About the Author

Iain McLaughlin was born during The Macra Terror. He should have arrived towards the end of The Moonbase but a cold snap and a stubborn streak did him out of that. A pity really, because The Moonbase is a great favourite of his. That has nothing to do with anything really. He just thought he'd like to mention it.

Since being forcibly turfed out of school, screaming and kicking, at the age of 18, he has earned a living working on various D.C. Thomson comics including the Beezer, the Beano and now the Dandy, where the unsuspecting management have made him assistant editor. He was one of the villains responsible for trying to pension off Desperate Dan in the 1990s but hopes they've made things up by now. In fact he introduced Dan to his current girlfriend.

He's written a couple of Doctor Who audio stories and is, at least in part, responsible for many heated disagreements about how long the gap between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani really is and whether or not another companion could really fit into that gap, which has pleased him no end. He's like that. A bit of a git, really.

He's been a Doctor Who fan for as long as he can remember, though given that he has a terrible memory that's not saying much. In large part he blames Doctor Who for his fascination with history and laments the demise of historicals from the show.

Long-term ambitions include writing a thriller, winning the lottery, seeing Dundee United go through an entire season without causing him to lose the will to live at least once and most of all, working out how the DVD player works. Oh, and if Scotland could manage to sneak in winning the world cup that'd please him no end, too.