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krisbethea's review against another edition
3.0
I'd known, later in life, that Tom Baker was an alcoholic, but this story is not about that. Yet, it certainly gives insight into why he drank so much. His life was one misfortune after another.
Parts of me wish I had never read this book while other parts of me are glad.
He was a great Doctor. He will always be my favorite and my first Doctor, but this was a book that certainly puts that strong barrier between character and actor.
Truly, the high point of his life was being Doctor Who and for that I will always be pleased.
Parts of me wish I had never read this book while other parts of me are glad.
He was a great Doctor. He will always be my favorite and my first Doctor, but this was a book that certainly puts that strong barrier between character and actor.
Truly, the high point of his life was being Doctor Who and for that I will always be pleased.
bloodonthetracks's review against another edition
4.0
Really funny and intriguing autobiography from Tom Baker.
dankeohane's review against another edition
4.0
This is quite possibly the perfect auto-biography. Don't get me wrong, this book is not be for everyone, for example those who want autobiographies to only touch lightly down on one moment or another in an actor's life, never getting too deep and spending most time on the periods when the author was at the peak of their fame (or moments of childhood trauma, that's always entertaining). This is for those who want to live in someone else's skin and voyeuristically be them even in selected moments through their life. Unless the author has completely fabricated his life I honestly feel I know exactly what stuff and experiences Tom Baker is made of.
Maybe too much stuff. I never expected a memoir to discuss the author's penis as much as Baker does, including an episode of group masturbation as a teen. That part gave me the whillies (no pun intended) but I had to appreciate that for someone who comes across as rather self-conscious in public, on the page he write to the effect of, 'This is who I was and am now, and I'm comfortable with this because since it can't be changed, may as well tell it like it was.' Baker would have written that much better, i think.
His style is very inviting and real, the written voice much like I remember hearing it over those seven years as the good Doctor. Speaking of which, this is not a Doctor Who tell-all - those years are really one small part near the end of the overall life story of the author. In the end, for someone I've honestly not thought about outside of his eponymous TV role, I appreciate how he was able to capture and share his life in extended moments with me, and others who've read this.
Of course, Baker does seem even in his writing to have a rather dry and self-deprecating sense of humor, so my above statement about whether he might have made up much of what I read for entertaining, I wouldn't put past him. :)
Maybe too much stuff. I never expected a memoir to discuss the author's penis as much as Baker does, including an episode of group masturbation as a teen. That part gave me the whillies (no pun intended) but I had to appreciate that for someone who comes across as rather self-conscious in public, on the page he write to the effect of, 'This is who I was and am now, and I'm comfortable with this because since it can't be changed, may as well tell it like it was.' Baker would have written that much better, i think.
His style is very inviting and real, the written voice much like I remember hearing it over those seven years as the good Doctor. Speaking of which, this is not a Doctor Who tell-all - those years are really one small part near the end of the overall life story of the author. In the end, for someone I've honestly not thought about outside of his eponymous TV role, I appreciate how he was able to capture and share his life in extended moments with me, and others who've read this.
Of course, Baker does seem even in his writing to have a rather dry and self-deprecating sense of humor, so my above statement about whether he might have made up much of what I read for entertaining, I wouldn't put past him. :)
llysenw's review against another edition
3.0
He's quite funny and has a great voice for narrating. The first 3/4 of the book seems all about being a horny Catholic school boy. The whole rest of his career is packed into the last fourth. I personally would have liked to hear more about roles other than Doctor Who, but those were pretty glossed over. He's certainly an odd character.
nwhyte's review
5.0
I remember the book being rather depressing, as he put his melancholic side very much on display. The audio abridgement has, I think, got a decent balance between humour and morbidity, to the point that I was laughing out loud, to the dismay of fellow passengers.[return][return]There's not a lot here about Baker's time playing Doctor Who. There is a huge amount about his childhood and early life, hilarious and moving: the Liverpool Catholic education, the years in a monastery, the unwise early marriage, nursing his awful father-in-law through a final illness, the efforts to find work in London; also teenage masturbation, and a failed erotic scene in his first film appearance (playing the husband of the Wife of Bath). And towards the end, reflections on age, celebrity, and the confusions that sometimes arise therefrom.[return][return]Anyway, definitely worth picking up if you can find it.
nwhyte's review against another edition
4.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1742012.html
Four years ago I listened to an abridged audio version of this book, read by the man himself; now I've finally read the whole thing, fourteen years after frenziedly speed-skimming a newly published copy in an Oxford bookshop without actually buying it. It is quite an extraordinary and painful book, by a man who doesn't much like himself and, to his continuing amazement, found in his early 40s that everyone suddenly liked him. Baker confesses many tales of personal betrayal, of lovers, colleagues, relatives, and himself; he is rather fascinated by his own awfulness as a human being, and he achieves the difficult task of communicating his fascination to the reader, because he is also very funny. The book (deliberately, I think) doesn't do justice to himself; I was struck, having read this just after listening to Big Finish's April podcasts, which feature a long interview with him divided into several sections, by the fact that most of the anecdotes he shared this year with Nicholas Briggs were very different from the stories spun for his readers in 1997. I also take a wild guess, judging from hints dropped in interviews, that he has actually had some serious and effective psychotherapy; no mention of that in the book, which itself may have been a cathartic experience to write, but also perhaps writing about healing and acceptance might have spoiled the story.
If you are looking for insider information on Doctor Who, this book doesn't give you much - perhaps 30 pages out of 270, and the show's history has been better chronicled elsewhere (including in the DVD commentaries to which Tom Baker has contributed). But if you are interested in reading a peculiar personality study, written by its own subject, this is one of the more memorable ones out there.
Four years ago I listened to an abridged audio version of this book, read by the man himself; now I've finally read the whole thing, fourteen years after frenziedly speed-skimming a newly published copy in an Oxford bookshop without actually buying it. It is quite an extraordinary and painful book, by a man who doesn't much like himself and, to his continuing amazement, found in his early 40s that everyone suddenly liked him. Baker confesses many tales of personal betrayal, of lovers, colleagues, relatives, and himself; he is rather fascinated by his own awfulness as a human being, and he achieves the difficult task of communicating his fascination to the reader, because he is also very funny. The book (deliberately, I think) doesn't do justice to himself; I was struck, having read this just after listening to Big Finish's April podcasts, which feature a long interview with him divided into several sections, by the fact that most of the anecdotes he shared this year with Nicholas Briggs were very different from the stories spun for his readers in 1997. I also take a wild guess, judging from hints dropped in interviews, that he has actually had some serious and effective psychotherapy; no mention of that in the book, which itself may have been a cathartic experience to write, but also perhaps writing about healing and acceptance might have spoiled the story.
If you are looking for insider information on Doctor Who, this book doesn't give you much - perhaps 30 pages out of 270, and the show's history has been better chronicled elsewhere (including in the DVD commentaries to which Tom Baker has contributed). But if you are interested in reading a peculiar personality study, written by its own subject, this is one of the more memorable ones out there.
hccummings's review against another edition
4.0
A bittersweet, poignant, and often funny look at the life of the man who occupied the shoes of a certain Time Lord in the mid-late '70s. You can tell that Tom Baker is a very intelligent man, yet, despite his popularity as The Doctor, has almost crippling self-esteem issues. He admits as much and lays the blame for most of his misfortunes in life solely at his own feet, though I would argue his upbringing in Liverpool is more to blame to that than his own shortcomings.
If you're looking for a behind-the-scenes look at Doctor Who, look elsewhere. It was a short 7-year period in this man's life and largely seems to have been an escape from reality for him, a reality he perceives as being a string of failures, both before and after his time as The Doctor.
Who is Tom Baker? He was The Doctor and The Doctor was him. He remains a gifted, captivating story-teller.
If you're looking for a behind-the-scenes look at Doctor Who, look elsewhere. It was a short 7-year period in this man's life and largely seems to have been an escape from reality for him, a reality he perceives as being a string of failures, both before and after his time as The Doctor.
Who is Tom Baker? He was The Doctor and The Doctor was him. He remains a gifted, captivating story-teller.
tresdem's review
5.0
I mean, what can you really say about an autobiography? You can't criticize it really. Not unless you knew the person in life and even then.
It's a story both hilarious and depressing in turns. Often at the same time. Made me feel a bit manic by the end. But I'm glad it exists and I'm glad that I read it.
All the while though I had the lyrics from 'Mad World' in my head. Namely:
And I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very very
Mad world, mad world
Anyway, in honor of OcTomber 2019, now I go to read [b: Scratchman|40109372|Doctor Who Scratchman|Tom Baker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561100042l/40109372._SY75_.jpg|62183597] by the aforementioned autobiographer. It's a fourth Doctor novel. This should be fun.
It's a story both hilarious and depressing in turns. Often at the same time. Made me feel a bit manic by the end. But I'm glad it exists and I'm glad that I read it.
All the while though I had the lyrics from 'Mad World' in my head. Namely:
And I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very very
Mad world, mad world
Anyway, in honor of OcTomber 2019, now I go to read [b: Scratchman|40109372|Doctor Who Scratchman|Tom Baker|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561100042l/40109372._SY75_.jpg|62183597] by the aforementioned autobiographer. It's a fourth Doctor novel. This should be fun.
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