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Creature Feature

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:28:49 +0000

The first Doctor Who comic strip I ever read was Voyager by Steve Parkhouse which ran in issues 90  - 94 of Doctor Who Monthly in 1984. That story affected me in two ways. First of all, I from the moment I read the first issue I was doomed to become a Doctor Who fan  – to fill my bedroom with all kind of Gallifreyan tat and my brain with oodles of time-travel trivia. Nothing has changed there then (although my wife has quite rightly banned Dalek action figures from the bedroom!)

The second effect was that from that day I vowed that I would write my own Doctor Who comic strip. Over the years I scribbled countless ideas in notebooks and sent in awful submission after awful submission to the magazine. Somewhere here I still have at least one of the rejection letters. It was for a story called Zenith of the Daleks which featured – you guessed it – the Daleks and the Destroyer from the 1989 TV story Battlefield. If I remember rightly, the Time Lords had captured the Destroyer and imprisoned him at the heart of a planet that the Daleks were now mining. At the time I thought it was epic, thrilling and edgy. If I had been the editor, I would have rejected it.

Knowledge is power

Tue, 9 Feb 2010 14:08:28 +0000

The latest issue of BBC Knowledge is out now, my first as Acting Managing Editor, a post I have taken on a freelance basis for the next six months or so. The magazine is only available in North America and Canada as uses material from Britain’s own BBC History, BBC Focus and BBC Wildlife magazines.

This isn’t just a cut and paste job. Every issue we rework each feature for the American market, commissioning new material to supplement and target the content for the magazine’s ever-growing readership.

I’ve particularly enjoyed getting back to science and technology journalism after a few good years out of the field. Although the hard physics of the science of the winter olympics feature did cause my brain to ache a little for a few days.

Talking of science, the latest issue of Focus - out later this week - includes a review by yours truly of ‘The Astronaut’s Cookbook’, a fascinating account of the difficulties of getting food into orbit on space missions over the years. I’ve always dreamt of heading into space, but I don’t fancy the grub much!

I’m a cook book addict

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 08:24:56 +0000

A couple of months ago I returned home from work with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s new cook book ‘River Cottage Every Day’ tucked under my arm. It was for a review for issue 30 of Countryfile Magazine (out now, by the way - the first since my departure as Editor.)

My wife took one look at it and said, “Oh no, turn around. I told you: No more cook books!”

It’s true, our house has fallen foul of cook bookaholism, a modern malady which is an insidious side effect of the cult of the celebrity chef. The shelves of our kitchen are groaning under the weight of Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Valentine Warner, Marco Pierre White and even Levi Roots of Reggae Reggae sauce fame. (I met Mr Roots at the Good Food Show a few years back, by the way. Huge man; lots of bling; one of the firmest handshakes I’ve ever experienced. I’ll never play guitar again!)

Do we need them all? No. Do we use them all? Well, at a push we’ve probably scraped together a few dishes from each (except for the 1985 ‘Doctor Who Cookbook’. I’ve been tempted to try Davros’s Extermination Pudding or Sil’s Slimy Slurp but have never got around to it.) Do they lurk on the shelf making us feel guilty that we’re not letting them change the way we cook? Definitely.

So why do we do it? Why collect such a dazzling array of culinary tomes only to have them gather dust when we repeatedly reach for our battered and well-loved copy of Margueritte Patten’s 1,000 Favourite Recipes?

Is it the same reason why so many of us bought ‘A Brief History of Time’ in the late 80s? Steven Hawking’s cosmological chronicle sat largely unread but proudly displayed on our bookshelves. Look at me, it screamed, I don’t waste my time on rubbish like Jackie Collins. I read important, complicated stuff. Get me.

Our modern addiction to glossy cookbooks, rammed with succulent images of dishes we will never make, fulfills the same aim - proving that we care about what goes into our bodies, spend hours lovingly creating gastronomic masterpieces and never, ever call out for a Dominos Pizza to scoff in-front of Dancing on Ice.

Perhaps we should start a support group. “Hello, my name’s Cavan and I’m addicted to cook books.”

I blame Delia. It’s all her fault.

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Issue 30 of Countryfile Magazine is out now. As well as my review of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingtall’s ‘River Cottage Every Day’ it also includes my latest Spectred Isle. The Abbot’s Hell Hounds is a demonic tale of a 12th Century holy man who allegedly was in league with Old Nick). You can read past Spectred Isle’s here.

Cav and Dave

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:22:41 +0000

I’ve been busy beavering away all over Christmas on an exciting new project (more on that later), so almost forgot to point out that the January issue of Countryfile Magazine, my last as editor, is now out. Within its pages you’ll find my interview with Dave Peacock, one half of ‘Rockney’ group Chas ‘n’ Dave. I spend a fantastic day with Dave back in October when he shared his love of painting gypsy wagons. Now that he’s pretty much hung up his bass and knocked touring on the head, Dave has more time to return to his roots, the carving and letter work he learnt as an apprentice out of school.

The picture above is taken in his workshop, in front of the beautifully decorated wagon he has restored over the last 15 years. A little fact for you: those green cages behind Dave’s shoulder were where the chickens would have clucked and fussed as the travelling-folk rolled along the country lanes.

Iris Wildthyme & the Claws of Santa out now!

Thu, 3 Dec 2009 20:06:46 +0000

My latest audio drama, Iris Wildthyme and the Claws of Santa is on sale now, available from Big Finish Productions.

Written with my long-suffering, er, I mean long-time partner Mark Wright, it’s a festive frolic full of exploding toys, work-shy fairies and the odd bitter-and-twisted ex-wife. Your average common-or-garden Chrimbo then!

Starring Katy Manning (above) and the marvelous David Benson, it would be an ideal present to slip into your Christmas stocking.

Click on the link above to make your Christmas dreams come true.
 Fa la la la la!

Christmas Country Customs

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:26:27 +0000

Christmas has come early with the latest issue of Countryfile Magazine, on sale today. The penultimate issue under my editorship, the December 2009 issue includes a feature by yours truly; An A-Z of Christmas Country Customs. With special thanks to Countryfile Magazine you can see a PDF of it here.

Iris Wildthyme and the Claws of Santa

Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:32:44 +0000

The trailer to my latest audio drama, co-wrote with Mark Wright, is online now. You can listen to it here.

Here’s the blurb for the play:

It’s going to be a blue Christmas for Iris Wildthyme. Her best friend, Panda, is lost in time and space and the only festive cheer she can find is at the bottom of a glass. If that wasn’t enough, this year’s number one toy is trying to kill her!

From a futuristic planet-sized shopping mall to the frozen wastes of the North Pole, the search for Panda leads Iris to a fiendish plot that threatens to ruin Christmas for the entire multiverse. With only a jobsworth security droid to help, Iris turns to the one man who can save the season of goodwill – Saint Nick himself. There's just one snag; Santa Claus is a broken man...

With psychotic elves, exploding shoplifters and more tinsel than you can shake a bottle of Babycham at, this is going to be the Mother of all Christmases – and you’re all invited!

Prisoner of Peladon reviewed in Doctor Who Magazine issue 414

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:50:19 +0100

My latest audio play, Doctor Who - Companion Chronicles: The Prisoner of Peladon, co-written by Mark Wright is reviewed by Matt Michael in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine. Here’s an extract:

“As the previous Peladon have been allegories of some sort, so The Prisoner of Peladon touches on concerns around asylum seekers and the way they can be manipulated for various political ends. This works well, as does the inclusion of the legend of the prisoner - a nice nod to the mythical trappings of the TV episodes. However, as a detective story this doesn’t quite cut the mustard; whodunnit is less important that whydunnit, and the revelations to both are not as dramatic as they might have been.

“Nevertheless, thanks to [David] Troughton’s performance that the authors’ grasp of what made the original story successful, this is far from a failure, and, in the choice of narrator, opens up this range to a wider scope of story in future.”

You Brits are ashamed of your own food

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:58:15 +0100

My interview with BBC MasterChef 2009 champion Mat Follas is published today on www.bbccountryfile.com. In ‘You Brits are ashamed of your own food, says MasterChef champion’ Mat talks about life post-MasterChef, the philosophy of his restaurant, The Wild Garlic, and why the British have a cultural inferiority complex when it comes to their food.

Mat came across as a thoroughly decent and sincere chap. What I love about him is that he’s throwing himself into the deep end by opening his own restaurant. He could have gone down the route of working in someone else’s kitchen but he wanted to be his own man. The most amazing thing is that he’s learning to be a restauranteur as he goes, having no training or real experience. It therefore makes it even more impressive that he’s making a real go of it.

Click here to read it.