...trawling eBay for Whovian bargains, my eye was caught by an entry which ran as follows:

Blood and Justice: The 17th Century Parisian Doctor Who

Sounds interesting - another bit of canon that I had been unaware of, I thought. But then I checked out the full listing:

The 17th Century Parisian doctor who made blood transfusion history...

In 1667 a Parisian doctor by the name of Jean-Baptiste Denis performed an operation that had never previously been attempted - he transfused blood into another human being.

Ah well, that explains it. (That phrase "made blood transfusion history" is odd, isn't it? Makes it sound like he had it abolished!)

I enjoyed tremendously Griffiths' more recent book, Who Goes There?, so thought I should read his earlier memoir about growing up as a Doctor Who fan. It's amusing enough. Griffiths had a slightly but not very unusual childhood (much older parents, few close friends), and since then has had his fair share of career setbacks and failed relationships; he writes about it all with self-deprecating humour which could perhaps have been spiced up with a bit more passion. I imagine that people who like me and Griffiths were children in the UK in the mid-70s will enjoy this, but I think his other book has wider appeal.

Tags: bookblog 2009, doctor who, writer: nick griffiths

A novel featuring the Third Doctor, Jo Grant, UNIT and Magrs' own invention, Iris Wildthyme, a renegade Time Lady whose Tardis is shaped like a double decker bus and who claims to be the Doctor's on-off girlfriend. Magrs recycled a lot of the jokes and some of the plot from this book for the Big Finish audio Excelis Dawn, with Iris (as per usual) played by Katy Manning. But Verdigris is an amusing sideways look at the Third Doctor era, with the bad guys in one scene trying to convince Jo that it is all a cruel hoax: "Think about every alen artifact or creature you have ever seen. Weren't they always surrounded by a nimbus of blue light? Didn't they sometimes look a little ... unconvincing?" And Mike Yates gets reduced to a two-dimensional cardboard cutout, so not much change there then. It's not terribly substantial, with some promising elements (eg Iris' companion, Tommy) left unexplored, but quite good fun.

(I've also been listening to The Magician's Oath from Big Finish, also set in this period; Verdigris is better.)

Tags: bookblog 2009, doctor who, doctor who: 03, writer: paul magrs

http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=4beb8a586ea245849ba075018d9b1f74

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Benfey-t.html

The twin energies of scientific curiosity and poetic invention pulsate through this study of the Romantic generation’s “second scientific revolution.”

http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6563f1dfd539a0222ce586ae043089ba

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Watrous-t.html

With his wife ailing, this unabashedly autobiographical novel’s protagonist marvels at the resilience of their nearly 30-year union.

http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=e3f623db192e490557081d0a801bfb79

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Simon-t.html

This biography of Lena Horne illuminates the sudden changes of heart that characterized her attitudes toward business, romance, friendship and marriage.

http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=a96957af2826c7d52b5d1c04c84aa213

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Shapiro-t.html

Ellen Ruppel Shell concludes that lower prices do not necessarily translate into bargains in the chain store, or along the food chain.

http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f98436ca66ed8c19ba4aebc7f058fea1

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Kennedy-t.html

Maragret MacMillan directs her most cogent criticism at the particular kind of historically constructed identity that is nationalism.

http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=358c0807bc74c8c1e871747a81e2e7e8

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Macintyre-t.html

A history of Henry Ford’s disastrous attempt to build an ideal American society on an Amazonian rubber plantation.

http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=bf8541096f41a42f04047465756fce2a

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/books/review/Blythe-t.html

The middle-aged New England protagonist of Robert Cohen’s novel heads to Africa, leaving his wife with a younger rival.