stalin ate my homework by alexei sayle

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Stalin ate my homework

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Stalin Ate My Homework Paperback – July 1 2011

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• Print length 304 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Sceptre
• Publication date July 1 2011
• Dimensions 17 x 2.2 x 19.9 cm
• ISBN-10 0340919590
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sceptre (July 1 2011)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0340919590
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0340919590
• Item weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 kg
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17 x 2.2 x 19.9 cm
• #9,023 in Actor Biographies

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Stalin Ate My Homework Paperback – 9 August 2011

• Print length 320 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Sceptre
• Publication date 9 August 2011
• Dimensions 17 x 2.2 x 19.9 cm
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sceptre; 1st edition (9 August 2011)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0340919590
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0340919590
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17 x 2.2 x 19.9 cm
• 3,528 in Biographies of Opera Performers
• 9,537 in Biographies of Actors & Entertainers
• 26,778 in Memoirs (Books)

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Alexei Sayle

Stalin ate my homework.

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Hodder & Stoughton

Biography: general , Memoirs , Prose: non-fiction

• Paperback Aug 9, 2011 | 9780340919590 | RRP $26.99 Buy Now
• Audiobook Sep 2, 2010 | 9781848940154 | RRP $26.99 Buy Now
• e-Book Sep 2, 2010 | 9781848945005 | RRP $12.99 Buy Now

'It's not like other comedians' memoirs. It's funny.' GUARDIAN

The Sayles might not have been the only Jewish atheist communist family in Liverpool, but Alexei knew from an early age that they were one of the more eccentric.

Born on the day egg rationing came to an end, Alexei was the only child of Joe, an affable trade unionist who led the family on railway expeditions across eastern Europe, and Molly, a hot-tempered red-head who terrified teachers and insisted Alexei see the Red Army Choir instead of the Beatles.

Perceptive and hilarious, this is a portrait of a family, a city, a country and a continent going through enormous changes.

More books by Alexei Sayle

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Praise for Stalin Ate My Homework

It's not like other comedians' memoirs. It's funny. - Guardian

As strange and fascinating as any fiction . . . This would be excellent even if it weren't by someone famous - The Times

Fascinating and hugely entertaining - Telegraph

Sayle's book has charm and substance, both as memoir and history. - Times Literary Supplement

A great memoir of a strange childhood. "Just let me read you this bit" funny. - Frank Cottrell Boyce

The brilliant satires on modern life of Alexei Sayle (the only comedian worth his salt as a novelist) are contemporary gems. - Tim Lott, Independent

This touching, elegantly written memoir stands out... He looks back on his unconventional youth with comic bewilderment - Independent on Sunday

A fascinating and entertaining memoir about growing up with parents who were staunch communists - Daily Telegraph

Alexei Sayle is a comedian, actor, presenter and writer. His television work as a writer and performer includes The Young Ones , Alexei Sayle's Stuff , and The All New Alexei Sayle Show and Alexei Sayle's Liverpool for BBC 2. He has written for many newspapers and magazines and appeared in numerous films, from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to Gorky Park . He is currently writing his memoir, STALIN ATE MY HOMEWORK, which will be published by Sceptre in 2010.

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Stalin Ate My Homework

• By: Alexei Sayle
• Narrated by: Alexei Sayle
• Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 (15 ratings)

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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 frightened of, made him want to leave home and make people laugh.

• Unabridged Audiobook

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What listeners say about Stalin Ate My Homework

• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 out of 5.0
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.7 out of 5.0
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• Overall 5 out of 5 stars

This is really funny. I was born about the same time as Alexei, and know what was going on at the time. So it really is an extraordinary story, full of humour. I highly recommend this book

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• Performance 5 out of 5 stars
• Story 5 out of 5 stars

• lee t jackson

Brilliant !!

Very interesting story and adventures. Well written, funny and informative. Alexei's delivery is brilliant, and engaging

• Story 4 out of 5 stars

unusual, interesting and funny

His story mainly deals with his very young and early life growing up with his communist parents and his holidays in eastern europe. I was hoping that he would talk about his later life on tv etc but perhaps that will come in a later book. Notwithstanding that I enjoyed the book, his narration and his very very unusual young lfe.

Entertaining with a fair dollop of self criticism

He ticks all the boxes: Vivid memory, healthy disregard for convention paired with acute attention to detail, not to forget having a good laugh at oneself. In this instance, having the author read it himself is a great advantage. Recommended.

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Stalin Ate My Homework Hardcover – 2 Sept. 2010

• Print length 320 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Sceptre
• Publication date 2 Sept. 2010
• Dimensions 16.1 x 2.9 x 24.1 cm
• ISBN-10 0340919574
• ISBN-13 978-0340919576
• See all details

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Product description

'A great memoir of a strange childhood. "Just let me read you this bit" funny.'

'Sayle shares with [Alan] Bennett the genius for making the mundane fascinating'

'The brilliant satires on modern life of Alexei Sayle (the only comedian worth his salt as a novelist) are contemporary gems.'

'Being able to wrap up a big moral conundrum with the guise of a fizzing entertainment is a considerable gift...it is wonderfully entertaining and tells us a lot about what it is like to live in 21st century Britain.'

'It's not like other comedians' memoirs. It's funny.'

About the Author

Product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Sceptre; First Edition 4th Impression (2 Sept. 2010)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0340919574
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0340919576
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.1 x 2.9 x 24.1 cm
• 4,225 in Theatre & Performance Artist Biographies
• 4,965 in Actors & Entertainers Biographies
• 26,377 in Humour Books

About the author

Alexei sayle.

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Stalin Ate My Homework

• By: Alexei Sayle
• Narrated by: Alexei Sayle
• Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 (725 ratings)

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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 frightened of, made him want to leave home and make people laugh.

• Unabridged Audiobook

More from the same

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What listeners say about Stalin Ate My Homework

• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.5 out of 5.0
• 5 Stars 480
• 4 Stars 169
• 4.5 out of 5 stars 4.7 out of 5.0
• 5 Stars 424
• 5 Stars 354
• 4 Stars 136

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• Overall 5 out of 5 stars

So good I wanted to write about my own childhood

Engaging, funny, touching and incredibly evocative of the world of the 50s. Well read by the author - this is not always the case with authors. I do hope there will be a follow up.

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• Performance 5 out of 5 stars
• Story 5 out of 5 stars

• Jen Dunstan

love and laughter

written with such fondness for his parents that you will end up loving them too, but so incredibly funny that I found myself laughing out loud on a crowded bus until people sitting around me were laughing too.

I wish I’d named our dog Molka

This is an excellent book, wonderfully narrated. Sayle is great and his early life fascinating even extraordinary. I hope one day he does the next instalment.

• Kindle Customer

laugh out loud funny

brilliantly funny haven't laughed out loud so much at a book for ages. recommend it

• Overall 4 out of 5 stars

Parts are very funny, the book is basically an autobiography of his early years - a very interesting and very unusual childhood, so it not meant to be consistently amusing but he looks back with humour and fondness for his parents and the sometimes bizare circumstances he finds himself in.

• Beccameriel

Laugh out loud funny

If you like Alexei Sayle then you cannot help but like this; it's hilarious. His story of growing up in a Communist family in 1960s Liverpool is told episodically with immense warmth and vivid charm.

Enjoyable look at the road to adulthood

As a fellow scoucer there are things that resonated with me. But the joy of the story lies in listening to tales of someone trying to find his way just like the rest of us. Thanks Alexei , Molly and joe for a brilliant story.

Narrated by the author so if you like Alexei you’re in for a treat. Full of his pithy one liners he describes his unique upbringing.

A fascinating life story.

Alexei Sayle had a childhood like no other. He tells it hilariously and warmly. I loved this book.

Alexei Sayle’s life...

A remarkable insight into the life of one of the UKs best comedians... and the minds of his communist parents.

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Stalin Ate My Homework by Alexei Sayle - review

M ost people know Alexei Sayle from the telly, from The Young Ones , or The Comic Strip Presents . . . Fewer know him for his novels and short stories, such as Mister Roberts and The Weeping Women Hotel . After all, in a lifetime of finite duration, there are only so many novels by comedians that any sane person will want to read, and most of them are written by Steve Martin. There is probably even less time in the average life to devote to the reading of memoirs by comedians, the complete works of Spike Milligan being more than sufficient for most us, while strictly speaking Alan Bennett isn't a comedian any more; he's a proper writer. But there is now one more book to add to the very short list: Sayle's Stalin Ate My Homework . It is not like other comedians' memoirs. It's funny. (And the novels are pretty good too.)

Stalin Ate My Homework is essentially Sayle's love letter to his parents, Joe and Molly. Joe worked on the railways as a goods guard, was incurably cheerful, always wore a trilby, taught himself French and Esperanto, and was a communist. Red-haired Molly spoke Yiddish, had five sisters and a brother, and prepared salads instead of roast dinners on a Sunday. If they were not the only Jewish atheist communist family in Liverpool, the Sayles were certainly one of the more eccentric.

As a child, Alexei – named after Maxim Gorky, real name Alexei Maximovich Peshkov – was "subject to all kinds of restrictions, caveats and provisos, both physical and ideological". He was not, for example, allowed to go and see Walt Disney's Bambi with his friends. Instead, his parents took him to see Alexander Nevsky at the Unity Theatre. Not surprisingly, he grew up with a feeling of being just a little bit unusual.

Molly's father, Alexander Mendelson, was the shamas at the Crown Street synagogue in Liverpool. Sayle's descriptions of his grandfather's house are like something out of Bernard Malamud: "The house appeared very bare, with large stretches of warm linoleum in the hall; everybody seemed as pale as a ghost, and there was always the smell of poor people's soup. The only things that shone brightly were the oddly shaped religious artifacts on the sideboard, their polished brass flanks decorated with strange foreign writing that looked like it had come off the side of a flying saucer. During these calls it felt like we were visiting the embassy of a very poor and distant country."

Every sentence there has something surprising in it. Which is how Sayle works – with little flashes everywhere, like miniature jokes or surrealist flourishes. "One dark autumn evening in Crown Street I wandered out into the back yard to find Uncle Monty sitting in a rough, temporary shed with a roof made out of palm leaves, eating two fried eggs with his hat on." He was celebrating Sukkot.

A perk of Joe's working on the railways was reduced-price European rail travel. So, naturally, when holidays came around, the Sayles headed off behind the iron curtain. In Czechoslovakia ("a place so foreign it had a 'Z' in its name") the Sayles find themselves in a topsy-turvy world where they're met by limousines, wined and dined, and generally treated like royalty. Even the sight-seeing trips aren't exactly your average: "Communist party authorities at the highest level had decided that what the first delegation of British railwaymen to Czechoslovakia would like to see more than anything else were sights, locations and exhibits connected with the wartime assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Butcher of Prague." The sights of Nazi reprisals, Sayle writes, "were our Wooky Hole".

Back in England, the family live a quiet life in Anfield, two miles from the docks and half a mile from Liverpool FC. Sayle depicts a world long since disappeared. The party line on the telephone ("You would lift up the telephone only to find your neighbour was already on it talking at great length about their hernia operation"); the Co-op and the general store; the works of Jack London proudly on the shelf. And yelling "Don't forget Stalingrad!" and "Capitalist propaganda!" at the TV.

In the latter part of the book, Sayle goes on to recount his adventures in Paris in 1968 and finally his departure for art school, but Joe and Molly remain the real heroes, with their high ideals and their house full of Soviet trinkets and "folklorique woven things". Sayle knows that for better and for worse, his parents made him what he is: they are the book's foundations. Underneath his grandfather's house there was, apparently, a labyrinth of secret tunnels, built by the Liverpool businessman Joseph Williamson as an early kind of job-creation scheme. Sayle's mother's family dug a hole in their back yard and used the tunnels to dump their rubbish – "as if it were the most natural thing in the world to have a network of secret passages underneath your house". As if.

Ian Sansom's Mobile Library series is published by Fourth Estate.

• Biography books
• Autobiography and memoir

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