NEW TITLES
NON-FICTION
Wiped! Doctor Who’s Missing Episodes
by Richard Molesworth
In the 1960s, the BBC screened 253 episodes of its cult science fiction showDoctor Who, starring William Hartnell and then Patrick Troughton as the time travelling Doctor. Yet by 1975, the Corporation had wiped the master tapes of every single one of these episodes. Of the 124 Doctor Who episodes starring Jon Pertwee shown between 1970 and 1974, the BBC destroyed over half of the original transmission tapes within two years of their original broadcast.
In the years that followed, the BBC, along with dedicated fans of the series, began the arduous task of trying to track down copies of as many missingDoctor Who episodes as possible. The search covered BBC sales vaults, foreign television stations, overseas archives, and numerous networks of private film collectors, until the tally of missing programmes was reduced to just 108 episodes.
For the first time, this book looks in detail at how the episodes came to be missing in the first place, and examines how material subsequently came to be returned to the BBC. Along the way, those people involved in the recovery of lost slices of Doctor Who‘s past tell their stories in candid detail, many for the very first time.
No more rumours, no more misinformation, no more fan gossip. The truth about Doctor Who‘s missing episodes can now be told in full!
Published September 2010.
Price: £15.99 (+p&p)
Click here to see the cover and to order copies
Wiped! covers a somewhat contentious aspect of the BBC’s history, that of their wholescale throwing away of archive television recordings from the sixties, in a period leading to around 1977/8 when it was largely stopped by the intervention of concerned individuals.
Richard Molesworth has painstakingly peeled back the layers behind these actions, finding out exactly what was destroyed and when, and then chronicling the attempts of fans to locate and replace the BBC’s lost archive of Doctor Who material – with a large degree of success.
TV historian and researcher Richard Bignell commented about Wiped!: ‘Richard’s dedicated research into the story of why so many episodes ofDoctor Who came to be missing from the BBC Archive and how many of those episodes came to be recovered, is a fascinating journey of discovery. With new information sourced from the original BBC documents of the time,Wiped! is a detailed account that helps to finally sort out the fact from the fiction and the truth from the hyperbole.’
FICTION
Rules of Duel
by Graham Masterton with William S Burroughs
Depressed reporter Tom Crisp, sometimes known as A14, finds himself embroiled in a web of intrigue as he tries to make sense of his incarceration at Tin Type Hall. ‘Just telling you’ his story unravels in a series of ‘silver film’ as he finds himself in a world full of double-agents such as the psychotic Motherwell the Everlasting Executioner, John Remorse, the Serjeant of Time Film and Samuel Baptist HM Inspector of Brothels. In a world where sexually charged sofas ejaculate black horse hair and the Hypocritic Oath is blamed for failed medical procedures, Crisp stands helplessly by as Jack Beauregard, the Eater of Cities, is hunted down. It could all be the fault of the Mysterious Babies … but then maybe you can feel the ‘Cold Sun’ …
Graham Masterton wrote Rules of Duel between 1964 and 1970, when he was friends with William S Burroughs, the creator of the literarily acclaimed intersection writing technique. Recently rediscovered, this is a thought-provoking, triumphant and poetic tribute to Burroughs. Rules of Duel is a clever and pervasive novel, which turns literature on its head, and makes the reader work to be part of the evolving plot. Complete with original introduction by Burroughs, written before his death in 1997, Rules of Duel is a previously unpublished masterpiece from two of the greatest writers of their generations.
Published September 2010
Price £9.99 (+p&p)
Click here to see the cover and to order copies
MAKING THE RULES
Rules of Duel is an exciting project for Telos. Not only to be working with Graham Masterton again, who is officially one of the nicest people on the planet, but also to be publishing a new work by the legendary William S Burroughs! The book was written between 1967 and 1970 by Graham and William when they were friends in London. Graham takes up the tale:
‘I wrote most of Rules of Duel in the evenings after work, but I would take pages around to William’s apartment for him to read and comment on. It is set in London in the late 1960s and the hero is a newspaper reporter who suspects that central government is trying to introduce some repressive plan to control everybody in the capital. When it was finished I showed it to Wolf Mankowitz the film director and he loved it, and (if you don’t mind me being big-headed) called it a “psychedelic masterpiece.” “Psychedelic” how’s that for dating it? Unfortunately he thought that it was probably unfilmable. William used one or two sentences from Rules of Duel in Nova Express, and he also said that he had used some in The Ticket That Exploded but I have never been able to find any in that particular book of his.
‘Rules of Duel is written in the style that William and Brion Gysin devised called “intersection writing”. This means that the writer follows factual coincidences and synonyms as if they are a kind of code. It is an entertainment more than a mystical way of expressing yourself. I also used William’s method of cutting up sentences so that they are more than a mystical kind of code. This means that William hits exactly the right note.
‘William and I talked a lot about the whole Rules of Duel concept, which was to educate young people, help them to become literate but, more than literate, to give them their own language which would not only give them more control of their own lives in an increasingly technological world, but free them from the baneful influence of politicians and old farts. In some ways, much of that has come to pass in the internet age.
‘William told me one evening that he felt as if he had never lived the life he was supposed to live, and that somehow he had ended up as an outsider on the edge of his own existence. This could well have been brought on by the displaced feeling he had when he was living in London, but throughout his work there is always an underlying sense of lives that never worked out … of opportunities missed or squandered. There is such strong nostalgia, too, even for places that he never visited. Overall, I think he felt that nobody else could see the world the way he saw it, or think the thoughts that he was capable of thinking, and sometimes I think that made him feel desperately detached. That is what Rules of Duel is all about, that feeling of alienation in London in the late 1960s, that feeling that officialdom is always watching you and out to get you. That’s why I thought it so appropriate to see it published today, when we are back to heavy-handed state control and surveillance.’
Quotes from an interview with Graham about William S Burroughs onhttp://realitystudio.org/interviews/interview-with-graham-masterton-on-william-s-burroughs/. Reproduced with permission.
Rules of Duel is being published in a smart B Format paperback edition by Telos, and includes an Introduction by Graham, as well as an Introduction by William S Burroughs, written in the ‘Intersection’ style of the novel. It’s an incredible book which draws you in with its quirkiness, and which fascinates with its resonance in popular sixties culture and fears.
We’re very proud to be publishing it, and we hope that readers will appreciate the work as something quite unique and special.
FICTION
The Djinn
by Graham Masterton
It had all begun with a curious investigation of an ancient Arabian jar and the strange legends of sorcery symbolized by it. Then legend and logic decide that the jar must be opened. The secret of the Djinn must be exposed to the light of reality…
Graham Masterton’s terrifying 1977 novel is republished by Telos in a brand new edition, complete with new introduction by the author.
Published September 2010
Price £9.99 (+p&p)
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WEBSITE UPDATES
The keen eyed among you may have noticed that the Telos site has had a little spring clean and facelift.
There’s now a ‘Search’ box on every page which should make it easier to find titles – just type in what you’re looking for, or a keyword or author and you should see what you’re after in the subsequent list.
Other enhancements include dropdowns of where the new digital editions of Telos’ titles can be bought from, and a gradual streamlining of the content – moving books which are now out of print to the Archive section and so on.
There might be one or two teething problems, but please drop us a note at feedback@telos.co.uk if you spot anything and we’ll get them looked at as soon as we can.
As always, Telos can be found at www.telos.co.uk
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TELOS SIGNED COPIES
We currently have a few copies of It Lives Again! signed by both the author, Axelle Carolyn, and by film director Neil Marshall, available direct from Telos. Order from the website as per usual and you’ll be sent a signed copy while stocks last.
We also have signed copies of the following titles available. Again, just order direct from Telos and you’ll receive a signed copy while stocks last:
Humpty’s Bones – signed by both the author, Simon Clark, and the cover artist. Vincent Chong
Fall Out: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner – signed by the authors Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore
Don’t forget that all our limited edition hardbacks are also signed by the authors, as well as being bound in special cloths, or with illustrated self-covers, with a ribbon and coloured endpapers.
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LAST CHANCE TO BUY
We have a number of titles listed in the LAST CHANCE TO BUY section of the Telos website. These are titles which we have only a handful of copies remaining, and which we are not planning to reprint when they are gone. The current list is:
Cult TV & Film:
Liberation: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Blake’s Seven by Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore (only around 5 copies left of this title)
Original and Classic Fiction:
Aspects of a Psychopath by Alastair Langston (last chance to get this brutal glimpse into the mind of a serial killer)
Black Tide by Del Stone Jr
Breathe (paperback) by Christopher Fowler (only 1 copy left)
Urban Gothic: Lacuna and Other Trips edited by David J Howe (only around 15 copies left)
Urban Gothic features fiction from Graham Masterton, Christopher Fowler, Simon Clark, Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis, Paul Finch, Debbie Bennett and an introduction by Richard O’Brien, two factual pieces by journalist David Miller about the show and interviews with show writer Tom deVille and producer Steve Matthews.
We also have some of our special signed and numbered limited edition hardbacks available for reduced prices while stocks last. Those currently available are:
A SPECIAL FINAL OFFER OF £20 for each hardback below:
Breathe by Christopher Fowler
Alice’s Journey Beyond the Moon by R J Carter
Approaching Omega by Eric Brown
Valley of Lights by Stephen Gallagher
A SPECIAL FINAL OFFER OF £30 for each hardback below:
Shrouded by Darkness edited by Alison L R Davies
Shrouded by Darkness features original and reprint fiction by: Debbie Bennett, Poppy Z Brite, Simon Clark, Storm Constantine, Peter Crowther, Alison L R Davies, Paul Finch, Christopher Fowler, Neil Gaiman, Gary Greenwood, David J Howe, Dawn Knox, Tim Lebbon, Charles de Lint, Steven Lockley & Paul Lewis, James Lovegrove, Graham Masterton, Richard Christian Matheson, Justina Robson, Mark Samuels, Darren Shan and Michael Marshall Smith. With a frontispiece by Clive Barker and a foreword by Stephen Jones.
The hardback edition is originally signed by ALL contributors (including Barker and Gaiman) with the exception of Poppy Z Brite (who is represented with a facsimile signature).
Please visit the LAST CHANCE TO BUY page for click through details to order
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TELOS ON FACEBOOK
If you’re on Facebook and fancy ‘Liking’ Telos publishing, then we can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Telos-Publishing/22343509719
Please join and let us know what you think of the books, chat about the covers … anything that takes your fancy really. Often new covers are premiered on the Facebook group, and news and details of reviews and other items of interest across the Web are also shared there.
Please let us know what you think of this Newsletter … what would you like to see included?
Until next time,
David, Steve and the Telos Team.8