Blowing the Bloody Doors Off and Other Lessons in Life

This book, like the author himself is charming and considered. It is essentially Michael Caine's advice or lessons in life, based on his own career as an actor. While this would align perfectly if the reader is an actor (or aspiring actor), it is not to say it is not comparable for life in general.

This is another of those books you read in the subject's voice - throughout this I heard in my head Michael Caine's cockney accent, yet considered and polite in a way many cockney's are not!

Caine looks back across his career, describing the, good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful - in what appears to be a fairly candid review of anecdotes of his life. The advice is obvious, and while we can all read it and acknowledge it is a good idea, I would expect the vast majority would struggle to follow through. That is likely because Michael Caine is a pretty special sort of man. According to his book (and there is no reason to doubt the content) he is calm, polite and professional while on set; he is organised and well prepared in advance of arriving; he doesn't drink to excess or go near drugs; he turns every difficulty into a positive and, has been married 50 years (how many actors can claim that?).

A British icon, hugely respected, knighted in 1992, with a load of nominations and awards, it is all the more impressive given he was destined to follow his father into fish mongering after his early life in Elephant and Castle in Southwark. He is a dedicated family man - buying his mother and brother houses with some of his earliest windfall earnings.

Look, there is nothing in Caine's advice which will make you fall out of your chair. It is almost all sound sense related to positivity, organisation, setting your self up to do a good job, not having an ego and not being an ass (my wording, not his). There is some repetition in the book, but look, it's not that long, so you move through it pretty quickly.

There are some reminders of his brilliant and iconic films - The Italian Job, Alfie, Get Carter, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the Cider House Rules, etc. If you get nothing else from the book you get to imagine Caine's accent for 290 pages.

A solid 3 stars - enough to blow the doors off, but not the whole car.