Virgin Books, or Virgin Publishing, was the book publishing arm of Virgin Enterprises which published licensed Doctor Who fiction and non-fiction during the early-to-mid 1990s. Under the Doctor Who Books (previously Target Books) imprint, Virgin published the Doctor Who New Adventures (1991-99) and Missing Adventures (1994-97) novels, as well as the Virgin Decalogs (1994-97) anthologies and Licence Denied, a collected anthology of fan writing edited by Paul Cornell.
After the BBC withdrew Virgin's licence, the New Adventures continued with Bernice Summerfield as the primary character, in adventures that took place in the Doctor Who universe but did not feature the Doctor.
Virgin were famous for opening their doors to submissions from new writers, often from fandom: Cornell, Gary Russell, Mark Gatiss, Lawrence Miles, Kate Orman, Dave Stone and others all started at the company. In 2013, Russell said: "With hindsight of course, you go, 'It's because [new writers]'re bloody cheap, and they couldn't afford big posh writers to keep doing Doctor Who books because they had to do them on a shoestring'. But nevertheless, that ability to open up that market to unknown writers was phenomenal".[1]
With the show's return in 2005, Virgin published an unofficial reference book Who's Next: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who.
In 2007, a decade after they stopped publishing official Doctor Who material, Random House gained majority shareholding, effectively ending Virgin's life as an independent publishing company. Like BBC Books, it now exists as an imprint in the Ebury Publishing division. Due to them now sharing a publishing company, since 2014 a handful of Virgin novels have reemerged as BBC Books reprints.
Illustrations[]
Other than the cover art, Virgin Books usually contained no illustrations. Internal illustrations were included in:
| Series | Novel | # of illustrations | Illustrator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin New Adventures | Lucifer Rising | 8 | Lee Brimmicombe-Wood |
| Blood Heat | 5 | Tim Keable | |
| All-Consuming Fire | 8 | Mike Nicholson | |
| Sky Pirates! | 4 | Roger Langridge | |
| SLEEPY | 2 | Jason Towers | |
| Original Sin | 2 | Tony Masero | |
| Virgin Missing Adventures | The Empire of Glass | 2 | Mike Nicholson |
| The English Way of Death | 4 | Phil Bevan | |
| The Plotters | 2 | Paul Vyse |
Rereleases[]
BBCi ebooks (2002-2006)[]
Starting in 2002,[2] eight Virgin books novels were rereleased as free ebooks on the Doctor Who website with new cover art and new illustrations.[3]
| Series | Novel | # of illustrations | Illustrator |
|---|---|---|---|
| Virgin New Adventures | Nightshade | 11 + cover | Daryl Joyce |
| Human Nature | 17 + cover | ||
| Lungbarrow | 17 + cover | ||
| The Dying Days | 15 + cover | Allan Bednar | |
| Virgin Missing Adventures | The Empire of Glass | 9 + cover | Mike Nicholson |
| The Scales of Injustice | 7 + cover | Daryl Joyce | |
| The Well-Mannered War | 6 + cover | ||
| The Sands of Time | 11 + cover | Peter McKinstry |
The Monster Collection (2014)[]
| Series | Novel |
|---|---|
| Virgin Missing Adventures | The Scales of Injustice |
| The Sands of Time | |
| Virgin New Adventures | Shakedown |
The History Collection (2015)[]
- Main article: The History Collection
| Series | Novel |
|---|---|
| Virgin Missing Adventures | The English Way of Death |
| Virgin New Adventures | Human Nature |
Logos[]
Virgin's version of the "diamond logo"
The New Adventures and other Doctor Who tie-in books and merchandise focusing on the Seventh Doctor era generally used the Seventh Doctor's logo as seen on television. Virgin also created an exclusive version of the classic "diamond logo" for use on the Missing Adventures and other material focusing on the eras of then-past Doctors. However, the Virgin logo itself was rarely, if ever, used on any Doctor Who output.
External links[]
- Virgin Worlds - Writer's Guide
- Virgin Books website
- Virgin Books at the Penguin Random House UK website