Gillian Anderson on her book about sexual fantasies

In 1973, My Secret Garden contained explicit chapters about fantasies of non-consensual and illegal sex, including a chapter of rape fantasies.

We live in more sensitive times and in 2024, Anderson wanted to create “a safe space for women to share and for women to read and not feel like they have to be wary or afraid of what they’re going to find from one page to the next”.

It was “the right call” to refuse “letters that bordered on illegality or bestiality or incest”, she says.

Despite that choice, a short chapter The Captive contains material Anderson says strays into “dangerous topics and it almost felt disingenuous for us not to include them because they are fantasies that women have”.

Prof Young says these types of fantasy “about intense domination, submission, violent and/or even non-consensual acts are not intended to be acted upon”.

“They provide a safe place to explore interests and desires that are considered taboo, dangerous or socially unacceptable.”

Crucially, for Anderson, in fantasy the woman “is in charge, she can decide with whom, when, where, how much, how often, when to stop, when to continue”.

“So it feels like an empowering admission and revelation rather than something that is under somebody else’s control.”

The 56-year-old star, very much in her prime, recalls “a fair few” of the characters she has played have taught her about sex and sexuality. It’s “vital” for her to understand the inner lives, desires and fantasies of these women, in order to understand “what makes them tick”.

We don’t have time to get into what that meant for her preparation for roles including Miss Havisham in Great Expectations or Emily Maitlis in Emmy-nominated Scoop, a dramatisation of Newsnight’s car-crash interview with Prince Andrew.

But she tells me firmly, when it came to her role in The Crown, she “did not think about Margaret Thatcher’s sexual fantasies”.