Even then, with its cardboard sets and viewed on our blurry old black-and-white television, it was both compulsive and terrifying. By the time I was eight or nine, even the sound of the Doctor Who theme music was enough to bring on a Pavlovian thrill of terror and anticipation. ‘My’ Doctor was Jon Pertwee, and I remember feeling a fierce resistance when he was replaced by Tom Baker – though Tom Baker won me round eventually! When the series was revived, I was thrilled to watch its transition into the 21st century – just as I’m thrilled now to be contributing to this series of stories.

About the story:
On the point of death after absorbing a vast amount of radiation during his final encounter with the Spider Queen on Metebelis Three, the Third Doctor stumbles out of the TARDIS, searching for Sarah Jane Smith. Instead, he finds himself in an isolated Time Paradox ruled by an unknown psychic force, stuck on Saturday 8th April, and populated by people without names. Anyone disobeying the rules or showing any sign of dissent is swept up into the Gyre. Can the Doctor persuade whatever – or whoever – controls the Gyre to free the Village, before he dies of radiation poisoning?

About the author:
Joanne Harris was born in Barnsley to a French mother and an English father. She published her first novel, The Evil Seed in 1989. Since then, she has written thirteen novels, including Sleep, Pale Sister, Chocolat, which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, Five Quarters of the Orange, Gentlemen and Players, The Lollipop Shoes, Peaches for Monsieur le Curé and The Gospel of Loki. She is also the author of two books of short stories and, with cookery writer Fran Warde, three cookbooks. Her books are published in over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. In 2013, she was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

THE CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO DVD COMPENDIUM
The complete guide to every DVD release of the original 'classic' series of Doctor Who

August 2014 sees the publication in print and ebook of THE CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO DVD COMPENDIUM, a guide to the entire range on DVD of the show's original run from 1963 to 1996.

When the range began in 2000 many Doctor Who adventures were still being issued on fuzzy old VHS. But the DVDs were on a whole new level unmatched in archive television releases before or since. Not only did they offer the superior picture quality and playback flexibility of the then-burgeoning medium; not only were the episodes digitally restored from the best surviving source materials to bring them back to (or even exceed) their original broadcast quality; but they also included an increasingly sophisticated range of additional features that examined the programme's production and legacy.

THE CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO DVD COMPENDIUM chronicles every detail of the range. It's part buying guide for those new to or still collecting the discs, helping them compare releases and select which one they want to get next, and part catalogue for long-time buyers whose collection is complete, enabling them to quickly find any item to watch again. The book provides summaries of the stories, without giving away spoilers for those yet to see the episodes; connections to other adventures to help viewers decide what to buy or watch next; outlines of the restoration techniques used for each release; and more comprehensive descriptions of every extra than can be found elsewhere.

There are also five appendices covering supplementary releases of Classic Who episodes and related programmes; a full list of items hidden on the discs as easter eggs and how to find them; details of the DVDs' releases in other countries; and more. Plus to help collectors find specific contents, there are multiple indexes cataloguing the more frequent extras, key participants in the audio commentaries, recurring features, and a full index of contributors to the special features.

Whether you're only just discovering the long history of Doctor Who's original incarnation or have been a fan and collector for years, THE CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO DVD COMPENDIUM is the ultimate companion to the complete DVD range, celebrating the most comprehensive and detailed release of a television series there has ever been.

Paul Smith is the author and designer of last year's "Time and Space Visualiser: The Story and History of Doctor Who as Data Visualisations", which presents a wealth of information about the show in a unique way using eye-catching graphs and charts. He also produced "The Wonderful Book of Dr Who 1965", a tongue-in-cheek look at the early days of the series in a modern style.

THE CLASSIC DOCTOR WHO DVD COMPENDIUM by Paul Smith is due to be published on 4 August 2014. Available print-on-demand from Amazon (436 pages, 6x9in), or as an ebook.

Doctor Who is now in its fifty-first year and enjoying its 12th/13th/14th/latest of many actors to take on the lead role. Every era is different, each actor brings their own style to the role, each producer and script editor makes their mark and probably Sylvester McCoy’s era is one of the most divisive among fandom.

It’s a dynamic three years blowing cobwebs off the memory of recent cancellation. The Doctor and the series develop over forty-seven episodes until finally, sadly, just as things are on the up, the show is cancelled again.

The Auton guide to the stories behind the Seventh Doctor’s era answers all the questions fans haven’t been asking

• Cleaning Robots: What can you actually clean with a drill and a saw blade? We tried.
• Who built the Rani’s lair? How long did it take?
• Harry’s 70+ - how old is his wife if she’s having twins in a few weeks?
• Why is the Psychic Circus so-called?
• Why do Rezzies eat Kangs when they’ve got a ready supply of teacakes, crumpets, muffin, basil and fresh cream?
• Now that we have a ‘Special Weapons’ Dalek, should we re-label all the other Daleks?
• And how did Delta fit into Mel’s dress?

We worry about these things so you don’t have to. It’s been a long time since Auton visited Doctor Who. Aided by the illustrations of Andy X Cable it’s time to get it out of our system.

Space Helmet for a Cow: The Mad, True Story of Doctor Who (1963-1989)

In Space Helmet for a Cow, Paul Kirkley (SFX magazine) provides a sweeping, wry and warm look at the behind-the-scenes story of Doctor Who - not just the greatest TV show ever made, but frequently the most insane TV show ever made. Which other program, for example, would attempt to sink Atlantis, wage inter-planetary war and crash Concorde - all in BBC Television Centre, on a budget that would barely cover a sitcom?

This is the story of how, over 50 years, a bunch of very clever, very dedicated and sometimes plain crazy people made Doctor Who happen, often against seemingly insuperable odds; a story of triumph and tragedy, tears and tantrums, and an awful lot of men called Donald.

Space Helmet for a Cow also answers the burning questions few have dared tackle before. Questions like: How does a talking cabbage get an Equity card? What would have been in William Hartnell's Glastonbury set? And if you meet a Yeti coming out of a loo in Tooting Bec, how long should you give it?

Published 9 December 2014. Available to pre-order on Amazon.

Summer in London: a city in turmoil. The vicious murder of a well-known MP is like a match to tinder but Detective Inspector James Quill and his team know that it's not a run-of-the-mill homicide. Still coming to terms with their new-found second sight, they soon discover that what is invisible to others - the killer - is visible to them. Even if they have no idea who it is.

Then there are more deaths. The bodies of rich, white men are found in circumstances similar to those that set the streets of London awash with fear during the late 1800s: the Whitechapel murders. Even with their abilities to see the supernatural, accepting that Jack the Ripper is back from the dead is a tough ask for Quill's team. As they try to get to grips with their abilities and a case that's spiralling out of control, Quill realises that they have to understand more about this shadowy London, a world of underground meetings, bizarre and fantastical auctions, and objects that are 'get out of hell free' cards. But the team's unlikely guide, a bestselling author, can't offer them much insight - and their other option, the Rat King, speaks only in riddles.

Relying on old-fashioned police work and improvising with their new skills only lands them in deeper water, and they soon realise that the investigation is going to hell - literally. And if they're not careful, they may be going with it . . .

If there was such a thing as a time traveller's check list, Frank Danes would tick every box with his Short History of Doctor Who. He knows what is good, what is bad and what is ugly and he's not afraid to talk about these things. Danes' book is... for anyone who wants to understand its history, whether they have been with the show since Hartnell or joined it at any point in its half century.

It was time for a change. The original site had served us well for many years, but the world of online sales has moved on and we needed to catch up! One of the issues with the original site was that we couldn't easily offer discounts without extensive coding work. But the new site allows us to be flexible and to present sales and offers across our range, whenever we want.

We decided to reduce the prices across all the ranges, where the books had been available for some time, or where we had fairly high stock levels remaining. Hopefully this means that buyers can pick up some bargains, whether from our well-received Time Hunter series, which spun off from our Doctor Who fiction range, or across our horror novels and novellas, where titles by authors such as Stephen Gallagher, Steve Savile, George Mann and T M Wright can be snapped up.

The original series of Doctor Who ran on television for 26 years, telling thrilling stories of monsters and marvels that enthralled children and adults alike. It has taken half that time to issue all those adventures on DVD, but finally you can now watch every archived episode* in pristine quality. If the prospect of setting out on such a venture daunts you, however, then fear not because The Classic Doctor Who DVD Compendium will guide you every step of the way.

Every disc, every episode, every extra is collated, chronicled and cross-referenced in this complete guide to classic Doctor Who on DVD, with spoiler-free story outlines so no surprises are ruined for those still discovering the original series, suggestions for similar tales to those you already know you like, information on the extensive restoration work that has made the episodes look better than they ever have, and details of the wealth of special features on every disc that expand your knowledge of the worlds of Doctor Who - all fully indexed for easy reference.

If you're only just learning about the long story of Doctor Who then The Classic Doctor Who DVD Compendium will guide you through the adventure ahead. If you're still building your collection it will help you discover further stories you're sure to enjoy, and if you already have every release, this book will be your ultimate companion to the complete range.

*Okay, there's still one to go.