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UK
Publisher

Imprint of W. H. Allen established in the early 1970s. Used primarily for a long-running series of novelizations adapting televised storylines from the TV series Doctor Who, though also used for other books as well, including a series of novels based on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and novelizations of movies. After Virgin Publishing purchased W.H. Allen the Target branding continued to be used for any remaining novelizations (as well as new editions), but beginning in 1991 original novels based upon the series went out under the imprint Doctor Who Books. By the mid-1990s the Target imprint had been retired. In the mid-2010s BBC Books (now publishers of Doctor Who fiction) revived the Target branding for a series of reprints of some of the original books in new editions, as well as newly written adaptations of recent episodes and some rewritten versions of Target adaptations.

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Doctor Who Books

UK
Publisher

Renaming of the ''Target Books'' publishing imprint by Virgin Publishing° after their purchase of W. H. Allen & Co. and its p/b imprints, Star, Tandem Books, Target Books and Universal; used for the continuation of its Doctor Who fiction published between 1991 and 1997 (Both the "New Adventures" and "Missing Adventures" until the determination of the licence to use the ''Doctor Who'' name; Virgin Publishing retained the rights to the ''New Adventures" series' they originated so long as there was no use of the ''Doctor Who'' name and/or any other BBC-owned properties (the line continued to the end of the 1990s focusing on companion characters created for the Doctor Who Books line.) A handful of books under the Doctor Who Books imprint were co-branded Target Books in the case of books based upon televised stories.

° - n.b. Virgin retained the Tandem, Target and Universal isbn publisher prefix, (0-)-426- on their Doctor Who Books imprint.

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Enric Badia Romero
Author

Spanish comics artist (1930-2024) best known for his work illustrating action-adventure comic strips such a Modesty Blaise and Axa. His name is also widely spelled as Enrique Badia Romero. However, he was widely credited as simply Romero.

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Gerhard
Author

Canadian comic book artist (b. 1959) best known for his work drawing backgrounds for the long-running comic book series Cerebus the Aardvark (Cerebus writer Dave Sim drew the main characters). Only credited by this mononym; his real name has not been publicized.

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Michael Smith
Author

Gilbert Kenneth Michael Smith was born on 1 January 1922 in King's Norton, Warwickshire. He was on the committee of the Federation of Recorded Music Societies from 1947 to 1948, and latterly from 1978 to 1998, becoming Chairman. in 1976.

In 1961, he joined the British Forces Broadcasting Service. He joined Radio Medway (later Radio Kent) in 1970. Smith, who lived in Rainham, Kent, produced classical music programmes on BBC Radio Medway for thirteen years. These programmes included Concert Hall and Kent Classics.

He began his discography work in 1961, compiling British record label listings for Decca, HMV and Columbia. Some of these were done in collaboration with Frank Andrews. Earlier titles were published by Oakwood Press. Smith worked in this field until shortly before his death, and had been recognised with an award in America, but died before he could travel to be presented with it.

From 1999 to 2000, he was Treasurer of the City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society (CLPGS), from whom his books can still be purchased. He died in Kent on 18 June 2008, aged 86.

Federation of Recorded Music Societies obituary (page 21), Autumn 2008

An obituary also appears in the CLPGS magazine, For the Record, issue 27 (Autumn 2008).

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Carl Sagan
Author

American scientist, astronomer and researcher (1934-1996), best known for popularizing science in the 1970s and 1980s through his books and his TV documentary series, Cosmos, as well as through his work with the Voyager space probe program (he was an instigator of the probes' "golden record", on which he worked with his future wife and collaborator Ann Druyan). Also dabbled in science fiction, writing the novel Contact, which was adapted as a movie.

» Latest edits by 23skidoo : Biography Credits

Andrew Cartmel
Author

UK-born, Canadian-raised author best known for his work in the 1980s and 1990s with the Doctor Who franchise (he was script editor for the final seasons of its original TV run) and associated spin-off novels.

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Vic Crume
Author

American author (1913-1979). Full name Victoria Crume. Best known for writing film and TV novelizations, including several works for Scholastic and novels based upon The Partridge Family TV series.

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Anne Frank
Author

German teenager (1929-1945) best remembered for her famous diary of life hiding from Nazi authorities before her family was captured and sent to a concentration camp (where she died, with her diary being published after the war). She also wrote a handful of short stories (and also a portion of a never-to-be-completed novel) that were also published posthumously.

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L. M. Montgomery
Author

Canadian author, full name Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), best known for her young adult novel series, Anne of Green Gables; most of her fiction was based around her birth province of Prince Edward Island. Also an avid journal writer (many of which have also been published).

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Douglas Adams
Author

English author (1952-2001) best known for creating the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a franchise that involved radio plays, a TV series, a posthumously released film, and a series of novels. Wrote for the TV series Doctor Who in the late 1970s and his scripts were posthumously adapted as novels, but with Adams still receiving cover-page co-writer credit.

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Terry Nation
Author

British writer (1930-1997) best known for creating the Daleks for the sci-fi series Doctor Who, and later he created the TV series Blake's 7 and Survivors. A prolific writer for television, but also wrote a few original novels and works derived from the Daleks and other creations.

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William S. Burroughs
Author

American author (1914-1997) considered one of the founders of "The Beats", an unofficial group of novelists, poets and visual artists that emerged in the mid-1950s and are tied to the so-called "Beat Generation". A close colleague of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, Burroughs is best known for his 1959 novel Naked Lunch, which was the subject of a landmark obscenity trial in the U.S. in the early 1960s, though he wrote many novels, short stories and essays during his prolific career. Also dabbled in filmmaking and acting. Became a father figure to many avant garde and innovative artists in the 1970s and beyond. Late in life appeared in films such as Drugstore Cowboy and Laurie Anderson's concert film, Home of the Brave, and recorded several albums that paired his readings with classic and hip-hop music. Publishers are inconsistent in including his middle initial, S. His first novel, Junkie (a.k.a. Junky) was also published as by William Lee. His son, William S. Burroughs Jr., was also a novelist who was occasionally credited as simply William S. Burroughs, creating some confusion. The senior Burroughs also revised a number of his works over the years, and since his death "expanded editions" have appeared of a number of his works, along with previously unpublished material such as a late-1940s novel co-written with Jack Kerouac.

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Ursula Torday
Author

b. 19 Feb 1912 in London, England
d. 6 Mar 1997

» Latest edits by annaloog : Biography Credits

D. M. Bain
Author

Canadian historian who wrote a number of books on passenger rail and air and public transit history.

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Ace

UK
Publisher

UK paperback publisher set up by Gordon Landsborough for cigarette and tobacco company Godfrey Philips, who were seeking to diversify. A minority of the shares in the publisher was sold off to raise further capital, and then the whole of Ace Books was bought by Times-Mirror of Los Angeles together with Four Square books to form New English Library as the sister company to their New American Library, created by the purchase of the Signet book group.

Completely unconnected with or to Ace Books, inc.

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Patricia Giraldo
Author

American rock and roll singer better known as Pat Benatar.

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George MacDonald Fraser
Author

British author (1925-2008) best known for the Flashman adventure novel series, as well as other works such as the screenplay for the James Bond film, Octopussy.

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