer. He became the oldest man to reach the North Magnetic Pole on foot in 1999 and to reach 28,000 feet of Everest without oxygen. He lives in Surrey with his wife, Hildegard Neil. This is his sixth book.