New year, new day for my weekly books roundup.
Current
Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake
At Childhood’s End, by Sophie Aldred
Out of Africa, by Karen Blixen
Last books finished
The Prisoner: A Day in the Life, by Hank Stine
The Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore
The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern
Next books
Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Volume 2, by Jody Houser
Gallimaufrey, by Colin Baker
i) births and deaths
8 January 1908: they don't get more fundamental than this: birth of William Hartnell, who played the First Doctor from 1963 to 1966, and returned for The Three Doctors in 1972-73.
ii) broadcast and production anniversaries
8 January 1966: broadcast of "Golden Death", the ninth episode of the story we now call The Daleks' Master Plan. Both the Doctor's Tardis and the Monk's arrive in ancient Egypt, pursued by the Daleks and Mavic Chen. The last of the surviving episodes from this story.
8 January 1971: broadcast of second episode of Day of the Daleks. Jo is captured and brought to the 22nd Century; the Doctor is confronted by a Dalek emerging from the time vortex.
8 January 1977: broadcast of second episode of The Face of Evil. The Doctor passes the Test of the Horda; Xoanon unleashes the invisible monsters on the Sevateem.
What happened yesterday was pretty awful. Angry mobs storming parliamentary buildings is a bit unusual, to put it mildly, in developed democracies. I’ve seen it happen in other countries that I follow, but it’s generally reserved for elections that are, how can one put it, early in that country’s democratic hostory.
At the same time it should have been no surprise. Trump’s campaign was built on lies from the very beginning, and the media failed to call him out on his lies early enough. But more importantly, the US political debate seems to have descended into a post-truth situation, where there is no longer agreement on basic facts, like where Barack Obama was born, or who won the 2020 election.
This isn’t unique to the US (the Brexit campaign being a dismal case in point), and it’s not a completely new development (as a glance at the history of US election campaigns will show). But it’s clearly been facilitated by allowing freedom of expression (for those who can afford it) a higher priority than public safety when the FCC dropped the Fairness Doctrine in 1987. The Fairness Doctrine might not have been sustainable in the digital age, now that everyone can become their own publisher on the internet, but at least it was a benchmark for good behaviour. Since then, the rabid right have used age-old tactics to radicalise their base and get funding to create a fact-free universe of discourse.
We in fandom had a taste of this five years ago with the Sad Puppies campaigns. Larry Correia, Brad Torgersen and Vox Day (and others) steadily pumped out lies about the Hugo awards and indeed about their own actions, and bragged about how much good this was doing their sales. Sticking to the truth was much less important for them than owning the libs. Hugo voters were repulsed by their tactics and rejected them massively. It’s awful that 46% of US voters did not feel that way about Donald Trump in 2016. It’s even worse that he got 47% in 2020. (Which fortunately was not enough.)
Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously said that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their own facts. That aphorism has been turned on its head by recent history. I don’t know what the conclusion is. Perhaps it shows that it’s always worth challenging intellectual and rhetorical dishonesty if you have the energy, including from people you normally agree with. The truth is worth standing up for.
i) births and deaths
7 January 1913: birth of Francis De Wolff, who played Vasor in The Keys of Marinus (1964) and Agamemnon in The Myth Makers (1965).
7 January 1924: birth of Geoffrey Bayldon, who played Organon in The Creature from the Pit (1979) and the alternate timeline Doctor-who-never-left-Gallifrey in Big Finish audios Auld Mortality (2003) and A Storm of Angels (2005). Also Catweazle.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
7 January 1967: broadcast of fourth episode of The Highlanders. The Doctor rescues everyone, Grey is led off to jail, and Jamie leaves with the Tardis crew.
7 January 1978: broadcast of first episode of Underworld. The Doctor lands on the Minyans' ship, and they are bombarded by space debris.
Second paragraph of third chapter:
Who hasn't argued with their mother at some point about tidying their room, and had differing interpretations of what constitutes mess?
A short book by a biochemist who proudly flies the flag of her own autism diagnosis, explaining how people work from her point of view. From her point of view seems to mean mainly comparing human interactions to phenomena in biochemistry, which may be insightful for people who know more than I do about biochemistry, but since I don't, it was a matter of explaining something I already more or less understand – human behaviour – in terms of something I don't. The book won a prize but it didn't work for me. You can get it here.
i) births and deaths
6 January 1955: birth of Rowan Atkinson, who played the Ninth Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death.
6 January 2009: death of John Scott Martin, Dalek operator and player of many parts in Old Who.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
6 January 1968: broadcast of third episode of The Enemy of the World. Formerly the only surviving episode of the story (but the rest has now been found), with Denes kept prisoner in a corridor (!), Victoria working in the kitchen, and Salamander realising that something is up.
6 January 1973: broadcast of second episode of The Three Doctors. The Second Doctor, the Brigadier, Benton and the Tardis are transported to Omega's world to join the Third Doctor and Jo.
6 January 1979: broadcast of third episode of The Power of Kroll. The Swampies try to execute Romana, the Doctor and Rohm-Dutt, but they manage to escape by screaming; and Kroll rises from the deep.
6 January 1982: broadcast of second episode of Warriors of the Deep. The Silurians attack the seabase and the Doctor and Tegan are trapped by the Myrka.
The numbers are out which will determine how many seats each part of the UK gets at the next Westminster election. As you may remember, the original plan to cut 50 seats from the House of Commons has been dropped, but the tight constraints remain on constituency sizes – they should be within 5% of the UK average, with certain exceptions; on which more below. I had a brief moment of excitement when I thought that Northern Ireland might lose a seat, but I was looking at the wrong table, and it remains at 18 seats. The numbers are:
| Electors | Quotas | seats | |||
| England minus two Isle of Wight seats | 39,748,705 | 541.59 | (+2) | 543 | +10 |
| Scotland minus two island seats | 4,023,611 | 54.82 | (+2) | 57 | -2 |
| Wales minus Ynys Môn | 2,270,262 | 30.93 | (+1) | 32 | -8 |
| Northern Ireland | 1,295,868 | 17.65 | 18 | nc | |
| total | 47,338,266 | ||||
| UK quota | 73,392.66 | ||||
| NI average | 71,982.67 |
The previous round of proposed changes was quashed by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal, which found that 1) the Commission had not adequately explained its application of Rule 7, which allows the Commission to vary seats in Northern Ireland by up to 5% from the average for NI alone, and 2) that it had not sufficiently taken into account public consultation responses in the final stage of the process. It was academic anyway, as the changes were never put to Parliament for approval. One significant change to the process this time round is that Parliament doesn't get a choice, and the Boundary Commission recommendations will come into force automatically.
A quick aside on the first point: I personally urged the Commission not to be shy about invoking this extra flexibility for the last round of revisions, in order to make its own work easier. The Commission did so for both its revised proposals and its final report, but the courts found that while the Commission was not wrong to invoke the lower limit, it should have explained itself better. When I previewed the figures this time last year, I thought that it might be possible to get away without needing to invoke the rule this time round. The numbers have shifted only a little, but enough that I am not as confident that it can be done – the average NI seat is going to be 2% smaller than the UK quota, so you're starting with a deficit of 1400 for each seat when the wiggle room is only 3669 from the average.
I think the 5% variation in constituency size is way too tight anyway- worldwide, only the notoriously contested redistricting of the seats of the U.S. House of Representatives has a tighter margin – but I also think that we will probably need to see a couple of revision cycles go through with that unrealistic restriction before the powers that be catch themselves on and it gets changed. (I have been told that the Conservatives were originally looking at a 2% rather than 5% variation in constituency size, back in 2008; that really would have been difficult and painful to implement, and would certainly have meant breaching ward boundaries all over the place.)
The Electoral Office has now published the parliamentary electorate as on March 2020 for the existing 18 seats and for the old electoral wards from which they are constructed; and the seats will be drawn to match the parliamentary rather than local government voters. British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens can vote in all elections; citizens of the other 24 EU countries can vote in local and Assembly elections, at least for now; expat voters can vote for Westminster elections, but not local or Assembly elections.
(There is a not very interesting discussion to be had about whether electoral boundaries should take account of the number of registered voters or the total population. Worldwide, about a third of countries allocate seats on the basis of the number of voters, and about half on the basis of total population. Personally I incline a bit towards basing them on the number of voters, which in the UK is just as easy, if not easier, to track, and also I don't really see why areas with larger non-voting populations – children and non-citizens – necessarily deserve greater representation. But I am not especially bothered.)
Coming back to the main point, what will the new Northern Ireland electoral map look like? The first thing to note is that there is already a big problem with the sizes of the 18 constituencies. There are 1.29 times as many voters in Upper Bann as in East Antrim, which is way too big a variation. NB that both East Antrim and Upper Bann are held by the DUP; looking at the five largest and five smallest seats, in both cases three are held by the DUP and two by SF, so this isn't especially a party political issue.
Looking at the quota for the UK as a whole (the average electorate for the 645 seats apart from than the five island constituencies) we can see that eleven of Northern Ireland's 18 constituencies deviate from it by more than 5%. The UK-wide quota will be 73,392.66, so in principle each seat should have no less than 69,724 voters and no more than 77,062. Under the rules, Northern Ireland is allowed extra wiggle room, if necessary, taking the lower limit down to 68,313. (Which would mean that East Londonderry is actually OK; but I think the geography of West Tyrone means that it will have to change anyway.) This map shows the divergence from the UK-wide quota of each of the 18 Northern Ireland seats, and the table gives the same figures and also the number of voters by which each seat exceeds or falls short of the permissible size (including also the potential lower margin for Northern Ireland).
| Constituency | March 2020 electorate |
difference from |
difference from upper/lower limit |
held by |
| East Antrim | 64,907 | -11.6% | -4,820 (-3,406) | DUP |
| Belfast West | 65,761 | -10.4% | -3,966 (-2,552) | SF |
| Belfast East | 66,273 | -9.7% | -3,454 (-2,040) | DUP |
| West Tyrone | 66,339 | -9.6% | -3,388 (-2,274) | SF |
| Strangford | 66,990 | -8.7% | -2,737 (-1,323) | DUP |
| North Down | 67,109 | -8.6% | -2,618 (-1,204) | Alliance |
| East Londonderry | 69,359 | -5.5% | -368 (OK) | DUP |
| Belfast South | 70,134 | -4.2% | OK | SDLP |
| Mid Ulster | 70,501 | -3.9% | OK | SF |
| South Antrim | 71,915 | -2.0% | OK | DUP |
| Belfast North | 72,332 | -1.4% | OK | SF |
| Fermanagh and South Tyrone | 72,945 | -0.6% | OK | SF |
| Foyle | 74,431 | +1.4% | OK | SDLP |
| Lagan Valley | 75,884 | +3.4% | OK | DUP |
| North Antrim | 77,156 | +5.1% | +90 | DUP |
| South Down | 79,295 | +8.0% | +2,229 | SF |
| Newry and Armagh | 81,329 | +10.8% | +4,263 | SF |
| Upper Bann | 83,028 | +13.1% | +5,962 | DUP |
| Total | 1,295,688 |
The good thing about this is that there are a number of seats which will hardly have to change at all. There will have to be some smoothing at the edges, because the map of electoral wards, which are the building blocks for the constituencies, has been drastically changed and there is no seat whose boundaries exactly match the new ward boundaries. But if we colour in the under-quota seats in red, the over-quota seats in blue, and the within-quota seats in green, we can see that the question resolves into three distinct geographical challenges.
First of all, West Belfast is an isolated undersized constituency, at 10.4% below the quota. But it borders Lagan Valley, which is 3.4% above the quota. If 4,000-6,000 Lagan Valley voters could be found, conveniently located on the border with West Belfast, they could be moved in, keeping both seats within limits. The two wards of Derryaghy and Lambeg are conveniently located on the border with West Belfast, and together they have 5,051 local government voters (the number of Westminster voters will be a bit less), so I would not be surprised to see West Belfast being extended further south (as was proposed by the Boundary Commission for the 17-seat map).
That leaves two broad zones to consider. First, the south-eastern belt of six seats, three of them contiguous and over-sized (Newry and Armagh, Upper Bann and South Down) and three of them contiguous and undersized (East Belfast, North Down and Strangford). If the neighbouring seats of Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Lagan Vally and South Belfast are left largely alone due to already being the right size (apart from straightening out the boundaries for the new wards, and the adjustment to the Lagan Valley/West Belfast border mentioned above), there aren't a lot of solutions. I could see the following emerge:
The northern belt of four constituencies is probably the most difficult to resolve. West Tyrone is 9.6% under the quota; East Londonderry 5.5% under; North Antrim 5.1% over and East Antrim, the smallest constituency, 11.6% under. There simply aren't enough voters there for four seats with at least 95% of the UK quota each (there are, just about, if we take the special lower limit for Northern Ireland, but even then I don't think the geography of the wards makes it possible). It's also difficult to justify much tinkering with the boundaries of the neighbouring seats, and even if we could, the wiggle room on their numbers is limited. My best guess would be that:
The changes to East Londonderry and West Tyrone/Sperrin in particular will look striking on the map, but actually will not involve all that many people owing to the sparse population of the areas concerned. The biggest single shift of voters would be in the south-eastern corner of Northern Ireland with Downpatrick moving from South Down to Strangford/East Down.
That's also the biggest political shift. Strangford/East Down certainly gets enough Nationalist voters for them to elect a Nationalist to the Assembly, and to give the DUP's opponents at Westminster elections a tactical boost; South Down on the other hand certainly loses a Nationalist seat at Assembly level. The Ards Peninsula moving into North Down at the cost of more favourable territory in Holywood certainly makes life interesting for Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party, but it's far from a killer blow. Those who feel that they may have something to lose from the process will of course have plenty of time and opportunity to make their voices heards.
This will be a lot less painful than the proposed maps when we were looking at a reduction in the number of seats from 18 to 16 or 17, and frankly I hope that something like this goes through. In the end, rearranging boundaries for 18 seats is a lot less painful than chopping one, let alone two, from the map.
i) births and deaths
5 January 1929: birth of Norman Kay, who composed the incidental music for An Unearthly Child (1963), The Keys of Marinus, (1964) and The Sensorites (also 1964).
5 January 1988: birth of Mandip Gill, who currently plays Yasmin Khan on Doctor Who.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
5 January 1974: broadcast of fourth episode of The Time Warrior. Rubeish and the Doctor return the kidnapped scientists to the twentieth century; Linx kills Irongron and is in turn killed by Boba Fett Hal; and his spaceship explodes on take-off, destroying the castle.
5 January 1980: broadcast of third episode of The Horns of Nimon. The Doctor and Romana discover the source of the Nimons' energy, but Soldeed catches them.
5 January 1982: broadcast of second episode of Castrovalva. Tegan and Nyssa jettison a quarter of the Tardis rooms, and bring what's left to Castrovalva.
5 January 1983: broadcast of second episode of Arc of Infinity. Tegan goes to Amsterdam to find her cousins; the Doctor is apparently executed by the Time Lords.
5 January 1984: broadcast of first episode of Warriors of the Deep, starting Season 21. The Tardis lands in an undersea base in the year 2084, and is caught up in human Cold War politics and the rise of the reptiles.
5 January 1985: broadcast of first episode of Attack of the Cybermen, starting Season 22. The Tardis lands in London, where Lytton is doing something sinister; meanwhile on Telos, something else sinister is happening.
5 January 2020: broadcast of Spyfall, Part 2. Having been separated from her friends, the Doctor must figure out a way of stopping the Kasaavin and a familiar foe before their plan is put into action. Can she reach her friends and save the world with only a sonic screwdriver to help her?
This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.
Lots of travel in August 2009. On our way to Northern Ireland we stayed with cousins in Croydon, and with H in Brighton, and I seem to have done some research in Kew as well; and then the weekend after we returned to Belgium, we were back in England again for a family wedding. Here's F meeting his cousins then in Croydon (the older of whom turned 20 yesterday).
See also my note on the importance of Cullybackey, Co. Antrim, in American constitutional historystarted my
Of all the months I have been book-blogging this is the one in which I read the most books, pumped up by a very indolent holiday, and by listening to a lot of Doctor Who audiobooks while cooking or shopping. The grand total is 52:
Non-fiction 11 (YTD 66)
Young people in post-conflict Northern Ireland, eds. Dirk Schubotz & Paula Devine
Can Reindeer Fly? The Science of Christmas, by Roger Highfield
The Target Book: A History of the Target Doctor Who Books, by David J. Howe
Hotel Rwanda: Bringing the True Story of an African Hero to Film, ed. Terry George
Galileo's Daughter: A Drama of Science, Faith and Love, by Dava Sobel
Soul of the Age: the Life, Mind and World of William Shakespeare, by Jonathan Bate
Ringside Seats: An Insider's View of the Crisis in Northern Ireland, by Robert Ramsay
Satires and Personal Writings of Jonathan Swift
Early Belfast, by Raymond Gillespie
The British Museum Book of Ancient Egypt, edited by A.J. Spencer
Learning and Change in European Foreign Policy: The Case of the EU Special Representatives, by Cornelius Adebahr
Non-genre 9 (YTD 40)
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
On The Road, by Jack Kerouac
Les Liaisons Dangereuses, by Choderlos de Laclos
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Back Home, by Michelle Magorian
Knots and Crosses, by Ian Rankin
Hide and Seek, by Ian Rankin
Tooth and Nail, by Ian Rankin
The Angel Makers, by Jessica Gregson
SF 10 (YTD 60)
The Night Sessions, by Ken MacLeod
On The Beach, by Nevil Shute
Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan
Soul Music, by Terry Pratchett
Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny
Sacred Visions, edited by Andrew M. Greeley and Michael Cassutt
Yendi, by Steven Brust
Teckla, by Steven Brust
The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, vol 1: Threshold
Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer
Doctor Who 15 (YTD 42)
Asylum, by Peter Darvill-Evans
The Nemonite Invasion, by David Rodan
The Rising Night, by Scott Handcock
Shining Darkness, by Mark Michalowski
The Art of Destruction, by Stephen Cole
Doctor Who – The Nightmare Fair, by Graham Williams
Doctor Who – The Ultimate Evil, by Wally K. Daly
Doctor Who – Mission to Magnus, by Philip Martin
The Eyeless, by Lance Parkin
Beautiful Chaos, by Gary Russell
Ghosts of India, by Mark Morris
The Face of the Enemy, by David A. McIntee
The Peacemaker, by James Swallow (abridged version read by Will Thorpe)
Snowglobe 7, by Mike Tucker (abridged version read by Georgia Moffett)
The Doctor Trap, by Simon Messingham (abridged version read by Russell Tovey)
Comics 7 (YTD 25)
With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child, by Keiko Tobe
Fables vol 6: Homelands, by Bill Willingham
Fables vol 7: Arabian Nights (and Days), by Bill Willingham
Fables vol 8: Wolves, by Bill Willingham
Fables vol 9: Sons of Empire, by Bill Willingham
Fables vol 10: The Good Prince, by Bill Willingham
The Island, by Armin Greder
Total page count ~15,000 (YTD ~71,600)
9 (YTD 51/251) by women (Paula Devine, Dava Sobel, Harper Lee, Jane Austen, Michelle Magorian, Jessica Gregson, Margo Lanagan, Stephenie Meyer, Keiko Tobe)
1 (YTD 14/252) by PoC (Tobe)
With so many books, I'm actually going to single out four that I really liked and three that I didn't. (Not including old favourites To Kill a Mockingbird and Lord of Light.) The four new reads that I especially liked:
And the three that I disrecommend are:
i) births and deaths
4 January 1947: birth of Terry Molloy, who played Davros three times in Old Who and also undercover policeman Russell in Attack of the Cybermen (Sixth Doctor, 1985)
4 January 1970: birth of Shayne Armstrong, who co-wrote seven episodes of the Australian K9 series.
ii) broadcast anniversaries
4 January 1964: broadcast of "The Escape", third episode of the story we now call The Daleks. Susan meets Alydon the Thal in the forest, and returns to the others in the city, where they capture a Dalek.
4 January 1969: broadcast of second episode of The Krotons. Zoe and the Doctor take the test and enter the machine; the Krotons manifest themselves.
4 January 1975: broadcast of second episode of Robot. K1, the robot, kills a cabinet minister and threatens to kill the Doctor.
4 January 1982: broadcast of first episode of Castrovalva first full story with Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, starting Season 19 of Old Who. The new Doctor collapses; Adric is captured by the Master; and the Tardis is heading back to the Big Bang…
4 January 1989: broadcast of fourth episode of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, ending Season 25. The Gods of Ragnarok are behind the circus; the Doctor defies them and the circus collapses into rubble.
I took B to a new place yesterday near where she lives, somewhere I've only just found: the Necropolis at Grimde
It's a 13th century church which had become very dilapidated by 1914, and was used as a burial place for the Belgian soldiers killed during the German advance in the area. After the war it was done up properly, and apparently is unique in Western Europe as a church which has been completely converted to a war grave.
I have to say that just because it's the only such case doesn't in itself make it all that interesting. The graves are reverently and neatly laid out, with no hierarchy among the dead. I signed the visitors' book on behalf of myself and B; the last people before us to sign it did so on 23 December.
The stained glass windows are the artistic highlight of the Necropolis. All were designed by Maurice Langaskens, himself a prisoner in the first world war. (Click to embiggen.)
A leaflet in English (in plentiful supply) explains the iconography (again click to embiggen).
For B, the main attraction was the shadow of her own hand, starkly defined by the bright and concentrated overhead lights and the lighter floor. She isn't making any particular shape, I think, just enjoying the contrast of light and dark that she is able to create for herself.
If you want to see for yourself, it's open until 5pm in the winter and 6pm in the summer. It won't be crowded. And it's a stone's throw from two other fascinating places in Grimde, the Three Tumuli and the Church of Our Lady of the Stone.
i) births and deaths
3 January 1920: birth of Peter Stephens, who played Cyril, the Kitchen Boy, and the Knave of Hearts in The Celestial Toymaker (First Doctor, 1966), and Lolem the high priest in The Underwater Menace (Second Doctor, 1967)
3 January 2017: death of Rodney Bennett, director of three Fourth Doctor stories – The Ark in Space (1975), The Sontaran Experiment (also 1975) and The Masque of Mandragora (1976).
ii) broadcast anniversaries
3 January 1970: broadcast of first episode of Spearhead from Space
3 January 1976: broadcast of first episode of The Brain of Morbius. The Doctor and Sarah land on the desolate planet of Karn. The sinister brain surgeon Solon drugs the Doctor and the mysterious Sisterhood take the Tardis.
3 January 1981: broadcast of first episode of Warrior's Gate. Biroc the Tharil escapes from Rorvik's ship; the Doctor, Romana, Adric and K9 arrive at the intersection between N-Space and E-Space.
3 January 1983: broadcast of first episode of Arc of Infinity, starting Season 20. Two backpackers in Amsterdam are terrorised by the Ergon; the Doctor is attacked by a strange being in the Tardis, goes to Gallifrey and is shot by his own future self's twin.
3 January 2009: Matt Smith is announced as the Eleventh Doctor.
Second paragraph of third chapter:
Gideon stood beside his father. The sun made a fuss of setting, bleeding red and orange into the sea. Gideon could smell salt. The vastness of the ocean was still new to him.
Towards the end of the year I'd been working through some of the short fiction submitted as part of the editors' section of the 2020 Hugo voter packet, but this is the first one that left enough of an impression to write up. It's a novella edited by Ellen Datlow (who was last to qualify for the final ballot for Hugo for Best Editor, Short Form, but went on to win the award by a pretty convincing margin). The author is a doctor from Cheshire, who doesn't seem to have written any novels as yet, but is getting well known in the horror community. Ormeshadow won Best Novella in the 2019 Shirley Jackson Awards (not a list I have been following, but maybe I should start paying more attention).
I thought it was really good. It's set at some point in the past (people travel by coach). The author says that "Despite the fantasy elements it’s about rural poverty, sibling rivalry, thwarted ambition, and abuse." The viewpoint character is a teenage boy whose family is forced to move back to his father's ancestral farm in Cheshire; there are murky local legends about the legacy of the Orme (dragon), but vicious present-day family dynamics as well. Intensely and convincingly done, and recommended. You can get it here.
This was my top unread book by a non-white author. Next is Into The Ashes, by Lee Murray.
Back to the Future won the 1986 Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentaton. Second place went to Ladyhawke, third to Cocoon, fourth to Brazil (the only other one I’ve seen) and fifth to Enemy Mine. Brazil is rather a cinematic triumph, but I'd have voted for Back to the Future for making me feel good. That was the year that Ender's Game won both Hugo and Nebula for Best Novel. IMDB users rate Back to the Future top film of 1985 on one ranking and second on the other. That year's Oscar winner, Out of Africa, is pretty far behind. (Back to the Future won an Oscar for Best Sound Effect Editing.)
Two returnees from previous fims I've watched in this sequence. Christopher Lloyd, Doc here, was mental hospital patient Taber in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest ten years ago.
And Marc McClure, Marty’s brother Dave here, was Jimmy Olsen in Superman (and the sequels).
The film is a Bechdel fail – on the two occasions that Lorraine is talking to other women characters, it's about Marty. It does a bit better on race (a lot better than the average award-winning film), in that Donald Fullilove's Goldie Wilson is shown running for re-election as Mayor, though it's a little tin-eared that the white hero takes the place of the black man who has been injured rescuing him, and then helps to give Chuck Berry his sound (yeah, it's a time paradox, but even so it removes agency from Berry).
I just have to say something about the DeLorean. The factory where the cars were built was less than two miles from the house where I grew up in Belfast. For several years the British government desperately pumped taxpayers' money into the firm in order to bring peace by building cars that nobody actually bought. I have teenage memories of going past the factory in the train, noting the gleaming vehicles in the yard which always seemed to increase in number. Occasionally – very occasionally – we would see transporters loaded with the finished article going past our front door on their way to the docks. By the time Back to the Future came out, the DeLorean drama had ended badly, but it's a little heart-warming that these strange memorials to buying off the local warring factions have left a positive cultural legacy.
However, this is a brilliant film in general. Incredibly, I had not seen it before, and nor had young F; we were captivated from start to finish. I'm putting it at the top of my list, in fourth place after 2001 but before Blade Runner. The central plot of Marty facing personal extinction if he cannot get his parents together in 1955 is a complete sf cliche, but it is very well executed. In particular Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson are totally convincing in playing three different versions of the same two characters, in the past and in both versions of the present.
And the script is a delight as well as being beautifully delivered. The Ronald Reagan line is completely hilarious. Apparently when Reagan himself watched the film, he had the projection stopped and rewound so that he could enjoy the scene again.
Well, that was a promising start to my year’s write-ups of films (though admittedly we watched it last weekend when it was still 2020). The next year’s Hugo winner was Aliens, but first I will watch Out of Africa.
i) births and deaths
2 January 1948: birth of Deborah Watling , who played the Second Doctor's companion Victoria Waterfield in 1967-8 (and also returned for the unofficial spinoff Downtime in 1998)
2 January 2006: death of John Woodnutt, who played George Hibbert in Spearhead from Space (1970), the Draconian Emperor in Frontier in Space (1973), Broton and the Duke of Forgill in Terror of the Zygons (1976), and Seron in The Keeper of Traken (1981).
ii) broadcast anniversaries
2 January 1965: broadcast of "The Powerful Enemy", first episode of the story we now call The Rescue, introducing Maureen O'Brien as new companion Vicki. The Tardis, now without Susan, lands on the planet Dido where the two survivors of a crashed space ship are terrorised by the mysterious Koquillion.
2 January 1971: broadcast of first episode of Terror of the Autons, starting Season 8 of Old Who and introducing Katy Manning as Jo Grant, Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates, and Roger Delgado as the Master. The Master takes over a circus, a radio telescope and a plastics factory.
Well. When I did my first ten-day update on 27 March last year, it seemed then that we would have a grim few weeks and then be back to normal by late summer. Obviously, that did not happen. And it seems somehow appropriate that 40 weeks after that Friday at the end of the first full week of lockdown, it's New Year's Day and we are as uncertain as we ever were about the end of all of this.
The numbers in Belgium are actually fairly encouraging right now (unlike in some other countries, alas). Confirmed new cases are down 30% in the last seven days, and hospital admissions down 20%. At that rate they will be below the official targets for relaxing the restrictions in two and three weeks respectively. So I may even be back in the office by the end of this month.
I'll be back at work on Monday after a quiet Christmas holiday. I repeated the Christmas dinner menu from five years ago, but made life a little easier for myself by just having quails' eggs as a starter (dipped in salt and pepper) rather than grilled figs, and new potatoes instead of mămăligă as the main course carbs. I also made a Christmas cake uing this Northern Irish recipe – I don't have an especially sweet tooth usually, but somehow this seemed necessary for the times we are in.
And we managed the traditional family walk, this time at Het Vianderdomein. I took a dozen selfied and there was one where everyone was looking in roughly the right direction with reasonable facial expressions.
I suspect that for you as for me this was not a big gift-giving year, but if you want to do something a little extra, can I point you towards the Nuk Je Vetëm online counselling for vulnerable young people in Albania, run by the Foundation Together Albania of which I am a trustee?
I saw in the new year last night in an online fandom party, where I think I was one of two or three people in a Zoom room of several dozen for whom the time zone was right. I made everyone watch the Brussels light show. It was good.
And this evening we had the latest New Who. Given that it was filmed before the current crisis, I thought the message of resistance to a non-human threat was timely. Unfortunately the deranged American millionaire with political ambitions did not completely get his comeuppance. And the departure of Graham and Ryan is only the second time that New Who companions have left voluntarily – Martha is literally the only other example, Rose stuck in a parallel universe, Donna brainwiped, Amy and Rory timeshifted, Clara and Bill both killed off. It was much more balanced in Old Who (involuntary departures: Susan, Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Dodo, Jamie, Zoe, Sarah Jane, Adric, Kamelion, Peri; voluntary departures: Ian, Barbara, Vicki, Steven, Ben, Polly, Victoria, Liz, Jo, Harry, Leela, K9, Romana, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough, Mel; unclear: UNIT, Ace). I though the whole thing was done emotionally convincingly, and the Daleks' combination of body-horror and racial purification may be not quite what Terry Nation had in mind in 1963, but it's a reasonable evolution.
Anyway. We tried a new Indian food delivery last night, and it was delicious, but once I eventually got to bed I slept very badly with weird dreams. So I'm off to bed now, and we'll be back to the usual book and film reviews tomorrow. Good night. Stay well.
Second half: This is a repeat of a project I did ten years ago in 2010-11, and it's generally been a fun distraction rather than a chore. This time around I have been ioncluding relevant photographs of actors and TV episodes, which is usually a nice little hunt. The Tragical History Tour website is generally reliable
I do the research for each day's anniversaries on the Tardis Index File (Doctor Who wiki), but rather than just use the individual pages for each date (such as the one for today) I use the list of pages linking to that date (again, such as the one for today) and follow through each link to see if it is worth noting. Actors get listed if they have played a significant speaking role in more than one story. Writers, directors, and senior production team get listed if they have worked on any story at all and their birthdate is known to the Tardis Index File. Broadcast anniversaries always get included; other significant performance and production anniversaries almost always. I may sometimes skip dates supposedly specified in canon if it's a spinoff story I haven't heard of, or worse have actually read / watched / heard but can't remember, but will try and err on the side of inclusion as well.
Last time around I morrored the posts to the
It would be nice to do this as a permanent publication of some kind, but I don't really have time!
Anyway, on with today: a birth, two deaths, and nine broadcast anniversaries (including a record-breaking three on the same day, 1 January 2007), but no dates specified in canon other than follow-ons from yesterday's rather large crop.
i) births and deaths
![John_Viner[1].jpg](https://i0.wp.com/fromtheheartofeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1957896_300.jpg?w=584&ssl=1 "John_Viner[1].jpg")
![LennoxTAOD[1].jpg](https://i0.wp.com/fromtheheartofeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1958384_300.jpg?resize=278%2C181&ssl=1 "LennoxTAOD[1].jpg")
![Herbert_Clegg[1].jpg](https://i0.wp.com/fromtheheartofeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1958584_300.jpg?resize=243%2C181&ssl=1 "Herbert_Clegg[1].jpg")
![Archimandrite[1].jpg](https://i0.wp.com/fromtheheartofeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/1958669_300.jpg?resize=242%2C181&ssl=1 "Archimandrite[1].jpg")
1 January 2015: death of Fiona Cumming, director of four Fifth Doctor stories and variously involved in other ways too.
1 January 2019: broadcast of Resolution. A long-buried creature is beginning to stir. The most dangerous creature in the universe, and it will stop at nothing to claim the Earth. Conquest in 9376 rels.
1 January 2021: broadcast of Revolution of the Daleks.
With ten broadcast anniversaries, 1 January has more than any day except 25 December. (Though only six are Doctor Who rather than spinoff shows, and there are a couple of days in the spring with more than that.)
I read 266 books in 2020, the seventh highest of the seventeen years that I have been keeping track, so a nudge above the average.
Page count for the year:
70,400, ninth highest of the seventeen years I have recorded, bang in the middle.
(64,600 in 2019, 71,600 in 2018, 60,500 in 2017; 62,300 in 2016; 80,100 in 2015; 97,100 in 2014; 67,000 in 2013; 77,800 in 2012; 88,200 in 2011; 91,000 in 2010; 100,000 in 2009; 89,400 in 2008; 69,900 in 2007; 61,600 in 2006; 46,400 in 2005; 46,800 in 2004)
Books by non-male writers in 2020: 77/266, 29% – third highest absolute number, sixth highest percentage, less than the last couple of years as I dig into my archives of unread books.
(88/234 [38%] in 2019, 102/262 [39%] in 2018, 64/238 [27%] in 2017, 65 [31%] in 2016, 86 [30%] in 2015, 81 [28%] in 2014, 71 [30%] in 2013, 65 [25%] in 2012, 65 [22%] in 2011, 65 [23%] in 2010, 68 [20%] in 2009, 49 [13%] in 2008, 53 [22%] in 2007, 34 [16%] in 2006, 30 [21%] in 2005, 33 [22%] in 2004)
Books by PoC in 2020: – 25/266, 9% – third highest in both absolute numbers and percentages, higher than any year before 2018.
(34/234 [15%], in 2019, 26/262 [10%] in 2018, 17/238 [7%] in 2017, 14 [7%] in 2016, 20 [7%] in 2015, 11 [5%] in 2014, 12 [5%] in 2013, 15 [5%] in 2011, 24 [9%] in 2010, 16 [5%] in 2009, 6 [2%] in 2008, 5 [2%] in 2007, 8 [4%] in 2006, 4 [3%] in 2005, 2 [1%] in 2004)
Most-read author this year: Kieron Gillen, as I read all nine volumes of The Wicked + The Divine.
(previous winners: Brian K. Vaughan in 2019, Tove Jansson and Marcel Proust in 2018, Colin Brake and Leo in 2017, Christopher Marlowe in 2016, Justin Richards in 2015 and 2014, Agatha Christie in 2013, Jonathan Gash in 2012, Arthur Conan Doyle in 2011, Ian Rankin in 2010, William Shakespeare in 2009 and 2008, Terrance Dicks in 2007, Ian Marter in 2006, Charles Stross in 2005, Neil Gaiman and Catherine Asaro in 2004).
| 2020/ | 2019/ | 2018/ | 2017/ | 2016/ | 2015/ | 2014/ | 2013/ | 2012/ | 2011/ | 2010/ | 2009/ | 2008/ | 2007/ | 2006/ | 2005/ | 2004/ |
| 114 | 77 | 108 | 68 | 80 | 130 | 124 | 65 | 62 | 78 | 73 | 78 | 54 | 75 | 68 | 79 | 76 |
| 43% | 33% | 41% | 29% | 38% | 45% | 43% | 27% | 24% | 26% | 26% | 23% | 15% | 32% | 33% | 55% | 51% |
Third highest total, fourth highest percentage, as I work into my backlog from earlier years.
Top SF book of the year:
The first book I read in 2020 was Ted Chiang's collection Exhalation, which included some old favouites and a couple of brilliant new stories, both of which got on the Hugo final ballot. You can get it here.
Honourable mentions to:
Tade Thompson's The Rosewater Insurrection, a BSFA finalist, in which near-future Nigeria (like other parts of the world) has been subject to an alien intrusion; this plays out on the ground in micropolitics, including sexual politics, for an interesting and intelligent exploration of what it actually means to be human in an unforgiving and rapidly changing world. You can get it here.
The BSFA long-list included several stories from two anthologies which I consequently sought out and enjoyed, Distaff: A Science Fiction Anthology by Female Authors, eds. Rosie Oliver & Sam Primeau, which you can get here, and Once Upon A Parsec: the Book of Alien Fairy Tales, ed. David Gullen, which you can get here. Sadly none of them made it to the short-list.
The worst book I read all year, with some stiff competition, was A Woman in Space, by Sara Cavanaugh (probably a pseudonym). Our heroine is twenty-six, and already a spaceflight veteran. The entire plot lacks any credibility even in its own terms. The sexual politics is awful, and the sex is pretty badly written as well. It's so bad you have to finish it once you've started. (It's only 192 pages.) You can get it here.
| 2020/ | 2019/ | 2018/ | 2017/ | 2016/ | 2015/ | 2014/ | 2013/ | 2012/ | 2011/ | 2010/ | 2009/ | 2008/ | 2007/ | 2006/ | 2005/ | 2004/ |
| 50 | 49 | 50 | 57 | 37 | 47 | 48 | 46 | 53 | 69 | 66 | 88 | 70 | 78 | 70 | 42 | 42 |
| 19% | 21% | 19% | 24% | 17% | 16% | 16% | 19% | 20% | 23% | 24% | 26% | 19% | 33% | 34% | 29% | 28% |
Bang in the middle of the historical range.
Top non-fiction book of the year:
From A Clear Blue Sky: Surviving the Mountbatten Bomb, by Timothy Knatchbull. More on this below.
Honourable mentions to:
Two biographies of women. The first is Felicitas Corrigan's biography of the Ulster writer and historian Helen Waddell, looking at how her star rose and fell – she was invited to lunch at 10 Downing Street with J.M. Barrie and Queen Mary, but died in obscurity. You can get it here.
The other is a finalist for the Hugo for Best Related Work, Mallory O'Meara's biography of Milicent Patrick, a Hollywood designer who rose and fell much more quickly than Helen Waddell; after the triumph of creating the Creature from the Black Lagoon, she was basically fired for not being invisible enough. You can get it here.
The one you haven't heard of:
Philip Winter's personal account of co-ordinating the internal peace process within the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2000-2002, a fascinating view of implementation of peace agreements at the sharp end with many lovely glimpses of detail and a real sense of time and place. You can get it here.
The one to avoid:
A Popular History of Ireland, by Thomas D’Arcy McGee – chloroform in print (as Mark Twain said of the Book of Mormon). You can get it here.
| 2020/ | 2019/ | 2018/ | 2017/ | 2016/ | 2015/ | 2014/ | 2013/ | 2012/ | 2011/ | 2010/ | 2009/ | 2008/ | 2007/ | 2006/ | 2005/ | 2004/ |
| 45 | 31 | 28 | 29 | 27 | 18 | 19 | 30 | 21 | 27 | 18 | 28 | 6 | 20 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| 17% | 13% | 11% | 12% | 13% | 6% | 7% | 13% | 8% | 9% | 6% | 8% | 2% | 8% | 3% | 6% | 5% |
Surpassing last year's all-time high, again due to Hugos and Retro Hugos, and because of more Doctor Who comics coming through the system.
Top comics of the year:
Two of the Hugo finalists which were standalones, LaGuardia, written by Nnedi Okorafor, art by Tana Ford, colours by James Devlin, which you can get here, and Mooncakes, by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, letters by Joamette Gil, which you can get here.
Honourable mention:
The second half of Leo's Survivants series, continuing the Aldebaran cycle. You can get them in English translation here, here and here.
The one you haven't heard of:
Rick Lundeen's glorious adaptation of The Daleks' Master Plan, not on sale anywhere but you can find it in the darker corners of the internet.
The ones to avoid:
The ending of Marc Legendre's Amoras, an adult reworking of classic Belgian kids' comic heroes Suske en Wiske, fell pretty flat for me. You can get the last two volumes here and here.
| 2020/ | 2019/ | 2018/ | 2017/ | 2016/ | 2015/ | 2014/ | 2013/ | 2012/ | 2011/ | 2010/ | 2009/ | 2008/ | 2007/ | 2006/ | 2005/ | 2004/ |
| 40 | 45 | 36 | 26 | 28 | 42 | 41 | 44 | 48 | 48 | 50 | 57 | 24 | 33 | 35 | 9 | 19 |
| 15% | 19% | 14% | 11% | 13% | 14% | 14% | 19% | 19% | 16% | 18% | 18% | 6% | 14% | 17% | 6% | 13% |
In the middle of the historical range.
Top non-genre fiction of the year:
The triumphant conclusion to Hilary Mantel's Cromwell trilogy, The Mirror and the Light. We've always known where this wasa going to end up, but the journey is a tremendous achievement. You can get it here.
Honourable mentions:
I found myself enjoying Larry McMurtry's Terms of Endearment, on which the film was based, much more than I expected – funny and also humane. You can get it here.
Michael Morpurgo's Listen to the Moon is a sensitive and effective story about wartime in the Scilly Isles for young adult readers. You can get it here.
The one you haven't heard of:
A wee jewel from a family member, Muddy Lane by Andrew Cheffings, about men loving each other in a lost corner of England. You can get it here.
The one to avoid:
Bruges-la-Morte by George Rodenbach. Very silly and over-written. Ends with the protagonist strangling his lover with a lock of his dead wife's hair. There, I've saved you the bother, but if you still want to, you can get it here.
| 2020/ | 2019/ | 2018/ | 2017/ | 2016/ | 2015/ | 2014/ | 2013/ | 2012/ | 2011/ | 2010/ | 2009/ | 2008/ | 2007/ | 2006/ | 2005/ | 2004/ |
| 18 | 32 | 32 | 51 | 39 | 43 | 59 | 72 | 75 | 80 | 71 | 70 | 179 | 27 | 28 | 5 | 1 |
| 7% | 14% | 12% | 21% | 18% | 15% | 20% | 30% | 29% | 27% | 26% | 19% | 48% | 11% | 14% | 3% | 1% |
| 2020/ | 2019/ | 2018/ | 2017/ | 2016/ | 2015/ | 2014/ | 2013/ | 2012/ | 2011/ | 2010/ | 2009/ | 2008/ | 2007/ | 2006/ | 2005/ | 2004/ |
| 25 | 43 | 42 | 55 | 42 | 54 | 68 | 81 | 75 | 87 | 78 | 80 | 180 | 49 | 32 | 5 | 1 |
| 9% | 18% | 16% | 23% | 20% | 19% | 23% | 34% | 29% | 29% | 28% | 23% | 49% | 21% | 15% | 3% | 1% |
I took a bit of a sabbatical from Who reading this year, but am planning to read more next year, particularly comics and the Erimem and Lethbridge-Stewart spinoffs.
Top Doctor Who books of the year:
I've been enjoying the Time Lord Victorious sequence, and the two best bits so far are Una McCormack's novel All Flesh Is Grass, featuring the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Doctors, which you can get here, and Jody Houser's graphic novel Defender of the Daleks with the Tenth and Thirteenth (marketed for some reason with a very similar cover to Una McCormack's novel, showing Eight, Nine and Ten, rather than Ten and Thirteen), which you can get here. I haven't yet blogged about either of them.
Honourable mention:
Paul Cornell's Third Doctor story Heralds of Destruction is true to the spriti of early 70s Who and takes it a little further. You can get it here.
The one you haven't heard of:
Already mentioned under comics: Rick Lundeen's graphic novel adaptation of The Daleks' Master Plan.
The one to avoid:
The 2020 Official Annual, is a poor piece of work. You can get it here. Glad to say that the 2021 version is better.
My Book of the Year
No hesitation at all in naming my Top Book of 2020 as From A Clear Blue Sky: Surviving the Mountbatten Bomb, by Timothy Knatchbull, the account of a life punctuated by the 1979 bomb which killed his 14-year-old twin brother, along with their grandfather Lord Mountbatten, their other grandmother and another boy. As one might expect, Knatchbull's relationship with Ireland is very complex. It was a magical place of childhood holiday memories, which turned to horror in an instant. He has found a way of making sense of the terrible thing that was done to his family, and it is a truly compelling read. I'd had it on the shelves for years but only now got around to it, and I should not have waited. You can get it here.
2003 (2 months): The Separation, by Christopher Priest.
2004: The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread).
– Best new read: Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, by Claire Tomalin
2005: The Island at the Centre of the World, by Russell Shorto
2006: Lost Lives: The stories of the men, women and children who died as a result of the Northern Ireland troubles, by David McKittrick, Seamus Kelters, Brian Feeney, Chris Thornton and David McVea
2007: Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
2008: The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition, by Anne Frank (reread)
– Best new read: Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero, by William Makepeace Thackeray
2009: Hamlet, by William Shakespeare (had seen it on stage previously)
– Best new read: Persepolis 2: the Story of a Return, by Marjane Satrapi (first volume just pipped by Samuel Pepys in 2004)
2010: The Bloody Sunday Report, by Lord Savile et al.
2011: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon (started in 2009!)
2012: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë
2013: A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf
2014: Homage to Catalonia, by George Orwell
2015: collectively, the Arthur C. Clarke Award shortlist, in particular the winner, Station Eleven, by Emily St John Mandel. However I did not actually blog about these, being one of the judges at the time.
– Best book I actually blogged about: The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, by Claire Tomalin
2016: Alice in Sunderland, by Bryan Talbot
2017: Common People: The History of an English Family, by Alison Light
2018: Factfulness, by Hans Rosling
2019: Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo
Poll
Since nobody much is on LJ these days, I've outsourced my 2020 book poll to Listchallenges. How many have you read?
Current
Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake
At Childhood's End, by Sophie Aldred
Last books finished
The Anything Box, by Zenna Henderson
House of Music, by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason
Ormeshadow, by Priya Sharma
Explaining Humans, by Camilla Pang
Palimpsest, by Charles Stross
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
Tales of Terror, no editor given
December Books
Non-fiction: 4 (2020 total 50)
Our War: Ireland and the Great War, ed. John Horne
Utopia For Realists, by Rutger Bregman
House of Music, by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason
Explaining Humans, by Camilla Pang
Fiction (non-sf): 3 (2020 total 38)
Terms of Endearment, by Larry McMurtry
Tono-Bungay, by H.G. Wells
The Prisoner of Brenda, by [Colin] Bateman
Scripts: 2 (2020 total 2)
Amadeus, by Peter Shaffer
A Belgian Christmas Eve, by Alfred Noyes
sf (non-Who): 15 (2020 total 114)
After Me Comes the Flood, by Sarah Perry
Ash: A Secret History, by Mary Gentle
"The Persistence of Vision", by John Varley
The Children of Men, by P.D. James
Dreamsnake, by Vonda McIntyre
The Company Articles of Edward Teach, by Thoraiya Dyer/Angælien Apocalypse, by Matthew Chrulew
2010: Odyssey Two, by Arthur C. Clarke
Above, by Stephanie Campisi/Below, by Ben Peek
Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville
Planetfall, by Emma Newman
Macrolife, by George Zebrowski
The Anything Box, by Zenna Henderson
Ormeshadow, by Priya Sharma
Palimpsest, by Charles Stross
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
Doctor Who: 2 (2020 total 18)
All Flesh is Grass, by Una McCormack
Tales of Terror, no editor given
Comics: 1 (2020 total 45)
Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Volume 1: A New Beginning, by Jody Houser, Rachael Stott, Giorgia Sposito, Enrica Eren Angiolini
8,200 pages (2020 total 70,400)
14/27 (2020 total 77/266) not by men (Henderson, Kanneh-Mason, Perry, Gentle, James, McIntyre, Dyer, Campisi, Newman, Henderson, Sharma, Clarke, McCormack, Houser et al)
3/27 (2020 total 25/266) by PoC (Kanneh-Mason, Pang, Sharma)
6/27 reread (2020 total 43/266) – Ash: A Secret History, "The Persistence of Vision", Dreamsnake, 2010: Odyssey Two, Perdido Street Station, Palimpsest.
Coming soon (perhaps)
Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor Volume 2, by Jody Houser
A Day in the Life, by Hank Stine
The Home and the World, by Rabindranath Tagore
Gallimaufrey, by Colin Baker
Into the Ashes, by Lee Murray
Midnight Blue-Light Special, by Seanan Mcguire
The Lowest Heaven, by Jared Shurin
Kaamelott: Het Raadsel Van de Kluis, by Astier/Dupre
T.K. Whitaker, by Anne Chambers
The Food of the Gods: And How It Came to Earth, by H. G. Wells
Greybeard, by Brian Aldiss
Symbiont, by Mira Grant
The Kappa Child, by Hiromi Goto
A Buzz in the Meadow, by Dave Goulson
Goodbye To All That, by Robert Graves
Mostly Void, Partially Stars, by Joseph Fink
Sandkings, by George R.R. Martin
Inside Out: A Personal History of Pink Floyd, by Nick Mason (2017)
Foucaults Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
Doctor Who: Adventures in Lockdown
i) births and deaths
None. There's quite enough for today as it is.
ii) broadcast anniversary
31 December 1965: broadcast of third episode of The Highlanders. Polly overpowers Ffrench; the Doctor overpowers Perkins; but Ben is thrown into the cold sea…
iii) dates specified in canon
31 December 1879: Queen Victoria issues the Torchwood Charter, as seen in Children of Earth (2009). (Though it must be a fake since she is referred to inaccurately as 'HRH', ie 'Her Royal Highness', rather than 'Her Majesty'.)
31 December 1930: setting of the framing narrative of the 2002 Eighth Doctor / Charley audio, Seasons of Fear, by Paul Cornell and Caroline Symcox.
31 December 1965 (?) setting of end of "Volcano", the eighth episode of The Daleks' Master Plan.
31 December 1986: setting of Paul Grice's short story "Mondas Passing", featuring Ben and Polly, included in the very first BBC Short Trips anthology.
31 December 1999: setting of most of Doctor Who: The Movie.
also 31 December 1999: setting of most of Craig Hinton's 1995 Sixth Doctor / Mel novel, Millennial Rites.
also 31 December 1999: setting of Gareth Roberts' 1994 DWM comic strip story featuring the Seventh Doctor and Mel, Plastic Millennium.
also 31 December 1999: Torchwood Three wiped out (apart from Jack Harkness) in a multiple murder / suicide by its leader Alex Hopkins (as shown in the 2008 episode Fragments).
also 31 December 1999: Setting of Mark Magrs' 2009 Iris Wildthyme audio play, The Panda Invasion.
31 December 2004: Rose Tyler misses a New Year's Eve party and bumps into this odd bloke wearing a suit and sneakers on her way home, as seen in The End of Time II (2010).
31 December 2018: Astrid Ferrier's helicopter registration was set to expire, as seen in The Enemy of the World (1967).
31 December 2599: setting of part of Justin Richards' 2000 novel The Doomsday Manuscript, first in the Big Finish series of Bernice Summerfield books.
31 December 4999999999: setting of third issue of the 2008 IDW Doctor Who comic, written by Gary Russell, in the series which has been retrospectively named Agent Provocateur.
Second paragraph of third chapter:
I didn't know how to speak in these tutorials where students talked about Evelyn Waugh and travelling abroad to places that I had never been. I tried to flatten the Welsh accent that would keep singing into my mouth, ringing oddly in the room when I tried to say something. My voice became a tight croak in my throat and I put it all into writing. When I wrote, I could sing as much as I wanted. One student who was studying a different subject tried to stretch out a hand of friendship to me over the perceived racial divide. He told me, with great politeness, that it was okay because when you shaved a monkey it was white underneath, so I was probably no closer to an ape them he was. Why he thought it necessary to tell me this was a mystery.
I confess that I am far enough cut off from the UK's media culture that I was completely unaware of the Kanneh-Mason family. All seven kids are very musically gifted, and one of the boys won the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2016 and was then asked to play at the wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle. Their father and mother have clearly had an intense experience of parenthood. Kadiatu, father from Sierra Leone, mother from Wales, husband from Antigua, tells the story of their lives with warmth and humour, with also enough distance to feel that this is a fair portrait (though of course who knows, really). My own experience of parenthood has been rather different. You can get it here.