First off, I downloaded this accidentally and listened to it because I was desperate for an audio book. Second, Tom Baker is a fantastic reader. It doesn't matter what he's reading, because he just pours himself into it -- not unlike his acting. Now, about the book. Part of me is glad I read it and part of me is kind of weirded out, because it's way more than I every though I'd know about the man who played my favorite Doctor on Doctor Who. He's a very odd man, very self-deprecating, but completely fascinating. His autobiography completely caught me and really captured my attention, I was sad when it was over. He touches briefly on Doctor Who, but it's really about his life and the way he sees himself. The book was both hilarious and heartbreaking and I quite enjoyed it. I doubt I would have liked it as much if I'd read it instead of listening to him tell it. I highly recommend the audio book. ( )

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.

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.

Anyway, definitely worth picking up if you can find it. ( )