The long awaited biography of Gerry Anderson has arrived. Or has it? After reading the 222 pages, divided in 25 chapters the reader may well wonder what he got to know about Gerry Anderson.

by Simon Archer and Stan Nicholls published by Legends Book, 1996, ISBN 0-09-978141-7, 222 pages, £15.99

Most of the book describes the evolution from AP Films, via Century 21 and Group Three to Inimitable and as such is a reasonable "fact book" on the history of these companies. Most of the details given however, have been published in other books and articles over the last two decades and faithful fans of Gerry Anderson and his productions will be well versed in these. Of course without Gerry none of these companies would have been the same or even existed. But an autobiography is about a person. His ideals, his walk through life, his interaction with other people, emotions, feelings, thoughts. And unfortunately, very little of this information is offered. And I cannot imagine there is nothing to tell about Gerry on these subjects.

Where the book does go into the personal life of Gerry, only scratching the surface, the contents becomes more interesting, especially the part where he meets his current wife Mary and finally seems to find personal happiness after a darker period. This is where the person comes to life. In most of the period from childhood and career past Space:1999 he's described as the producer, the (co-)creator of television series. But from a uninvolved, impersonal point of view - as if a wooden actor in a play without much characterisation. His children from previous marriages are just mentioned in passing - without any fatherly pride or comments made. Even his marriage with Sylvia Thammes is only mentioned where it could not be avoided despite the fact they lived together for over ten years during which they mutually must have positively influenced one another to come up with creations as "Thunderbirds".

People from Fanderson have done their best to correct the book in all of the factual details and I think they did well in this. Just a nitpick: somehow, the title of the film "Doppelgänger" (note the " on the letter "a"!) seems difficult to spell for the english speaking people: it is found as "Doppelganger" and "Doppleganger".

The style of writing is flat or neutral at best: not inspiring, amusing, grabbing the interest of the reader. It is also written too much from a fan point of view: not very critical or thought provoking and in my opinion a missed chance to really give some depth to the person of Gerry Anderson. Why did he take offense to Derek Meddings' remark "Gerry, you could not possibly afford me" when Gerry asked Derek to join him again for Terrahawks? Why does he get a kick out of status symbols like Rolls Royces when money could be better spent? We won't know from the biography.

At the end of the book Gerry Anderson will be the same person he was to the reader before reading the book: a producer of successful and less successful tv series and films. As a person we're none the wiser.And that's a shame because I've met Gerry on several occassions, spent a promotion tour through Germany with him and know the book doesn't do him credit as a person. Hopefully a true biography will once be written. He deserves one.