“And then, basically, he milks her,” says Gillian Anderson. (Context incoming!) The OBE and Emmy winner is gleefully reciting one of the most “extraordinary” entries in her groundbreaking new book, Want, in which she continues the iconic legacy of Sex Education’s fierce Dr. Jean Milburn by exploring the “complexities” of female sexuality.

Inspired by Nancy Friday’s My Secret Garden, the book collects the desires, fantasies and kinks of countless anonymous women around the world, with entries touching upon BDSM, infidelity, shame, voyeurism and – in one case – the insatiable need to receive the “big cocks” of a group of “incredibly attractive biker men” (same!).

What makes Want even more innovative is its inclusivity, with letters from queer women, trans women and non-binary people. After all, this is the woman who blazed a much-needed bi-conic trail with her badass DCI Stella Gibson on The Fall and inspired the “Dana Scully Made Me Gay” movement. And then there’s Dr Jean Milburn, sex therapist supreme. “MOTHER!” applies to all of the above, by the way, especially Gillian.

“I wanted to make sure we didn’t go three or four letters without representation from a different race, gender or sexual preference, and that it felt like we were constantly shaking it up,” Gillian tells GAY TIMES. “It was important to have that diversity.”

Below, Gillian Anderson reflects on the creation of Want, whether the success of the book means we’re finally due for a cultural shift in the perception of female pleasure and which entry she “cackled” at the most. Spoiler alert: it’s the quote we started with from a self-described “HuCow”.

Gillian, Want is really quite groundbreaking because, as you state in the introduction, it’s still taboo for women to express sexual pleasure. Can you talk to me about what led to the release of this book, whether that’s personal or professional?

Mostly professional. After playing Jean Milburn in Sex Education, I’d received a lot of requests to do either a book as Jean or a book interviewing women about their sex lives or fantasies. My literary agent didn’t bring any of those requests to me, but then she came to me with an idea for something in the spirit of My Secret Garden. When she proposed it… On the one hand, there’s part of me that is not necessarily interested in expanding this aspect of my life. I’m not a sex therapist, I’m an actor. I’m not an expert in any way about sex or fantasy. And after this, I will continue to be an actor. But, it made sense. Post season four of Sex Education, I came out with a functional drinks brand called G-Spot, and the messaging is not dissimilar to the inclusiveness with which we sent the call out for women to send in their letters. We invited women, anyone who identifies as a woman and non-binary people to write in and courageously share their deepest, darkest desires. Bloomsbury set up a portal, a safe space that wouldn’t necessarily link back to the person who sent it. In the end I think we ended up receiving 800,000 words.

Now I see why you had enough material for eight volumes…

And so, whittling them down and deciding what the headings for the chapters were going to be, it was a big moment of trial and error. My favourite part was actually sorting them and ordering them within each chapter. It felt like a really hands-on intimate engagement with, not just the letters, but with the women themselves who had sent them in. There’s so much depth, honesty and rawness, and it’s clear the women didn’t worry about whether it necessarily made sense or was elegant or particularly well written. We wanted it to feel that you didn’t have to be a professional writer to send in a submission. You definitely feel that from the letters that we received. There’s a real variety, a real range of women who just wanted to participate and send something in.

I’m obsessed with some of the language used in this, how free these women were in their expression…

When I did my letter, my fantasy, I struggled. I’ve been around the block and there’s not much that I’m squeamish about or prudish about, I’m not nervous or shy. And I still found it a very different relationship to my fantasies to actually put them down on paper.