Doctor Who: Star Tales

To celebrate the return of Doctor Who in early 2020, a unique collection of name-dropping historical adventures inspired by Jodie Whitaker’s first series as The Doctor.

Steve Cole (Author) Steve Cole is an editor and children’s author whose sales exceed three million copies. His hugely successful Astrosaurs young fiction series has been a UK top-ten children’s bestseller. His several original Doctor Who novels have also been bestsellers. Paul Magrs (Author) Paul Magrs was born in 1969 in the North East of England. He has written numerous novels and short stories for adults, teens, children and Doctor Who fans. He teaches Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Jenny T Colgan (Author) Jenny T. Colgan has written numerous bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet the Doctor and was mistaken for a boy by Peter Davison. Jo Cotterill (Author) Jo’s first story at the age of five was a festive one entitled 'Chismas’. After writing a lot of stories about unicorns, she decided at the age of thirteen to become an actress. Her professional acting career was enjoyable but frustrating, so she became a teacher instead, writing stories on the side. Her first book was published in 2004, and she gave up teaching in 2009. Jo now lives in Oxfordshire and fits writing around her young family. She enjoys music and card-making, and is an avid fan of Strictly Come Dancing. Joanna Cotterill (Author) Jo’s first story at the age of five was a festive one entitled 'Chismas’. After writing a lot of stories about unicorns, she decided at the age of thirteen to become an actress. Her professional acting career was enjoyable but frustrating, so she became a teacher instead, writing stories on the side. Her first book was published in 2004, and she gave up teaching in 2009. Jo now lives in Oxfordshire and fits writing around her young family. She enjoys music and card-making, and is an avid fan of Strictly Come Dancing. Trevor Baxendale (Author) Trevor Baxendale has been a writer since 1998, when his first Doctor Who novel The Janus Conjunction was published by BBC Books. Since then he has written many novels, short stories, comic strips and audio dramas for both BBC Books and Big Finish Productions, plus various adaptations for schools in Pearson’s Bugclub range. 
His Doctor Who novels include the The Deadstone Memorial, which was voted best novel of 2004 by the readers of Doctor Who Magazine, as well as Eater of Wasps, Prisoner of the Daleks and Deep Time. His acclaimed Fear of the Dark was reprinted in 2013 as part of Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary celebrations. His first Torchwood novel, Something in the Water, was published in March 2008 and was a national bestseller. He was regular contributor to BBC Magazines' hugely popular Doctor Who Adventures between 2007 and 2012, scripting the further exploits of the Doctor in comic strip form. He has written scripts for Big Finish’s Doctor Who, Robin Hood and Highlander ranges, and most recently full cast audio dramas for Blake’s 7. 
You can follow him on Twitter @trevorbaxendale Mike Tucker (Author) Mike Tucker is a British author specialising in science fiction, fantasy and behind the scenes publications. His works include a number of Doctor Who novels and short stories.

‘Even though they’re gone from the world, they’re never gone from me.’ 
 
The Doctor is many things – curious, funny, brave, protective of her friends...and a shameless namedropper. While she and her companions battled aliens and travelled across the universe, the Doctor hinted at a host of previous, untold adventures with the great and the good: we discovered she got her sunglasses from Pythagoras (or was it Audrey Hepburn?); lent a mobile phone to Elvis; had an encounter with Amelia Earhart where she discovered that a pencil-thick spider web can stop a plane; had a 'wet weekend' with Harry Houdini, learning how to escape from chains underwater; and more. 
 
In this collection of new stories, Star Tales takes you on a rip-roaring ride through history, from 500BC to the swinging 60s, going deeper into the Doctor's notorious name-dropping and revealing the truth behind these anecdotes.

The Triple Knife and Other Doctor Who Stories

Doctor Who

Five mesmerising Doctor Who adventures by Sunday Times bestselling author Jenny T. Colgan, published together in one volume for the first time.

Jenny T. Colgan has written numerous bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet the Doctor and was mistaken for a boy by Peter Davison.

Short stories that are bigger on the inside. 
 
 Join the women of the Whoniverse for five thrilling Doctor Who adventures by Sunday Times bestselling author Jenny T. Colgan. 
 
Ashildr, a young Viking girl, died bravely helping the Doctor save the village she loved – so the Doctor used alien technology to bring her back to life. Ashildr became immortal and, since that day, has kept journals to chronicle her extraordinary life. 'The Triple Knife' is a glimpse into the life of a woman who lived longer than anyone ever should – and lost more than she can even remember. 
 
'Picnic at Asgard' drops in on another woman of the Whoniverse who never fails to find herself too far from danger and excitement. And when you’re married to a Time Lord, what more can you expect? This adventure, extracted from her journal, reveals still more about the legendary River Song. 
 
'Into the Nowhere' follows the Eleventh Doctor and Clara as they land on an unknown alien planet. To the Doctor’s delight and Clara’s astonishment, it really is unknown. It’s a planet the Doctor has never seen. It’s not on any maps, it’s not referenced on any star charts or in the TARDIS data banks. It doesn’t even have a name. What could be so terrible here that has been erased? 
 
This collection also includes two further adventures 'All The Empty Towers' and 'A Long Way Down' – a short story never published in volume form before.

Doctor Who: The Christmas Invasion (Target Collection)

The Tenth Doctor's first adventure, novelised by bestselling author Jenny T Colgan

Jenny T Colgan has written 16 bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet the Doctor and was mistaken for a boy by Peter Davison.

Discover the new Doctor Who classics. 
 
Earth is under attack by power-hungry aliens. This is no time for the Doctor to be out of action. 
 
When a British space probe is intercepted by a sinister alien vessel on the eve of Christmas, it marks the beginning of an audacious invasion of the Earth by the Sycorax – horrifying marauders from beyond the stars. Within hours, a third of humanity stands on the brink of death with not a single shot fired. 
 
Our planet needs a champion – but the Doctor is not fit for service. He’s just regenerated, delirious in a new body and a dressing gown. Forced into his battered shoes is his friend, Rose Tyler, a girl from a London council estate. Will she save the world from this nightmare before Christmas – or see it destroyed?

Doctor Who: In the Blood

Jenny Colgan's thrilling Tenth Doctor adventure - now in paperback

All over the world, people are venting their fury at one another on social media. Dropping their friends, giving vent to their hatred, and everywhere behaving with incredible cruelty. Even Donna has found that her friend Hettie, with her seemingly perfect life and fancy house, has unfriended her. And now, all over the world, internet trolls are dying... 
 
As more and more people give in to this wave of bitterness and aggression, it's clear this is no simple case of modern living. This is unkindness as a plague. 
 
From the streets of London to the web cafes of South Korea and the deepest darkest forests of Rio, can the Doctor and Donna find the cause of this unhappiness before it's too late? 
 
An original novel featuring the Tenth Doctor and Donna, as played by David Tennant and Catherine Tate.

Doctor Who: The Legends of River Song

The first full length book featuring River Song's adventures

Jenny T Colgan (Author) Jenny T. Colgan has written numerous bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet the Doctor and was mistaken for a boy by Peter Davison. Jacqueline Rayner (Author) Jacqueline Rayner is the author of over 40 books and audio plays, including number one bestseller The Stone Rose, the highest-selling Doctor Who novel of all time, and two Doctor Who ‘Quick Reads’ for World Book Day. She lives in Essex with her husband and twin sons, and writes regularly for Doctor Who Magazine. Steve Lyons (Author) Steve Lyons has written nearly twenty novels, several audio dramas and many short stories, starring characters from the X-Men and Spider-Man to the Tomorrow People and Sapphire &amp; Steel. He has also co-written a number of books about TV shows, including Cunning: The Blackadder Programme Guide and the bestselling Red Dwarf Programme Guide. 
 
His previous Doctor Who work includes the novels Conundrum, The Witch Hunters and The Crooked World, audio dramas The Fires of Vulcan and Colditz, and work for the official Doctor Who Magazine. 
 
He lives in Salford, near Manchester. Guy Adams (Author) Guy Adams lives in Spain, surrounded by rescue animals. Some of them are his family. 
 
Having spent over ten years working as a professional actor and comedian, eventually he decided he’d quite like to eat regularly, so switched careers and became a full-time writer. Nobody said he was clever. Against all odds he managed to stay busy and since then he has written over twenty books. Andrew Lane (Author) Andrew Lane has written more than 30 books in various genres - fiction and non-fiction, adult and Young Adult, crime and science fiction. Most recently he has been responsible for the internationally successful Young Sherlock Holmes series of novels (8 and counting) while the first book in his new Crusoe series will be published this year. His first novel was a licensed Doctor Who book - the Seventh Doctor novel Lucifer Rising - and he also writes Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.

‘Hello, sweetie!’ 
 
Melody Pond, Melody Malone, River Song…She has had many names. Whoever she really is, this archaeologist and time traveller has had more adventures (and got into more trouble) than most people in the universe. 
 
And she’s written a lot of it down. Well, when you’re married to a Time Lord (or possibly not), you have to keep track of what you did and when. Especially as it may not actually have happened to both of you yet. 
 
These are just a few of River Song’s exploits, extracted from her journals. Sometimes, she is with the Doctor. Sometimes she’s on her own. But wherever and whenever she may be, she is never far from danger and excitement. 
 
This is just a tiny portion of her impossible life. But it will reveal more than you’ve ever known about the legend that is River Song.

Doctor Who: The Legends of Ashildr

Never-before-told stories of The Woman Who Lived

Justin Richards (Author) 
A celebrated writer and Creative Consultant to the BBC Books range of Doctor Who books, Justin Richards lives and works in Warwick with his wife and two children. When he’s not writing, he can be found indulging his passion for inventing, reading and watching far too much television. 
 
James Goss (Author) 
James Goss is the author of two Doctor Who novels: The Blood Cell and Dead of Winter, as well as Summer Falls (on behalf of Amy Pond). He is also the co-author, with Steve Tribe, of The Doctor: His Lives and Times, The Dalek Handbook and Doctor Who: A History of the Universe in 100 Objects. While at the BBC James produced an adaptation of Shada, an unfinished Douglas Adams Doctor Who story, and Dirk is his award-winning stage adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. His Doctor Who audiobook Dead Air won Best Audiobook 2010 and his books Dead of Winter and First Born were both nominated for the 2012 British Fantasy Society Awards. 
 
Jenny T. Colgan (Author) 
Jenny T. Colgan has written 16 bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet the Doctor and was mistaken for a boy by Peter Davison. 
 
David Llewellyn (Author) 
David Llewellyn was born in Pontypool in 1978. He is the author of three previous novels, 'Eleven', 'Torchwood: Trace Memory', and 'Everything Is Sinister'. He lives in Cardiff.

Ashildr, a young Viking girl, died helping the Doctor and Clara to save the village she loved. And for her heroism, the Doctor used alien technology to bring her back to life. Ashildr is now immortal – The Woman Who Lived. 
 
Since that day, Ashildr has kept journals to chronicle her extraordinary life. The Legends of Ashildr is a glimpse of some of those stories: the terrors she has faced, the battles she has won, and the treasures she has found. 
 
These are tales of a woman who lived longer than she should ever have lived – and lost more than she can even remember. 
 
 
An original novel featuring the Twelfth Doctor as played by Peter Capaldi, and Ashildr as played by Maisie Williams.

Doctor Who: Time Trips (The Collection)

Groundbreaking Doctor Who adventures by some of the most respected writers in the Universe - now available in one volume

Cecelia Ahern (Author) Before embarking on her writing career, Cecelia Ahern completed a degree in journalism and media studies. Her first novel, PS, I Love You was one of the biggest-selling debut novels of 2004 and a number one bestseller. Her successive bestselling novels are Where Rainbows End, If You Could See Me Now, A Place Called Here, Thanks for the Memories, The Gift, The Book of Tomorrow, The Time of My Life, One Hundred Names, How to Fall in Love and The Year I Met You and have collectively sold 23 million copies. PS, I Love You became an International box office success, starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler, and Where Rainbows End was adapted to Love, Rosie starring Lily Collins and Sam Claflin. Cecelia has also co-created the hit American television comedy series Samantha Who? Jake Arnott (Author) Jake Arnott was born in 1961, and lives in London. His debut novel, The Long Firm, was published in 1999 to huge public and critical acclaim. He Kills Coppers, Truecrime, Johnny Come Home, The Devil’s Paintbrush and The House of Rumour have followed to equal acclaim. Both The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers have been made into widely praised TV dramas. Trudi Canavan (Author) Trudi Canavan lives in Melbourne, Australia. She has been making up stories about people and places that don’t exist for as long as she can remember. While working as a freelance illustrator and designer she wrote the bestselling Black Magician Trilogy, which was published in 2001-3 and was named an ‘Evergreen’ by The Bookseller in 2010. The Magician’s Apprentice, a prequel to the trilogy, won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2009 and the final of the sequel trilogy, The Traitor Queen, reached #1 on the UK Times Hardback bestseller list in 2011. Jenny T Colgan (Author) Jenny T. Colgan has written numerous bestselling novels as Jenny Colgan, which have sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide, been translated into 25 languages, and won both the Melissa Nathan Award and Romantic Novel of the Year 2013. Aged 11, she won a national fan competition to meet the Doctor and was mistaken for a boy by Peter Davison. Stella Duffy (Author) Stella Duffy has written thirteen novels, over fifty short stories, and ten plays. She has twice won Stonewall Writer of the Year and twice won the CWA Short Story Dagger. She adapted her novel State of Happiness for film with Zentropa/Fiesta, HBO have optioned her Theodora novels for a TV mini-series. She is also a theatre-maker; Associate Artist with Improbable, Artistic Director of Shaky Isles Theatre. Stella is the Co-Director of Fun Palaces, the campaign for wider cultural engagement for all. Nick Harkaway (Author) Nick Harkaway is the acclaimed author of Gnomon, The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker, Tigerman, Titanium Noir and Karla’s Choice. He is the son of John le Carré, and has a 
unique insight into his father’s work. The Guardian writes of Harkaway that ‘his great gift as a novelist is to merge the pace, wit and clarity of the best “popular” literature with the ambition, complexity and irony of the so-called “literary novel” – a rare combination which le Carré himself also achieved.’ He lives in London with his wife and two children. Joanne Harris (Author) Joanne Harris is the internationally renowned and award-winning author of over twenty novels. Her Whitbread-shortlisted novel Chocolat was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. She is the author of several other bestsellers, including The Lollipop Shoes, Peaches for Monsieur Le Curé and The Strawberry Thief. She has also written acclaimed novels in such diverse genres as fantasy based on Norse myth (Runemarks, Runelight, The Gospel of Loki), and the Malbry cycle of dark psychological thrillers (Gentlemen &amp; Players, Blueeyedboy, and Different Class). 
 
Born in Barnsley, of an English father and a French mother, she spent fifteen years as a teacher before (somewhat reluctantly) becoming a full-time writer. In 2013, she was awarded an MBE, and in 2022 an OBE. She lives in Yorkshire, plays bass and flute in a band first formed when she was sixteen, and works in a shed in her garden. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, and served for four years as Chair of the Society of Authors. She also has a form of synaesthesia which enables her to smell colours. Red, she says, smells of chocolate. A.L. Kennedy (Author) A. L. Kennedy has twice been selected as one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists and has won a host of other awards – including the Costa Book of the Year for her novel Day. She lives in Essex.

Time Trips is a unique and beautifully illustrated collection of Doctor Who adventures from bestselling and award-winning writers including Joanne Harris, Trudi Canavan, Nick Harkaway, A.L. Kennedy and more. Taking you from ancient Alexandria to nameless planets in the far future, these tales are at turns funny, frightening, moving and thought-provoking – short stories that are bigger on the inside. 
 
Time Trips includes: 
 
The Anti-Hero (featuring the Second Doctor) by Stella Duffy 
 
Salt of the Earth (featuring the Third Doctor) by Trudi Canavan 
 
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Time Traveller (featuring the Third Doctor) by Joanne Harris 
 
The Death Pit (featuring the Fourth Doctor) by A.L. Kennedy 
 
A Handful of Stardust (featuring the Sixth Doctor) by Jake Arnott 
 
The Bog Warrior (featuring the Tenth Doctor) by Cecelia Ahern 
 
Keeping Up with the Joneses (featuring the Tenth Doctor) by Nick Harkaway 
 
Into the Nowhere (featuring the Eleventh Doctor) by Jenny T. Colgan

Doctor Who: Into the Nowhere (Time Trips)

Time Trips &ndash; groundbreaking Doctor Who adventures by some of the most respected writers in the Universe. Short stories that are bigger on the inside&hellip;

The Eleventh Doctor and Clara land on an unknown alien planet. To the Doctor&rsquo;s delight and Clara&rsquo;s astonishment, it really is unknown. It&rsquo;s a planet the Doctor has never seen. It&rsquo;s not on any maps, it&rsquo;s not referenced on any star charts or in the TARDIS data banks. It doesn&rsquo;t even have a name. What could be so terrible that its existence has been erased?

Terrance Dicks

Matthew Sweet

Simon Guerrier

Colin Baker

Matthew Waterhouse

Jenny T Colgan

Jacqueline Rayner

Una McCormack

Steve Cole

Vinay Patel

George Mann

Susie Day

Mike Tucker

Joy Wilkinson

Beverly Sanford

We’re all stories in the end… 
 
In this exciting collection you’ll find all-new stories spinning off from some of your favourite Doctor Who moments across the history of the series. Learn what happened next, what went on before, and what occurred off-screen in an inventive selection of sequels, side-trips, foreshadowings and first-hand accounts – and look forward too, with a brand new adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor. 
 
Each story expands in thrilling ways upon aspects of Doctor Who’s enduring legend. With contributions from show luminaries past and present – including Colin Baker, Matthew Waterhouse, Vinay Patel, Joy Wilkinson and Terrance Dicks – The Target Storybook is a once-in-a-lifetime tour around the wonders of the Whoniverse.

Jenny T Colgan

Books by Jenny T Colgan

Series by Jenny T Colgan

Doctor Who Target Novels – Classic Era

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter