The House That Hugh Laurie Built: An Unauthorized Biography and Episode Guide

by Paul Challen

At the centre of the critically acclaimed Fox drama House, British actor Hugh Laurie has become the focus of fans across North America, Britain, and Australia. Winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series, honoured by the Queen with an Order of the British Empire, and one of People’s Sexiest Men Alive, Laurie has become an icon. But who is the man behind the cane and acerbic wit? A musician? A motorcyclist? A comedian? Laurie is all these things and more. This biography aims to shed light on his childhood struggles to live up to his mother’s high demands and emulate his father’s accomplishments as a doctor and an Olympic gold medalist; his education at the prestigious academies of Eton and Cambridge; his comedic career with Emma Thompson, Stephen Fry, and Rowan Atkinson; his own personal struggle with depression; and how he came to be the best-loved curmudgeon on television. Interviews with creator and executive producer David Shore will reveal the Canadian connection to this truly global show and how a Canuck from London, Ontario, made the move to Hollywood stardom. The House That Hugh Laurie Built will also serve as a magnifying glass, providing episode analysis, cast biographies, selections of Dr. House’s caustic wit, and production bloopers and medical mistakes that only a sleuth like Dr. House could expose.

Genres: Nonfiction, Media Tie In, Biography

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Challen, Paul, 1967-
Challen, Paul C. (Paul Clarence), 1967-

Paul Challen lives in Dundas, Ontario.

Reviews

[Wendy]

I can't do it. I've tried to read bits of it, but it just can't hold my attention. For one thing, I already know all of this. For two, it's written like a love letter--I find it choking me with its hero worship. And finally, I kind of think House was a terrible show. It had potential, but wasted it. All of that makes it too hard to manage this book, so I quit. On to something else.

[Katharine (Ventureadlaxre) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting, but basically it's like someone's copy and pasted heaps of info off the net and formatted it all together to look pretty.

[Mo Ha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Best example to show... How not to write a biography (Even if unauthorized) 101... or better still just how not to write a book ...!

don't just don't !

[Fox Galv · Rating 4 out of 5]

DAMMIT . Se acabó. Porqueeeeé????

[ppmon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a fair amount of thought provoking episode/character analyses that I wouldn't have thought of before reading this. I also enjoyed the biography at the beginning; it includes lots of interesting tid-bits about Hugh Laurie (whose first name is actually James; a fact I discovered after reading this).

Some of the detailed episode medical flaws were a bit dodgy though: Is a disease being rare really a noteworthy flaw? Isn't it kind of the point of the show? It felt like fodder to me, especially since it was a recognised flaw in multiple episode summaries. There was certainly some padding here and there; it didn't bother me too much, though.

Regardless, it was an entertaining read that provided me with numerous bouts of chuckling. I'd recommend this to most House M.D fanatics.

[Jason Oliver · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of the House and became a Hugh Laurie fan. This book though, is just riding on the coattail of a successful show.

This book starts off entertaining, giving a recounting of Laurie's life and career. Then it gives a profile of each main character in the from the first three seasons of House. This part is enjoyable though all the interviews and facts are pulled from other sources.

Then the book gets really dull. It is an episode by episode break down of the first three seasons. Maybe this would be more interesting if I was actively watching the show as I read. I found it tedious and boring, adding very little to my perception of the show, so I decided not to finish reading about each episode.

[R. Jetleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book, but most of it was devoted to episode breakdown which I wasn't interested in.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this one up for free after the series came to an end because it was very outdated, having been written after the third season, and thus I didn’t have particularly lofty expectations. The first third of the book is a biography of the major players in the show, focusing primarily, as one may have guessed from the title, on Hugh Laurie, but also giving us a glimpse into the lives of the supporting players and writer David Shore. Laurie’s biography is decent, but unmemorable, and contains few, if any, tidbits that a true fan of the show wouldn’t have known already. For those who are more casual fans, however, it does provide some insight into the man behind the role, even if it does glorify him a little much, as biographies are wont to do. Still, there’s not much here that some time spent browsing the Internet wouldn’t have turned up and most of the information is culled from past interviews; don’t expect a Hugh Laurie exclusive here. The other biographies are a bit stunted but if, as the author predicts, the success and appeal of House is due mainly to the man with the cane, then the average fan won’t find this to be a problem. If you’re more interested in the Lisa Edelstein or Omar Epps, however, I suggest looking somewhere else.

The remainder of the book is an episode guide that lacks true substance, or at least a guiding theme. It tends to be inconsistent on the amount of depth and detail that it provides for each episode, but the annotations add a layer of analysis that can be intriguing, if sometimes facile. Some are little more than re-printed trivia from IMDb (interchange the section heading “booboos” with “goofs” and you’ve got the same thing) and others, such as the medical analysis, have been done better elsewhere, even contemporary with the book (Polite Dissent, probably the most notable, is actually mentioned in the annotations). Others are somewhat more involved, like the author’s tracking of the symbolism of the cane and the use of lies, or pointing out where seemingly trivial occurrences actually foreshadow much larger or more important themes. And if you’re the type of person who likes spotting inconsistencies in the personalities and beliefs of the characters, there’s some of that here too. As I mentioned above, however, a lot of the annotations lack substance and he does not appear to have an overall thesis for his notes on the symbolism, which reduces them at times to little more than random facts, subjective interpretations, or just space-filler. The gems, while present, are few and far between and the lack of cohesion makes it difficult to retain specific details.

Overall, I think that this is a decent collection of information, but one that doesn’t seem to have a particular audience in mind, since serious fans are likely to already know what is presented here and casual ones aren’t likely to pick it up at all. Thus, if you’re already a hardcore fan of the show, then you should probably skip this one, since the tidbits you might pick up aren’t worth digging for. For its time, someone wanting to get their House fix between seasons might have enjoyed this but, as is to be expected with works such as this, it hasn’t stood the test of time and seems now more as a cash-in on a fad rather than a work with lasting, original insight.

[SLADE · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have given this 5 stars but it was too short on the biography section, particularly Hugh Laurie's. The format of the book is a short biography of Hugh Laurie, and then even shorter biographical sections about the main cast and the creator, David Shore. The rest of the book are episode guides to the first 3 seasons. Those were easy to glide through as I've seen the first three seasons at least four to five times.

If you're House fanatic, like I am, I recommend this one.

[Indah Threez Lestari · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bacanya sambil nonton ulang House TV series...

Buku ini masuk rak biografi karena setengahnya terdiri dari biografi Hugh Laurie, ditambah sekilas biografi cast/writer serial TV House. Setengah buku sisanya bisa dibilang guidebook 3 season awal House MD, merangkum setiap episodenya dengan memorable scenes, kebohongan para karakter di episode tersebut (ingat: everybody lies!), dan tentu saja blooper dan medical mistakes (namanya juga serial teve). Lumayan berguna buat panduan acara nonton ulang 6 season DVD House...

Love House TV series, love the actor behind the lead character, love this book...

[Fallon Willoughby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was given to me by my professor/adviser who also loves House. Like me, he has seen every episode. Probably multiple times.

I loved learning more about Laurie and how he went about creating House, and the character. Learning about the show, the actors, and Hugh Laurie's own life was intriguing and I loved it.

Not to mention, it's got a great title.

If you love House, and Hugh Laurie, read this!

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

The biography parts were really really interesting! I liked the explanations of other shows and movies' references. However, some facts in the episodes' description were misrepresented or sometimes even not truthful. Several author's biased opinions (at least it looked like it), tons of rhetorical questions don't really make the reading that awesome, especially in the third season. I gave 4 stars but only because I love the show itself.

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but I would have liked to see more about the character and the actor instead of the plot reviews, although those were interesting.

I read an excellent magazine article on this man/series a couple of years ago, and wish I could remember which magazine, as it would have been a good source for this book.

Overall I didn't feel the book did enough background.

[NightAuditMan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have liked a more expanded bio of all cast memebers, but did make do with what was written. The episode discussions were interesting but not a real page turning kind of read. If yer a fan then by all means pick it up, otherwise you might want to wait for an authorized bio.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fun beginning and some interesting tidbits about each episode, but not a front-to-back read for me

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I love House so I loved reading the behind the scenes stories and profiles of the actors. I wish there had been more of that and not the play by play of the episodes.

[Billy Parrish · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good book learning a little bit about Hugh Laurie before his role as Dr. House. I really liked the episode guide in the back for the first 3 seasons of House.