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Ben Aaronovitch
Ben Dylan Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964)[2] is an English author and screenwriter. He is the author of the series of novels Rivers of London. He also wrote two Doctor Who serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from Doctor Who and Blake's 7. BiographyBorn in Camden,[3] Aaronovitch is the son of the economist Sam Aaronovitch who was a senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain,[4] and the younger brother of actor Owen Aaronovitch and journalist David Aaronovitch.[5] He attended Holloway School.[6] Aaronovitch left school with no particular plan. “Instead of going to university I basically faffed about. I had a series of terrible jobs, the kind you get when you have no qualifications.” These included working as a security guard for Securitas, which he says taught him “to understand shoplifting a lot better... So it did come in quite handy later, for work”.[7] During one of the short-term jobs he submitted some scripts to the BBC, which led to him writing Doctor Who stories, and finally, while working at Waterstones, Aaronovitch published his first Rivers of London novel, which rapidly became a word-of-mouth success, enabling him to write full-time. He is passionate about diversity in literature,[8] and in 2020 he founded the Future Worlds Prize, then known as the Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award, aimed at opening up science fiction and fantasy publishing to more diverse writers.[9][10] In 2023 it was announced that Rivers of London would be adapted for TV as a co-production between Pure Fiction Television, See-Saw Films and Aaronovitch’s own production company, Unnecessary Logo.[11] Aaronovitch lives in Wimbledon, London.[12] Doctor Who and television workAaronovitch wrote two Doctor Who serials, Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) and Battlefield (1989), for BBC television, and also the novelization of the former.[13] He wrote one episode for Casualty (1990) and was then a regular writer on the science fiction series Jupiter Moon.[14] He subsequently wrote or co-wrote three Doctor Who spin-off novels in the Virgin Publishing New Adventures range; he created the character Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart who became a semi-regular in the New Adventures. He has also written a novel and several short stories published by Big Finish Productions featuring the character of Bernice Summerfield, who was originally developed in the New Adventures. He also co-wrote a Doctor Who audio drama for Big Finish, and has written a number of Blake's 7 spin-off audio dramas. Proposed serialsIn May 1987, Aaronovitch submitted Knight Fall to the Doctor Who production office for Season 25. The story concerned privatization.[15] Script editor Andrew Cartmel liked the story ideas, but felt that the script was inappropriate for the series and had too many supporting characters.[15] After failing to feature Aaronovitch's Knight Fall storyline to production, Aaronovitch submitted a story in June 1987, entitled Transit. The story would see the Doctor and Ace in the future, land in a metro station, and discover transportation portals that could lead any body throughout the Solar System, but one of the portals leads a gate way to hell.[15] Even though Aaronovitch's scripts of Transit never came to fruition, he would adapt the story as a book for Virgin New Adventures series in December 1992.[15] During Summer of 1988, Aaronovitch submitted a three-part adventure story for Doctor Who’s 27th Season (which never came to fruition), and was called Bad Destination. The story would feature The Doctor seeing Ace as a captain of a hospital spaceship which is being under attack by the Metatraxi.[16] The story, however, was abandoned when, in September 1989, the BBC cancelled Doctor Who after its 26 Season, due to declining audiences.[15][16] In July 2011, Big Finish Productions released the story as Earth Aid, by Aaronovitch and Cartmel.[15] WorksTelevisionDoctor Who
Casualty
Jupiter Moon
Dark Knight
Audio dramasBlake's 7
Doctor Who
NovelsDoctor WhoNovelizations: Rivers of London
OthersShort stories
Rivers of London seriesThe short stories below are published in Tales from the Folly:
ComicsRivers of London – Body Work
Rivers of London – Night Witch
Rivers of London – Black Mould
Rivers of London – Detective Stories
Rivers of London – Cry Fox
Rivers of London – Water Weed
Rivers of London – Action at a Distance
Rivers of London – The Fey & The Furious
Rivers of London – Monday, Monday
Rivers of London – Deadly Ever After
Rivers of London – Here Be Dragons
References
External links Wikiquote has quotations related to Ben Aaronovitch. |
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