Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult

Tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of novelisations and other assorted books based on the popular science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. Their first publications based on the serial were reprints in paperback of three novels which had been previously published as hardbacks: ''Doctor Who and the Daleks'' and ''Doctor Who and the Crusaders'' by David Whitaker, and ''Doctor Who and the Zarbi'' by Bill Strutton. As these sold well further novelisations of the show were commissioned. In 1975 Universal-Tandem was sold by its American owners, the Universal-Award group, to the British conglomerate Howard and Wyndham. The company was renamed

Tandem Publishing Ltd Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd was a United Kingdom paperback publishing company established in the early 1960s as Tandem Books. History The company's principal imprint was Tandem. The hyphenated name Universal-Tandem was adopted as a cor ...

before being merged with the paperback imprints of Howard and Wyndham's general publishing house

W. H. Allen Ltd William H. Allen and Company (est. 1835) was a bookselling and publishing business in London, England, at first known for issuing works related to the British colonies. It operated from headquarters in Leadenhall Street, later moving to Water ...

to become Wyndham Publications Ltd in 1976. However, during 1977 and 1978 the Wyndham identity was phased out and, until 1990, Target books were published by 'the paperback division of WH Allen & Co'. The most prolific writer in the ''Doctor Who'' range was

Terrance Dicks Terrance William Dicks (14 April 1935 – 29 August 2019) was an English author and television screenwriter, script editor and producer. In television, he had a long association with the BBC science-fiction series ''Doctor Who'', working as a ...

, while actor turned writer Ian Marter, Malcolm Hulke, Philip Hinchcliffe and Nigel Robinson (who was for a time the editor of the range) were also contributors. The company also produced novelisations of various other films and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

series, again aimed mostly at the child and teenage markets. They also published a number of original children's and teenage novels. In 1973, the company produced a successful paperback edition of Tim Dinsdale's book, ''The Story of the

Loch Ness Monster The Loch Ness Monster ( gd, Uilebheist Loch Nis), affectionately known as Nessie, is a creature in Scottish folklore that is said to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is often described as large, long-necked, and with one or m ...

''. In 1977, Target published the novelisation of the

Ray Harryhausen Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for '' Mig ...

film, '' Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger''. W. H. Allen was acquired by

Virgin Books Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing ar ...

in a process that spanned late 1986 to late 1987. In 1994 the Target imprint was closed down and the last three novelisation published by Virgin were under the Doctor Who Books imprint. They did, however, feature the Target logo inside and were numbered in Target's "Doctor Who Library" on inside pages.

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Ger ...

, through its United Kingdom division, acquired a 90% stake in Virgin Books (including Target) in March 2007.Joel Rickett
Random House UK buys Virgin Books
''

The Bookseller ''The Bookseller'' is a British magazine reporting news on the publishing industry. Philip Jones is editor-in-chief of the weekly print edition of the magazine and the website. The magazine is home to the ''Bookseller''/Diagram Prize for Oddest ...

'', 5 March 2007 (via archive.org) In November 2009, Virgin became an independent imprint within Ebury Publishing, a division of the Random House Group. Beginning in 2011

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadca ...

published reprints of several of the Target Doctor Who novelisations. In 2018 BBC Books published four novelisations of post-2005 ''Doctor Who'' stories and a new abridged version of ''City of Death'' using the Target logo, Ebury Publishing having acquired a majority shareholding of BBC Books in 2006. Seven further books were published in the Doctor Who "Target Collection" 11 March 2021, including the

Eleventh Doctor The Eleventh Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC Science fiction on television, science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who''. He is played by Matt Smith in three series as well as fi ...

TV story '' The Crimson Horror'' and the

Thirteenth Doctor The Thirteenth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the fictional protagonist of the BBC science fiction television programme, '' Doctor Who''. She is portrayed by English actress Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to portray the character, ...

TV story '' The Witchfinders''.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Publishers of Doctor Who books Publishing companies established in 1973 1973 establishments in England Publishing companies disestablished in 1994 1994 disestablishments in England 1976 mergers and acquisitions

See also

References

External links