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James Robertson Justice: What's the Bleeding-Time? | 
 enlarge | Authors: James Hogg, Robert Sellers, Howard Watson
Creator: H.r.h The Duke Of Edinburg
Publisher: Tomahawk Press
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £6.09
You Save: £6.90 (53%)
New (22) Used (6) from £5.75
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 27516
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 207
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.6 x 0.5
ISBN: 0953192679
Dewey Decimal Number: 791.43028092
EAN: 9780953192670
ASIN: 0953192679
Publication Date: March 1, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Shipped from UK Mainland. Delivery is usually 2 - 3 working days from order by Royal Mail, International Delivery is by Airmail.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 JUSTICE AT LAST! December 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Fascinating account of a fabulously unconventional and deeply complex man who led an extraordinary life. A Falstaffian figure of sublime contradiction (a Royalist whose socialist tendencies led him to fight for the International Brigade during the Spanish Civil war), an expert falconer, being wanted for murder by the Nazis and working as a professional racing driver are just a few of his many achievements. Beautifully illustrated, very well written, and superbly researched with information gleaned from both personal and professional sources, this is the perfect Christmas gift.
Heartbreaking and hilarious in equal measure December 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is one of the most unusual film star biogs you'll ever read because it's obvious, from the start, that the writers themselves have researched it from top to bottom, in contrast to some of the stuff that will hit the bookshelves this Christmas.
James Justice was one of the unsung heroes of British cinema, with his substantial presence and baritone voice literally filling the screen for over 30 years. But there were far more strings to his bow than that: he was an arch naturalist and motorsport fanatic, and a brilliant linguist. He was also very much the ladies' man, as strange as it may sound.
This book is peppered with hilarious stories about his antics both on and off set, but it's also punctuated with the sometimes heartbreaking moments that marked his private life, and his brief dalliances with politics.
A wonderful portrait of an all-round star brought back from the dead thanks to the power of the internet (a website on JRJ preceeded the book).
 Disappointing November 30, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
James Robertson Justice initially seems an ideal choice for a biography. A well know actor who also includes in his CV fighting in the Spanish Civil War, policeman for the League of Nations as well more mundance occupations such as a lumberjack in Canada. Add in a dash of celebrities from his films or even just hanging out with the Duke of Edinburgh it's a fascinating life.
So why just three stars? Well JRJ was quite reticent about much of his early life so there's a lot of speculation. Events such as the Spanish Civil War or his time in Germany are briefly dealt with as there's obviously not a lot known. What detail there seems to be relies heavily on a few sources which doesn't always bode well. The authors (and maybe that was one of the problems) also seem to meander between topics so the chapter on Walt Disney gets distracted by falconry. While this played a big part in his life the shotgun approach and loose structure gets frustrating after a while.
Perhaps the most disappointing aspect for me is the style and tone of the book. It reads like a boys own adventure and while there is obvious admiration for their subject from the authors they would gain from being a bit more critical or probing. As an earlier review noted you never seem to get a feel for the man he was. The book feels very much like the public face of JRJ. Such is the authors' indulgence that details of his affairs and visits to prostitutes are used as examples of his humour to to show how entertaining he was. It doesn't need to be a hatchett job but a long affair should be a bit more than a basis for an amusing anedote. There's almost more detail on who his mistress eventually married and what happened to her.
So an entertaining read but not a particlularly deep one that will still leave you without a clear sense of the man behind Sir Lancelot Spratt.
 A Welcome Biography September 10, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Some biographies really do answer questions that have long been waiting for a serious response. This is such a book. James Robertson Justice was one of those actors we all saw in film after film, but knew little of real substance about. It's a genuine treat, therefore, to finally discover more about this remarkably complex and intriguing individual, both as an actor and as a private person. There are areas that are treated a little sketchily for my taste, but the book as a whole succeeds in providing one with a satisfyingly vivid sense of this striking figure from British cinema.
 An injustice to a master of spoken English July 18, 2008
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
As a fan of James Robertson Justice for over fifty years I was delighted to read a review of this new biography in "The Oldie" magazine and promptly put it on my birthday wish list. But what a disappointment - not the man's life, but the way his story is told. The book is full of basic grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors - such an irritant when Justice himself used our language so well. Lynne Truss will have a field day with it. And why three authors - plus an editor? Maybe that's the problem - that the biography was written by a committee.
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