A Life of Surprises |
Short
story “The Collection”, first published by Big Finish Productions in September
2002, ISBN 1-903654-44-0
In
1992, Paul Cornell created the character Professor Bernice “Benny” Summerfield
as a travelling companion for the Doctor when Virgin Publishing were still
publishing their original Doctor Who books. She debuted in Paul’s novel Love
and War, and subsequently became one of the most popular of all Doctor
Who companions. So when BBC Worldwide took the Doctor Who books
in-house, Virgin continued to publish their own range of “New Adventures” featuring Benny.
When Virgin decided to stop publishing the “New
Adventures”, Big Finish Productions
re-launched the character in a series of Professor Bernice Summerfield original
novels and audio adventures. Although the series of novels is drawing to a
close, the audios continue, with Lisa Bowerman bringing Benny to life in a
charismatic performance.
Ten
years after Love and War, Paul Cornell agreed to edit a hardback
collection of short ficion to celebrate the longevity and survival against the
odds—both in the fictional and the publishing world—of Professor Bernice
Summerfield. In November 2001, he invited a variety of writers from BBC novels,
Virgin Publishing, Big Finish Productions, and the television and film industry,
to submit proposals for short stories—and he was kind enough to ask me.
I
hadn’t written for Benny before, but was delighted to have the opportunity for
this special collection. I sent Paul an outline for an unusually-presented
piece of short fiction which relies on a number of continuity items from
Benny’s history over ten years. Paul asked for some clarifications and
explanations, set me a word limit, and commissioned the story at the end of
2001. I got a bit sidetracked by my regular job and by another commission from
Big Finish for a Sarah Jane Smith audio script. So I only
delivered my manuscript to Paul at the beginning of March 2002. Paul liked it, made
some line edits, and the story was published in September 2002.
I’ll
provide more information about the writing once the book has been available for
a while—to say anything else at this stage will spoil the fun! So check back
later in the year to see the original proposal and any reviews as they start to
arrive. In the meantime, you can read a taster in this excerpt, and the cover blurb.
Last revised: 08 August 2003