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theseventhl's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely lovely. It's still hard to think that she's gone. I'll always miss my first companion, my namesake, my idol Sarah Jane Smith. A must-read for any Whovian, especially fans of Jon and Tom.
h3dakota's review against another edition
5.0
An autobiography that no self-respecting Who fan would skip. Elisabeth Sladen is not my all time favorite companion, though she does come close, as she was the first one I ever saw. I loved hearing all about my favorite Doctors (10 & 3) from Elisabeth's perspective. What a wonderful, warm & funny woman she was. I laughed and cried while reading this one & cannot recommend it enough!
meshuggeknitter's review against another edition
4.0
I am so glad that Elisabeth Sladen completed this before her untimely death. I had no idea about her background in theatre. It was very interesting to learn about English theatre and the people she met through it.
jonathanpalfrey's review against another edition
4.0
This is a theatrical autobiography by an actress mainly known for appearing in Doctor Who, although it also covers the rest of her career. I don't read many theatrical biographies and I'm not a huge fan of Doctor Who, so it's taken me almost six years after publication to acquire a copy of this book, but I have enough interest in both subjects to enjoy it all the way through.
Elisabeth Sladen made her first appearance in Doctor Who at the end of 1973, during my second year at university, and I liked her at the time: she seemed somewhat less helpless than the Doctor's previous companions.
She wasn't confident enough to write an autobiography by herself, and engaged Jeff Hudson as co-writer to help her with it, so I think he should be visibly credited here (as he is in the book itself). The result of their joint effort is more conversational than literary: it's like sitting in her living room while she talks her way through her past. That's one way to do an autobiography, and works well enough in this case.
The book is very readable and rather charming; at least for me, it never becomes boring. I suppose Jeff Hudson's role was to edit, to advise on what to cut or shorten, to arrange the text in coherent order, and so on, while preserving her own way of saying things. It certainly reads like a personal memoir, in which the hand of the co-author remains invisible.
Readers can learn a good deal about the actor's life in general and about working on Doctor Who in particular, and there are plenty of anecdotes about all the people she met. She must have had a good memory for all the details, as it's hard to imagine that she had time to keep a diary while working.
She was devoted to acting: she wasn't a fan of science fiction nor even of Doctor Who, which she didn't normally watch when she wasn't in it. It was just one of her many theatrical jobs. But it happened to be as Sarah Jane Smith that she became widely known and popular, and she recognizes it by devoting most of the book to her involvement with that character—which was still continuing at the time of her rather sudden and early death.
Elisabeth Sladen made her first appearance in Doctor Who at the end of 1973, during my second year at university, and I liked her at the time: she seemed somewhat less helpless than the Doctor's previous companions.
She wasn't confident enough to write an autobiography by herself, and engaged Jeff Hudson as co-writer to help her with it, so I think he should be visibly credited here (as he is in the book itself). The result of their joint effort is more conversational than literary: it's like sitting in her living room while she talks her way through her past. That's one way to do an autobiography, and works well enough in this case.
The book is very readable and rather charming; at least for me, it never becomes boring. I suppose Jeff Hudson's role was to edit, to advise on what to cut or shorten, to arrange the text in coherent order, and so on, while preserving her own way of saying things. It certainly reads like a personal memoir, in which the hand of the co-author remains invisible.
Readers can learn a good deal about the actor's life in general and about working on Doctor Who in particular, and there are plenty of anecdotes about all the people she met. She must have had a good memory for all the details, as it's hard to imagine that she had time to keep a diary while working.
She was devoted to acting: she wasn't a fan of science fiction nor even of Doctor Who, which she didn't normally watch when she wasn't in it. It was just one of her many theatrical jobs. But it happened to be as Sarah Jane Smith that she became widely known and popular, and she recognizes it by devoting most of the book to her involvement with that character—which was still continuing at the time of her rather sudden and early death.
balkeyeston's review against another edition
5.0
Reading about Elisabeth Sladen has brought back the tears I forgot I still had for her. I learned a lot more about her, not just from her times on Doctor Who, but before and after that, and even some times in between. What I absolutely love about this book is that Lis did NOT omit her association with Doctor Who, and that's the part of the book I was itching to get to when I first cracked it open. Lis is quite hilarious, and her jokes written throughout made me ache with endless laughter. And my, my, was she quite the swearer!
But what made this autobiography stand out from any other piece of nonfiction that I've ever had the opportunity to read is that when you're reading it, it's like she's actually THERE, talking to YOU. It's like she's reminiscing about her past alongside you, and you're reliving it with her. I almost felt her coming out of the pages and into life right in front of me. And then it made me cry all over again.
But what made this autobiography stand out from any other piece of nonfiction that I've ever had the opportunity to read is that when you're reading it, it's like she's actually THERE, talking to YOU. It's like she's reminiscing about her past alongside you, and you're reliving it with her. I almost felt her coming out of the pages and into life right in front of me. And then it made me cry all over again.