Through the Portal: The Birth of Time Travel

I was brought up on a diet of portal travelling stories such as the Edgar Rice Burroughs Martian Chronicles. From Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass to Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, the successful children’s and young adult fantasy fiction novel often focuses on contemporary protagonist with access to another world. Often theses are parallel or alternative dimensions, such as Narnia in C S Lewis’s The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe, or time travel as with Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden. Recent books such as The Multiverse of Max Tovey can be a blend of both genres; Alistair Swinnerton takes a contemporary character into the past, into a parallel dimension where the Roman Empire still rules and to the underworld of the Awin of Welsh legend. It's the portal through time I want to look at here, and how the concept has evolved.

CMC. Doctor Who writer discovers a new word.

Phil Ford, executive producer and co-creator of Wizards vs Aliens was speaking at last week's Children's Media Conference in a session entitled, 'Transmedia - Where Do I Start? The writer was intrigued by a word he had not heard before. 

Mind Candy's COO, Divinia Knowles, explained that Moshi Monsters would always be bigger than just the digital side, describing the property as ‘Toy-etic.’

‘Toy-etic, that’s a new word for me,’ said wordsmith, Phil Ford, who has also written  for Doctor Who and Captain Scarlet. The panel then considered if merchandising was part of transmedia – Phil stating that the great thing about toys is that children can make up their own stories with them.

The full story on Transmedia and why Phil Ford belives the Doctor Who online games are cannon can be found on the CMC Blog

Which lost Doctor Who story would you want returned? (Update)

It seems that the rumours about missing BBC TV programmes being found in various African countries may be true. BBC Worldwide are announcing the return of some long lost Doctor Who episodes at midnight tonight (10th October).

The Song of The Sea

Print by Simon Bor

A mile or so south east of Land's End you'll find a sandy cove. Exposed to the Atlantic, the sea has worn a narrow channel into the cove, which is called "The Song of the Sea".

It could have been the inspiration for the cover of Devil's Rock; the book by Devon based writer, Chris Speyer and published by Bloomsbury in 2009.

Devil's Rock Amazon page.

It was also the location for the 1966 Doctor Who story, The Smugglers.

A Welsh Whitewashed Cottage

The whitewashed end to this Welsh cottage was part of my childhood. It had electricity, but not water. A chemical toilet in the stinging-nettle garden, no bathroom, two small bedrooms and a tiny kitchen at the bottom of the stairs. My parents rented it for one shilling and sixpence a week, or seven and a half new pence.