''Verdigris'' is a

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Consumer Publishing and 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 subsidia ...

original novel written by

Paul Magrs Paul Magrs (pronounced "Mars"; born 12 November 1969) is an English writer and lecturer. He was born in Jarrow, England, and now lives in Manchester with his partner, author and lecturer Jeremy Hoad. Early life Magrs was born in Jarrow, Tyne & W ...

and based on the long-running British

science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''. It features the

Third Doctor The Third Doctor is an incarnation of The Doctor (Doctor Who), the Doctor, the protagonist of the British Science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee. Within the series' ...

Jo Grant Josephine "Jo" Grant, later Jo Jones, is a fictional character played by Katy Manning in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Jo was introduced by Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks in the first episode of '' ...

and

Iris Wildthyme Iris Wildthyme is a fictional character created by writer Paul Magrs, who has appeared in short stories, novels and audio dramas from numerous publishers. She is best known from spin-off media based on the long-running British science fiction t ...

Plot

Orbiting above

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

is a mysterious ship, a duplicate of the

St Pancras railway station St Pancras railway station (), officially known since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a major central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, F ...

. The Doctor, with the aid of the adventurer, Iris Wildthyme, bargains to stop creatures determined to infiltrate in the guise of characters from nineteenth century novels. The Doctor is cut off from many of his friends and allies.

Continuity

had earlier appeared in other

written Doctor Who stories, such as a short prose found in the first two volumes of BBC Books' Short Trips series and

The Scarlet Empress ''The Scarlet Empress'' is a 1934 American historical drama film starring Marlene Dietrich and John Lodge about the life of Catherine the Great. It was directed and produced by Josef von Sternberg from a screenplay by Eleanor McGeary, loosely b ...

. The character would later be expanded into her own spin-off series of books and audio dramas. In the audio dramas, Wildythme is portrayed by

Katy Manning Catherine Ann Manning (born 14 October 1946) is a British actress. Although she has made many appearances on both screen and stage, Manning is best known for her part as the companion Jo Grant in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doct ...

, who originally portrayed Jo, a character featured heavily in this book. Her companion later Tom reappears in the Doctor Who audio dramas ''

Wildthyme at Large ''Iris Wildthyme'' is a series of audio plays from Big Finish Productions, featuring Katy Manning as Iris Wildthyme, a character from the spin-off media based on the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Episode ...

'' and ''

The Devil in Ms Wildthyme ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'', and the anthology '' Wildthyme on Top''.

References

External links

The Cloister Library - ''Verdigris''
{{Master stories, selected=Books 2000 British novels 2000 science fiction novels Past Doctor Adventures Third Doctor novels The Master (Doctor Who) novels Novels by Paul Magrs BBC Books books Novels set in London