Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Average Customer Rating:

Best gift I could have bought him.

Customer Rating:

This was a last minute purchase for my better half for Christmas. With all the expensive presents opened I should have saved my money on the other stuff and just given him this. Within 2 minutes of reading he was laughing out loud in the other room. There was now no chance of help with the turkey as he wouldn't put the book down. All I could hear was him screaming with laughter. I suggested that as he was finding it so funny, then maybe I should read it to find out what shenanigans he gets up to whilst on the rigs. The answer was "I don't think so" and it has swiftly been taken off onto the rig for everyone else to read. Best buy ever.

Rig Star

Customer Rating:

Autobiographies about out of control rockstars are ten a penny, similar books about "normal" people far less common. The reason for that is pretty simple I guess, we aspire to our dreams and wishes...and with the best will in the world I don't wanna work on a rig. Never the less Paul Carters book is a pretty good read, he wizzes around the world and keeps things snappy, even if the claims on the cover are a little exagerated - taken hostage...er where?. He's no crazy Keith Moon character either, its the situation rather than the personality thats amusing here. A good, but slight, read.

A bland tall tale

Customer Rating:

I work in the oil industry and based on the other reviews,looked forward to reading this immensely. What a letdown! Paul may have travelled all over the world,but the tales just smacked of the 'bloke in the pub' tales - there wasn't any detail of the work that he did,just lots ofblokeish stories.Even when he did actually talk about the work, it was so out of context and poorly explained as to be meaningless. Sadly a big disappointment - spend your money on something else!

Health and safety? I think not.

Customer Rating:

This book takes about two hours to read. It zips through hundreds of hilarious and dangerous situations that the author gets into all over the world. A very funny and rather shocking look at the humour and adrenaline of men working in the oil industry, it will go down well with anyone who enjoys a good lad's mag. I bought this on spec in Sydney airport where the petite Asian lady in the bookshop said "Oh yes, I've read that, it's excellent." I was a little surprised, perhaps even suspicious and unsure of what I was buying. Now I just have respect for the lady in the shop. This book is all about drunkenness, fights in foreign bars, inappropriate pets, diarrhoea at the worst moment, brutal practical jokes, jungle madness and the raw testosterone-fuelled humour of oil drillers. When I bought it, I was actually thinking I might learn something about the oil industry, especially since it starts with a little graphic guide to the different types of oil rig and platform. But forget it, the oil is just an excuse for the larks, bravado and cameraderie. I also wondered about the title: not just "don't tell mum", but also the bit about being a piano player in a whorehouse. Well, forgive the spoiler, but the author's mum worked in the oil industry too, so she knew what he was up to, and never thought he worked in a whorehouse (although he visited enough). But I guess it's a snappy enough title, and it caught my eye. If you're a real pedant like me you will also find some of Paul Carter's facts are way out, a bit like his spelling (e.g. elementary canal) but this is by-the-by. It's the laughs that make the book. And if you're a nice mum buying this to try to persuade your precious son that becoming an oilman is too dangerous and dodgy, forget it. He'll read this book and never want to do anything else - apart from reading the sequel "This is not a drill"...

Very entertaining	Customer Rating:
Really enjoyed this. Reference to the details of working on a rig went over my head but the anecdotes regarding different countries and cultures were entertaining and it was a very easy enjoyable read.