Blake’s 7: Chosen
- At November 24, 2020
- By Niel
- In Writing
0
I’m really pleased that my Blake’s 7 audiobook, Chosen, is out today. I’ve been a fan of Blake’s 7 all my life, so the opportunity to write a novel set in that universe was something that I had wanted to do for a very long time.
My love of Blake’s 7 goes all the way back to the original transmission which I saw at the impressionable age of seven. It gripped me from the first episode, and once I saw the Liberator there was no turning back. I’ve been hooked ever since, and I’ve wanted to play in the Blake’s 7 universe for a very long time. I was lucky enough to animate the intros for the DVDs but this is the first time I’ve written for Blake’s 7, so this is a dream come true for me.
Chosen is set between the Season One episodes Mission to Destiny and Duel. The crew is still getting to know each other when the Liberator is damaged in a flight through an asteroid field. Blake thinks a base might be a good idea, somewhere to conduct repairs and hide from the Federation, and he thinks he’s found the perfect planet. While he, Villa and Jenna teleport down to the surface to explore, the others conduct repairs to the failing ship. Cally accidentally activates a dormant defence system and she finds herself sealed on the Flight Deck, her mind flooded with images of a teenage boy growing up in a ruined city on an icy planet. As Cally fights her own personal battle for control of her mind, Avon and Gan struggle to save the ship from destruction. And Blake’s hope of finding sanctuary quickly turns into a battle for survival against a horde of killer robots.
I completed Chosen earlier this year, and as I also turned 50 this year I decided it was time to get myself a fantastic Liberator handgun and teleport bracelet replica from Century Casting.
You can listen to Chosen here: https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/blake-s-7-chosen-audiobook-2254
“Aren’t you Trevor Hoyle?”
- At November 30, 2018
- By Niel
- In Talks/Events, Writing
- 0
Yesterday, I was in Manchester for the Society of Authors Annual General Meeting. I’ve been on the committee of the Authors North sub-group for the last few years and, until yesterday, I was its Chair. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be a story about how I got kicked off the committee, I was due to step down and hand over to the new Chair, the excellent Rhoda Baxter. My tenure as Chair was, thankfully, without incident. (Nothing was proved.)
I was helping to look after the registration desk when I heard a familiar name mentioned: Trevor Hoyle.
My brain began to buzz. How did I know that name? Then it came to me: Trevor Hoyle was the writer of one of my favourite books from my childhood, the first novel based on the BBC TV series, Blake’s 7.
I left the registration desk and caught up with a somewhat startled chap, as captured in this aggressive-looking picture taken by Colin Shelborn.
“Aren’t you Trevor Hoyle?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied, with all the nervousness of a man being accosted by a scary stranger.
“You worte a Blake’s 7 book!” I declared, like an idiot.
Trevor chuckled. “Well, I wrote three, actually.”
Indeed he did. Here’s a selection of my own copies of those books, a mix of the UK and US editions. In fact, Trevor is an incredibly varied and prolific author:
“Trevor Hoyle has published fiction with John Calder: The Man Who Travelled on Motorways, Vail (a dystopian vision of Britain as a police state) and Blind Needle, a chase thriller set in the Lake District. His novel The Last Gasp is currently under option in Hollywood. In 2003 Pomona reissued Rule of Night (originally published in 1975), about skinheads in a northern town, which was Time Out’s Book of the Week and was highly praised in the Guardian and City Life. More recently Trevor Hoyle has written for BBC Radio 4. His first play, GIGO, won the Radio Times Drama Award, and another, Randle’s Scandals, about the rude Wigan comedian Frank Randle, was critically acclaimed. He also wrote and presented a feature for Radio 4, The Lighthouse Invites the Storm, in memory of the writer Malcolm Lowry.”
My chat to Trevor was brief – the registration desk was calling me – but it was a genuine thrill to meet someone who was part of my childhood. That copy of Blake’s 7 was well-read and fondly remembered.
