Twelve Stories (anthology)

Twelve Stories was a 2009 short story anthology written by Paul Magrs, and published by Salt Publishing.

Seven out of the twelve short stories in the anthology are not DWU-related, so they are outside of the scope of this wiki. In the Sixties is story that features many DWU elements including, but not limited to Iris Wildthyme and the in-universe Paul Magrs, and Kept Safe and Sound was previously published in Short Trips: Companions.

The anthology also has an earlier, shorter version of Never the Bride, which later got adapted into a novel as the first book in The Brenda and Effie Mysteries. However, neither version of Never the Bride is covered by this wiki.

The Great Big Book Exchange was first published in the 2005 anthology, Magnetic North. It was adapted into Exchange, a novel published on the 5 February 2007. And then on the 13 May 2007, the original short story was broadcast live on BBC Radio 4. Enter Wildthyme and Wildthyme Beyond! would be written as sequels to these stories (primarily Exchange) in 2011 and 2012 respectively, but both Exchange and The Great Big Book Exchange are also not covered by this wiki.

Collecting Ada Jones is about the titular Ada Jones' death, who was an author and the long lost childhood friend of Simon's grandmother Winnie; Ada appeared in Exchange and The Great Big Book Exchange, but again, this story is also not covered by this wiki.

Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]

Paul Magrs was born in 1969 in the North East of England. He was educated at Woodham Comprehensive, Newton Aycliffe and at Lancaster University where he studied English and Creative Writing. His first novel, Marked for Life was published in 1996 and his most recent, Hell's Belles (Headline, 2009) is the next in the Brenda and Effie Gothic Mystery series. His first novel for younger readers was Strange Boy (Simon and Schuster, 2002) and his first collection of short stories was Playing Out (Vintage, 1997). His stories have appeared in New Writing, the Sunday Express Magazine, the TLS, and broadcast on Radio 4.

He lectured in English and Creative Writing at UEA for seven years, moving to Manchester Metropolitan University to start teaching the Novel Writing MA in 2004. In 2008 he was a judge for the Portico Prize.

Twelve years after Paul Magrs' first collection, these twelve stories take their cues from glimpses of real life, but spin tales that are fabular, funny, moving and sometimes unsettling. All of these pieces are about rescuing characters, places, moments and ideas from the brink of being forgotten.

Stories[[edit] | [edit source]]

Title	Featuring	Author
Kept Safe and Sound	Robot dog, Books of Mayhem	Paul Magrs
Waiting On
The Foster Parents
Sunseeker
Another Go
Collecting Ada Jones	Ada Jones
The Longsight Branch
The Girl from Victim Support
The Great Big Book Exchange	Winnie, granddad, grandson, Saturday girl, bookshop owner, The Great Big Book Exchange, Paul Magrs, Big Nanna
The Eyes Have It
Never the Bride	Bessie, Effie
In the Sixties	Paul Magrs, "Jane Fonda" Iris

Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]

• In the Sixties was previously published in the charity anthology, Walking in Eternity, in a version which mentioned more DWU characters, whose names had to be altered or dropped in this version for copyright reasons; most notably, the Master became a generic "Master", and "Dr. Who" became "Dr Oho" (who was a combination of Dr. Who's likeness, Peter Cushing's backstory, and the Second Doctor's celebrity status from the TV Comics).
• The opening story, Kept Safe and Sound, was reprinted unaltered from the Doctor Who Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Companions.
• On the "Also by Paul Magrs" page towards to the front of the anthology, Exchange is misspelled as "Eschange".

External links[[edit] | [edit source]]

• Twelve Stories at Salt Publishing