It’s out! Again!
Well, actually it’s been out for a couple of weeks now,
but today being the 61
st anniversary of the first episode of
Doctor
Who being broadcast, it seemed appropriate to write here today about the
audiobook version of
Pull to Open now having been released.
It’s a strange thing, to listen to your own writing being
read by an actor, in the person of
Christopher Naylor here. Of course given
that I have spent over 17 years now working for BBC radio, I am used to having words
which I have written spoken aloud by others. But this felt slightly different.
It’s more of a
performance, and it does feel rather nice listening to it
being read that way.
It's also very nice, of course, to have an official piece
of
Doctor Who work released under the BBC banner. I’ve written a fair
bit for
Doctor Who Magazine over the past decade, which is also
officially licensed and comes out with the BBC logo on it, but again this
is slightly different. A full-length audiobook, a long, sustained piece of
writing, and an official part of the BBC’s wider
Doctor Who output
beyond the television series.
Not, of course, that I would dissuade anyone from reading
the original paperback edition from Ten Acre,
which is still very much available. Indeed, if
you happen to be reading this having bought and enjoyed the audiobook version –
and if so, thank you! – then you may still enjoy the book even more, as it’s
much longer and is able to include much more background and detail.
One rather nice thing about the audiobook is that it’s
actually featured quite highly in the charts. Well, all right, in one specific
Amazon chart for one specific category of audiobook. But it still counts, and I’m
taking it! Although admittedly I probably won’t be going so far as to add “best-selling”
to any of my online profiles anywhere… Not
quite yet, at least!
But thank you,
Doctor Who, for once again enabling
me to feel as if I have in some small way done something, and achieved
something. It’s always been a very positive presence in my life, as it has been
in so many people’s, and it’s lovely to think that there might be someone out there
who’s fascination with its history might be sparked off by
Pull to Open
in the same way mine was by the likes of the Howe-Stammers-Walker books all
those years ago.
