Wednesday 24 September 2008

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...

3 comments:

Sunshine Superman said...

This does indeed sound like a great book. I shall probably add it to my Christmas Presents To Myself List (probably compiled over the next few days) and read it over the mince pies and chicken sandwiches at the end of December.

Den

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm rather hoping someone will buy it for me...

Rich

Julia said...

It is a great book isn't it. I picked it up from the Post Office this morning and started reading it during school, and have been reading it practically non-stop since I came home. It's fascinating and insightful, and as an aspiring writer, just from the what I've read thus far, I'm learning so, so much. It's like some sort of Bible!