Christopher Eccleston’s memoir is set to be published by Simon & Schuster UK next year.
Eccleston, of course, played the Ninth Doctor in 2005, and his book, I Love the Bones of You, will chart his own acting career plus the impact on him and his family of his late father’s struggle with dementia. It will explore his formative years, growing up in a Salford, working-class household in the 1970s with his siblings and mother as well as “the totemic figure of his hardworking, serious-minded and socialist father”, Ronnie. Christopher says:

“My dad’s dementia started with problems with short-term memory, He became obsessed for instance with the length of the grass at my house. He used to come and tell me that we needed to cut the hedges. He would say that again and again in a loop, and I used to snap at him because at the time I did not understand dementia.

“The most traumatic experience is when people with dementia realise they are ill. I saw my father pass through that and fight it with all his will. He was on his knees, repeating: ‘What’s happening to me, what’s happening to me? I am Ronnie Eccleston.’ It was devastating.”

Iain MacGregor, publishing director of non-fiction at Simon & Schuster UK, says:

“Like many, many people across Britain today, Chris bears the pain and loss of a dear parent who was taken by this incredibly vile condition. He wanted to not only record his father’s journey, but to celebrate his life, and that of his family also. We are privileged he has decided to take this journey with Simon & Schuster UK.”

Eccleston goes on:

“My father was an ‘ordinary man’, which of course means he was extraordinary. I aim to capture him and his impact on my life and career.”

I Love the Bones of You – which is a heartbreaking and beautiful title – will be published in September 2019.