Half a Dozen Streets and a Bit of Waste Land

Too funny not to share

2009-06-17T12:38:00.002Z

http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1331079.html?style=mine

It's quite a funny story to start with but it becomes utterly classic once the author of the initial email appears in the comments' section, and then becomes hilarious when someone quotes his web commentary on Dickens' (unfinished due to his death while writing it) Mystery of Edwin Drood.

Sheer genius - could Jonathan Maberry and Magister be one and the same person?

[Thanks to Mondy for the original link]

Free Online Gaming

2009-06-14T12:25:00.003Z

Twitfishing

On Twitter, pick one word and add it to a tweet (not as a #hashtag) then see how many auto-follows you get. My current record is seven for 'SEO'.

Alternatives to the Doctor Who Forum

2009-06-13T20:28:00.003Z

With the long-standing fan favourite Doctor Who message board soon to close, there seems to be a fair amoutn of scabbling round by other online fora to grab floating posters.

Since I was escorted from the premises a few weeks back I've probably had more time than most to see what's out there, and here's the ones I;ve liked for one reason or another...

Outpost Who [http://www.outpostwho.com]

Pros

Looks exactly like the DWF boards, even down to replicating the exact position of each sub-board in the same categories as DWF has.

Very friendly crowd - some familiar faces already plus some names rom fandom that I haven't seen at DWF for a while, all of whom are friendly and interesting to talk to.

Seems to be the quickest growing site.

Cons

They've even replicated the 'Are Books Canon?' thread and that's already dragged in Magister like a moth to the flame...

Anorak Zone [http://anorakzoneforum.informe.com/forum/]

Pros

Irreverent, funny boards with little or no respect for the more idiotic corners of the fan world, and generally insightful and humorous posters.

They have the "Who is the Biggest C*** in Fandom?" thread, which is very funny (for reference it's almost everyone except m'colleagues Lance Parkin, Daniel O'Mahony and Simon Forward)

Cons

It's the most ramshackle looking board, with a free hosting company I think, and no dedicated books section.

Outpost Skaro [http://outpostskaro.1talk.net/index.htm]

Pros

Very similar to the Anorak Zone, the board was formed to some extent as a reaction against what some saw as the problems at DWF. As a result, expect posters to speak their minds as opposed to toeing some preconcieved Cardiff Line and to call a spade a spade (unlike other places where the admins would check who owned the spade first before any comment could be made).

Even handed and intelligent moderation - say what you like and so long as it's not libellous, illegal or a brutal personal attack, then it'll stay up and the poster will stay on board.

Cons

Again as with the Anorak Zone, it's pretty ramshackle looking. It does have a books' section however and is supposed to be moving to a new top notch server soon.

Kasterborous [www.kasterborous.com]

Pros

It's easily the best looking forum - clean lines, intelligent design and a well planned layout make the forum extremely easy to navigate and use.

Christian and Anthony, the brains behind the site, are both extremely nice guys.

Cons

Not as busy as the other sites. You might think of that as a good thing of course.

Doctor Who Online [http://www.drwho-online.co.uk]

Pros

Bright, colourful site with an excellent news section, a pro-active owner in Seb Brook, and an extremely professional set-up.

Cons

At the moment the posters seem to be younger than elsewhere.

The layout of the fora for anyone other than new series fans is poor and makes checking out Bokos threads, for instance, a bit of a chore.

Jade Pagoda [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Jade_Pagoda/]

Pros

Some of the most intelligent, well read, and thought provoking posters in Who fandom

Even handed and intelligent moderation by people who are genuinely only doing this because they're fans not because they think it makes them important.

A willingness to shoot anyone down in flames if they're obviously talking rubbish. You will get challenged on any dubious statement you make.

Cons

It's only books.

It can be a bit daunting at first.

It's not a forum, it's a mailing list.

Anyway, this isn't an exhaustive list (there's the Son of DWF, the oddly named Gallifrey Base, for a start) but it's a list of the ones I've liked in the past few weeks wandering about like a sad bugger with no mates.

Join them all and see which you like best...

From Warren Ellis' 'Whitechapel' board

2009-06-11T12:57:00.001Z

[courtesy of Warren Ellis via Blair]

'This may or may not last here. Even if it doesn't, then if you read it before it goes, please yank it and distribute.

I'm possibly not the only person it'll occur to, due to ideaspace, and I hope it goes far and wide anyway.

Right. Here goes:

1. The BNP winning European parliament seats means they have a budget to employ staff and various sub-contractors.
2. These budgets and staff positions are subject to anti-discrimination laws, as they come from public funds.
3. Watch out for when these positions are advertised. If anyone sees them advertised, chuck the ads about on as many social networks, blogs etc as possible.
4. Man the Harpoons - If you fall outside of the BNP's discriminatory membership criteria, due to being black, Jewish, whatever, apply. If you are white British and want to help out this plan anyway, just spread the idea about.
5. When you/they don't get the job, take it to an employment tribunal.
6. ????
7. Profit.

Even if you're not especially bothered about taking the BNP to an employment tribunal, spreading this idea about, and forcing them to consider it and raaage over how unfair to the poor ickle racialists it is, it's still funny'

Go on - you know you want to... :)

Vote Now! Don't Vote Brain Dead Idiot!

2009-06-04T15:19:00.003Z

It's a simple and straight-forward plea. If you dislike the Labour Party sufficiently to be considering casting a protest vote for one of the minority parties (rather than, say, voting Lib Dem which is, I suspect what I'll be doing) then for the love of sanity, do not vote BNP!

It may feel like a real slap in the face for the government to vote for the party furthest away from them politically, but these people are not worthy of anyone's vote. The are a party of racist, homophobic bigots with a twisted and in no way realistic view of this country and should never benefit from anyone's vote, unless racism, homophobia and bigotry are something you identify with (and that's no-one reading this, surely?)

Most amusing tweet from a BNP supporter today:

"if you don't vote BNP then the veterans of WWII died for nothing"

As m'colleague Daniel O'Mahony pointed out, he presumably means veterans of the Waffen-SS...

To which I can only add - don't veterans generally survive wars? Isn't that what makes them veterans?

Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus now in Stock!

2009-05-29T15:06:00.000Z

What is there left to say about Iris Wildthyme – transtemporal adventuress extraordinaire, metafictional explorer of texts and subtexts, double-decker-dwelling interstellar bag-lady, amnesia-prone political and sexual revolutionary, writer of wrongs, wronger of rights (especially copyrights), all-round champion of freedom, occasional nightclub singer and frequent barroom floozy?

Well, there’s always something...

Obverse Books are proud to announce the release of their first short story collection, 'Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus', edited by Paul Magrs and Stuart Douglas.

Continuing the adventures of time traveller extraordinaire Ms Iris Wildthyme, 'The Celestial Omnibus' contains stories by such Who luminaries as former BBC Books editor Steve Cole; Mark Wright and Cavan Scott, producers of the Iris audios for Big Finish; and Iris creator Paul Magrs himself. With an introduction from Katy Manning, the Omnibus travels from 1950s England to the last sun at the end of the Universe, encountering the crew of the Battleship Anathema, Marlene Dietrich and Panda's mysterious former lover, Gemma, on the way.

Available in hardback, with an exclusive cover painting by legendary BBC costume designer June Hudson, 'The Celestial Omnibus' costs £10.99 plus postage from www.obversebooks.co.uk while stocks last!

Shaun Lyon - on 'being a twat'

2009-05-27T08:42:00.011Z

So (this might be a long email so settle down with a cuppa and a biscuit)...

Those of you who frequent the Doctor Who Forum might have noticed this morning that all mention of Obverse Books and the Iris book have been banned by Shaun Lyon. As he says,

"Please be advised that discussion, direct or indirect, of Obverse Books and/or its Iris Wildthyme material is no longer permitted in this forum under any circumstances.

Anyone who does so will have their membership revoked.

Sorry, but I won't be answering inquiries about this. Suffice to say that if you'd like any explanation, you are welcome to take it up with them."

Given that the fault for all this for once has little to do with me and everything to do with certain other people telling lies it seemed worth going public with this, and at least providing some entertainment for the faithful readers of this blog and, hopefully, the Iris book.

I promise not to editorialise or make my usual snarky comments, but essentially a poster on the Doctor Who Forum, one Magister, doesn't like me because I once or twice pointed out the idiocy of his canon argument in a thread on that forum (yes, I know, canon debates - I should know better).

He's obviously a bit mental, hence his suggestion here that a load of PE teachers should come round and give me a kicking :)

http://www.doctorwhoforum.com/showpost.php?p=7796195&postcount=412

Which is fine, really - lots of people over the years have been less than fond of me and I can no doubt be a pain in the arse at times.

However Magister then took advantage of the fact I was banned from (Steven Hill, Chief Admin of DWF, banned me rather hilariously for saying in jest that my pal Jonn was an absolute arse. In spite of Jonn immediately posting pointing out that he started it and we were pals and it was just a joke. Ho hum.)

Eh, where was I? Oh yes - Magister took advantage of my two week ban to post various things which suggested that I had used his order details improperly to find out private details about him. Starting on the 4th of May with this narky but relatively benign post where he first asked from nowhere 'How secure is the ordering system?" and then when Phil Purser-Hallard pointed out that it was 100% safe, followed up with

"I was more posting about how secure the information is within "Obverse Books", and how personal details are used by Stuart."

http://doctorwhofor um.com/showpost . php?p=8211966&postcount=172
(though its been taken down as of yesterday I think)

Bit annoying and enough to piss me off a bit, but that was all.

I did think I better say something rather than leave that hanging, so I sent a humorous (I thought) post from a new account, called 'Madge', featuring an avatar of Madge from Neighbours and styling myself 'The Representative of Obverse Industries' (any of you Jandek fans? :) as
follows:

"[QUOTE=Magister;8211966]

Thanks for the reply. I was more posting about how secure the information is within "Obverse Books", and how personal details are used by Stuart.[/QUOTE]

As Obverse Books' legal representative on doctorwhoforum.com I can assure all interested parties that Obverse Books uses only "Paypal" for its "payment" system, as this is by far the most secure such "system" around, on the grounds that Paypal only sends the customer
"address" to the vendor. No credit card details or other financial information is in any way available "to" Obverse Books.

Obverse Books has not as yet had any "order" from a Mr "Magister" but looks forward to receiving such in the "future".

Mr Douglas would also like to apologise to Mr Jonn Elledge for calling him an absolute arse and a total tit. This is patently not the case and having taken objective steps to re-appraise his position non-subjectively, Mr Douglas now finds it hard to credit he was ever so vile.

Further he would like to agree with Mr Elledge's mum that Mr Elledge is in point of fact "a very nice boy with a lovely smile" and with Mr Elledge's granny that "the other boys are just jealous of his good looks and will be his friend once they realise that that haircut works
just as well on a boy as on a girl".

Best wishes

The Representative of Obverse Industries."

http://www.doctorwhoforum.com/showpost.php?p=8220642&postcount=179

All obviously tongue in cheek and in no way intended to subvert any rules on OG but in any case I got banned for life from DWF by Steven Hill for that.

Again, not the end of the world even though it meant I would need to get Paul Magrs or CodySchell or someone to make update posts to DWF. I did send Steven Hill an email apologising for creating duplicate accounts, but also pointing out that I had made no attempt to hide that it was me and was obviously joking but that if he felt an apology was called for then I certainly apologised.

In fact, here's the full text of my email to Hill from 6 May, the day after I was banned:

Dear Steven

Apologies for the duplicate account. I was not aware that there was any stricture in place to prevent me from creating a temporary new user for a specific and, I thought, important, reason, but now that I have been made aware of that fact, I naturally understand that this
breaches the rules.

In my defence, however, I should point out that there was no attempt to create a genuine sock puppet, not did I make any attempt to hide the fact that it was me posting. It's just that I - and several other people who PM'ed and emailed me - felt my integrity was definitely
being called into question and, given the recent concerns raised by the Forbidden Planet fraud, I felt - and still feel - an immediate response was required.

I have in the past run several highly successful and profitable businesses and while Obverse Books is more by way of being a sideline, did not succeed with these companies in the past by ignoring a statement which, with the greatest respect to your post to OG, is malicious, potentially libellous, almost certainly damaging to my business and which I did consider discussing with my solicitor.

In any case I had thought that the obviously humorous and exaggerated manner in which I both answered Magister's question and apologised to Jonn for an offence which he didn't take, made it clear that I had no intention of deceiving anyone as to the identity of the poster and had expected that to be taken into account.

That said, if you feel an apology is required then please do accept my genuine apologies.

I did consider mailing you to ask if you had any objection to my setting up an Obverse Books account solely to post news about the books, but that seems largely pointless when I already have an existing account. Should my account be restored, I have decided not to post to the forum in future except where it impacts upon my book which, though a shame, is probably for the best all things considered.

I look forward to your thoughts in this matter.

Regards

Stuart Douglas

to which Hill actually replied on the 7th May (the sole reply before Shaun's final, banning obverse email) as follows:

Stuart,
Before I can respond to this myself, I need to have Shaun take a look at it. Any time anyone mentions legal complications, it becomes Shaun's business.
-Steve

Sadly neither Shaun nor Steven Hill bothered to get back to me after that (and Lyon presumably now claims that Hill was lying and never sent the email on at all, if his initial claim to have known nothing about the matter is accepted at face value).

Magister however continued to post. On the 8th of May he said

"I'm going to try for a final post on the subject. I'm going to Pm a copy to Steve. I'm sorry Steve if this post isn't allowed. If you have to delete it please could you also delete the referenced post by Stuart on the other thread. If this post gets deleted I wont post on this subject again.

I've gone out of my way not to be defamatory, but to make as open comments as I can so that Stuart can reply.

The start of this, which I hoped to avoid posting for Stuart's sake, was that within days of me ordering, stuart posted on the books not canon thread the following:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart Douglas View Post
You know, I am so glad that I've now been told who you are in real life [ - I'd hate to think you'd one day be teaching my kids]

It was that post that led me to try, without breaking forum rules, to find out from stuart how he had used my order to find out who I am in real life.

I was hoping that Stuart would reply without me having to go into details."

Now he knew I was banned and all he had to do was ask me how I knew who he was (a fact I'd mentioned in passing jokey reference) - and I would have told him the truth, that a couple of people had told me it by email. Leaving aside the fact that I had no idea he'd ordered a
book, there's no way you can do anything with a Paypal email other than read it! But rather than email me via OG or the Obverse site, he took advantage of the fact I couldn't reply to suggest pretty plainly that I was up to no good.

With no reply from Messrs Hill and Lyon thus far and Magister getting more outrageous - and as the date of publication got nearer - Paul Magrs emailed Steven Hill directly via the OG address, as follows:

Hi-

I'm a bit annoyed about this Magister bloke. It seems that he and Stuart Douglas have had a long-running debate about canonicity and other fun things. However, now it seems this Magister person has started to impugn Stuart's integrity and reliability, very publicly on the forum. To me it looks like it could have a very adverse effect on sales of the Iris Wildthyme anthology Stuart is publishing this month.

I'm not very happy about that. That book is something we've both put a lot of effort into. It's not right if a spat about something silly like continuity can end up with someone deliberately casting
aspersions on somebody's trustworthiness. That's what Magister's messages look like to me. In these straitened times it's hard to launch a new small press. It's really unhelpful to have someone
behaving as Magister seems to be doing. It looks like silliness and spite, but can have an effect on floating customers.

Stuart's been banned from OG, I believe. So he can't come back on these debates. His being banned is beside the point in all this. I don't have time to keep looking at these discussion pages, but I don't want people bad-mouthing Stuart's or Obverse Books' integrity. Will you, as a moderator, put a stop to this snideness, please?

i'll look forward to hearing from you,

paul m

Again, Paul got no reply.

I mail Hill again asking if Shaun Lyon had had a chance to look at my email yet and again get no reply. So I asked Jon Dennis, as a friend of Shaun Lyon's, to email him on my behalf, simply asking him to get in touch, as follows:.

"Shaun,

My apologies if you are no longer running the Forum, but as far as I know, you are. I'm normally loath to ask a favor like this, but Stuart Douglas' company has been subjected to some defamatory posts by some guy calling himself Magister and Steve Hill appears more interested in staying on Magister's good side. I'll admit it's partially self-interest, I have a story in the book in question and Magister seems intent on costing it some sales. At least one of these posts could be considered libellous, so I think it might be a good idea if you contact Stuart at sa douglas at gmail.com."

Shaun never got in touch at all - and presumably claims not to have received this email either.

A week or so passed with no replies from any of the emails to Shaun or Steven Hill from me, Paul or Jon, and then on the 22nd May Magister popped up again and, after a few daft snidey comments about me, posted this:

"There's a lot more I could say about one poster which I'm not allowed to by forum rules which I respect, but I do have information I ought to find a way to become more generally available. So I do bite my tongue here a lot, as I'm sure others do to and if unguarded comments are leaking out I apologise...It is my responsiblity to find a way away from OG to share the inappropriate actions of a particular poster, and I should not have referred to him here in that way. I will redouble my efforts not to do that again."

in response to a post which mentioned Phil PH and I. I was banned but Phil took reasonable umbrage and pointed out that the statement was potentially libellous and would he care to elaborate. He sent Phil a PM apologising to him and confirming that his quarrel was with me.
He's of the opinion that I'd "used" the personal details he submitted with his order for the Iris book, which is demonstrably neither possible nor the case, as he'd been told on OG when he first brought the matter up.

That last post was the straw that broke the camel's back for me as was a follow up post where he 'apologised' for the allegation while simply repeating it.

With the book coming out in a week and these posts presumably putting some level of doubt in the minds of the potential readership (already spooked by the FP International issues just previously), I spoke to a mate who's a lawyer in the States and showed him the same email
chain I've added above. He said that the final post in particular was "defamatory" and "likely to do material damage to [my] business" and definitely actionable. I told him that I didn't want to do that - apart from anything else it's expensive, I could conceivably lose and - most importantly - it would be overkill. He suggested I therefore send an email to Shaun Lyon via as secure a method as possible, laying out the problem in a calm manner, as one professional adult to
another, and pointing out that as owner of the forum, Shaun Lyon was legally liable for the content contained on it, especially if it has been previously brought to his attention.

I asked round, got two different email addresses for Shaun from mutual friends, plus got Jon Dennis to send the email via Facebook mail so that he couldn't pretend not to have received it, although I suspected that the suggestion of legal consequences should at least guarantee a
reply.

What I sent was:

Dear Shaun

I am extremely sorry to have to bother you but as Steven Hill has chosen to ignore emails from myself and Paul Magrs and continues to allow one poster, Magister, to make posts on OG which increasingly look likely to force me to instigate formal legal proceedings against
you, it seems best to at least attempt to go over his head before I have to spend further money on lawyers.

I have no idea if you know what has been going on over on the DWF but as you are the owner of that site you are unfortunately legally liable for the content posted on it, particularly if that content has been reported for potentially illegal activity and nothing has been done by the people you appoint to run the boards.

Please note that this is not a plea to be reinstated on the forum, from which I am currently banned by Mr Hill. Mr Hill is in my opinion clearly partial, but membership of a public forum is equally clearly in the purview of the owner and his representatives and if you feel that DWF is better served without my presence then that is your decision.

However, this Magister has some vendetta against me quite out of proportion to the fact that I have on several occasions pointed out - I admit possibly less than politely - the foolishness of both his arguments and of his ability to use English correctly.

So out of proportion have they become in fact that one of his latest posts (number 792 in the Canon thread in the Books section) is most definitely libellous and aimed at me. The libel is self-evident - in reply to a post from BryanB in which Bryan pointed out that Magister's
previous post was both defamatory towards Phil Purser-Hallard and I - Magister said, in part,

"There's a lot more I could say about one poster which I'm not allowed to by forum rules which I respect, but I do have information I ought to find a way to become more generally available...It is my responsibility to find a way away from OG to share the inappropriate
actions of a particular poster, and I should not have referred to him here in that way. I will redouble my efforts not to do that again."

and then confirmed to Phil by PM, when he quite rightly replied to highlight the libel contained therein, that he was talking about me.

His problem is that he in some way believes that I have misused a Paypal email from him to identify who he is, when this is in fact utterly impossible (as he has been told) - while obviously anyone who buys a product online needs to put his name and address down, there is
no magister@ email in the orders thus far and so no way in which I could identify him from that.

In fact, I had no idea he had ordered a book and was actually sent the same name for Magister by three separate people within a couple of days of one another advising that should I ever need to legal action against him for the more inappropriate things he had said about me
that his name would be helpful. Had Magister emailed me directly I would have told him this, but instead he has chosen to continue to post false claims about me, with the collusion of Mr Hill and, therefore, the approval of yourself.

I have spoken to a lawyer who specialises in US law and he tells me that this statement, when combined with confirmation of its target, is certainly libellous and likely to cause material harm to my business (in this instance, Obverse Books), especially given that any suspicion
- or hint of mistrust - about my handling of credit card details could be particularly damaging in light of the recent card fraud from Forbidden Planet International sales.

I am informed that all of this, combined with DWF's failure to take appropriate action in the face of multiple and repeated complaints about Magister, is a solid basis for a civil action.

As examples of these multiple complaints, Paul Magrs wrote directly to Mr Hill via the DWF email address but received no reply as did I; several people have reported Magister's posts multiple times using the DWF Report function; and others have posted directly in the thread
itself highlighting various inappropriate and potentially legally damaging posts by Magister - only to be effectively told to shut up by Mr Hill. All of these people are happy to confirm their actions.

As I say I am not attempting to be reinstated to the forum, but for all that Obverse is not my primary business it is a business nonetheless, and I thus have no choice but to take some action to ensure that Magister is no longer allowed to post libellously about me on a public forum and to obtain an apology and public retraction from Magister for the libels he has posted thus far.

I would be grateful if you could both reply to confirm receipt of this email and give some thought to its contents. I should stress that I am more than willing to take foral legal action in this matter if need be but would obviously prefer to avoid such unpleasantness over a problem which can be easily solved from your side.

I look forward to hearing from you but if I have had no reply with in one week of today then I will assume you are unwilling to take any action and are giving formal as opposed to merely tacit approval to Magister's activities on your forum, and will act accordingly to protect my personal and professional reputation.

Regards

Stuart Douglas

For once, Shaun Lyon replied quite quickly - the following morning the email below was in my Inbox (and in Paul's too incidentally).

"Stuart,

I think you have a lot of nerve, opening a dialogue with a person you've never met -- and who had no idea about ANY of this -- by taking a warning shot. Not a friendly "by the way". Not a "can you please help?" None of that. Just a reprehensible "Shaun, I have a problem, and if you don't solve it, I'm going to try to fuck you over." I am absolutely *disgusted* that you would choose this tack with me, considering that so many of your contributors are people I know personally... Mark Wright, Jonathan Dennis, Steve Cole, Steve Lyons, Steve Wickham, and especially Katy Manning. If it was your intention of being a twat, you've been a great success at it.

I read Magister's post in question, and frankly, if I wasn't one of the twelve or so people who might actually know what he's on about, I would have completely bypassed it. Whatever. I've taken Magister's post, and a reply to it, and removed it. I'm going to warn him not to
make any statements against you in future. I've put my staff on alert that he is not allowed to make any further comment about this, and should he, he will be removed from the forum.

Meanwhile, I am hereby letting you know that the discussion of your book and/or Obverse Books is hereby a topic non grata in my discussion forum. Period. I don't want anyone mentioning it, nobody discussing it, nobody putting links to it in their signature files, etc. As it
is *my* Forum, I don't want one single byte of my bandwith used for the promotion of your material. If you'd like to share that fact with your contributors, be my guest... be sure you make note of the fact that you threatened to sue straight off the bat.

Does that work for you, or is there anything else you'd like to take umbrage with?

Shaun Lyon

I said wouldn't editorialise so I won't mention Lyon's aggressive attitude or even the swearing, but one thing he seems to think is that in some way I would have issues in telling anyone what had happened. Which is why I copied this mesage to every one of the book contributors, the contributors Lyon seems to believe I would be avoiding for some reason - every message, post and mail of which can be confirmed as the truth by a variety of other people involved. I also copied Shaun Lyon in on it - I've no idea why he thinks I would have a problem explaining why he's banned the Iris book from his forum given that I'm certainly not the one who ends up looking a 'twat'...

And remember kids - www.obversebooks.co.uk to buy a copy of Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus!

Out now!

Oh, and some relevant blog posts...

Philip Purser-Hallard's blog

Simon Bucher-Jones' blog

Jon Dennis' LJ

Louise Dennis' LJ

Alex's Blog

[NB I got an email today saying that it was a breach of netiquette to put private emails online. Fair point, but in my defence I should point out that the main reason I put this online as opposed to my original email to the book contributors is that Lyon emailed one of the writers and told him to ignore anything I said because I was a liar. And I mailed all the contributors with the exact post I made below, missing nothing out but adding nothing in, several of them advised similar contact and suggested I put it all on my blog. As the posts below demonstrate, I have nothing to hide. Meanwhile Lyon is defriending anyone on Facebook who so much as mentions Obverse Books.]

Panda's Spotify Playlist

2009-05-16T17:06:00.003Z

Iris Wildthyme's acerbic bosom companion, the redoubtable Panda, has been kind enough, in between doing interviews for his new book, to allow me to record for posterity an evening's musical entertainment chez him.

Which means that so long as you have Spotify, just click here for an hour or two's musical highlights from a gentler, more innocent time...

Favourite Telly Moments

2009-05-06T12:03:00.008Z

Over on Rob's rather splendid blog, he's asked people to name their favourite all time telly moments. And you know me, that's not a request I'm ever likely to ignore.

So (in no particular order):

- The ending of the Monk episode, 'Mr Monk and Mrs Monk' where the actress impersonating Trudy dies in Monk's arms, but only after promising to tell Trudy that Monk still loves her.

- The flash forward montage of John Smith's potential life with Joan Redfearn from the end of the Doctor Who 'Human Nature' double header.

- The young women mocking Jack Ford for his tale of his captain dying in his arms on the Somme in the final series of When the Boat Comes in

- the little girl turning off the TV in the final scene of Life on Mars (I didn't like this at the time but it's really grown on me).

- DI Billborough's 'dying man's statement' from the Cracker episode 'To be a Somebody'.

- Reg Deadman's comically misplaced disgust as Gary gives Eric the kiss of life in the first episode of Goodnight Sweetheart

- the whole nightclub/murder of Maddie scene from Twin Peaks - 'it's happening again'

- the scene in The West Wing where Josh and Toby discuss people sending their children to stay with neighbours before armed gangs arrive and torture and rape them in front of their parents. (also loads of other West Wing).

- Greg smiling to himself as he rides away, dying of cholera, to infect the bad guys in Survivors

- the 'fuck' scene from season 1 of The Wire

- the entire episode of The Good Life where everyone gets drunk and considers swinging.

- the scene in series 1 episode of Dads Army, 'The Battle of Godfrey's Cottage' where Mainwairing, Fraser and Jones discuss in a matter-of-fact manner the fact that they'll probably be killed by the German invaders

- the final scene of the Sandbaggers' episode 'Special Relationship'

- the executions in the courtyard as Albert watches on, from Secret Army

and so many more, but I have to go and do some work...

Why is a pre-order not just an order?

2009-04-23T11:13:00.001Z

Well we've finally just about got there! Some nine months or so after Paul and I first discussed doing a new Iris Wildthyme short story collection, I spoke to the printer this afternoon and sent our lovingly created print ready pdf and Mark Michalowski's brilliant setting of June Hudson's fabulous cover art into their capable hands. All things being well, I should have the finished book in my hands, ready to post out at some point during May!

Which is where you all come in!

If no-one buys the book, this will all have been a bit of a waste of time, so please do nip along to www.obversebooks.co.uk and pre-order a copy for the bargain price of £10.99 plus postage for 234 fantastic, fun-filled pages!

Just click on the Panda to order...he says he doesn't mind, he likes to do his bit!

Phorm Blocking

2009-04-15T14:06:00.004Z

If you have any interest in computers and that, then you probably have heard about the current furore with the EU intending to sue the UK for allowing ISPs to provide access to user data to PHORM, a company which basically records your personal on-line history without asking (potentially including webmail and other extremely private areas) and then uses it to target you with un-requested ads.

If you are a customer of one of BT or Virgin Media (Carphone Warehouse’s Talk Talk is also involved but apparently provides an opt-out) then you should be particularly concerned as they are the companies that are involved with PHORM (formerly alleged spyware company 121Media) and selling your browsing history to a company that is, imo, only a small step up from spammers. (Trend and Kapersky seemingly intend to block PHORM's cookie as adware, which tells you all you need to know really).

This post here has some good tips on anti-Phorm proofing your PC. I recommend you take them. And to be safest of all, follow the advice of Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University, who recently said: "if you care about your privacy, do not use BT, Virgin or Talk-Talk as your internet provider."

I use Virgin currently, but if I can't block Phorm then I won't be using them for much longer.

Quoted for Truth

2009-03-30T08:31:00.002Z

"I hate most Michael Bay movies because they’re just shiny things. An hour and a half of visually stimulating nothingness followed by ten minute conversations consisting of, “Were you watching when that guy got impaled on the rusty pole?”. But most of you goddamn idiots, most of you goddamn members of Ritalin Generation love Michael Bay movies because, to you, visually stimulating nothingness is everything. Well, going to the movies shouldn’t be vapid, mindless entertainment. You should cry; you should laugh; you should fall in love with the characters; you should fall out of love with the characters; you should think; you should question; you should ponder; you should, flat out, be alive."

- Mark Rawden discussing 3D Cinema, but he could talking about any number of popular primetime television series too...

Paula Murray and the Daily Express

2009-03-18T14:51:00.004Z

Paula Murray wrote an article for the Daily Express this week in which, after conning survivors of the Dunblane massacre, she printed pictures of them and described how

"DUNBLANE survivors have "shamed" the memory of their dead peers with foul-mouthed boasts about sex, brawls and drink-fuelled antics as they reach adulthood."

even though nothing in their behaviour was in any way linked to the massacre (in which many of them were injured and 18 of their friends died).

Paula Murray deserves to be sacked and never employed as a journalist again. She is, frankly, the lowest of the low.

The original Express article as text

The original Express article as a pdf

A petition to have Murray disciplined and an apology printed

Graham Linehan writing very well about the article, the Express and Murray.

Boarding the Bus!

2009-02-20T12:12:00.004Z

And travelling on the Bus this time round are...

[BIG DRUMROLL]

Introduction - Katy Manning
A Gamble with Wildthyme - Steve Lyons
Sovereign - Mags L Halliday
The Unhappy Medium - Mark Wright and Cavan Scott
Living Legend - Stuart Douglas
Battleship Anathema - Phil Purser-Hallard
The Dreadful Flap - Paul Magrs
Not A Drop - Steven Wickham
Iris Wildthyme y Señor Cientocinco contra Los Monstruos del Fiesta - Cody Schell
Why, Because We Like You - Jonathan Dennis
The Scarlet Shadow - Stewart Sheargold
Only Living Girls - Steve Cole

Messrs Lyons, Magrs and Cole and the delightful Ms Mags Halliday will be well known to Doctor Who book readers, while Mark Wright and Cav Scott are in charge of the Big Finish Iris range. They and Stewart Sheargold have written extensively for the Big Finish ranges.

Jonathan Dennis and Phil Purser-Hallard have both written Faction Paradox fiction, with Phil also writing for novellas for Telos and Big Finish.

Finally, introducing Cody Schell and Steven Wickham with their first published pieces of Who related fiction, though Steven has appeared as an actor in over a dozen Big Finish audios.

Oh, and me - but that's sheer nepotism so probably best glossed over quickly...

With specially commissioned cover art by June Hudson, legendary Doctor Who costume designer, and logo courtesy of the lovely Anthony Dry, we're aiming for a publication date in early April.

Here's a sneak preview of June's brilliant cover art:

http://www.obversebooks.co.uk for further details (as soon as I put them up, later today) and expressions of childlike glee from Paul and I...

Did I mention the introduction by Iris herself, Katy Manning?

Cheers

Stuart

Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus - Update

2009-02-14T16:27:00.002Z

Nearly there now! Just waiting for one author to finish up and then we can see how it all fits together.

Further announcements on obversebooks.co.uk soon...

(hmm, does that sound too much like one of those spam comments which litter blogger?)

Nice review

2009-02-10T09:28:00.001Z

[of my story in Shelf Life, that is]

No Place Like Home by Stuart A Douglas

We are on the very edge of Whoniverse here. This is an Iris Wildthyme story although Iris herself is little more than a framing character. This really belongs to a pacifist Cyberman, a pair of individualist Sontarans (who rebel against the clone world by wearing a hat with a feather in it or a leather jacket), and a loner Auton who doesn't want to be part of the pack. In case you hadn't guessed - this is a comic piece that vaults the highest bar by actually being funny. And it gets better on a second or third reading when you can go back and enjoy the little throwaway lines instead of powering ahead to find out what is going on.

http://www.doctorwhoforum.com/showpost.php?p=7668937&postcount=152

The book has just been re-printed, so you should definitely go and buy a copy if you haven't yet!

Blossom, Bubbles, Buttercup

2009-01-29T17:54:00.009Z

It's a tricky business, this book reviewing lark.

Too harsh a review and you come across as an embittered never was, a non-writer who's jealous of those who can. Too nice and you sound like a mewling sycophant, the dead spit of some wannabe Who writer falsely praising the crappy books of...well I can't say who. After all I might want to publish a Who book at some point!

Which makes it a relief to review The Beatle Man, a novel by Scott Liddell, my oldest friend in the world (33 years and counting).

Most importantly, I can't come across as embittered because I like the damn thing a lot. And I'm not likely to inflate my best mate's head by saying that unless it was true. I mean - after all this time he could hardly go in a huff if I said it was a bit pants, now could he?

Luckily, it's not pants at all. but rather is an effectively written and tightly plotted thriller somewhat in the Rebus mode.

It starts well, with a firm authorial hand on the tiller as the narrative kicks off in faintly comedic strain. The various characters are introduced in a steady early stream and each proves to be engaging and interesting, while the central conceit of the title (a presumably mentally ill man who speaks only in Beatles' lyrics and the effect his passage through life has on those around him) is just odd enough to hold the attention.

All of which would be worthless if the plot was weak or uninvolving. Fortunately, the story of how Danny McColl collides with the terrible Finch family and appoints himself a sort of weirdly ineffectual protector for those who live in his new stair (including the Beatle Man) is well told by the author and comes to a satisfyingly twisted conclusion which ties up every loose end.

Don't get me wrong, this book isn't perfect (the completely pointless lesbians from the first draft have disappeared for a start) but it's faults are minor. There is perhaps a slight tendency to lean in the direction of caricature (Asian shopkeeper, Glaswegian wideboy, posh lawyer who likes a drink and the ladies and so on) and the writing does at times seem unsure if it wants to be a more chatty, less idiotic Irvine Welsh or a 'proper' gritty crime novel, but these failings - such as they are - are never enough to adversely effect the narrative.

All in all, this is both an excellent first novel and a good novel full-stop. If it had been by a stranger I'd probably have missed out that last paragraph of faults, but since it's by a friend I had to go that extra mile to demonstrate my impartiality.

Finally - The Beatle Man is miles better than JK Rowling. That isn't actually that proud a boast, in my opinion, but I include the claim here in hopes of a pull-quote on the back of the second printing of the book...

Do you know what cheapies are?

2009-01-26T13:16:00.004Z

"getting your cheapies": def. being overly pleased with yourself, often as a result of some outside agency

The lovely, tasteful Damon (who I don't even know!) has been reviewing the entirety of the Craig Hinton fanthology, Shelf Life, and got to my own little contribution today.

And he liked it! I am so totally getting my cheapies!

No Place Like Home by Stuart A Douglas
We are on the very edge of Whoniverse here. This is an Iris Wildthyme story although Iris herself is little more than a framing character. This really belongs to a pacifist Cyberman, a pair of individualist Sontarans (who rebel against the clone world by wearing a hat with a feather in it or a leather jacket), and a loner Auton who doesn't want to be part of the pack. In case you hadn't guessed - this is a comic piece that vaults the highest bar by actually being funny. And it gets better on a second or third reading when you can go back and enjoy the little throwaway lines instead of powering ahead to find out what is going on.

http://www.doctorwhoforum.com/showthread.php?p=7670205#post7670205

Iris Season 2 Box Set

2009-01-26T09:36:00.006Z

The quickest of plugs for something very dear to my heart: Big Finish have now released the artwork for the utterly fabulous looking and sounding Iris Wildthyme season 2 box set.

Consisting of all four of the new season stories, and with each disc also coming with Anthony Dry's Official Best Ever Artwork, the box set is available for pre-order from Big Finish now at a fairly sizeable discount compared to buying them individually!

I've read two of the stories and they're brilliant (and I can't believe that Messrs Wright and Scott will have allowed either Simon Guerrier or Mark Magrs to turn in anything less good than that).

There's nothing not to like here - go and buy them now, and whet your appetite for the plethora of Iris related...well, stuff due out this year.

Smoke Lingers 'round your fingers...

2009-01-12T14:43:00.003Z

Courtesy of Paul, a great blog with some fantastic stories about London in the last century.

http://www.nickelinthemachine.com

And could this be Iris' bus appearing through the smog?

http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/smog-g2.jpg

Obsessive fans

2008-12-23T09:32:00.003Z

Take a look at this Freedom of Information Act request, courtesy of Stuart

It seems to me that if this woman's real name is not Annie Wilkes, but that she's taken her nom de plume from Kathy Bates murderously obsessive fan character in Stephen King's Misery...well, if I were Tennant, Gardner or Davies, I'd be a wee bit worried.

You know you've seen her somewhere before...

2008-12-22T15:03:00.003Z

Admit it, you know this girl.

She's all over the internet, smiling her faintly impatient little smile at you as you curse the closure of a site which Google suggested might have contained exactly what you were looking for.

Or you've typed the URL in wrong, and changing 'amzaon.co.uk' to 'amazon.co.uk' might be a good idea...

Anyway, she has a life away from mildly censorious glares of approbation at your fat-fingered mistyping, as these images from a stock image site demonstrate.

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_search.php?action=file&filetypeID=&userID=39198&text=hf7

It's a shame that it is a stock photo site actually - I quite like the idea of the mystery girl getting a penny for every time her face appears on the internet. She'd be rich by now and could retire to the Florida Everglades, there to grow old and wrinkled as her Dorian Gray like image remains for ever young and ever so slightly pissed off at getting her picture taken.

Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus

2008-11-27T19:16:00.002Z

You know how it is. Your favourite book series goes belly up or starts printing books that just aren't as good as they used to be. You're stuck re-reading The Also People and The Blue Angel and - good as those two books are - moaning to people that everything's a bit rubbish now.

So it was that, with the various Who books lines either disappearing or printing books aimed at a younger audience, we - that's Paul Magrs and I - decided that this would be a great time to launch a new more adult oriented Who-related fiction imprint, publishing officially licensed Iris Wildthyme books.

Everything's a little bit hush-hush at the moment, but the first book is going to be a short story collection entitled

'Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus'

and will be published late next Spring. We're keeping authors names under our hats (there will be a story from Paul obviously) but expect lots of Who fiction luminaries to be announced over the coming few weeks

The aim is to use any profit from the short story collection to kick-off a series of twice yearly Iris novellas. The books will only be available in a limited, numbered and autographed run. Don't worry though - they definitely won't be wildly expensive. Books are for reading not hiding in display cabinets.

One thing we can announce is that June Hudson, utterly legendary Who costume designer and the brains behind the famous season 18 costumes amongst many other things, has kindly agreed to do the cover art, about which we're both totally chuffed.

Further information will appear on obversebooks.co.uk, where you can currently sign up for our mailing list and so keep abreast of upcoming news...

Audio Returns

2008-11-24T11:09:00.003Z

Now this is what I call a mother lode of returned telly - or, to be accurate, off air audio recordings of old telly. I'm not entirely convinced all of this is missing, but I know a geat deal of it and as this only covers tapes for a year or so in the late sixties, and there are many, many more tapes to be checked, this could turn out to be one of the most significant finds ever.

Collected by Paul Vanezis from an old radio enthusiast, the most important find for me is an off air audio copy of the missing Dads Army episode 'A Stripe for Fraser', but the rest are all important recordings (and equally hopefully there's more to come from this massive collection).

Now, someone just needs to get them out on disc or on the radio (although given that the recovered audios of Ace of Wands didn't even make the dvd box set, I'm not overly confident)

Dads Army
Up until now this has only been available as one of the full cast re-recordings for the Dads' Army radio show.

29/03/69 A Stripe for Fraser

Not Only...But Also
The February show is held in the archives missing some sections. The March show has until now been lost entirely.

18/02/70
18/03/70

'Til Death Us Do Part
Some of these are presumably repeats - for instance there was no first-run episode of 'Til Death of 27 December 1967, and the episode 'State Visit' was originally shown in February of that year.

23/01/67 Caviar On The Dole
06/02/67 A Wapping Mythology
13/02/67 In Sickness And In Health
27/12/67
29/07/67 State Visit
05/08/67 Bulldog Breed
Talkback - Till Death (14/01/68)
26/01/68 The Funeral
02/02/68 Football
09/02/68 The Puppy
28/12/68 Monopoly

Q5
24/03/69
28/04/69
05/05/69

Do Not Adjust Your Set
14/09/66 - Do Not Adjust Your Set There's a Fault in the Programme - Recorded from the ABC in Australia
11/01/68 - #2
26/02/69 - #15
12/03/69 - #17
19/03/69 - #18
30/04/69 - #24
14/05/69 - #26

Horne a Plenty
13/11/68

Harry Worth
02/04/67
14/05/67
28/05/67
04/06/67
23/04/69
30/04/69
19/11/69
02/12/69
09/12/69
16/12/69

At Last...the 1948 Show
The missing episodes of these shows already exist as off-air recordings, but hopefully these are better quality and particularly the recording of 26 September 1967 contains the scene from the beginning which is missing from the - until now - only recording of the show. The recordings from April and May 1967 are presumably repeats of the first series, which finished in March of that year.

25/04/67
02/05/67
09/05/67
16/05/67
26/09/67
03/10/67
10/10/67
24/10/67
31/10/67

Oh Brother!
13/09/68 - The Voice of the Turtle
18/10/68 - Treasures on Earth
18/04/69 - Thine House in Order
25/04/69 - A Mother in Israel
02/05/69 - Behold This Dreamer
09/05/69 - An Uncertain Sound
16/05/69 - In The Beginning
27/08/69 - Root of All Evil
16/01/70 - A Still Small Voice
23/01/70 - By The Fleshpots
30/01/70 - The Laughter of a Fool
13/02/70 - The Hand of Esau
27/02/70 - The Fullness of his Days

The Frost Report
20/04/67 - The Army
27/04/67 - Advertising
04/05/67 - Parliament & Politicians
18/05/67 - Industry
25/05/67 - Culture
01/06/67 - Transport
09/06/67 - Crime
??/??/?? - Europe
29/06/67 - Showbusiness
17/03/67 - Youth
31/03/67 - Countryside

The Rolf Harris Show
Larger Than Life

Comedy Playhouse
Spanner in the Works
The Chars
House in a Tree 25/06/67
Heirs on a Shoestring 09/06/67
To Lucifer a Son (with Jimmy Tarbuck)
Tooth and Claw
The Lovers 12/05/69
The Making of Peregrine 19/05/69
Joint Account 18/12/69
Keep 'Em Rolling 11/03/1970
Better Than A Man 18/03/1970
Mind Your Own Business 08/07/1970

The Galton and Simpson Playhouse
26/04/69 - Friends in High Places
04/05/69 - Never Talk to Strangers
17/05/69 - Pity Poor Edie, Married to Him
21/11/69 - ??

Top of the Pops
15/06/67
13/07/67
05/10/67
25/12/68
26/12/68
20/03/69
03/04/69
10/04/69
24/04/69
01/05/69
08/05/69
29/05/69
11/09/69
13/11/69
18/12/69
26/12/69
18/02/70
19/03/70

Unexpectedly Creepy

2008-11-20T09:00:00.002Z

How creepy are the lyrics to Bucks Fizz's Land of Make Believe, when divorced from the infectiously annoying tune? Time for that guy who did 'Mad World' on piano to record a follow-up?

Stars in your eyes, little one
Where do you go to dream
To a place, we all know
The land of make believe

Shadows, tapping at your window
Ghostly voices whisper will you come and play
Not for all the tea in China
Or the corn in Carolina
Never, never ever
They're running after you babe

Run for the sun, little one
You're an outlaw once again
Time to change, Superman
He'll be with us while he can
In the land of make believe

Something nasty in your garden's waiting
Patiently, till it can have your heart
Try to go but it won't let you
Don't you know it's out to get you running
Keep on running
They're running after you babe

Run for the sun, little one
You're an outlaw once again
Time to change, Superman
He'll be with us while he can
In the land of make believe

Your world is turning
From night to day
Your dream is burning far, far away

Into the blue
You and I
To the circus in the sky
Captain Kids
On the sand
With the treasure close at hand
In the land of make believe

In the land of make believe

Run for the sun, little one
You're an outlaw once again
Time to change, Superman
He'll be with us while he can
In the land of make believe

Run for the sun, little one
You're an outlaw once again
Time to change, Superman
He'll be with us while he can
In the land of make believe

I've got a friend who comes to tea
And no-one else can see but me
He came today
But had to go
To visit you
You never know