August 28th, 2014 9 comments

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The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller by JOANNE HARRIS

Published by BBC Books, 4th September 2014, eBook £1.99

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller is the latest in the series of TIME TRIPS, a series of digital Doctor Who short stories written by award-winning authors, including A.L. Kennedy, Jenny T Colgan and Cecelia Ahern.

Joanne Harris says ‘I remember watching Doctor Who from a very early age, from a cushion fort behind the sofa. 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 Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller is published by BBC Books as part of Time Trips. The complete Doctor Who: Time Trips Collection will be published in hardback

March 5th 2015, price £16.99

Available for kindle in the UK from www.amazon.co.uk

Available for kindle in the USA www.amazon.com

Categorised under: Books, Story books