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Alexei Sayle's autobiography #1
Stalin Ate My Homework
Alexei knew he was doomed to be different the day he was taken to see Sergei Eisentein's Alexander Nevsky instead of Walt Disney's Bambi. Born on the day that egg rationing came to an end, Alexei grew up with his parents and the Soviet Weekly. Each year they holidayed in Eastern Europe, where they were shown round locomotive factories and the sites of Nazi atrocities. Very funny and (almost) stranger than Alexei's fiction, this is a memoir about how Liverpool, Communism and a mother that his teachers were frighted of, made him want to leave home and make people laugh.
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2010
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635 people want to read
About the author
Alexei Sayle
33Ìýbooks66ÌýfollowersAlexei Sayle is an English stand-up comedian, actor, author and former recording artist, and was a central figure in the British alternative comedy movement in the 1980s.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 119 reviews
January 30, 2017
Alexei Sayle certainly had a very odd upbringing and has turned into a comedian I like but a person whose opinions I have little respect for. Like Russel Brand, he seems to think that his ability as a comedian to amuse gives him the stature to pronounce on political and current events with the authority that seeks to persuade us - the ignorant masses. Wankers both.
Whether it was his upbringing, personality or appearance (which Sayle seems to think it was at least partly), he never fitted in and this book is in part a retelling of all the times in school and out, in every social venture and with women, he was on the outside trying to force his way in and rarely succeeding. I really felt for him at times but then he's a comedian playing on people's emotions, was this all really true?
The book is interesting from the perspective of how a family equally and totally committed to Communism and holidaying abroad lived their lives. When Sayle got an interview at art college, the only college who offered him even that much, his mother went since Sayle was going abroad on holiday and that was sacrosanct in his family. (She got accepted, although it was Sayle that turned up first day of college!)
By far the most interesting person in the book is his mother. A loud, hot-tempered, red-headed woman from a very poor and Orthodox Jewish family who married a much older atheist Communist railway worker and became the toast of the young in the era of the Beatles and hippies. I'd love to read a book about her.
___________
Notes on reading the book
Whether it was his upbringing, personality or appearance (which Sayle seems to think it was at least partly), he never fitted in and this book is in part a retelling of all the times in school and out, in every social venture and with women, he was on the outside trying to force his way in and rarely succeeding. I really felt for him at times but then he's a comedian playing on people's emotions, was this all really true?
The book is interesting from the perspective of how a family equally and totally committed to Communism and holidaying abroad lived their lives. When Sayle got an interview at art college, the only college who offered him even that much, his mother went since Sayle was going abroad on holiday and that was sacrosanct in his family. (She got accepted, although it was Sayle that turned up first day of college!)
By far the most interesting person in the book is his mother. A loud, hot-tempered, red-headed woman from a very poor and Orthodox Jewish family who married a much older atheist Communist railway worker and became the toast of the young in the era of the Beatles and hippies. I'd love to read a book about her.
___________
Notes on reading the book
June 1, 2016
3 1/2 stars. Fabulous title, great narrator, mixed reading experience. I listened to this one on audio and very much listened to it like I listen to the radio -- paying attention to some parts, thoughts drifting elsewhere, and focusing back to some interesting tidbit. Alexei Sayle grew up as an only child in Liverpool in the late 1950s and 1960s. His parents were communists, and remained loyal to the party well after Stalin's atrocities began to become known. Stalin Ate my Homework is Sayle's memoir of his childhood and adolescence. Much of his memoir is light hearted and humorous -- focusing on the effect of the disconnect between his parents' world view and the world he lived in. There is no trauma here nor is there earth shattering insight. Growing up as the son of communists in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s was clearly not what it was in the US -- there were many fellow travellers, and Sayle and his family had quite a social life amongst various groups and organizations. Sayle made the best of his quirky childhood and adolescence, and speaks of his parents with real fondness. I found some of it funny and entertaining, and some of it felt like a bit more of the same. Sayle narrates the book himself and I must confess that my very favourite part was Sayle's Liverpool accent -- he could have read a shopping list for eight hours, and I still probably would have listened to it to the end.
January 23, 2016
There’s a lot in this book that makes me feel that my life has moved in parallel with Alexei Sayle’s, at least for the first 20 years. He was born a mere 9 months after me and raised in the Anfield area of Liverpool. At the same time I was sampling life as it is lived in Netherton, a 7 miles due north.
I expect the first decade of our lives were quite different. The young Sayle’s character was formed by the profound experience of growing up in a Communist Party household, governed by the dominant personality of his Jewish scouse mother and rather more laid back railwayman and NUR activist father. The best I can say about the politics of my home is that my dad hated the Harolds Macmillan and Wilson with equal vehemence, though for reasons probably connected with his own alcoholism, seem to have a soft spot for the falling-down-drunk George Brown.
If our paths ever crossed in those early years it might have been whilst clutching our mother’s hands in the shopping street of Walton Vale where a big Woolies (I think it was) drew in the housewives from far afield. If we ever came face to face as maybe 6 year olds in the vicinity of ladies' lingerie we didn't stop to introduce ourselves.
Alexei has a lot of very funny and often quite surreal things to say abut his family's summer hoidays, which might have been the subject of one of those avant garde films that were the staple of the East Europe film industry in the 'sixties. They were very different from mine. Following their Stalinist dreams, the Sayles set off every year to the sort of exotic locations that were advertised in the classified columns of the Daily Worker, spiced up with adventures in the other workers� paradises. Our few trips outside of Liverpool were always limited to nearby North Wales � a caravan in Llangollen or a seafront hotel in Rhyl.
Whatever he says about the shortcomings of his reasoning faculties, Sayle minor was at least smart enough to have passed the 11-plus. I wasn’t, and life determined that I should attend the local secondary modern whilst Alexei basked in the privileged sunshine of a grammar school. In terms of working class credibiity, that's one up for me....
But despite that our dispositions and outlooks on life might have destined us to be friends for at least a fleeting moment (like Sayle, I recall passionate friendships that were only ever fleeting). Another sign of our similarities seems to have been our attitude to football. Sometime in the mid-sixties it seems that we were both doing what every scouse lad was required to do, which was pick his team and bind himself to it with total fervour. For a couple of years I was a regular at both Liverpool and Everton home games, wondering why bonding to one or the other was more drawn out than it should have been.
How many times did our paths cross during that time, in the queues for the Goodison Boys Pen, or a place on the Kop? But whilst the hero of the book never took the step towards finalised footy commitment, a season admiring Alex Young and the induction of the youthful Howard Kendall, Colin Harvey and Alan Ball into the Blues made a Toffeeman out of me (that an the incredible come back in the �66 cup final when we scored three goals in the last 15 minutes to beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2).
Politics and the pubs around Leece and Hardman Streets ought to have brought us together. During the years around 1968-70 I, like Sayle, was a habitué of The Phil, O’Connors and The Crack. Surely at some point we stood side by side in a toilet stall, ruminating on how you never buy the stuff, just rent it. But we would have soon argued, because by this time Alexei was a Maoist, and I was a Trot.
I certainly recall Ian Williams, the local leader of the Communist Party of Britain (M-L), apparently a significant mentor to Comrade Sayle. I had been dispatched by my favoured group, the International Socialists, to have a chat with him about the possibility of support for a united left venture being considered around that time � the launch of a left wing monthly for the city of Liverpool which eventually came out as Big Flame. Williams was clearly insane and I was glad when he pooh-poohed the idea as unworthy of the attention of his sect. Strange � or perhaps not so � that he appeared years later as the very mainstream Labour New Statesman journalist urging the party establishment to trash the city’s powerful Militant current�..
Did we ever meet, Alexei and me, down on the Pier Head maybe, during the many demonstrations aimed at killing Barbara Castle’s ‘In Place of Strife� white paper? Or at the university student union, on that day when we piled onto coaches to get across to the ‘Stop the Boks� demo in Manchester to protest against the apartheid rugby team’s tour? (This being the first of several politically motivated riots and joyously endorsed during those heady years�..)
Again, more parallelism as we both reached a point where Liverpool was no longer big enough to contain our ambitions and the bright lights of London beckoned. By this time it appears Sayle’s lone wolf personality was in danger of becoming monomaniacal and he found no easy route to get him down the M6/M1 to the capital. Or at least when he did, the trauma of having to contend with the person he was got him back home again pretty sharpish.
For me it was easy. I jumped on a train and headed off to enrol on a sociology course at North London Poly. Alexei stayed behind a bit longer to do a bit or drawing at a Liverpool art college. I embraced new families, all intent on building the revolutionary party that Lenin would really have approved of 200 miles away.
Then � just how much later? � we finally did find ourselves in the same room. Pokey it was, a sub-division of the unsavoury Raymond Revue Bar in Soho. Alexei was on stage as the compere of a show that glittered with then unknown names, but which went on to dominate TV comedy schedules throughout the 1980s. He was brilliant � a scouse communist Jew comedian to his core � everything I had always wanted to be in fact�..
I expect the first decade of our lives were quite different. The young Sayle’s character was formed by the profound experience of growing up in a Communist Party household, governed by the dominant personality of his Jewish scouse mother and rather more laid back railwayman and NUR activist father. The best I can say about the politics of my home is that my dad hated the Harolds Macmillan and Wilson with equal vehemence, though for reasons probably connected with his own alcoholism, seem to have a soft spot for the falling-down-drunk George Brown.
If our paths ever crossed in those early years it might have been whilst clutching our mother’s hands in the shopping street of Walton Vale where a big Woolies (I think it was) drew in the housewives from far afield. If we ever came face to face as maybe 6 year olds in the vicinity of ladies' lingerie we didn't stop to introduce ourselves.
Alexei has a lot of very funny and often quite surreal things to say abut his family's summer hoidays, which might have been the subject of one of those avant garde films that were the staple of the East Europe film industry in the 'sixties. They were very different from mine. Following their Stalinist dreams, the Sayles set off every year to the sort of exotic locations that were advertised in the classified columns of the Daily Worker, spiced up with adventures in the other workers� paradises. Our few trips outside of Liverpool were always limited to nearby North Wales � a caravan in Llangollen or a seafront hotel in Rhyl.
Whatever he says about the shortcomings of his reasoning faculties, Sayle minor was at least smart enough to have passed the 11-plus. I wasn’t, and life determined that I should attend the local secondary modern whilst Alexei basked in the privileged sunshine of a grammar school. In terms of working class credibiity, that's one up for me....
But despite that our dispositions and outlooks on life might have destined us to be friends for at least a fleeting moment (like Sayle, I recall passionate friendships that were only ever fleeting). Another sign of our similarities seems to have been our attitude to football. Sometime in the mid-sixties it seems that we were both doing what every scouse lad was required to do, which was pick his team and bind himself to it with total fervour. For a couple of years I was a regular at both Liverpool and Everton home games, wondering why bonding to one or the other was more drawn out than it should have been.
How many times did our paths cross during that time, in the queues for the Goodison Boys Pen, or a place on the Kop? But whilst the hero of the book never took the step towards finalised footy commitment, a season admiring Alex Young and the induction of the youthful Howard Kendall, Colin Harvey and Alan Ball into the Blues made a Toffeeman out of me (that an the incredible come back in the �66 cup final when we scored three goals in the last 15 minutes to beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-2).
Politics and the pubs around Leece and Hardman Streets ought to have brought us together. During the years around 1968-70 I, like Sayle, was a habitué of The Phil, O’Connors and The Crack. Surely at some point we stood side by side in a toilet stall, ruminating on how you never buy the stuff, just rent it. But we would have soon argued, because by this time Alexei was a Maoist, and I was a Trot.
I certainly recall Ian Williams, the local leader of the Communist Party of Britain (M-L), apparently a significant mentor to Comrade Sayle. I had been dispatched by my favoured group, the International Socialists, to have a chat with him about the possibility of support for a united left venture being considered around that time � the launch of a left wing monthly for the city of Liverpool which eventually came out as Big Flame. Williams was clearly insane and I was glad when he pooh-poohed the idea as unworthy of the attention of his sect. Strange � or perhaps not so � that he appeared years later as the very mainstream Labour New Statesman journalist urging the party establishment to trash the city’s powerful Militant current�..
Did we ever meet, Alexei and me, down on the Pier Head maybe, during the many demonstrations aimed at killing Barbara Castle’s ‘In Place of Strife� white paper? Or at the university student union, on that day when we piled onto coaches to get across to the ‘Stop the Boks� demo in Manchester to protest against the apartheid rugby team’s tour? (This being the first of several politically motivated riots and joyously endorsed during those heady years�..)
Again, more parallelism as we both reached a point where Liverpool was no longer big enough to contain our ambitions and the bright lights of London beckoned. By this time it appears Sayle’s lone wolf personality was in danger of becoming monomaniacal and he found no easy route to get him down the M6/M1 to the capital. Or at least when he did, the trauma of having to contend with the person he was got him back home again pretty sharpish.
For me it was easy. I jumped on a train and headed off to enrol on a sociology course at North London Poly. Alexei stayed behind a bit longer to do a bit or drawing at a Liverpool art college. I embraced new families, all intent on building the revolutionary party that Lenin would really have approved of 200 miles away.
Then � just how much later? � we finally did find ourselves in the same room. Pokey it was, a sub-division of the unsavoury Raymond Revue Bar in Soho. Alexei was on stage as the compere of a show that glittered with then unknown names, but which went on to dominate TV comedy schedules throughout the 1980s. He was brilliant � a scouse communist Jew comedian to his core � everything I had always wanted to be in fact�..
November 11, 2021
I found this audio book interesting � not as a biography of a comedian (as it never really got to the career in comedy) � but as the childhood of a boy growing up in England in the 60s in a devoutly Communist family. I liked it as a historical comment on Communism in Britain and on Liverpool city at the time for children and young people.
Apart from the strange (for Britain) ideology of his parents, his was a most unusual childhood: Communist sponsored holidays in the Eastern bloc (at a time when few families ventured abroad), a mother who terrified everyone she met, and an amiable father who blithely believed that every train would wait for him.
Alexei Sayle comes across as a precocious, not particularly likeable, child, who was adored by his mother. There were signs of growing maturity � in his interactions with other people, and with his later occasional questioning of his parents� beliefs.
Over all, an interesting book, but not riveting.
Apart from the strange (for Britain) ideology of his parents, his was a most unusual childhood: Communist sponsored holidays in the Eastern bloc (at a time when few families ventured abroad), a mother who terrified everyone she met, and an amiable father who blithely believed that every train would wait for him.
Alexei Sayle comes across as a precocious, not particularly likeable, child, who was adored by his mother. There were signs of growing maturity � in his interactions with other people, and with his later occasional questioning of his parents� beliefs.
Over all, an interesting book, but not riveting.
April 28, 2024
Alexei Sayle is a cult comedian in the UK, known for acerbic rants and left wing views. He clearly had a very odd childhood as the only child of a couple of fervent communists.
As an example eight year old Alexei gets to go see Eisensteins classic film Alexander Nevsky whilst his mates see Bambi.
His father was a railwayman and the family used their free rail pass to travel around Europe at a time when that was rare for working class Brits (this is the 60s). On one trip Alexei manages to get enrolled in the Hungarian Young Pioneers as an honorary member - his dad was great at inveigling hospitality from the local trades union or Communist functionaries, as was only befitting for "typical" representatives of the UK working classes.
Laugh out loud - worth a read
As an example eight year old Alexei gets to go see Eisensteins classic film Alexander Nevsky whilst his mates see Bambi.
His father was a railwayman and the family used their free rail pass to travel around Europe at a time when that was rare for working class Brits (this is the 60s). On one trip Alexei manages to get enrolled in the Hungarian Young Pioneers as an honorary member - his dad was great at inveigling hospitality from the local trades union or Communist functionaries, as was only befitting for "typical" representatives of the UK working classes.
Laugh out loud - worth a read
April 25, 2011
Nobody my age grew up without Alexei Sayle appearing somewhere in their memories, whether it be as the landlord (and various family members) in The Young Ones, or in The Comic Strip, his own sketch shows, or even just for the “Ullo John got a new motor?!� song that spawned the “Ullo Tosh Got A Toshiba� advert (sung by the fab Ian Dury if my memory serves me right).
We all loved him for his big bald head, big shouty rants, too-short trouser suits and far left-wingism in the Thatcher years.
This autobiography covers his early years in the 50s and 60s, growing up in Anfield, Liverpool as the son of a couple of members of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
His childhood was anything but typical of the time. Eg; due to their ‘Party� connections, and their free rail travel due to his dad’s jobs, the Sayles used to embark on many foreign trips, which were almost unheard of amongst their peers. These weren’t the relaxing summer holidays that we think of today but trips to various communist blocks.
I actually got this as an unabridged audiobook, as narrated by the author himself, which meant that we were treated to his impression of his flame-haired Jewish, screeching mother Molly. From shouting at all the neighbours, accusing them of everything including turning the taps on just when they knew she needed the water to hiding copies of the Socialist Worker in people’s coat pockets or even going to his art school entrance interview for him, her antics provide huge laughs throughout the book.
Although politics and communism are rife throughout the book, it is more the effect of growing up in that environment than about the politics themselves. Do NOT miss out on this book because you think it’s political and will therefore be boring. It’s brilliant � I loved every chapter (and it was almost 9 hours of listening!)
We all loved him for his big bald head, big shouty rants, too-short trouser suits and far left-wingism in the Thatcher years.
This autobiography covers his early years in the 50s and 60s, growing up in Anfield, Liverpool as the son of a couple of members of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
His childhood was anything but typical of the time. Eg; due to their ‘Party� connections, and their free rail travel due to his dad’s jobs, the Sayles used to embark on many foreign trips, which were almost unheard of amongst their peers. These weren’t the relaxing summer holidays that we think of today but trips to various communist blocks.
I actually got this as an unabridged audiobook, as narrated by the author himself, which meant that we were treated to his impression of his flame-haired Jewish, screeching mother Molly. From shouting at all the neighbours, accusing them of everything including turning the taps on just when they knew she needed the water to hiding copies of the Socialist Worker in people’s coat pockets or even going to his art school entrance interview for him, her antics provide huge laughs throughout the book.
Although politics and communism are rife throughout the book, it is more the effect of growing up in that environment than about the politics themselves. Do NOT miss out on this book because you think it’s political and will therefore be boring. It’s brilliant � I loved every chapter (and it was almost 9 hours of listening!)
September 5, 2016
Sayle's memoir of growing up in Liverpool during the Fifties and Sixties as the son of ardent Communists is funny until he reaches his teenage years. Then his surly and crude behavior can only be described as loutish and the book loses its charm. It is worthy of a weak Three Stars.
May 13, 2020
Alexei Sayle, the Jewish, Liverpudlian comic, shares what it was like to grow up in the 50s and 60s in Liverpool, being the only son of near-eccentric parents who happen to be fully involved Communists. A very different biography compared to the other comedians that I have read, giving quite a lot of insight to the Alexei Sayle that rose to fame in the 1980s. 6 out of 12
November 25, 2013
When I was a child, I was taken to Florence and Venice for holdidays. Instead of spending time on beaches like all my friends did, I spent my holidays in churches and museums. Alexei Sayle, author of , was in a similar position. When his friends were watching Disney films, he had to watch Eisenstein. His holidays were mostly spent behind the 'Iron Curtain'. Both he and I now appreciate the unusual natures of our upbringings.
Sayle's childhood was particularly interesting because he was brought up by earnest British Communist Party members, who indoctrinated him in their beliefs. He accepts these to a large extent but realises that this set him apart from his fellow school pupils.
This book, an account of Sayle's childhood, has many funny moments but it is paced too slowly to get me 'rolling in the aisles'. It is not as funny as I believe that both the author and his publishers hoped it would be. It does, however, open an idiosyncratic window into the history of British communism in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s.
Only read this book if you are a quick reader!
Sayle's childhood was particularly interesting because he was brought up by earnest British Communist Party members, who indoctrinated him in their beliefs. He accepts these to a large extent but realises that this set him apart from his fellow school pupils.
This book, an account of Sayle's childhood, has many funny moments but it is paced too slowly to get me 'rolling in the aisles'. It is not as funny as I believe that both the author and his publishers hoped it would be. It does, however, open an idiosyncratic window into the history of British communism in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s.
Only read this book if you are a quick reader!
April 30, 2016
In which Alexei Sayle finally answers the question from the opening credits of ‘Alexei Sayle’s Stuff�: Who is that fat bastard?
The answer, as it turns out, is that he’s a child of two Scouse Communists; hardly a surprise if you’re remotely familiar with him. His childhood’s within living memory but seems absolutely bizarre; all the clichéd pleasures you’d expect of growing up in the 1950s and 60s are eschewed mainly due to being ideologically tainted. Instead Bambi and The Beatles are replaces by Eisenstein and the Red Army choirs; it’s almost like a foreign enclave within our own country. It’s also strange to read of his experiences of Eastern Europe, a feat made easy by his father’s profession as a railway official giving them free transport and their political leanings. He’s very self-deprecating and self-critical throughout, although never less than engaging as it’s all hidden behind the veneer of one-liners of the sort which punctuated Stuff. A snapshot of the 1950s and 1960s through a red-tinted fairground mirror.
The answer, as it turns out, is that he’s a child of two Scouse Communists; hardly a surprise if you’re remotely familiar with him. His childhood’s within living memory but seems absolutely bizarre; all the clichéd pleasures you’d expect of growing up in the 1950s and 60s are eschewed mainly due to being ideologically tainted. Instead Bambi and The Beatles are replaces by Eisenstein and the Red Army choirs; it’s almost like a foreign enclave within our own country. It’s also strange to read of his experiences of Eastern Europe, a feat made easy by his father’s profession as a railway official giving them free transport and their political leanings. He’s very self-deprecating and self-critical throughout, although never less than engaging as it’s all hidden behind the veneer of one-liners of the sort which punctuated Stuff. A snapshot of the 1950s and 1960s through a red-tinted fairground mirror.
January 5, 2012
I don't think I'd read anything by Sayle before; I remember him from the 1980s as the landlord in The Young Ones and also memorably playing a radio disc-jockey in a funeral home which turns out to be run by Daleks, but I'm not sure I was even all that familiar with his standup routines. In this book he recounts the story of his childhood and adolescence as the sole offspring of two Communist Party activists in Liverpool, the standard stories of growing up as a smart kid in a tough-ish neighbourhood interspersed with trips to Hungary and Czechoslovakia where they were feted by cabinet ministers. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, but mostly it is a wryly affectionate account, vividly depicting the strengths and weaknesses of each of the family members.
Of course, for those in their 20s and below, the idea of people actually dedicating themselves to a revolution to bring about Communism and rule from Moscow in Liverpool must seem vanishingly farfetched. (Sayle as a dissident teenager later attached himself to the followers of Mao and Enver Hoxha.) It's a fascinating reminder of a part of the political landscape which has been utterly (and, to be honest, rightly) buried by history.
January 30, 2016
What was it like to be a Jewish atheist Communist schoolboy in 1950's Liverpool? Read this book and find out! The Sayles owned their own home and holidayed in Europe every year - strictly on Communist business, of course. It all seems unreal and pretty comfortable, with their intellectual pretentions, travelling at a discount and being honoured guests of Czech and Hungarian governments. Unknowingly, the family was exactly what they most despised: middle class.
This book is not especially funny, but interesting and well-written.
This book is not especially funny, but interesting and well-written.
June 3, 2019
"The trouble with any kind of fundamentalist organisation" notes Sayle is "that it cannot be big on subtlety or nuance", it can however provide for a full and exciting formative life. "Stalin Ate My Homework" is actually a really good bit of social history. It covers Alexei Sayle's early life as the only child of a dedicated Soviet aligned working class couple. Anyone who was around in the pre 1990 Soviet scene will find themselves nodding, cringing and giggling at his observations of life dedicated to the Party and the struggle. The dedication of Sayle's parents though got him to some interesting places in the Soviet bloc and even into the Czechoslovak Young Pioneers. The book is a combination of reminiscences of growing up in working class Liverpool and exotic holidays by rail (his father was a rail worker so enjoyed international free travel) to see the joys of Really Existing Socialism. There is a good sense of the frustration of Party activists towards the conservatism of the Working Class, but also a sense of how in the 60s and 70s there was still a degree of struggle and organisation and consciousness that seems sadly lacking today. There are also nice observations of things of the time including Golden Egg restaurants which I had forgotten about but happy memories of which flooded back reading this. Unlike many teenagers who rebelled by embracing radical revolutionary politics for a few years, maybe just to annoy their parents, Sayle was in a quandary, his parents were political radicals which put his plans for teen rebellion into turmoil as he was not entirely opposed to such politics, seems he made do with Maoism for a while. Sayles fumblings with the opposite sex provide him with ammunition for viscous self depreciation, "At least in Mao's China young people were too busy destroying factories, stopping the traffic and beating their teachers to death to concern themselves with the bewildering complexity of human sexual relations." His descriptions of the Trotskyists and Maoist tendencies are hilarious (unless perhaps as he notes you were one of "most of the people on the left [who] wholeheartedly believed this stuff..."). This is actually a really good read and leagues ahead of your average comics desperate ramblings.
January 5, 2020
Just what you'd expect. And that's a good thing.
Someone on here tried to persuade me to read a self-published book called "a Bolshevik Christmas". I declined because it's January and a bit late for that sort of thing. So then I'm out running today, listening to this audiobook and there's a chapter in it that has almost the exact same title. Clearly destiny won't let me escape!
Someone on here tried to persuade me to read a self-published book called "a Bolshevik Christmas". I declined because it's January and a bit late for that sort of thing. So then I'm out running today, listening to this audiobook and there's a chapter in it that has almost the exact same title. Clearly destiny won't let me escape!
September 13, 2019
This was surprisingly educational; I learned quite a bit about the history of Communism in Britain, and what Liverpool and Czechoslovakia were like in the 50s and 60s, as well as enjoying Alexei Sayle's evocation of being a bolshy, melancholy teenager who kept getting embarrassed by his mum.
March 18, 2020
Great book - exceptionally humorous. I found it even more entertaining when read (in my head) with a scouse accent in the style of Alexei Sayle
August 2, 2023
What an interesting childhood! Loved hearing Alexei read it too.
September 26, 2023
Originally interested after Mark Steel and Kate Bryan both gave it glowing reviews on their episode of A Good Read.
Have really enjoyed his short story collections in the past, but got a lot less from this one. Some laughs along the way and great characters in his parents, but ultimately a little underwhelming. Maybe this is what happens when you only read 15 pages a month and leave the book in Leeds?
Have really enjoyed his short story collections in the past, but got a lot less from this one. Some laughs along the way and great characters in his parents, but ultimately a little underwhelming. Maybe this is what happens when you only read 15 pages a month and leave the book in Leeds?
October 2, 2011
Alexei Sayle's bittersweet memoir of a Communist Liverpudlian upbringing. Essentially a collection of vignettes comprising of events and memories loosely catalogued in chronological order.
In many respects, Stalin Ate My Homework is a tale of a boy and his parents. Joe � who worked on the railways and was a solid union man � and Molly � a foul mouthed red-haired firebrand who also spoke Yiddish. Although they were not the only Jewish atheist communist family in Liverpool, they were probably the most colourful.
The book is really an account of how comedian Alexi came to be. His childhood was one of ideological rigour coupled with a little bit of fun. This usually meant an outing to see Alexander Nevsky rather than the ideologically suspect Bambi, and regular visits across the iron curtain (often involving tours of factories or sites of Nazi atrocities).
As you might expect, every tale is accompanied by a joke and touch of surrealism. This is a good read. Recommended.
In many respects, Stalin Ate My Homework is a tale of a boy and his parents. Joe � who worked on the railways and was a solid union man � and Molly � a foul mouthed red-haired firebrand who also spoke Yiddish. Although they were not the only Jewish atheist communist family in Liverpool, they were probably the most colourful.
The book is really an account of how comedian Alexi came to be. His childhood was one of ideological rigour coupled with a little bit of fun. This usually meant an outing to see Alexander Nevsky rather than the ideologically suspect Bambi, and regular visits across the iron curtain (often involving tours of factories or sites of Nazi atrocities).
As you might expect, every tale is accompanied by a joke and touch of surrealism. This is a good read. Recommended.
April 5, 2014
Having parents who took me to 1980s Poland (just before martial law was declared in 1981!) and Czechoslovakia in 1982 this brought back many memories. Particularly the tour of the Heydrich assasination sites in Prague, although I found it more interesting than young Alexei...
My parents were not hard-core British Communist Party members, and this aspect of Alexei's upbringing I found particularly interesting, especially their responses to Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The book is slow in a number of places and I found the last 40 or so pages less interesting than the earlier ones, however this account of 1960s and 70s Britain reflects accurately some of the conflict and dogma that dominated the politics of the period.
Some non UK readers will find aspects less easy to follow, but UK readers should find some resonances with their lives in the 60s and 70s.
My parents were not hard-core British Communist Party members, and this aspect of Alexei's upbringing I found particularly interesting, especially their responses to Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The book is slow in a number of places and I found the last 40 or so pages less interesting than the earlier ones, however this account of 1960s and 70s Britain reflects accurately some of the conflict and dogma that dominated the politics of the period.
Some non UK readers will find aspects less easy to follow, but UK readers should find some resonances with their lives in the 60s and 70s.
June 30, 2012
I first saw Alexi Sayle when I was at primary school and he popped up in the Young Ones as the ranting landlord, and then various other ranting roles in which he would invariably spew out a tirade of communist doublespeak, and having now read his autobiography I can understand why.
Raised by his communist parents in Liverpool (ranting jewish mother and trade unionist father) and holidaying in Czechoslovakia with trade union officials when most of his peers were at Butlins, his was an unorthodox childhood to say the least. These memoirs paint a vivid and often very funny picture of those times, and his attempts to fit into the world - eventually rebelling as a teenager to become a Maoist instead.
Raised by his communist parents in Liverpool (ranting jewish mother and trade unionist father) and holidaying in Czechoslovakia with trade union officials when most of his peers were at Butlins, his was an unorthodox childhood to say the least. These memoirs paint a vivid and often very funny picture of those times, and his attempts to fit into the world - eventually rebelling as a teenager to become a Maoist instead.
June 18, 2017
As much as I love all the autobiographies of my favourite British and Irish comedians, this one was the most extaordinary so far. Alexei Sayle is not your ordinary Oxbridge educated comedian, he has a totally different background which I, as a non-Brit haven't really heard of properly. You usually think of England as of a country with aristocrats, upper and middle class and workers, but I would never think of adding hardcore Marxism to the mix. Not only is this book written very well, but it is also super-educational for all of us who had no idea about communism in Britain.
March 6, 2013
I've always admired Alexei, and so reading his autobiography was a must. Since I also grew up in Liverpool, I probably found a layer of nostalgia that non-scousers would overlook. Alexei paints himself as a humble, flawed, thoughtful child whose naivity was occasionally punctuated with moments of crystal clear insight and stunning maturity. Often confused, melancholic yet sanguine, alexei's childhood seems refreshingly bizarre yet familiar. I look forward to subsequent volumes.
March 6, 2013
I knew it wasn't going to be a showbiz biog when I went in and Sayle had an incredibly unique upbringing as the son of communists in Liverpool but I did find my attention waning occasionally at the endless train journeys and excursions. Much more interesting is his teenage Trot years and it'll be nice if that parlays into his standup work and the Comic Strip in a second volume.
July 1, 2016
I have been a fan of this man since I first saw him on TV.
Loved all his comedy shows in the 90s. He was great.
I have missed him! Really enjoyed the book. He certainly had an interesting and exciting and unusual childhood which has probably shaped him more than he admits or realises.
Very funny in bits, this is a real autobiography and not a joke one. There are laughs to be had.
Loved all his comedy shows in the 90s. He was great.
I have missed him! Really enjoyed the book. He certainly had an interesting and exciting and unusual childhood which has probably shaped him more than he admits or realises.
Very funny in bits, this is a real autobiography and not a joke one. There are laughs to be had.
April 4, 2023
This was a gift, in more ways than one. It was a lift to my spirits, cheering up the end of a dark and dismal winter � I laughed my way through it, forgetting the leak in the best bedroom and all the mounting deadlines at work. Years ago I’d enjoyed Alexei Sayle's humour on the telly, and this present from my daughter provided me with an opportunity to indulge in some 50’s Britain nostalgia with a good dose of affectionate humour thrown in. There’s no tedious whingeing here � it’s written very much in the comedian’s style of the anticipatory build-up rounded off by the punch-line. The book suffers a little from repetitiveness, but its entertainment value more than makes up for that.
Alexei was the only child of Communist parents in Liverpool who were keen activists in the Party. His father was a railway worker and union representative, and added to this is the flavour of his volatile, red-haired, Jewish, mother. Of course all this in itself is a gift for any satirical comedian, but his loyalty and respect for them comes through strongly. The one thing I didn’t like in the description of their family life was that the parents didn’t seem to feel any loyalty or respect for their country (Britain) and (for instance) referred to the late Queen Elizabeth in terms that I found extremely repellent. It was rather unsettling that Alexei’s parents took an almost opposite view of political events from my own family, which had a father who was a socialist councillor and a union representative. One part of this that I did enjoy was the description of the various left-wing activist groups, harking back to Monty Python’s Life of Brian ("The Judean People’s Front" and "The People’s Front of Judea" scene!).
What I did find really absorbing were the descriptions of the Sayle family’s holidays in Europe and behind “The Iron Curtain�. I loved the description of Prague (of course) and their story of Belgium in 1958, where my father worked for a year in 1964-5. I have a postcard he sent of “The Atomium�, newly built when the Sayles went there, “a gigantic depiction of a cell of iron crystal magnified 165 billion times�.
There was a great deal in this book to which I, as a fifties� child, could relate, which makes me wonder how appealing the book would be to a younger generation. I’m about to test it on my daughter, to find out! My feeling is that a lot of it would appeal. Alexei Sayle is wonderfully self-deprecating, especially when he reaches his teenage years. He includes a story of a visit to the middle-class family of a girl he had met on holiday, where, after doing his utmost not to impress anyone over dinner, he overheard the girl’s mother whispering to her in the hallway, “He’s awful!� He includes a teenage photo to prove the point!
Even the most trivial story or minor character comes brilliantly to life, like the picture evoked below of children’s lives in Liverpool in the sixties. At one point Alexei had started using his middle name, “David�, but David Sayle appeared to be “rather a dull child� and the realisation dawned that
�I was never going to be like everybody else and I might as well work on being unique. And there was one particular incident which made me aware that having a distinctive name might not always be a disadvantage.
There was a kid in my class named, with a spectacular lack of imagination, Fred Smith. I saw him one day by the entrance to Stanley Park where he had been grabbed by the park policeman for some misdemeanour. This huge man in a dark blue uniform was demanding to know my classmate’s real name and wouldn’t believe that he was truly called Fred Smith. In fact the more Fred Smith insisted that he was honestly called Fred Smith, the more the policeman became enraged at having his intelligence insulted in this fashion.
My nickname at this point among my school friends, as a play on Sayle, was “Wayley�. Seeing me, Fred Smith called out in desperation, ‘Wayley! Wayley! Tell him my name’s Fred Smith!� But the policeman wasn’t interested in my intervention. ‘Don’t be calling to Wayley!� the man said and gave poor Fed a vicious clip round the ear for a crime he probably didn’t commit and really for the crime of being called Fred Smith.�
(For non-native speakers of English, “Fred Smith� was so common at one point that it became a joke name, and “Wayley� isn’t a recognised English name at all!).
There is a serious side to this book but in the vein of the best satire it is told with black humour. To finish I’ll just quote from the Times Literary Supplement,
“Sayle’s book has charm and substance, both as memoir and history.�
And from the Telegraph (not a left-wing publication!):
“Fascinating and hugely entertaining.�
I'd say, "hilarious"!
Alexei was the only child of Communist parents in Liverpool who were keen activists in the Party. His father was a railway worker and union representative, and added to this is the flavour of his volatile, red-haired, Jewish, mother. Of course all this in itself is a gift for any satirical comedian, but his loyalty and respect for them comes through strongly. The one thing I didn’t like in the description of their family life was that the parents didn’t seem to feel any loyalty or respect for their country (Britain) and (for instance) referred to the late Queen Elizabeth in terms that I found extremely repellent. It was rather unsettling that Alexei’s parents took an almost opposite view of political events from my own family, which had a father who was a socialist councillor and a union representative. One part of this that I did enjoy was the description of the various left-wing activist groups, harking back to Monty Python’s Life of Brian ("The Judean People’s Front" and "The People’s Front of Judea" scene!).
What I did find really absorbing were the descriptions of the Sayle family’s holidays in Europe and behind “The Iron Curtain�. I loved the description of Prague (of course) and their story of Belgium in 1958, where my father worked for a year in 1964-5. I have a postcard he sent of “The Atomium�, newly built when the Sayles went there, “a gigantic depiction of a cell of iron crystal magnified 165 billion times�.
There was a great deal in this book to which I, as a fifties� child, could relate, which makes me wonder how appealing the book would be to a younger generation. I’m about to test it on my daughter, to find out! My feeling is that a lot of it would appeal. Alexei Sayle is wonderfully self-deprecating, especially when he reaches his teenage years. He includes a story of a visit to the middle-class family of a girl he had met on holiday, where, after doing his utmost not to impress anyone over dinner, he overheard the girl’s mother whispering to her in the hallway, “He’s awful!� He includes a teenage photo to prove the point!
Even the most trivial story or minor character comes brilliantly to life, like the picture evoked below of children’s lives in Liverpool in the sixties. At one point Alexei had started using his middle name, “David�, but David Sayle appeared to be “rather a dull child� and the realisation dawned that
�I was never going to be like everybody else and I might as well work on being unique. And there was one particular incident which made me aware that having a distinctive name might not always be a disadvantage.
There was a kid in my class named, with a spectacular lack of imagination, Fred Smith. I saw him one day by the entrance to Stanley Park where he had been grabbed by the park policeman for some misdemeanour. This huge man in a dark blue uniform was demanding to know my classmate’s real name and wouldn’t believe that he was truly called Fred Smith. In fact the more Fred Smith insisted that he was honestly called Fred Smith, the more the policeman became enraged at having his intelligence insulted in this fashion.
My nickname at this point among my school friends, as a play on Sayle, was “Wayley�. Seeing me, Fred Smith called out in desperation, ‘Wayley! Wayley! Tell him my name’s Fred Smith!� But the policeman wasn’t interested in my intervention. ‘Don’t be calling to Wayley!� the man said and gave poor Fed a vicious clip round the ear for a crime he probably didn’t commit and really for the crime of being called Fred Smith.�
(For non-native speakers of English, “Fred Smith� was so common at one point that it became a joke name, and “Wayley� isn’t a recognised English name at all!).
There is a serious side to this book but in the vein of the best satire it is told with black humour. To finish I’ll just quote from the Times Literary Supplement,
“Sayle’s book has charm and substance, both as memoir and history.�
And from the Telegraph (not a left-wing publication!):
“Fascinating and hugely entertaining.�
I'd say, "hilarious"!
June 24, 2024
This was a fascinating and entertaining memoir of childhood in postwar Liverpool being brought up by "Jewish atheist communist" parents. Sayle presents himself as something as an outsider or misfit due to his parents' political inclinations (for example, family holidays were often behind the Iron Curtain due to his dad's political connections with the railway unions) but it's in a context that seems very alien today, where left-wing politics was much more a popular concern (there is one amusing scene near the end of the book where he describes selling the works of Marx and Engels to dockers at a traditional street market, and another story about how he made money selling CND badges to all his classmates who wore them as a fashion statement).
There are some interesting historical tangents including the assassination of Reynhard Heidrich, splits in British communism after 1956, the local music scene at the time of the Beatles and the folk revival, etc.
The most unexpected trivia has to be that Sayle's father was the last person to testify against James Hanratty, whose alibi involved staying in a boarding house at the same time Sayle was also there. Hanratty was one of the last people to be executed in Britain (not the very last as is incorrectly stated in the book) despite his controversial conviction, and Sayle Jr speculated that this must have weighed heavy on his father.
I listened to this as an audiobook and it has to be the most entertaining self-read autobiography I've had the pleasure of listening too. The reading is very dramatic and he puts on a couple funny voices for other characters, especially for his mother.
There are some interesting historical tangents including the assassination of Reynhard Heidrich, splits in British communism after 1956, the local music scene at the time of the Beatles and the folk revival, etc.
The most unexpected trivia has to be that Sayle's father was the last person to testify against James Hanratty, whose alibi involved staying in a boarding house at the same time Sayle was also there. Hanratty was one of the last people to be executed in Britain (not the very last as is incorrectly stated in the book) despite his controversial conviction, and Sayle Jr speculated that this must have weighed heavy on his father.
I listened to this as an audiobook and it has to be the most entertaining self-read autobiography I've had the pleasure of listening too. The reading is very dramatic and he puts on a couple funny voices for other characters, especially for his mother.
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June 14, 2021I loved this book.
The cover quote says it's really funny and I've heard people saying they were in stitches reading it, but that wasn't true for me. I wouldn't describe it as a primarily funny read. I did laugh out loud a few times (the funniest bit was the description of the out of control boat), and chuckled on a few others, and smiled a lot, but for me it was more that it was just really engaging and warmhearted. And fascinating! I gobbled it up.
I wonder whether the fact that I didn't laugh constantly was that my own youth had something in common with Alexei, in that I was a revolutionary socialist (albeit not a communist) for many years from the age of 16. So I was moving in very similar circles and encountering very similar people and attitudes - so stuff that other people might find funny, I just found interesting.
The cover quote says it's really funny and I've heard people saying they were in stitches reading it, but that wasn't true for me. I wouldn't describe it as a primarily funny read. I did laugh out loud a few times (the funniest bit was the description of the out of control boat), and chuckled on a few others, and smiled a lot, but for me it was more that it was just really engaging and warmhearted. And fascinating! I gobbled it up.
I wonder whether the fact that I didn't laugh constantly was that my own youth had something in common with Alexei, in that I was a revolutionary socialist (albeit not a communist) for many years from the age of 16. So I was moving in very similar circles and encountering very similar people and attitudes - so stuff that other people might find funny, I just found interesting.
September 25, 2017
Now, its only half or a third of the "whole" story.
This takes from birth us up to the threshold of college years of a Communist Jewish Atheist Eccentric.
It is cut to the bone at certain sections and glosses over others.
Overall it was an Autobiography which is one of the better of the comedians and one of the best I've read even if it weren't of a famous persons. I would enjoy the read nonetheless.
If you want to know what it was like growing up a Communist in 60's Liverpool, this paints a picture by a youth member of this political movement. With humour. At times. Call backs and all.
This takes from birth us up to the threshold of college years of a Communist Jewish Atheist Eccentric.
It is cut to the bone at certain sections and glosses over others.
Overall it was an Autobiography which is one of the better of the comedians and one of the best I've read even if it weren't of a famous persons. I would enjoy the read nonetheless.
If you want to know what it was like growing up a Communist in 60's Liverpool, this paints a picture by a youth member of this political movement. With humour. At times. Call backs and all.
June 16, 2022
The voice of the comedian is there, but it is not a stand-up comedian's collection of random ideas, as it is sometimes the case with comedians' books. It is better and the theme of growing up in a politically marginal social settings makes it more than that. It has the honesty that later became a source of a lot of humour in the Imaginary Sandwich bar show. Good old British humour, humanistically benevolent with a few tablespoons of vinegar.
I was also very excited to learn that Sayle was in my country three times! all the Czechoslovakia memories are very realistic and quite astutely observed from what I know from history etc.
I was also very excited to learn that Sayle was in my country three times! all the Czechoslovakia memories are very realistic and quite astutely observed from what I know from history etc.
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