Candy Jar’s Advent Day 20 is something special. A full and FREE documentary about Eileen Younghusband, a hero from World War II who entered the fictional Lethbridge-Stewart universe in 2016’s The Last Duty and The Flaming Soldier. She returns to the series in 2019 with the series seven novel, Home Fires Burn by Gareth Madgwick!
To watch the documentary just click here: http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/owwdoc.html
Candy Jar Books is pleased to announce this year’s free Christmas short story!
The Case of the Missing Fairy by Steven Walton is now available free on the Candy Jar website.
Talking about The Case of the Missing Fairy, Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen says: “When Shaun told me he wanted a Christmas story, I groaned and said, ‘well, I don’t have time to write one,’ but then I re-thought and realised that I may have a man who did. So I turned to a young writer I know who wanted to write for the series. Enter Steven Walton. He jumped on board with barely a second’s hesitation, and I then tasked him with sending me a few ideas set within the period that Lethbridge-Stewart served as maths teacher in Brendon School, a period of his life we’ve not really touched upon yet. Steve sent me a few ideas, but that one that appealed to me the most was the whimsical notion of Lethbridge-Stewart investigating the disappearance of a Christmas tree fairy.”
Steven Walton says: “I’ve always considered the Brigadier to be the Doctor’s Watson, but as this range has him in the lead role I thought why not make him Sherlock Holmes? Set in a time when he can’t remember the Doctor, the story focuses on those mini adventures in his everyday life. And what a better time to do a silly but fun detective story than at Christmas.”
Shaun Russell, head of publishing at Candy Jar, says: “Our seasonal short stories have become something of a tradition, and it was important to me that this year be no different. Steven had produced a lovely, and amusing, little ditty for Christmas, and in quick time, too. Perfect reading after a hearty Christmas dinner!”
The Case of the Missing Fairy will be available for free on the Candy Jar website over Christmas.
Candy Jar also has a Christmas sale on at the moment, covering many of their varied titles, including several Lethbridge-Stewart titles. Perfect for Christmas presents!
A limited edition range of series five novels will be available early 2018, beginning with A Very Private Haunting by Sharon Bidwell. And later in the year the novella range continues with The Lost Skin by Andy Frankham-Allen. Pre-order A Very Private Haunting and The Lost Skin here.
Recently Candy Jar Books announced that, for the forseeable future, there will be no new editions of The HAVOC Files. Editor Andy Frankham-Allen issues this statement those who submitted story ideas through this year’s open submission window: “There are several logistic and legal reasons behind our decision, however, please note we are not cancelling the range, just resting it for the forseeable future. So to anybody who submitted a story idea to us, please be aware that there are two options open to you; you can either retain your idea and repurpose it for other use, or you can allow us to hold on to it and look at it again if/when we do another HAVOC Files release. Please drop us an email at havoc@candyjarbooks.co.uk to let us know which option you wish to take.”
The Lost Skin by Andy Frankham-Allen, features Professor Edward Travers, Harold Chorley and Samson Ware, in a mystery that takes them to John o Groats and the Orkney Islands.
Originally intended as a novella, Candy Jar previously published parts one and two of The Lost Skin in The HAVOC Files 2 and 3, and will now be completed (with 50% new material) as the novella was original designed to be. Read More →
Award-winning independent publisher Candy Jar Books is pleased to announce that the world of Lethbridge-Stewart is getting bigger, with the launch of its brand new website just for fans!
Website designer at North East Design Consultants, Richard Young, says: “Creating a website for Candy Jar is one of the most enjoyable projects I have ever been involved with. There are so many different elements to the site. It’s something you can easily get lost in and thoroughly enjoy exploring.”
Candy Jar’s Publishing Coordinator, Lauren Thomas, said: “With the fifth Lethbridge-Stewart season due soon, Richard has managed to create a website which celebrates our beloved Brigadier. The site contains interviews, forums, and never-before-seen material, and the chance to sign up to a newsletter and download a variety of free stories.”
Constant updates on the upcoming books in the series will be added as the site develops. Alongside this, information about The Lucy Wilson Mysteries, a separate series about the Brigadier’s granddaughter, is also available.
Editorial Co-ordinator, Will Rees, says: “Since we launched the books we’ve had lots of questions and comments from fans about the Brigadier’s time in Doctor Who, as well as our novels. We wanted this site to keep readers completely up-to-date with every aspect of the series, explore the mythology of the Brig, and act as a news portal for new releases.”
The Lethbridge-Stewart novels are set just after the Doctor Who serial, The Web of Fear and feature the characters and concepts created by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. Lethbridge-Stewart is one of Doctor Who’s longest running characters, and is better known to Doctor Who fans as the Brigadier. Between 1968 and 2008 he was played by the late Nicholas Courtney, whose death was paid tribute to in popular series finale, The Wedding of River Song.
Head of publishing, Shaun Russell, says: “With the fiftieth anniversary approaching we wanted to do something special for the fans. This website collects together everything you need to know about the Brigadier and we plan to add much more content as the months roll by.”
To celebrate the launch of the website, Candy Jar Books is offering readers a chance to win a one-of-a-kind Lethbridge-Stewart original painting created by Richard Young. To enter the competition, just CLICK HERE and enter Candy’s Jar poll to vote for your favourite book, short story and cover design, and then you will automatically be entered into the prize draw.
Last weekend saw the 50th Anniversary of BBC Radio 1, and to help celebrate the event Candy Jar Books has released a brand-new, Kindle-only, short story called ’48 Crash, by Mark Carton.
Shaun Russell, head of publishing at Candy Jar Books, said: “Having grown up listening to BBC Radio, I’ve been waiting to hear what they had planned for the 50th anniversary of Radio 1. It seemed like a fantastic opportunity to celebrate a British institution that has had such an impact over the years. When Mark suggested that he’d like to write a short story to mark the event, I thought that combining his core idea with the Lethbridge-Stewart range was a no-brainer.”
The BBC One Roadshow is in town, but Lethbridge-Stewart isn’t one for leisure. A rogue analyst has discovered the threat of an alien invasion encoded in the lyrics of pop hits. With the festivities beginning, and fifty-thousand revellers in attendance, the Brigadier must get to the bottom of the mystery before musical mayhem is unleashed.
You can buy ’48 Crash on Amazon Kindle priced £1.29.
A PDF version of ’48 Crash will also be available to customers who purchase The Flaming Soldier from the Candy Jar website. It will be sent out later this week.
All of the fourth series is now on Kindle for £4.99 each; Night of the Intelligence by Andy Frankham-Allen, The Daughters of Earth by Sarah Groenewegen, and The Dreamer’s Lament by Benjamin Burford-Jones.
Added to that, ten short stories from the first three volumes of The HAVOC Files are now available as individual titles on Kindle, all for £1.29. The titles are: The Fright Before Christmas by Tom Dexter, The Lock-In by Sarah Groenewegen, The Cult of the Grinning Man by Tom Dexter, The Wishing Bazaar by Sharon Bidwell, In His Kiss by Sue Hampton, The Band of Evil by Roger J Hammond & Shaun Russell, The Black Eggs of Khufu by Tom Dexter, The Playing Dead by Adrian Sherlock, Eve of the Fomorians by Robert Mammone, and The Dogs of War by Andy Frankham-Allen.
Shaun continues: “The celebratory release of ’48 Crash aligns with our Kindle release of the individual short stories featured in our limited edition HAVOC Files one through three. Each short story will now be available to download from Amazon Kindle individually for £1.29. Customers who previously missed the PDF e-books will be able to read each story in isolation without having to commit to the whole load. This is something we’ve been asked for many times. You ask, we do!”
The Flaming Soldier by Christopher Bryant has now been posted out to all pre-order customers.
It is also possible to pre-order a preview copy of the new Lethbridge-Stewart spin-off, The Lucy Wilson Mysteries, announced last month. The book is due to be released widely in early 2018, but limited copies are available now via the Candy Jar website: http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/bumpersummersale.html .
Candy Jar Books is also offering an exciting new opportunity for aspiring writers. Launched at the Candy Jar Book Festival in Cardiff this year, the Candy Jar Lethbridge-Stewart Short Story Competition invites writers to submit a short story based on the Doctor Who character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. More details about how to submit can be found at the Candy Jar Books Festival website here:
Candy Jar Books is pleased to announce its latest volume of The HAVOC Files, collecting short stories from early 2017 (in print for the first time) and brand new exclusive material!
The HAVOC Files 4 contains three short stories only previously available in digital format and released early 2017: United in Blood by Mark Jones; The Runaway Bomb by Nick Walters, and The Two Brigadiers by Jonathan Macho (runner-up of the South Wales short story competition 2015). It also contains five brand new stories, including the final episode of the three-part novella, The Lost Skin by Andy Frankham-Allen (episode one and two of which were published in The HAVOC Files 2 and 3).
Of HAVOC 4, Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen says: “This is probably our most exciting volume yet, because it features five stories that are a direct result of our recent open submission period. We had such an amazing response and received so many varied ideas, most of which made it as far as the one-page outline stage. Many of those led to a commission, and HAVOC 4 presents the first five of those commissions, all by authors new to the range and, some, completely new to profesionally published fiction.”
Among the authors new to range are Andrew Allen (not to be confused with Range Editor Andy Frankham-Allen), who is a Brighton-based writer, actor, director and workshop leader, as well as the co-founder and Artistic Director of Cast Iron Theatre. This collection also introduces to the range, Wink Taylor, who was a writer/actor for both Sooty and Basil Brush, as well as creator of the popular childrens’ character Theo the Mouse. He is also well-known for his voice impersonations of various Doctor Who characters, notably the Third Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
The cover has been designed by Richard Young. He says: “Shaun had promised me The HAVOC Files cover since book two came out, so I was over the moon when he said that I was doing book four. I’ve always had the idea of using the Brig and a filing cabinet, but my initial ideas just weren’t working for me. I then came up with another idea, but it was felt that this new idea was too similar to another cover I had done. Shaun and I then bounced several other concepts back and forth, trying to make the ‘4’ the main element, and after some very minor adjustments just to tighten things up, we had something we both liked.”
Blurb:
Strange goings on in a small English village, training for new members of the Fifth Operational Corps, and the two Brigadiers meeting up to take on the most notorious aliens in the galaxy…
Lethbridge-Stewart encounters a unicorn in Linfield, Anne Travers and Bill Bishop go on their first official date…
Just some of the strange tales that make up HAVOC 4, which features five brand new short stories, including one by Wink Taylor, who has written for both Sooty and Basil Brush. Plus three stories previously only available in digital format, including one by popular author Nick Walters, and the final installment of the exclusive three-part novella, The Lost Skin, by Andy Frankham-Allen.
A collection of short stories from the classic era of Doctor Who, starring Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Anne Travers, based on the characters created by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln
The HAVOC Files 4:
Like the previous volumes, The HAVOC Files 4 is only available direct from the Candy Jar Store for £8.99, and is a strictly limited-print run. Pre-order now to avoid disappointment.
The HAVOC Files 4 is available from: http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/bumpersummersale.html
HAVOC 1 and 2 are sold out, but Candy Jar still has a handful of copies of HAVOC 3 left.
The HAVOC Files 3 is available from: http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/bumpersummersale.html
HAVOC 1, 2 and 3 are also all available for digital download on Kindle.
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Candy Jar is also pleased to announce that the upcoming Lethbridge-Stewart Quiz Book will contain an exclusive story written by Tim Gambrell.
Lethbridge-Stewart is called back to Bledoe to help an old friend he barely remembers, and memories of quiz night with the Bledoe Cadets soon surface…
The Lethbridge-Stewart Quiz Book is available from: http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/bumpersummersale.html
The next novel in the series, The Daughters of Earth, is currently at the printers.
Candy Jar Books is pleased to announce the third Lethbridge-Stewart novel of 2017.
The Dreamer’s Lament sees Lethbridge-Stewart team up once again with Harold Chorley, to investigate the case of a missing train. The trail leads to the Keynsham Triangle, and the year 1815. Together they are thrown into a story of body snatching, slavery and animals that refuse to stay dead.
It is written by newcomer to the range, Benjamin Burford-Jones, who previously wrote the children’s novel Beware of the Mirror Man for Candy Jar Books.
Range editor Andy Frankham-Allen says: “The Dreamer’s Lament started off as an unpublished Second Doctor Doctor Who novel that Ben wrote some years ago. Shaun (Russell, head of publishing) brought the story to me during the early days of the series, but it took me a while to get to it. I was impressed by the core story, and realised that an almost page-one rewrite would be needed, but there were enough key elements contained in the original story for me to see how it would fit Lethbridge-Stewart. The hardest part to work out was the time travel aspect.”
Ben, who now lives in Manchester, has had an extremely varied career that has ranged from clerical work, television production to puppet making. He was more than happy to rework the story, and collaborate with Andy in how to turn it into a Lethbridge-Stewart novel. Ben says: “When I was asked to adapt my unpublished book, how could I resist the challenge? It was an honour to add to the continuing adventures of Lethbridge-Stewart. Of course, I couldn’t resist setting the adventure in my home town of Keynsham.”
The cover art is by Martin Baines, doing his second piece of Lethbridge-Stewart work after last year’s Times Squared. Martin says: “I really wanted to do justice to such imaginative story. The mixture of voodoo and time travel, plus zombie animals makes this a story a gift for a cover artist. Coming from an advertising background I usually draw cute dogs and cats, so I found that the main focal point of the cover was a real test for me having to make them as horrific as possible.”
Ben has this to say about the cover: “When I first saw the wonderful artwork, I was over the moon. The cover sums up the story perfectly. It was almost as if Martin had read my mind.”
The Dreamer’s Lament has a foreword by Candy Jar’s Head of Publishing, Shaun Russell. He says: “I’ve known Ben for thirty-two years, after a chance meeting at a Bristol sci-fi shop. Alongside Doctor Who, Ben has always had an interest in all things zombie. He has even made his own zombie puppet. It seems quite natural for him to combine his two loves in this book.”
Blurb:
While visiting his mother, Lethbridge-Stewart is a little perturbed when Harold Chorley calls to ask for his help. A train has gone missing near Bristol, and Chorley is convinced it has something to do with the Keynsham Triangle, where over fifty people have vanished without trace since the early 1800s.
Elsewhere, Anne Travers is coming to terms with a loss in her family, and sets about preparing for a funeral. However, news reaches her that both Lethbridge-Stewart and Chorley have gone missing, and her help is required to find them. And, hopefully, solve the mystery of the Keynsham Triangle.
What connects the missing train to the Triangle, what has it got to do with a Wren from World War II, and just why does it appear that Lethbridge-Stewart and Chorley are in the village of Keynsham in 1815?
The answers lie in the Dreamer’s Lament, and a strange being called the Loa.
The Dreamer’s Lament is available for pre-order now, for £8.99 (+ p&p). You can pre-order it individually or as part of the discounted UK bundle for only £26.25 (including postage), saving £9.72, or an international bundle for only £45.00 (including postage), saving £5.97. Or, you can buy it as part of our yearly subscription offer. Order early to avoid disappointment.
http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/thedreamerslament.html
Candy Jar is also launching its very first Candy Jar Summer Bumper Sale. Deals include:
• 2 for 1 on selected Lethbridge-Stewart novels
• 2 for £10 on selected Candy Jar titles
• Low-low discounts on selected other books
• Plus a couple of freebies available too!
For more information please visit: http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/bumpersummersale.html
People often asks what orders our stories come, mixing up both shorts, novellas and novels.
Below is the chronological order as it stand currently. Read More →
