Review by Mark St Andrew (source: Amazon)

This is a brilliant book. Anyone interested in 60's culture should read it. I only stumbled across it after seeing the striking cover image somewhere on the web and tracked it down from there. Miss Wills has had a real rollercoaster of a life, and this book is only part one!

It turns out that Anneke was the first glamorous female Doctor Who assistant, and as such set a vogue for pretty young girls travelling with the fella that has lasted right up to today. Her character was a proper 60's Carnaby Street dolly bird, and whilst I didn't have much interest in the show before (I'm only 25), her story has compelled me to find out more about the show whilst she was in it.

There are some brilliant tales in here, and some interesting names dropped along the way. This isn't in anyway a 60's survivor's story, more like a personal account of someone busy living their life while the scene happened around them.

Buy it, Anneke Wills rocks.

Review by Vanessa Bishop (source: Doctor Who Magazine)

1960s Doctor Who companion Anneke Wills, who played Polly alongside William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's Doctors, was first persuaded to write her autobiography at a 2006 Doctor Who convention. Since then she's been in two minds about the idea, first thinking "Who am I to put pen to paper?". Who Wills actually turns out to be is someone who is both extraordinary and resilient.

Born of a Dutch mother and an English Baron, Wills' life seems equally cursed and blessed. Despite the war years and the hardship of the 1940s in general, her childhood living in country cottages seems idyllic, and fortuitous acquaintances seem to leap off every other page. But there is also her parents divorce, a wicked stepfather figure who once beat her until she fell unconscious; and an abortion at 18 (the father being entertainer Anthony Newley, with whom she would later have a daughter).

Her casting as companion Polly is preceded by some high-profile swinging sixties hedonism - partying with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, and watching blue movies with Michael Caine, as well as the birth of her son and her turbulent marriage to actor Michael Gough. Despite a story-by-story approach, the Doctor Who material comes and goes quite quickly, and there isn't much that any long-term fan of the series wouldn't already know. Hartnell is difficult, Troughton lovely, although the former's short temper isn't overplayed as much as it has been in the past.

None of this really matters, however. Wills' writing is honest and captivating, and has enough high-profile names and drama to make each chapter an eye-opener. Intended to be a two-part autobiography, occasional flash forwards promise Volume Two will be just as fascinating.

Review by Jon Arnold (source: Shooty Dog Thing)

The number of people who’ve lived an interesting enough life to justify an autobiography is small, the number who can justify two volumes even smaller. Being honest I did wonder if Self Portrait would do so since, mea culpa, I didn’t know much about Anneke’s life or work outside Doctor Who. The highest recommendation I can give after reading Self Portrait is that Anneke Wills’ time on Doctor Who takes up 15 pages (including photos) out of 300 and it’s far from the most interesting chapter. In fact, the chapters about her acting work are probably the least interesting in the book, not because the acting work or actors she works with are dull but because there’s so much more to her life outside work. Most acting autobiographies are sold on the promise of behind the scenes tales, what the people they’ve worked with were really like and how fabulous their glitter filled life is, darling, almost as if they’re trying to impress the reader and thereby distancing themselves. Reading this though is like settling down to talk with an old friend, almost like sitting down with Anneke over a drink or two and talking about her life, loves and friends, the sex and drugs and rock n roll. Self Portrait’s effectiveness lies its being a very personal take on what life was like at the heart of Swinging Sixties London, the sort of life where Peter Cook phones you up just to sing Happy Birthday. That personal take brings the era to life far more effectively than any number of documentaries can, humanising distant figures such as Cook, Lennon, Rex Harrison or Robert Graves rather than perpetuating myths that have grown up around them. The other appeal of Self Portrait is that it certainly isn’t a whitewash, being candid without stepping over the line into muckraking. There are numerous moments that are emotionally painful to read, beatings both emotional and physical from a stepfather, lovers and husbands. If this had happened to Dave Pelzer he’d have had a three book sob story out of it, exploring events and consequences at length. Instead Anneke seems to remain remarkably well adjusted, picking herself up and carrying on in circumstances which would have floored the majority of us, far more affecting and inspirational than a shelf full of the often overwrought ‘real life tragedy’ genre. Aside from this we also get an idea of the pace of social change through the decades, with her mother’s beloved being forbidden to marry her for class reasons, an abortion because it might hurt a star’s career and Anneke being stigmatised for bearing an illegitimate child. It’s a startling reminder of the pace of social change in the last fifty or so years and brings it home more effectively than overviews of the era, even one as good as Andrew Marr’s recent postwar history of Britain.

By contrast her acting career appears to go as smoothly as it’s possible for an acting career to go, consisting of steady employment in a multitude of interesting, and often critically acclaimed, productions. While these are never less than interesting, particularly the reasons for Strange Report’s cancellation, they never seem as interesting as the Anneke’s outside life.The first volume winds down with the end of the Sixties and a conscious decision to leave London life behind - a fresh start just as London loses the vitality the previous decade afforded it. It leads nicely into an appetising trailer for the forthcoming second volume. While it might look difficult to match a book filled with the people at the heart of Swinging Sixties London, the hints we get here indicate that it’ll be a different but equally rewarding read. These books might not contain a huge amount of Doctor Who content but they’re well worth your time and money for so many other reasons.

Review by Paul Castle (source: Amazon)

Inspirational and saddening, this is the first half of Anneke's life told with honesty.

I've met Anneke Wills at various 'Doctor Who' conventions and signings over the years, and whilst I must have been one of many hundreds she always leaves me feeling happy and content. The first time, in 1997 mere days before Lady Diana died, she spoke to me like I'm a real person she enjoyed spending a couple of minutes chatting with rather than just a sad little boy with nothing better to do than obsess about an old telly show. I was in love! No, that's a cliche, I wanted her as a big sister! She's a wonderful lady and the first person I've ever been interested in enough to want to read their autobiography.

So, when last year she came to a decision in an interview on stage to write her memoirs, I knew we were in for a treat. She asked the audience if we would buy it and we all put up our hands! And just a year later, she was there again, promoting her new book on stage with her publisher, Tim Hirst, and I put my money where my mouth had been just a year earlier and bought a copy from the lovely lady herself.

Two weeks later I've read the book, and I feel saddened that I'm not going to be spending my lunchtimes at work in her company any more. She's taken me through the first half of her life, talking with honesty and frankness about her childhood, teenage years as an emerging actress, and her twenties during which she was both a highly successful actress, wife and mother. Anneke doesn't sensationalise her story, but the pains and joys are there in full and frank detail exposing the cliche 'if you remember the sixties, you weren't there' as a myth.

If you're a fan of sixties 'Doctor Who' and 'Strange Report', I strongly recommend this book. But more than that, if you want to read about the life of a young lady in the swinging sixties, then Anneke's book is the best you'll find. There's no pretense, no luvvy duvvy or militant hippyness, or any wisdom after the fact, this is just a life as it was lived written with honesty, clarity, and love.

Review by Simon Guerrier (Doctor Who author)

Two years ago, as the country got to grips with Dr Who being a Good Thing, the Mirror caught up with former Dr Who girl Anneke Wills. From 1966-7, Anneke had played Polly, sexy blonde it-girl companion to the first and second Doctors. But, as she told Gill Swain in the interview, Anneke’s own life was just as exciting, wild and scary as her travels in the TARDIS.

Self Portrait is part one of a two-part autobiography, and covers the first 30 eventful years. We see Anneke escape from a houseboat, and an eccentric, boho mum with abusive boyfriends, for a scholarship at RADA. This leads to her mixing with all kinds of slebs just as the 60s get going, and there’s raucous parties in Chelsea and all kinds of the wildest clothes.

Always, there’s a breathless, wide-eyed joie de vivre, a delight in name-dropping friends like Peter Cook and Sammie Davies Jnr and all the fab nights out. She’s also surprisingly frank about her days thieving coffee and school uniform, and about clumsy first sexual experience.

As the book progresses, there’s an acknowledgement that being a pretty girl is not in all ways a blessing. There’s accounts of people who won’t take no for an answer, of a respected actor following her home one night, and even of a bloke wanking behind his paper on the train.

“Men in the street, men on the buses, in the tubes, men at work, women’s envious glances. All this had led me to feel very self-conscious. Being pretty can be a lonely place. The men do numbers around you and so do the women.”
Anneke Wills, Self Portrait, p. 298.

I’m rather hoping times have changed. And Anneke herself speaks of how her own perspective was changed by The Female Eunuch. But she’s also funny about Germaine Greer, who she sees storming off a croquet pitch, muttering about the proper rules.

The sparkling narrative style also extends to the more horrific incidents. She’s frank about her abortion and the mess Anthony Newley left her in, and vividly, concisely depicts the sudden anger in her husband Michael Gough, when he pushes her off a balcony.

It’d be wrong to say Anneke recounts these events fondly, but part of the appeal of the book is how at peace she seems now about the things that have befallen her. Mostly. One event – which I won’t spoil – is particularly striking, and Anneke’s sudden switch to the second person to address the person in question really gave me shivers.

The chief appeal, then, is how much it feels like Anneke addresses you directly, like you’re sat with her in a cosy pub, and the stories get wilder and more confessional the more you get through your drinks. It’s intimate, lively and fun so it’s like you’ve been best mates with her for years. Which is probably why I’m chummily calling her “Anneke” here, when I only spoke to her for moments as she scribbled in my book.

Droo fans may complain that the book only covers Droo in one chapter, but each of Polly’s stories gets a mention (though not that very fine short story where post-Doctor Polly goes for a new job). I think the book really benefits from putting that one role in the context of her other work and life.

Another criticism is the copy editing, or lack thereof. This is the first effort from the small-press Hirst Books, and it’s a beautiful production (fantastic cover, by the way) and packed full of exclusive photos. Every now and then there were asides and paragraphs that could have been snipped out.

This, though, is a minor quibble because it’s such an engaging read. Far more important that it’s an engaging story than the n- and m-dashes are consistent. I hared through it on a train and then couldn’t put it down later that evening.

My chief complaint, then, is that the end comes so quickly, just as she seems to be turning her life around. I am very eager to hear more.

Mini Review from Sci-Fi Collector

I for one was disappointed when I finished Anneke's book, purely because I enjoyed reading it so much, I just didn't want it to end! A truly superb read, the full title being 'Self-Portrait, My Journey as an Actress, Wife and Mother in the Swinging Sixties'. A must for her fans as it offers a great insight, but of general appeal as it is so well written and immensely intriguing.