FEATURE BY MARTIN RUDDOCK
P ublisher Frederick Muller issued the first novelisation of a TV story in 1964. Since then, Doctor Who literature has grown to encompass everything from original fiction to detailed behind-the-scenes memoirs and even books of knitting patterns. And in 2016 the range of titles from BBC Books continued to strike an innovative note. The first new release of the year came in February with the short story anthology The Legends of River Song, containing five tales from the pages of River’s famous diary by Jenny T Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Steve Lyons, Guy Adams and Andrew Lane. River’s recent role in the Christmas Special The Husbands of River Song (2015) had further sketched in her history, finally showing viewers her visit to the Singing Towers of Darillium with the Twelfth Doctor; tying in neatly, The Legends of River Song opened with Picnic at Asgard, in which Jenny Colgan related another significant unseen adventure for River and the Eleventh Doctor, first hinted at in Silence in the Library in 2008.
Alex Kingston’s character featured on the front cover of Jenny T Colgan’s The Legends of River Song.