As ever, real life drama intrudes on the creative process and when it became clear that I wouldn’t have the time to finish the collection, I decided to give two of my story ideas to two other authors, as well as use Sharon (Bidwell)’s short story sequel to A Very Private Haunting, as it fit the theme of the book. And that theme is, as the title suggests, tying up loose ends left over throughout the original run of the Lethbridge-Stewart range.

It’s a great little collection, with a nice mix of sci-fi, ghost stories, and some solid real-world drama. The Stories We Tell is a particularly touching tale, bringing as it does a parallel between the fictional life of Anne Travers and the real life of a Doctor Who fan who died in 2016 at the young age of only sixteen.

It was important to me that this book was dedicated to the family of Rhys Rubery, my young friend who died three years ago, and so Adrian did a wonderful little portrait of Rhys for the cover.

I have always thought that Delia Derbyshire never received the recognition due to her for that amazing Doctor Who Theme. And so I decided to concoct a musical piece, as an “Homage” to her, something embodying that enigmatic theme but using today’s digital technology.

I had been working on the “Homage to Delia Derbyshire” for quite a while, without knowing that 23rd November was “Delia Derbyshire Day.

That the final version of my Homage was ready, i.e. completed slightly ahead of time, and just happened to coincide with this specific date is, well, absolute serendipity.

As are my compositional preferences, the piece is, at times, multi-layered using concurrent fragments of the theme played against each other using different instrumentation.

It’s best heard (I think) turned up loud with the sound just washing over you.

I'm so happy to finally present our new bag – we've been working on it for over two years now! The original idea came from a desire to make a product no other fandom has seen before. Something unique. We had this particular design in mind since we first approached BBC Studios about making officially-licensed Doctor Who bags.
We wanted fans to be able to customise it: make it personal and stand out from the crowd. It comes with exclusive pins which you can screw into the holes on one side, meaning you can highlight your favourite parts of the show. Effectively, you're the designer!

I'm incredibly proud of our whole range. It's been wonderful seeing people getting so enthusiastic about what we do. We hope fans similarly love this unique bag – and all the exciting products we've got planned for the future!

In his five decades as an illustrator, painter and conceptual artist, Chris Achilléos has four best-selling books of his art, Beauty and the Beast, Syrens, Medusa and Amazona. He worked with the likes of George Lucas, as well as producing the iconic promotional art for the cult film Heavy Metal. But it is probably his work for Doctor Who that is the most enduringly popular.

His covers for the official Target novelisations, which began in the early ‘70s, defined a generation’s image of the Doctor and his adventures – particularly after the show disappeared from British screens in the late ‘80s.

Lavishly detailed, with psychedelic overtones and an unapologetically pulpy sensibility, these covers perfectly captured the eccentric appeal of the classic series. To this day, Doctor Who luminaries tip their hat to the influence of Achilléos’ work. The opening of a 2016 exhibition of Target’s cover artwork at the Cartoon Museum, London, attracted the series’ then-showrunner Steven Moffat, as well as twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi.

With the Doctor long back on our screens, and more popular than ever, it is perhaps surprising that Achilléos’ Whovian oeuvre (or Whoeuvre, if you will) has never been collected in one place.

Kklak: The Doctor Who Art of Chris Achilléos, an upcoming title from award-winning independent publisher Candy Jar Books, aims to address this. For the first time, it collects the entirety of Achilléos’ Doctor Who artwork in chronological order, along with commentary from Achilléos himself (as well as some fans) – presenting the definitive guide to his seminal work. The book also includes a small contribution from twelfth Doctor Peter Capaldi and a foreword from Achilléos’ long-time friend and collaborator, the late Terrance Dicks.

Achilléos explains his motivations for compiling the book:


As the home of the Lethbridge-Stewart series, one of only a handful of fully licensed Doctor Who ranges outside of the BBC, Candy Jar was the natural home for Achilléos’ new title. As Candy Jar’s head of publishing, Shaun Russell, explains:


Featuring every one of Achilléos’ Doctor Who designs, as well as never before seen material giving insight into his creative process, Kklak: the Doctor Who Art of Chris Achilléos is released in April 2020 by Candy Jar Books.

Short of being picked for a British space exploration programme and I readily concede that I’m past the age where I’d be considered (if I was ever the right age for such a posting) – then being in an episode of Doctor Who will certainly do as a very sweet second-place excitement.

It was absolutely brilliant to be welcomed into the fantastical world of Doctor Who. The nearest I have been to the TARDIS was when I played the Caribbean Doctor in the Lenny Henry Show , so as a life-long (hiding behind the sofa type) Doctor Who fan this is a very special moment for me.

Doctor Who is coming back with a bang - with two great British icons in major roles. One of the great joys of Doctor Who is getting to work with actors from your wish list. Stephen and Lenny are two of my absolute favourite actors - and to be able to bring them into Doctor Who, in one of our biggest ever stories to kick off the new series, is an absolute thrill.

We are so proud and honoured to have our heroes, take part in the annual - although this time we also have a villian gracing the pages. Sil, is quite possibly the greatest villian the sixth Doctor has ever faced. And thanks to the kindness of Keith Barnfather, and Sil's creator Philip Martin, Sil has a couple of pages dedicated to him.