RICHARD E. ROCK

Reality Behind the Fantasy is the perfect title for this book; a memoir by model and actress Caroline Munro. Not only because she is affectionately known as ‘the first lady of fantasy’, but because…

1. Let’s face it, for decades she’s been a fantasy figure for a certain generation of adolescent boys, not to mention their fathers and no doubt quite a few of their mothers too. And…
2. This book provides an illuminating glimpse behind the scenes of many much-loved fantasy, horror and sci-fi movies.

But to begin with, I want to get my one and only quibble out of the way; and that’s the sheer number of times the words ‘incredible’ and incredibly’ appear throughout these pages. Everything is either ‘incredible’ or ‘incredibly’ something. I’m amazed there isn’t a national shortage of these words now.

But, as I say, that is only a quibble. Now onto the good stuff…

For fans of fantastical cinema Caroline Munro is a figure of legend. She has starred in numerous cult movies (Dracula A.D. 1972, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Starcrash), worked with some renowned figures (Ray Harryhausen, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee and… erm… David Hasselhoff) and has countless stories to tell.

And towering above all these fabulous roles, of course, is her unforgettable turn as the beautiful but deadly assassin Naomi in the James Bond classic, The Spy Who Loved Me.

Reality Behind the Fantasy is a fun and fascinating book in which we are whipped breezily through over fifty years of amazing experiences and entertaining anecdotes; from Caroline’s chance encounter with a young David Bowie to getting stung on the arse by a wasp during the filming of The Spy Who Loved Me; from burping in the presence of Vincent Price to almost drowning in quicksand on the set of Starcrash.

But for all its brevity, Reality Behind the Fantasy is no puff piece. For someone whose career started out in modelling, it isn’t all glamour glamour glamour. Sure, there are the exotic locations and the glitzy premieres, but there is also guerilla filmmaking with no permits, painful horse-riding accidents and critical maulings.

One particularly uncomfortable episode involves Caroline being caught up in a vortex of controversy following the release of notorious ‘video nasty’ Maniac.

But on a lighter note, Caroline is not shy upon heaping praise on those who have helped her on her journey, or those who have illuminated her life in some way. And that’s because he’s just so darn nice. Truly, her niceness and fundamental decency shines through on almost every page. She’s a kind and generous human being, and I can testify to this because I was lucky enough to meet her at a nerd convention some years ago in Margam Castle, right here in south Wales.

Interestingly, she would later make a cameo appearance in the straight-to-DVD horror film The Haunting of Margam Castle. I love a bit of synchronicity, don’t you?

You can grab yourself a signed edition of Reality Behind the Fantasy from Caroline’s official website: http://www.carolinemunro.org. It’s also available from Amazon, obvs.

It really is an incredibly fascinating book.