Dr Who: The Writer's Tale...

Bit delayed on the new content stuff but just popped in to heartily recommend an utterly wonderful new Dr Who book which landed with a thump (it's a chunky tome!) on my doormat today. You may have gathered that I'm a bit of a devotee of Dr Who - and let's face it, these days who isn't? (and I'd never have been writing that five years ago! ) and a huge admirer of the work of the series' showrunner/driving force, Russell T Davies. Just published is this brilliant new coffee table book (and it's so big you probably could actually use it as a coffee table) entitled 'The Writer's Tale' which consists of a year-long e-mail dialogue between Davies and Dr Who feature writer Benjamin Cook. The candid and fascinating e-mails between the two show how Davies shaped and structured and wrote the most recent series of Dr Who and while there are lots of lovely pictures of David Tennant and Daleks, it's the superb text which makes this such a joy . Davies really strips back the facade of the TV writer, laying bare his agonies and insecurities, revealing how he delays writing his scripts, spends so much time thinking about them he barely leaves himself time to actually write them. It's a vivid and compelling account of one extraordinarily-talented man's working practices and not only is it a cracking read in its own right (or write!), it's a marvellous inspiration to those of us deluded lesser mortals who occasionally sit behind a computer screen with pretentions of telling stories. I can't recommend this book highly enough so just go and get yourself a copy, pronto! Off now to read some more...