Non-Fiction

While I usually wrire fiction I have gone the non-fiction route a few times either with books or with serious journalism. Fiction is where I feel most at home but there's a real satisfaction from writing a really good piece of non fiction work.
Big Finish Publishing, 2004
Since 1999, Big Finish Productions have produced regular, fully-licensed ongoing audio adventures for the Doctor and his companions on CD. Each four-part story stars members of the original Doctor Who cast in brand-new adventures through time and space.
Presented in this book are the original scripts for four of Big Finish's most popular stories plus an essay by actress India Fisher, who plays Charley Pollard.
Representing the Fifth Doctor adventures, starring Peter Davison, comes The Eye of the Scorpion, written by Iain McLaughlin and featuring the first appearance of new TARDIS traveller Erimem.
Colin Baker featured as the Sixth Doctor in The One Doctor', the award-winning romp by Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman.
From the Seventh Doctor run, with Sylvester McCoy, is Dust Breeding by Mike Tucker, featuring the return of an old and deadly enemy...
Rounding this collection off is Seasons of Fear, one of the most significant of the Eighth Doctor audio adventures featuring Paul McGann and penned by Paul Cornell and Caroline Symcox.
This collection also features a number of early storylines and other features!
Egypt, 276BC
Kerides, a penniless young Greek student arrives in Egypt’s capital city, Alexandria, seeking to pursue his studies. With the help, occasional hindrance and regular insults of former slave, Adrea, Kerides finds that murders and mysteries have a regular habit of interrupting his studies. Together, they face merciless assassins, brutal ancient cults, betrayal, an attack on Egypt itself and a marketplace fortune teller claiming to be the reincarnation of an uncrowned pharaoh… and the strange thing is, she seems to be telling the truth. They even manage to find time for a trip to the fabled Library of Alexandria, only to find that the librarian had been checked out for good.
These scripts are episodes 1-8 of the popular Imagination Theater radio series, Kerides The Thinker, and each script is accompanied by notes by the writers. The double-length Episode 8, Return of the Queen, features the uncrowned Pharaoh Erimem, companion of the Fifth Doctor, from the universe of Doctor Who.
The book is available from Amazon here.
Egypt 276BC
Kerides, a young Greek student lives in Egypt’s capital city, Alexandria, pursuing his studies. With the help of former slave, Adrea, Kerides finds that intrigue and mysteries have an unfortunately regular habit of interrupting his studies.
Kerides and Adrea also find their relationship changing and evolving into something more than just companionship as they investigate murders, conspiracies, vicious ex-wives and the walking dead as well as delve into Adrea’s past to find the truth about the family she never knew...
...and then there’s the small matter of a wedding...
These scripts are episodes 9 - 15 of the popular Imagination Theater radio series, Kerides The Thinker, and each script is accompanied by notes by the writers.
THE HEART OF FRANKENSTEIN
Baron Frankenstein, the Mummy, Leonardo daVinci and Sherlock Holmes in four spine-chilling scripts written for radio. THE HEART OF FRANKENSTEIN“What am I? Am I God’s creature or Victor Frankenstein’s?”Tormented by the sudden accidental death of his beautiful wife, Baron Victor Frankenstein challenges death and God in a desperate attempt to bring his wife back from the grave. But brutal killings soon follow Elizabeth’s rebirth. Is the woman who came back to him the same person she was before she died or has Victor Frankenstein created a monster? CURSE OF THE MUMMY“I am a living god. I do not apologise. My word is law, my thoughts are the forces that shape the world. I cannot make mistakes. I cannot be wrong. I cannot be defied.” MAESTRO: THE DEMON OF SACRE MERE“Leonardo, nobody has heard of this village because, despite the fact that we are here, it does not seem to exist.” SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE CURSED OF BROKENSHORE“I fear, Mr Holmes, that the dead are walking in Brokenshore.”Four radio script written for Imagination Theater by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett.
In life we wear a lot of masks…and the truth is that we don’t just wear them in life…Behind the Masque is a horror portmanteau play which has been performed on both radio and stage. The four stories all linked by the theme of a horror or a dark secret hiding behind a mask.The scripts for both the original radio and theatrical versions of the play are contained in this volume.
I worked on the great comics the Beano and the Dandy for years... from 1985 to 2014. I even had a stint as editor on the Beano for about 5 months. This book is an unofficial history of the Beano, focusing mostly on the people who worked so hard to produce the comic and make generations of kids laugh. It came out early in 2022.
On the 30th of July 1938 a rainbow of colour emerged into the lives of children in bleak, pre-war Britain. The Beano was born. To celebrate its 70th year, and as a tribute to both yesterday's fans and today's enthusiasts, DC Thomson & Co. Ltd., and Waverley Books proudly present this lavishly illustrated history. Researched and written by DC Thomson staff writers, this account explains how the comic has evolved and innovated, examining the secret ingredients behind seven decades of success. Anarchic, anti-establishment and - above all else - funny, The Beano burst into life pioneering a new style of comic strip that combined graphics and text. Characters like Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger and Minnie the Minx were introduced to universal acclaim. Legendary writers and artists clocked on at what became known as 'The Fun Factory' to bring Britain s most-adored comic and characters, week after week, to generations of children. By the early 1950s The Beano had reached a weekly circulation of two million copies. Times may have changed since then but Dennis is still menacing, Roger is still dodging, and Minnie remains the definitive Minx.I was one of the staff writers mentioned in the blurb, writing the chapter on the 1970s.
Thebes Publishing, 2018with Julianne Todd
To accompany the writing classes and workshops I give, this book contains scripts, outlines and plots which have never progressed beyond the page. I look at these ideas with the benefit of hindsight, look at what may have been wrong with them, discuss the reasons for their failure and discuss the changes I would make to them were I writing them now.
The Doctor's Companions. They've been through Dalek Invasions, Android Invasions, Zygon Invasions and Christmas Invasions. They ask questions, get in trouble, get out of trouble, and challenge the Doctor to think and act in new (usually better) ways. Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who features profiles of companions from all formats of Doctor Who: television, novels, comics and audio dramas. Our contributors include well-known authors, four librarians, two ukelelists, a playwright, podcasters, publishers, students, and the writers and artists behind some of the Doctor's companions. This here book, Children of Time: The Companions of Doctor Who, was published in May 2018 by Kozmic Press. The anthology of essay on the Doctor's friends and companions is raising money for Furkids, Georgia’s largest animal rescue and no-kill shelter. I contributed a chapter on Erimem. You can find more details on Amazon.
This book, You on Target, is a series of essays and reminiscences about the series of Target novelisations, which were such a huge part of being a Doctor Who fan in the 1970s and 1980s. I loved these books back then and I still do. I learned to love reading from these and I still learn about writing from them. My piece on Doctor Who and the Space War goes into that and details the debt I owe to its author, Malcolm Hulke and to Terrance Dicks.
There are over 150 of the novelisations and they all get an essay, so there's plenty of reading and reminiscing here. You can pick the book up here.
OOR WULLIE - 100 GREATEST MOMENTS
For as long as we can remember, Oor Wullie has captivated the nation with his exploits and left us wondering what he'll do next. Most of what he does has us laughing out loud, and this brand new collection is no exception. Join Oor Wullie on a romp through the years as he reveals for the very first time his own personal hundred greatest moments from a very mischievous life.
THE CARRY ON QUIZ BOOK
Coming Summer 2024 A quiz book based on the legendary comedy series.
THE 60s POP MUSIC QUIZ BOOK THE 60s POP MUSIC QUIZ BOOK THE 60s POP MUSIC QUIZ BOOK
Coming Autumn 2024, three quiz books about music from the 60s, 70s and 80s. These are just rough takes on the covers, by the way.