I am immensely proud to announce that I have written The Official Doctor Who Puzzle Book for Penguin Random House / Ebury and the BBC. It is packed with puzzles for lateral thinkers and brain-teasers to test the wits of even the most ardent of fans. The book is available to pre-order now from all good stockists, and will be released on April 24th. Read on to discover how it came about…
I blame my Mum. When I was a kid, she would sit me on her knee and show me how to solve cryptic crosswords. We would also play Scrabble and discuss the meanings of words and where they came from. A lifelong love for words and word puzzles was born, fuelled by my voracious appetite for reading. I read anything and everything I could possibly get my hands on, and yes, that included good old Doctor Who. I devoured Terrance Dicks novelisations in particular, and when the Virgin New Adventures novels came around, they were my gateway to adult reading. By this time, I was solving crosswords and word puzzles on my own, conversing with my Mum when I got stuck or came across a word I didn’t recognise. Nowadays, I am absolutely delighted that my niece is in avid reader, too. There is hope for the world!
Spool forward to recent history. I am now an academic (a Doctor of Public Health, no less), and a published author in my own right, having co-written a book on LGBTQIA+ healthy ageing for Emerald Publishing Group Ltd. (It’s a long story, but one day, I realised I’d never be the Doctor, so I became a Doctor instead – something which delighted Sylvester McCoy when I told him). Towards the end of my doctorate, needing something fun with which to occupy my mind on downtime from writing a thesis and a book concurrently, I came up with the idea of this very blog. This is the thing about my brain – it acts independently of me and goes ten to the dozen all the time. When it is bored, even when I am concentrating on something else entirely, it is making anagrams of things and thinking up niche puns (or Dad Jokes, if you prefer). Finally, this incessant mental chatter had an outlet – Doctor Who cryptic crosswords. After a while, some of my lovely readers asked if I had thought of doing a book of them? Yes, was the answer, but I only had room to think about it once the other projects (the doctorate and the other book) were done. Eventually, this turned into The Official Doctor Who Puzzle Book.
Compared with writing a thesis, the making of the forthcoming book has been absolutely joyous. Bogged down for years in the quagmire of phenomenology and data triangulation, my hyperactive brain was leaping around a meadow having fun with Daleks and Cybermen and Beep the Meep! The contrast was incredible, and on some level, I think that this project has been a mental release for me – a pressure valve to blow off some steam after years of studious slog. What I hadn’t appreciated before this book were the transferable skills involved from academia to commercial writing – the depth and richness of the data required for such projects, and of course, the teamwork during the drafting process.
The team at Penguin / Ebury have been nothing short of wonderful, and it was only right that I should acknowledge them all in the book. The initial discussions of the content were a pleasure, as were all the negotiations as to the content. They treat authors with respect in a very human way, and through them, I learned a great deal about writing for publication outside academia. Compared with the rigours of doing a doctorate, playing ping-pong for years with dense text and complex methodologies which mean the world to you, it was a sublime – and exciting – experience. To all of them, I say a great big thank you, and not least to the amazing designers. I find it utterly incredible how they can take the kernel of an idea in my head and work such wonders with it. The book looks good enough to eat! (But please don’t) I must also thank my close circle of friends, the Whomalong Boys, who acted as my sounding board, providing the level of critical thinking and deep Doctor Who knowledge when I needed it the most. I am truly blessed to have them in my life. Of course, I am also grateful to everyone who supports this blog, particularly those who do it week in, week out, and who kindly reach out to say Hello. Always say Hello! HELLO!
Finally, I would like to tell you a bit of a spooky story. It sounds like it could be an episode of the BBC’s Uncanny. Let’s hop in the TARDIS back to late 1960s Leeds. My Mum and Dad are dating and not yet married, and me and my brother are not even a twinkle in the eye. Or so you’d think. One night, they went to the house party of a friend. The party piece there was a fortune teller called Mr Morlee. He told my Mum that she would have two sons, the youngest of which, would write books for a living. Spooky, huh? (I know, I know, I am a scientist and rational thinker, and it could be self-fulfilling prophecy, but I like to keep an open mind and it’s just a good story, let’s face it). I think that is suitably wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey enough to include here.
So, to my regular cruciverbalists and all you new ones – THANK YOU. It is because of you that this wonderful book could happen in the first place. I do hope you enjoy it! And watch out for further announcements…
Best wishes
Code Nine
(Dr. Simon Fox)
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