I read it on holiday and found it fascinating. Very long and detailed - occasionally left me wanting more about my favourite bits in his films, but that wasn’t the purpose of the book. Nice stuff on what Sellers was going through as he made each film, convincingly ( to me) showing how he really became each part and the consequences to those close to him. Especially good on the less well-known films - some of them indeed have been effectively lost. I hated the Goons (not old enough to remember them when they originally broadcast but have heard bits since), but even the stuff on those days (the fifties) was interesting.
I read it a good few years ago, just after it came out, but have not revisited it.
Hardly a hagiography, eh? I remember being somewhat startled by a paragraph, about three-quarters in, starting “But was Sellers gay?” - right out of nowhere.
From everything I have read or seen about Sellers, he comes across as a bit of a blank himself, only having any personality at all when playing a role.
Now, I am a fan of the Goons, even though I was not yet 1 year old when the last (real) one was broadcast. And I cannot help thinking that Sellers was never really as good as he was when performing alongside Spike Milligan. Except maybe in the Pink Panther films.
The forthcoming HBO film which is based on the book and with Geoffrey Rush as Sellers sounds intriguing, though!
I have not read it, but will add these comments on his “acting in character:”
Blake Edwards made the comment one time in an interview that it was so annoying to be around Sellers when the cameras stopped rolling because he stayed in character.
I saw an interview with him shortly after “Being There” came out, and he did the interview as Chance.
He was a guest on Dean Martin’s variety show in the early 70s, and he did the entire program as a rather effeminate chap. I know he did play a gay character in one of his unreleased movies of the early 70s. Maybe that’s what he was doing.