Who On Earth Is Tom Baker? (Tom Baker) HarperCollins Publishers
06/10/1997 HarperCollins Publishers UK
Tom Baker relates his life story in ribald fashion. The hardback edition reportedly sold around 35,000 copies.
Product description -
Tom Baker was born an Irish Catholic in Liverpool in 1934. Growing up, surrounded by innumerable relatives in a poor but spirited community, he quickly developed a penchant for lying, a passion for football and a suspicion of priests. After time at school spent failing to find a vocation, and eager to achieve approbation anyway he could, Baker became a monk and spent much time smelling of carbolic soap and avoiding making eye contact with others. Before long he came to the horrifying realization that what he wanted more than anything else was to break all the commandments one by one - a life of charity was clearly not for him. What could he do but become an actor?
With ambitions to take on the great roles, he soon discovered that acting mainly involved being out of work, becoming practised at auditioning for inappropriate parts, and drinking. But from a struggling start he went on to appearances at the National Theatre, to work with Pasolini and, finally, to star as the ultimate Doctor Who.
Far exceeding the usual expectations of an actorly autobriography, Who on Earth is Tom Baker? is a richly coloured, startlingly wild black comedy. Tom Baker is the kind of man who could drink the old off-the-wagon Anthony Hopkins under the table and who now spends much if his leisure time mowing the grass around his own gravestone in the local churchyard. His memoirs, full of anarchic humour, surreal, ribald and revealing anecdotes, will stand comparison with those of Spike Milligan, Peter Ustinov and David Niven.
REF: ISBN 0-00-255834-3OP: £17.99 h/b
