OBVERSE BOOKS OFFER

A Paradise Towers special offer from Obverse - Build High for Happiness, a collection of stories including one by me, my own collection of short stories and Joh Toon's study of Paradise Towers.

Click on ths link for details.

PARADISE TOWERS: THE COMIC

The fourth issue of Paradise Found is now available from Cutaway Comics and a second Paradise Towers comic book story is now being planned.

Here I am displaying one of the four specially designed covers at The Capitol 2023.

Thanks to Gareth Kavanagh and Ian Winterton (pictured) for the comics.

And thank you Tony Jordan and the Doctor Who Appreciation Society for inviting me to The Capitol.

SONG OF THE COSSACKS

SONG OF THE COSSACKS my radio dramatisation of Jean Binnie's play about the enforced repatriation of the Cossacks after World War Two will be broadcast on Saturday 25th March at 14.45 pm. It will then be available on Sounds for four weeks.

This has been an intense experience. The nominated writer Kit Hesketh-Harvey died suddenly and I was asked to step in at very short notice i.e. two weeks from when I started writing to the first studio date. And I finally caught covid. But we've got through and I can only hope we've done justice to this powerful subject.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kgch

THE CAPITOL DWAS APRIL 2023

MEMOIRS OF A MIDGET

Very excited that Radio 4 Extra is finally repeating my dramatisation of Walter de la Mare's Memoirs of a Midget. It's available for 29 days.

ME AND HIM AND WHO

A lovely review of my John Nathan-Turner audio drama from Lee Thacker in Set the Tape.

MORE WEAVER IN LONDON

Peter Ashmore, Artur Zakirov and Chiara Vinci in The Loves of Mars and Venus

WEAVER IN LONDON

A packed house gave a very warm reception to the Weaver double bill. Videos and photos to follow. For the moment a photo of us all lining up for a post-performance photo shoot with members of the Early Dance Circle who sponsored the performance. Me to the left by the Early Dance Circle representatives with the cast and band to the right.

WEAVER DANCE SUCCESS!

The company had a huge success at the Manoel Theatre in Valetta, Malta. And next Saturday 2ist January they're at the Marylebone Theatre in London. The first time my two scripts for the Weaver Ensemble have been played together.

PRAISE FOR THE WALLSCRAWLER

BOOK REVIEW| The Wallscrawler & Other Stories (2022)

Oliver Dallas Book Reviews Jan 7, 2023 2 Minutes

My first ever Doctor Who memory was watching an early morning repeat of Paradise Towers with my father in the late ninteen-nineties. I was only four or five years old at the time, but I still have vivid memories of being both enthralled and appalled by the diverse range of characters who inhabitated the towers, especially Tabby and Tilda, who became the first ever Doctor Who monsters that I hid behind the sofa from…!

Ever since that fateful morning, I have continued to be both enthralled and appalled by the various works of it’s writer Stephen Wyatt. As observed by fellow fan and author Robert Shearman, Stephen has the rare talent of creating worlds and characters which are larger than life but still credible and rooted in some form of reality. Whether it’s the punk inspired Kangs with their slang and graffiti, or the vain and morally bankrupt explorer that is Captain Cook.

This new publication from Obverse Books is a collection of all of Stephen’s short fiction to date, including new material which has been written exclusively for this book. These include various monologues featuring characters from his two Doctor Who stories, six new pieces inspired by his recent reading of the Old Testament, and six monologues which were originally written and performed for BBC Radio.

As a self confessed and unashamed Paradise Towers fan, the highlights of this collection were the monologues based around that story, especially The Great Architect, which finally allows the titular villian, Kroagnon to be the intelligent schemer that we never got to see onscreen. And despite sounding controversial, the six monologues based on The Old Testament are actually very sensitively written. And as Stephen himself points out in the book’s introduction, the more outlandish aspects of them actually come from the original biblical sources themselves!

But the jewels in this particular crown are undoubtedly the BBC Radio monologues, especially HO! HO! HO!, which is probably Stephen’s magnum opus (excluding Paradise Towers of course!). All about a department store Santa who is feeling anything but jolly during the festive season, HO! HO! HO! is a tale of loneliness and frustration disguised as a light-hearted romp. If you’ve ever doubted Stephen’s credibility as a serious and nuanced writer, then read this and think again. It’s enough to put the likes of Alan Bennett to shame.

If you’re a fan of Stephen and his work, then this book is an essential purchase. If you are someone who likes his ideas, but not how they are interpretated by other people, then I would still recommend this book, as it is the closest that you’re probably ever going to get to experiencing his work raw and unedited. I can guarantee that by the time you’ve finished it, you will be hailing him as the new Great Architect of literature!