The harsh British winter of 1963 brings a big freeze that extends into April with no sign of letting up. And with it comes a new, far greater menace: terrifying icy creatures are stalking the streets, bringing death and destruction.

The first Doctor and Susan, trapped on Earth until the faulty TARDIS can be repaired, are caught up in the crisis.

The Doctor seems to know what is going on, but is uncharacteristically detached and furtive, almost as if he is losing his memory ...

Susan, isolated from her grandfather and finding it hard to fit in with the human teenagers at Coal Hill School, tries to cope by recording her thoughts in a diary. But she too feels her memory slipping away and her past unravelling. Is she even sure who she is any more ...?

Background information:

Winner of the "Best Past Doctor Adventure" Award in the Doctor Who Magazine Annual Awards for 2001.

Telos Publishing present Time and Relative, a thrilling and groundbreaking adventure: the first officially-sanctioned Doctor Who book featuring the Doctor and Susan set before the start of the TV series itself. The debut Doctor Who book by award-winning writer and film historian Kim Newman and features a foreword by BBC Doctor Who books supremo Justin Richards.

"We're delighted to welcome Kim to the worlds of Doctor Who," says David J Howe, general editor of the Doctor Who Novellas range. "Kim's written some great novels and short stories, and I always wondered what he might make of Doctor Who's concepts and characters. Now we're finding out."

One of Telos' stated aims with the novellas is to bring new life into the Doctor Who universe through harnessing the talents of general science fiction, fantasy and horror writers, and getting Newman signed up to pen the launch title was something of a coup.

"Writers as accomplished and respected as Kim Newman are always very much in demand," notes Howe, "and we were delighted that he agreed to contribute to the novellas range. Kim is a great fan of telefantasy, and is enthusiastic about the idea of stepping into the Doctor Who universe for a while."

Kim Newman's earliest TV memory was of watching Doctor Who. "'It was the first episode ('World's End') of The Dalek Invasion of Earth, three weeks before my parents bought a television set - looking back on it, I suspect one of the reasons they got the thing was that my sister and I pestered them about wanting to keep up with the story. I grew up with the show, owned a lot of Dalek toys (they weren't called collectibles then) and saw the films in the 1960s (I even saw the Dalek stage play)."

"One of the reasons I picked 1963 as a setting for the novella is that I associate Who with the 60s, and with childhood. It was my idea to write the story as a prequel to the series. I thought that since this was to be the first of a series, we should begin at the beginning."

"I've seen most of the surviving Hartnell era Who recently, but I concentrated on the first season. Since it's a first person piece, I was free to be a bit subjective - if there are 'errors', then it's because Susan doesn't know much about what was established about the Doctor after she left the show. I do say that she has two hearts, but there's no mention of Time Lords, Gallifrey, the TARDIS is as yet-unnamed and the Doctor isn't yet called that (it seems possible on looking at An Unearthly Child that he takes the title because Ian uses it when they first meet)."

"I plotted the story twice - there's the Doctor Who plot with monsters, an invasion, reversing the polarity, soldiers on the streets, etc (all the stuff from the show), but that's mostly a backdrop to the personal story about being an alien teenager at a London school in the winter of 1963. I listened to a lot of pop music from that year, and thought a bit about the world we didn't quite get to see in the show - which had rather stuffy young-middle aged viewpoint characters in the teachers - and wondered what Susan would have noticed or thought or been like when away from adult supervision."

Bryan Talbot, the influential and multiple award-winning artist of such acclaimed graphic novels as The Adventures of Luthor Arkwright, The Tale of One Bad Rat and Heart of Empire has contributed a full colour frontispiece for the deluxe edition of Time and Relative.

"Having grown up with Doctor Who - from the very first screening of An Unearthly Child when I was eleven - it was a real pleasure creating the frontispiece for the first of a whole new series of Doctor Who novellas, especially as Kim Newman's tale is an entirely fresh take on that original Hartnell story..."

The book was available in two superb editions: a standard hardback with grey cloth-effect cover and silver-stamped logo and title; and a numbered limited edition deluxe hardback boasting: full colour frontispiece artwork; silver cracked-ice-effect binding with foil stamping; and integrated bookmark.

All copies of the limited edition deluxe version came individually signed by Kim Newman, Bryan Talbot, and BBC Books editor and popular Doctor Who novelist Justin Richards, who supplied the foreword for the book.

Time and Relative was published on the 23rd November 2001