Exciting news! The nominees for the 2009 British Fantasy Awards have been announced, and The Writer’s Tale has been shortlisted in the Best Non-Fiction category. First awarded in 1971, the annual BFAs are voted on by members of the British Fantasy Society, and the winners will be announced at FantasyCon 2009 in September.

The other nominees in the Best Non-Fiction category are: Basil Copper: A Life in Books (Ed, Stephen Jones), Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale (Russell T Davies & Benjamin Cook), journal.neilgaiman.com (Neil Gaiman), Mutant Popcorn (Nick Lowe) and What Is It We Do When We Read Science Fiction (Paul Kincaid).

Meanwhile, Doctor Who is nominated in the Best Television category, alongside Battlestar Galactica, Supernatural, Dead Set and Dexter.

Doctor Who Magazine readers have voted The Writer’s Tale the Best Non-Fiction Book of 2008, in the publication’s annual Merchandise Awards. It won with a staggering 40.3% of the vote, almost 25% ahead of the closest competition. The full results are:

1 - The Writer’s Tale: 40.3%   
2 - The Time Traveller’s Almanac: 15.8%
3 - Starships and Spacestations: 14.5%
4 - The Official Annual 2009: 12.9%
5 - Monsters Within: 5.3%
6 - Others: 11.2%

Robert Colvile interviews Russell in The Telegraph today (read it here), while the unedited transcript, including a plug for The Writer’s Tale (which Colvile calls “remarkably open”), has been posted online and is well worth a read:

Read the full article

Scotland on Sunday has published an interview with Russell, in which he discusses his final Doctor Who script, handing over to Steven Moffat… and Stephen Gately’s arse! Of course, The Writer’s Tale gets plenty of mentions, too.

Read the full article

“An absolutely brilliant book… You get to see what goes through the mind of the man presiding over what’s arguably the greatest triumph of modern British television…”

Read the full review

Benjamin is now on Twitter, the world’s number one microblogging site. (Users answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less, and post their updates into a personal stream.) Point your mouse at www.twitter.com/benjamin_cook to become Benjamin’s bestest mate and follow what he’s up to.

Amazing. : - )

“Probably the nearest we’ll get to a day-to-day diary of ‘How it happened, as it happened’…”

Read The Full Story…

Benjamin has appeared on BBC Breakfast, alongside Entertainment Correspondent Lizo Mzimba, discussing Matt Smith’s casting as the Eleventh Doctor:

Look! We’ve uploaded lots of lovely new photos from Russell and Benjamin’s 2008 book signings. Check ‘em out further down this News & Reviews section - or by selecting ‘Photos’ from the drop-down ‘Categories’ menu near the top right of this page - or just click on the following links:

National Theatre, London - 7 November 2008

Borders Cardiff - 10 October 2008

Borders Bristol - 10 October 2008

Waterstone’s Manchester - 9 October 2008

Waterstone’s Birmingham - 9 October 2008

Waterstone’s Piccadilly, London - 8 October 2008

Random House, Colchester - 9 September 2008

Plus! We’ve added a video of Russell and Benjamin’s appearance on the frankly bonkers Halloween edition of Richard & Judy’s New Position (see here), and another of R & J’s review of The Writer’s Tale - featuring Stephen Fry and Four Poofs and a Piano - in November (see here).

Happy New Year.

The Christmas edition of Cardiff Life magazine calls The Writer’s Tale “one of the best books of the year”, and features an exclusive interview with Russell and Benjamin conducted by “Michael Kilgariff” (probably not to be confused with this man, who played a Cyberman during the ’60s and ’80s!)…

Read The Full Story…