Customer Reviews

Peter Sellers: The Authorized Biography

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Biographies (and autobiographies) suffer from one over-riding defect - no-one really knows anyone else completely, or even themselves, so to attempt to accurately describe a person's life is fraught with danger. Interviews with friends and relatives will still only give a slanted or emotionally-coloured idea, either for or against. Yet so many biographies confidently claim to be "authorised" or even finite - I wonder at their courage and impudence. However, if reading every biography you can get hold of about someone enables you to find a path somewhere in between all the lines, you might eventually begin to get a glimmer of what makes that person who he is. When that person is Peter Sellers, though, you must remember you shouldn't presume to try and pin down such a complicated genius of a man, and always mentally add "maybe" to all your "facts". This book tries hard and the author thinks he is being scrupulously fair, and it's not a bad effort. Just bear in mind that "authorised" in this case means by the Sellers estate, and that the author is a journalist and film critic.

To write about the life of Peter Sellers is such a complex undertaking that only the best writers should attempt it. To try to understand a man who didn't even understand himself is inviting hubris. However, Alexander Walker has been a film critic of a leading London newspaper for many years and should have some idea of what he's taking on, having met Peter Sellers on a number of occasions and apparently been privileged to have been considered a friend (any real friendship is a privilege). It certainly reads well, without all the distasteful "muck-raking" with which other authors have found it necessary to pad their offerings. How accurate any biography (or autobiography for that matter) is, can only be guessed at, but this book appears to be trying honestly to depict and evaluate a man whose genius is only now beginning to be appreciated - rarely in one's own time or country, sadly.

This biography presents the life and times of Peter Sellers like a case study of neurosis and unfulfillment. I don't doubt the accuracy of the "tortured soul" treatment the author pursues or the facts of the predicaments Sellers found himself in throughout his life. Failed projects and marriages, poor health and financial woes are on the record. The few instances of joyful periods the author provides though, including examples of sublime artistic creation, are brief and quickly segue into a dismal perspective of their futility. Doesn't seem to me an authentic or rounded depiction of a life, rather a oddly slanted portrayal of a most interesting performer.