December 16th, 2016 no comments

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Lethbridge-Stewart Christmas book The Xmas Files

Candy Jar Books is pleased to announce this year’s free Christmas short story!

The Feast of Evans by Simon A Forward will be available free on the Candy Jar website, with a bonus free Christmas short story sent out to all pre-order customers and subscribers. The bonus short story, Home for Christmas, is written by many of the Lethbridge-Stewart authors who previously wrote for the series in 2016, including John Peel, Andy Frankham-Allen, Sue Hampton, Adrian Sherlock, Sharon Bidwell and Tom Dexter.

The book is available from www.candy-jar.co.uk

Talking about The Feast of Evans, Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen says: “My original plans for Evans never really took, and so he was carted off from Edinburgh to the 2nd Battalion at Imber in England. However, his appearances this past year have proven to be quite popular with fans, so I revised my plans and set up his return for 2017. Simon’s Christmas story is a small part of that. It was also an opportunity to bring Samson to the fore, too, and teaming them together is perfect, after their initial not so auspicious meeting in The Grandfather Infestation.”

Simon A Forward says: “When Andy asked me to do a Christmas story, I was stuck for inspiration. It was September, after all, and I refuse to feel Christmassy before December as a rule. But the idea of it featuring Evans appealed to me, as I’d revisited The Web Of Fear earlier in the year and he’s such a great character. Of course, I imagined he’d been busted out of the army after that, and I think that’s where the idea of a Christmas at home scenario arose. I sort of imagined it as a Christmas episode of his own domestic sitcom.”

Shaun Russell, head of publishing at Candy Jar, says: “It’s always fun to do our seasonal stories, and this one is even more fun as it’s set concurrent with our Christmas special from last year. This story shows us what happened elsewhere while Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was dealing with alien spheres in London in last year’s The Fright Before Christmas. And just because we’re nice we are also including that story free as well.”

“I also had an idea to write a couple of scenes to show what our other regulars were up to while the Brigadier was enjoying Christmas with Sally,” says Andy, talking about Home for Christmas. “And after writing a couple of scenes, a new thought came to me. Wouldn’t it be fun to get as many of our authors involved as possible? I sent out an email, asking for those free to send me a scene, and many responded. Bit by bit the story became longer.”

The Feast of Evans will be available for free on the Candy Jar website over Christmas.

Series four will begin Spring 2017 with Night of the Intelligence by Andy Frankham-Allen, celebrating fifty years since the Great Intelligence first appeared in Doctor Who with 1967’s The Abominable Snowmen. Bringing back another fan-favourite character from that debut story!

Bundles of every series can still be ordered, with subscriptions available both for UK and international customers (however, please check if you are eligible for the subscription deal at the Candy Jar website before subscribing). Please see www.candy-jar.co.uk for more details.

Categorised under: Books, Story books