Graham Norton Laid Bare by Alison Bowyer; Independent Publishers Group, $15.95
It's rare to find an author whose writing is so bad, one anxiously turns pages looking for the next blooper that will tickle the funny bone. But freelance journalist Alison Bowyer is one of those writers. Her biography of Graham Norton is so amateurish it could have been crafted by any member of Norton's fan club. It remains, however, a relatively entertaining read for Americans interested in the backstory of Britain's most flamboyantly gay television personality.
Graham Norton Laid Bare, first published in England in 2002, receives a cursory update for Stateside release in time to capitalize on Norton's increasingly popular BBC America talk show. The campy Norton, who was born Gordon Walker in a small Irish village, began his rise to the top of British television with bit parts on radio, stage, and television shows, as well as his own successful stand-up comedy routines that went mainstream at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Norton later found success hosting his own talk show (So Graham Norton ) on edgy, independent Channel 4, as well as a series of successful British TV reality shows.
San Francisco readers will be surprised to learn that Norton, who is now 46, lived in the "Stardance" hippie commune on Fulton Street for one year (1983-84) while he worked as a waiter. Young and sexually inexperienced, he fell in love with an older man who still occupies the Fulton Street residence and goes by the name Obo Day Help. Obo's insistence on a bisexual, polygamous lifestyle was impossible for Norton to accept, and he returned to the United Kingdom to pursue his dream of being an actor. Norton �" who cannot successfully assay a dramatic role �" ultimately found his niche in comedy. His current contract with the BBC nets him 7 million British pounds sterling, with independent ventures bringing in even more cash.
Local readers will howl at author Bowyer's ridiculous rendering of San Francisco's Haight Street in the 1960s. And later in the biography, the irony-free Bowyer informs readers that Norton and his former American lover Scott Michaels are now friends who appear "to have made the transgression" successfully. But the real showstopper may be found on page 107, where Bowyer discusses Norton's early stand-up routine "Charlie's Angels Go to Hell." Readers who might be too young to recall are informed that the original American television series starred Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett, and Kate Smith �" a cast this reviewer would kill to witness.