From the start, he declares that it is the minutiae of life which reveals the person which he puts into practice to reveal himself and we are granted a dip into his thought processes.

Derren Brown being, I think, a genuinely kind man (or so a friend who's met him less fleetingly than me assures me) and intelligent and reasonably well-informed, I enjoyed reading his views. But I read them in the same way as I listen to the views of a friend on the great issues of the day. If I wasn't already predisposed to like him and pay him some attention, I'd probably just find him boring and opinionated. I personally didn't laugh at what he was saying but it was very amusing. I'll end by saying that while it's a masterpiece I can imagine certain people not liking it because of the intricacy of the language. PDF / EPUB File Name: Confessions_of_a_Conjuror_-_Derren_Brown.pdf, Confessions_of_a_Conjuror_-_Derren_Brown.epub I'm a big Derren Brown fan. I watch him on TV, I've seen him live, I've read stuff he's written and even – fleetingly – met him. So I was pleased to find a copy of this book under the Christmas tree. The sense with which I came away from this book was that Derren didn't seem to like himself at all until comparatively recently. His almost overwhelming self-criticism is evident from the first minutes of the recording and there is very little of the dark, sexy persona created for his earlier TV shows. Several of the childhood memories do not show him in a good light at all and I will admit to cruelly sniggering at his embarrassment re Hugh Grant. Sorry, Derren!It's not just the audience who are under the microscope though, he becomes more and more self-analytical: That aside this is an absolute masterpiece of writing, it really is. Derren uses such intricate language to give detailed descriptions of situations which paint the most vivid pictures in your mind. I listened to the whole thing in 3 sittings and that's not normal for me. But this had me gripped. I pictured them tumbling to the floor, myself bending over to gather them up, and the embarrassed derision of the silent diners as they watched me carry out the apologetic, uncomfortable process. The restaurant was again before me, and my hand again noted its grasp of the cards. I resented the severing of the connection, and wondered whether being privy to a person’s meandering thoughts and gently tracing their dreamy associations was to really know them, at a level far deeper than answers provided by personality tests, school reports or the selective, retrospective narratives of traditional biography.” Confessions of a Conjuror, however, was over written, dull, tedious, interesting and fun in parts, but over all a bit of a slog to get through.

I was conscious that the grey eyes of the French barman, who had now seen me emerge from the disabled toilet three times in the last fifteen minutes, were resting on me with an appropriately mixed signal of curiosity, admonishment and condescension. Blimey, he's so pompous! / He's clearly bragging but pretending he's casually mentioning something." Fascinating, wide-ranging and amusing (commuters who suffer from embarrassing giggle-outbursts on buses and trains, beware!) - I really enjoyed this. I only thing that surprised me about this book was that I had this expectation that due to Derren's knowledge of the mind and psychology he would have some profound insights into our nature and know some secrets as to how we can increase our personal power. I don't want to use the word disappointed because that's not fair.

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Derren's really waffling on about nothing here. Is this padding or is it priming the reader for something?" I loathed myself again. My heart pounded beneath my stupid blousy gay shirt, and as ever, I found it absurd that I had done this a thousand times yet still battled with the same weary desire to be veiled in the shadows of a corner, to keep out of everyone’s way and let them enjoy themselves in peace. However, that is the first, last, and only bad word I shall offer about this book. I’m probably unduly biased anyway; the reason this book took me so long was because I was reading it during a very work-heavy week, probably leading to later frustration when I was only getting around to reading it after having left it for a few days. I love Derren Brown, I think he is a terrific showman, a talented artist, conjurer and hypnotist, and (if it is possible to judge solely from TV appearances and interviews) a very kind and caring human being.

He relates his anxiety about losing his pens and dots them around his flat but still cannot find one when he needs it before dashing out of the door. I can relate to his 'slight' OCD and his curiosity about what would happen if chose to crash his car. In fact, I can relate to many of his observations. he also admits, “means nothing.” For Brown, this is not a cause for despondency. His punters experience “surprise and delight”, and the “trivial nature of the variables is irrelevant”. And that, it seems, is the message of this strange, postmodern book. Brown elevates seemingly insignificant moments in his life and imbues them with drama. “To really know someone,” he suggests, is to “gently trace their dreamy associations”. He may be right. In Confessions of a Conjuror, Brown takes us on a meandering pleasure cruise downriver. It is worth the journey.”” Here's the thing. I love Derren Brown. I love his shows, his performances, his personality. I've seen him live twice and met him once (he's also a lovely guy) but this book is not it. As with the idea that psychics use Barnum statements that appear to be very personal and accurate statements about you but would actually apply to most people, I would say that most of the ideas and experiences told in here are similar in that they are obviously very personal things about Derren himself but most of it will apply to everyone in some respect.

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Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-06-03 10:03:06 Boxid IA1814417 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier You know sometimes you're attention will switch away from the audio book and you miss a bit? That didn't happen to me with this because it's so entertaining.