Me with almost all my Paul Magrs books
A re-read of a book I first read back in 2014. I was going to pick up a few of Paul’s novels that I didn’t have to read during my Magrsathon, but unfortunately quite a lot of the older ones are now out of print and I’m feeling (temporarily I hope) a bit funny about second-hand books, even ordered online and quarantined. But what a joy to go back to this one and spend a Sunday afternoon in the company of a boy working out what his place in the world might be.
Paul Magrs – “The Diary of a Dr Who Addict”
(08 December 2013, BookCrossing Not-So-Secret Santa gift)
A re-read of this lovely, warm little coming-of-age tale where David must adjust to a new stepdad plus his American mum (one of those great older adults who love books and reading who often crop up in Paul’s novels) as well as his emerging sexuality, the development of his writing and his troubled relationship with his former best friend, Robert, who appears to be moving away from him alarmingly. One major place this shows up is in their relationship to Dr Who – as Peter Davison becomes The Doctor, and they get the chance to go to the big exhibition in Blackpool, Robert starts to see the home-made, contingent feeling of the show (The Show) as a failing, not a strength.
There are as usual some fabulous strong women characters in the book, with Robert’s sister particularly trying to break out of the standard mould, and a big theme of the fine line between over-protection and too much freedom. Robert and David’s differing personalities and experiences are beautifully summed up:
Robert is an anarchist. He read something about being one in the NME and now he gets cross about most things we have to do, especially at school. I find the whole anarchist thing interesting, but quite hard to get a grip on. The idea of no rules at all makes me feel a bit unsteady. (p. 41)
We do have a positive ending as David dares to break free a little but in a controlled way, just as he wants it; as he watches Robert showing off with a pint, he meets a quite different friend, a role model and one who, amazingly, doesn’t mock David for his interest. Hooray!
Are you joining me in the Magrsathon? Some of the books are sadly out of print but second hand copies can be got hold of and the Mars trilogy and the Phoenix Court series plus Paul’s excellent books about creative writing are available new.
Adventures in reading, running and working from home 
Jun 24, 2020 @ 16:11:24
LOL! That’s a big pile of books! I think I would definitely empathise with this one, because I was a HUGE Who fan back in the day – rather lost touch with it when it came back in its modern incarnation…
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Jun 24, 2020 @ 16:28:59
That’s when all Paul’s Facebook friends were sharing pictures of how many of his books they had – my pile was not the largest (he writes Dr Who books, too). And yes, that adds a lovely dimension esp as it’s “our” Dr Who he’s talking about in the book!
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Jun 26, 2020 @ 01:37:36
I’ve watched a lot of Dr Who, mostly with my kids, but I love it for its own sake and I love too the “home-made feel” of all early SF TV (my ex-wife and I might be the only remaining fans of Blake’s Seven, though I’m not sure it would bear re-watching). One very fond memory is of my teenage children and their friends dressing up as Dr Who characters for an event in Treasury Gardens, Melbourne (20 or 30 years ago!). Ms 15 was Leela, because of course she was.
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Jun 26, 2020 @ 14:14:13
What a lovely memory! Tom Baker and Peter Davison were “my” doctors (and what a thrill to see Tom Baker occasionally when I lived in London!) and so this is perfectly set for me. I liked the revitalised series but I loved Christopher Eccleston then it gradually got a bit too violent or scary for me (I do scare easily).
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Jun 26, 2020 @ 20:18:36
Lovely, I like a good coming of age tale myself. Good to hear there are some strong women characters in it too. I have never been into Dr Who, and I always think I must have missed something because so many people are obsessed with it.
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Jun 27, 2020 @ 07:29:01
Well I suppose like me you’re not into science fiction at all, which doesn’t help. I enjoyed it as a child and liked the first reboot of it but then it got too dark and violent for me. Paul does write a great strong woman and there are some good ones in here.
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Jun 27, 2020 @ 09:59:20
Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker were ‘my’ doctors. It was all a bit scary for me when it was Pertwee, when they had whole series with Daley’s and the Master. I have to admit I had childish crushes on the assistants, Jo and Sarah Jane, and wished I had legs like Leila’s! I also once saw Tom Baker carrying his washing to the laundrette in London; such a glamorous life! I was also obsessed with Blake’s Seven. I had a crush on Avon and just fell in love generally with several of the characters, including Orac the computer. I was very excited when they started the new Doctor Who with Christopher Eccleston. I was expecting it to be as scary as I’d found it as a child because they tend to up the jump factor nowadays. The first episode was very tense, but I wasted my adrenalin because nothing much happened. Eccleston, David Tarrant and Matt Smith (after initial reservations) were great, slightly mad Doctors, in the vein of Tom Baker) and Rose, Amy and other assistants were wonderful. Some of the episodes, too. ‘Are you my mummy?’ – fabulous! I loved the idea of the female Doctor, but from what I’ve seen, she’s had terrible scripts and she just seems scatty, without the brilliance (too like me!). Sorry, got carried away there. I seem to remember you mentioning a book?
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Jun 27, 2020 @ 10:00:17
That’d be daleks, not Daley’s. Eye-roll.
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Jun 27, 2020 @ 10:25:13
Ah, thank you for your memories, that’s lovely! I remember Are You My Mummy, I think I stopped at that Dickens and dead people one and never went back to it. I started with the latest incarnation but was very upset with the death early on and ended up leaving it to run, too.
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Book review – Paul Magrs – “Exchange” #magrsathon @paulmagrs | Adventures in reading, running and working from home
Sep 25, 2020 @ 08:03:42