Under No Illusion: My Autobiography

by Paul Daniels

For decades, magician Paul Daniels has captured the imagination of audiences throughout the world. Now, at last, his secrets are unmasked as the magician speaks frankly in his autobiography.

Genres: Magic

313 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2000

Reviews

[Kid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Steve Coogan states that this book was an influence on ‘I Partridge’, and it certainly reads like it. However for lovers of bad autobiographies I would recommend Tony Blackburn’s ‘Poptastic’ over this.

Biggest positive includes him confronting the man who was sleeping with his wife with a binder of unpaid county court judgements; his chapter called ‘Casual Sex’ which involves him only sleeping with a prostitute (and later claiming to have slept with 300 women before he was famous); and a very long and ludicrously implausible anecdote about medical tests ending in a doctor calling a 41 year old Paul Daniels ‘the most healthy man I have ever met’.

By the end of this book if you don’t actively hate Paul Daniels then I would be very surprised.

[Elsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although written by a man who is not short on ego and whose thoughts on women are rather on the sexist side, the story of his showbiz life and the development of his skills in magic was surprisingly absorbing.

[Ryan Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read and interesting about the magician Paul Daniels. Very interesting read.