The cover has just been unveiled for Christopher Eccleston’s upcoming memoir about his father’s influence and struggle with dementia. And judging from the blurb, it promises to be a revealing and heart-breaking account, especially to those who have family members suffering from the illness.
Eccleston, who played the Ninth Doctor in 2005, says:
“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.”
Here’s the cover:
And the blurb:
Be it as Nicky Hutchinson in Our Friends In The North, Maurice in The A Word, or his reinvention of Doctor Who, one man, in life and death, has accompanied Christopher Eccleston every step of the way – his father Ronnie. In I Love The Bones Of You, Eccleston unveils a vivid portrait of a relationship that has shaped his entire career trajectory, mirroring and defining his own highs and lows, from stage and screen triumph to breakdown, anorexia, self-doubt, and a deep belief in the basic principles of access and equality denied to generations. The actor reveals how his background in Salford, and vision of a person, like millions, denied their true potential, shaped his desire to make drama forever entwined with the marginalised, the oppressed, and the outsider.
Movingly, and in scenes sadly familiar to increasing numbers, Eccleston also describes how the tightening grip of dementia on his father slowly blinded him to his son’s existence, forcing a new and final chapter in their connection, and how ‘Ronnie Ecc’ still walks alongside him today. Told with trademark honesty and openness, I Love The Bones Of You is a celebration of those on whom the spotlight so rarely shines, as told by a man who found his voice in its glare. A love letter to one man, and a paean to many.
The book should be on many fans’ “To Read” lists: though we doubt he’ll mull over his time in Doctor Who too much, Eccleston is an understandably private actor so this will give us a fantastic chance to learn more about this much-loved incarnation of the Doctor.
I Love The Bones Of You is out on 19th September 2019.
