The Reference Book Wars: Round One

[SiHart]

Welcome to the first round of a new voting war... The Doctor Who Reference Book Wars... Planet Skaro's battle to find out the ultimate Doctor Who Reference Book!

Basically, as with other polls, please nominate your favourite book in the round (not fogetting to tell us why you like it) and the two winners of each round will go forward into the quater finals and so on and so on...

So we'll take a little trip back to the 80s this round and you'll be voting for your favourite of the Peter Haining tomes...











Si xx

[Dirk Gently]

I went wirh 25 Glorious Years. It's the one I read most when I started to get Doctor Who books.

[SiHart]

For me it will always be Doctor Who- A Celebration. I got given it for Christmas 1983 and I read it and re-read it many, many times since then. It was the first "proper" DW reference book and I'm terribly fond of it.

Si xx

[Phillip Culley]

Although I'm not convinced it's the best, 25 Glorious Years is the only one I've read...

[Andrew Curnow]

I've read them all, you know!!! The Time Traveller's Guide and 25 Glorious Years don't do much more than retread familiar ground from the other books, but the other three aren't bad. The Doctor Who File contains a superb piece by Robert Holmes which I still quote at Zel to this day (Look at this pretty thing Jamie, see how it swings) and which makes me laugh every time I read it.

A Celebration would probably be my favourite for nostalgia if nothing else, IF I'd got it in 1983 when it came out. As it is, I got both A Celebration and Key To Time at the same time, in 1984, and I think of the two my favourite is the little oddity that is the Key To Time: Three Cheers for Peter Haining.

[Jonno]

I borrowed A Celebration from the library - probably on more than one occasion! - and as a result never bothered buying it. Money was tight as a young teenager and they were very expensive. You could probably buy 30 issues of DWM for one of those, which at today's money would make them the equivalent of £120!

As it is, I did buy The Key to Time the following year, having undoubtedly used some birthday money or something. It really appealed to me, probably because it's more like a listing, chronological dates and so on have always appealed. I liked the idea of the fan artwork too - some of it was pretty average, but other pieces were really great.

The only other one I actually own is 25 Glorious Years, and that was courtsey of Si and Steve, who let me have a spare copy!

PS - I voted for KTT, as it may not have been obvious from my rambling!

[Pip Madeley]

I went for The Doctor Who File purely because it was the first non-fiction Who book I ever read, the nostalgia factor is too high!

[Paul Hayes]

I think The Key to Time - I used to get it out from Worthing Library all the time as a child, and it was one of the first Who reference books I read. Also, my friend Tim did some of the illustrations, so it has to be the one for that reason as well!

[Antony Cox]

I went for The Key To Time as it was always my favourite - read it loads of times and it was one of the first books I had which told of the social impact which DW had during those years.

The rest of the books I can give or take - as time went on they just became updated re-hashes, not that that stopped my buying them, though!

[Wayne]

The Dr Who File. Mainly for nostalgia reasons. I used to have the last 3 but DWF i think was the first reference book i had. I got rid of them at some point. Probably due to lack of space, & didn't look at them anymore.

[SiHart]

I'm really surprised A Celebration is not doing better. I thought it would romp home!

Si xx

[Wayne]

I think DWF had better pictures in it.

[Lord President]

I went for The Key to Time, it featured some absolutely stunning fan-art! ;-)

[SiHart]

Don't forget... you've got one more day to vote!

Si xx

[Jonno]

I'm astonished at A Celebration coming joint last - sorry Si! I thought I'd be in a minority voting for KTT, but there you go.

[Dave Tudor]

Gah! Wish I'd seen this poll earlier - I'd certainly have voted for A Celebration, in my opinion one of THE best non-fiction Doctor Who books ever published. OK, so compared to today's meticulously-researched tomes, it's comparatively lightweight, and the late Peter Haining did have a tendency to re-write it as 'new' books several times over the following years, but few books have had as much love and care put into them, and, for me, like so many others, it opened up a whole new world of Doctor Who, with articles and photos of stories and characters I'd never heard of before. It is, of course, one of the few books to feature contributions from most of the major players in the show's success right from the beginning, written as it was at a time when the majority were still alive. Like Jonno, I borrowed it countless times over the years from the local library, but finally got myself a copy nearly twenty years later. It's an absolute joy of a book, and I'm so disappointed that it didn't go through.

I do also have very fond memories of 25 Glorious Years, I must say - I remember I barely looked up from the book during Christmas 1988!

[SiHart]

I was disappointed too A Celebration didn't make it through too.

I bought 25 Glorious Years with my wages from my paper round!

Si xx