Paul Magrs

After my review of ‘Good-Bye to Gumble’s Yard’ yesterday, I got a very nice email from John Rowe Townsend himself:

I’m glad you enjoyed “Goodbye to Gumble’s Yard.”  It’s an old book
now, and out of print, but it was always one of my favourites.  It
sounds as if you haven’t read the book that preceded it, which was
just called “Gumble’s Yard”  and is about the same family.  It’s
still in print and can be ordered from Oxford University Press in
paperback at £3.99.   I hope you’ll like that one, too.  Happy reading.

John Rowe Townsend.

I’ll have to get that – and check out the rest of OUP’s list, to see what else they’ve brought back into print. Well done, them!

Meanwhile, my ‘Diary of a Dr Who Addict’ has been getting a few online reviews lately, which I’ve been very pleased about. ‘A gentle, beautifully observed novel’ says Total Sci-Fi, while Ian Berriman at SFX tells us:

‘Thirtysomethings will smile at references to Breville sandwich toasters and Tudor crisps. Fans will chuckle at David’s vocabulary of words-learnt-from-Who (like “chitinous”, “unearthly” and “voluminous”). Teens, meanwhile, will be reassured that it’s okay to be different – and realise that a previous generation experienced exactly the same uncertainty.’

One of my favourite reviews so far comes from Frank at Cathode Ray Tube, a rather nice blog I hadn’t seen before. He says:

‘David’s love of The Show is my love of the series too. At the same age, I bought those shiny red Silvine exercise books and promptly filled them with strange Doctor Who stories where I was the Doctor’s companion and, yes, we would end up in genre busting crossovers with Star Trek and Planet Of The Apes. Magrs understands the importance of fan production and how genre shows such as Doctor Who inspire young writers to blossom and use their talent. It’s such a positive aspect of David’s story, along with Robert’s similarly exultant discovery of his own sexuality and creativity in music, and confirms that such a love of The Show is not time wasted, is not a misspent youth.’

And this just in from Big Finish Productions – the cover for my upcoming Doctor Who audio starring Katy Manning as both Jo Grant and Iris Wildthyme, ‘Find and Replace’. But before anyone says – no, it’s not about the Autons. I believe the blank faces are symbolic!