The popularity of oral histories has exploded in the online age, especially, especially where the creative principals behind your favourite movies or shows (everyone from the stars, director and writer/s to the below-the-line artists) explain their part in it. Quotes from interviews about the making of a film, reception and legacy of their work are presented in rough chronological order to explain how it all came together.

Secrets of the Force is the biggest oral history I’ve seen, starting at George Lucas’s script ‘The Star Wars’ circa 1975, ending at The Mandalorian and covering every artifact from the ‘Star Wars’ universe in between.

If you’re a fan you’ll know a lot of it, but there are reasons it’s worth your time. This book has a lot of trivia. The actor playing rebel General Madine in Return of the Jedi had to wear a fake beard because his action figure had already been designed with one.

It includes the eloquent arguments for why so many elements in a franchise that’s so beloved have been so poorly made, from the writing on down.

It won’t undo or ruin your love for ‘Star Wars’ lore, in fact, it will actually give you a lot of perspective that’s impossible to find from the PR machinery that’s always surrounded it, and it’s a trip down a 45-year-old memory lane to boot.

Reviewed by Drew Turney