Sladen reminisces in considerable detail on the programs production and occasionally, offers some pretty sharp criticisms of various directors and BBC productions types, along with enough amusing anecdotes to keep a fan turning the pages. Same for Tom Baker, who comes across as a much happier, and a nicer, man. Though I have only a passing acquaintance with the Third Doctor, Sladen paints what seems a pretty nuanced - sympathetic but critical - portrait of Jon Pertwee that left me feeling I had a real handle on the man. The bulk of the book - and the best of it - recounts her experiences on the set of that iconic program. Mostly, the book is about life as The Doctor's companion. We learn that Sladen is happily married, that she loves the theatre and adores listening to veteran actors' stories about the old days - though she shares few of those with us. Despite the subtitle (whose use of the lower case is pointless and irritating) the actor's memoir reveals only a woman determined to say as little about herself as possible and who, further, has little enough to say about her times, either. It's not that Elisabeth Sladen: the autobiography (written with/by Jeff Hudson) is a terrible book, it's just not a very good one. Which makes the price of the paper version I have at hand seem doubly-dear. If my 35 year-old memory is to be trusted, Charlie Chaplin's autobiography read like a very 19th century good novel Bob Dylan's Chronicles, Volume One was an insightful examination of that musician's influences Patti Smith's Just Kids a deeply moving memoir of young love and Neil Young's Waging Heavy Peace seemed like a fascinating trip deep below the surface of that artist's stream of consciousness.īut most memoirs ain't worth the cost it takes to torrent a pirated copy. It's no secret celebrity memoirs tend either to be vapid, self-serving odes to the celebrity's own remarkable self or brutal tell-all therapy sessions paying back every wrong committed against that celebrity over the course of his or her otherwise wonderful life.
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