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Disgusted, Mary Whitehouse will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday 5 March. Produced by me and brother Thomas, it’s presented by Samira Ah...

The latest issue of the Doctor Who: Chronicles (from the makers of  Doctor Who Magazine ) is focused on the year 2007, which in a weird, sc...

I've been meaning to get to this mystery novel for years. The Dr is a fan of Josephine Tey, and also of Nicola Upson's series of nov...

Jean's life is a bit of a mess. She wants to be a ranger in the wildlife park where she works, but can't get her qualifications - an...

Cecil Madden was "the world's first television producer", according to the cover of this memoir edited by his granddaughter, J...

This very timely memoir is about the damage done by public schools, especially to boarding pupils separated from their parents at an impress...

After some time off to make room for the Christmas quiz (and answers), the new issue of Doctor Who Magazine features another Sufficient Dat...

Julian Lawnsdsley has set up a bookshop in a small town, escaping from the evils of the City. One potential customer is a peculiar old man w...

Wartime Britain , which I read last month, referred to these diaries by Winifred Vere Hodgson (1901-79), who lived at 56 Ladbroke Road when ...

My last night out in London before lockdown in 2020 was to attend a signing for my chum Una's book Picard: The Last Best Hope , which ab...

This enormous volume - 591 pages before  the exhaustive acknowledgements, notes, bibliography and index - is a detailed history of the Secon...

I'm a guest on the Journeys into Genealogy podcast with host Emma Cox, talking about my efforts to research the history of my own surnam...

I made slow progress through this short, slight book, in part because of work and life and everything else at the minute. But its quiet, int...

The new issue of medical journal Lancet Psychiatry includes my essay, "Was it obvious to everyone else that I'd fallen for a lie?&q...

Having read Michael Bartholomew's biography of HV Morton , I'm now on to Morton himself. HV Morton's London is a collection of t...

My Mum recently asked how many books I've written, and I realised that I didn't know. That then led to a conversation with my boss J...

I've script edited one of the three Blake's 7 audio stories that make up The Terra Nostra , a new set out in January 2022 from Big F...

Loved this deep dive into how exactly Doctor Who came back to TV in 2005, talking to many of those involved including Julie Gardner, Jane Tr...

This largely autobiographical novel was first published in 1847, the same year that Anne's sisters published the better known  Jane Eyre...

Centurion Marcus Flavius Aquila is stationed at Isca Dumnoniorum (modern-day Exeter) but longs to get back to his home - and the good weathe...