The Spamalot Diaries

The Spamalot Diaries is Eric Idle's wonky and often moderately humorous recollections surrounding the writing/staging/&production, bringing Monty Python's Holy Grail to Broadway. Released 8th Oct 2024 by Crown Publishing, it's 208 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

This is, chiefly, a well-edited transcription of Mr. Idle's diaries from the time when he and the other chief agents were working to get the project off the ground. It's amazing how much serendipity, happenstance, and sweat is involved in bringing any creative project to fruition, if this one is anything to go by. 

There are behind-the-scenes stories aplenty as well as his interpretations and "as recollected by" dialogue interspersed between the diary entries.

Four stars. It's an interesting book, not screamingly funny, but definitely worth a look, especially for fans of the author, of Spamalot, and of the original Python troupe. It would be a good choice for public or secondary school library acquisition, as well as for home reading.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.