John Davies (39)

It’s impossible for me to be objective about this book, even were such a dubious concept possible. At the time of reading I was going through a family emergency; the details of which need not concern us. But I needed something to take my mind off the situation, with a whole lot of waiting going on I needed something not too taxing and cheering. Blake’s Heaven was the perfect solution. A series of essays about each episode of the old BBC series and its spin offs, plus overviews of seasons show more and more general pieces, it allowed me to wallow in some fannish love and recreate some nostalgia for a piece of my childhood and (later) early adulthood. It aims for a more personal angle than simply a review and generally succeeds; perhaps the main faults are that there’s a certain inevitable degree of repetition and the baleful presence of Doctor Who in almost every essay. What it ends up being is a fine snapshot of a show’s fandom, a record of how and why the show appealed and retains a following to this day, more than thirty years after the final episode was shown. It’s a thing of real joy, whether the memories attached to the show are bittersweet, beautiful or bathetic. And it was exactly what I needed at the time, for which I’ll always be grateful. The right book at the right time.

For that I can’t recommend it highly enough. show less