A Pocketful of Python, Vol. 1 - Hardcover

This is a gift-book, a present suitable for anyone who won't be put off by the picture of a plump and frankly naked Terry Jones on the cover or the image of Jones as the enormous Mr Creosote from the Meaning of Life film on the back. Terry Gilliam provides a preface in which he describes Jones as "a great wobbly sack" with many "interesting orifices" and Jones himself reveals the secret of Python script-writing to reside in the curries they ate together. The minuteness of the book is presumably a deliberate touch to offset all this obesity. In the book itself we are given two dozen of the best sketches and bits from the books, lavishly illustrated. It's always a joy to see "Spam" or "Constitutional Peasants" from Holy Grail, although the true fan who yearns for the Dead Parrot or Dinsdale and his enormous hedgehog will want to buy, or will already possess Monty Python's Flying Circus: Just The Words Vol 1 and Monty Python's Flying Circus: Just The Words Vol 2. On the other hand, we might want to argue that the very quirkiness of this gesture, this tiny but beautifully produced book that by necessity omits most of Python, is somehow quintessentially Pythonesque. --Adam Roberts