David J Howe

Biography

David Howe was born 24 August 1961 and established himself (in the early 1980s) as an authoritative media historian through writing articles for fanzines (notably The Frame) and other publications. In the early 1990s, he began to write the first in-depth critical texts of the British television series Doctor Who, and as a result has become closely associated with the show's history. He has written or co-written over thirty titles about the show, and continues to be involved with a variety of publications, often acting as consultant or reviewer.

In particular, Howe collaborated on some of the key texts in Virgin Publishing's range of Doctor Who reference works, including the three Decades books (with Stephen James Walker and Mark Stammers), considered to be some of the most in-depth works about the production history of the show. The same authors followed these with guide books which covered the individual tenures of each Doctor in turn.

Howe and Stephen James Walker set up the publishing house Telos Publishing in 2000. The first publication under the Telos name was the first edition of Howe's Transcendental Toybox, written by Howe and Arnold T. Blumberg. (A later edition was described by the BBC's Doctor Who website as a "definitive collector's guide to Doctor Who merchandise".) Telos' second publication was a collection of tie-in fiction to the Channel 5 horror series Urban Gothic. Telos published Doctor Who novellas from 2001 to 2004, when BBC Worldwide declined to renew its license. Telos continues to publish non-Doctor Who works and unofficial Doctor Who reference works, including The Handbook, collecting the previously written Virgin Publishing guide books Doctor Who The Handbook in one volume in 2005, and the 2003 book The Television Companion (by Howe and Walker, and previously released as Doctor Who: The Television Companion in 1998 by BBC Publishing; the BBC Doctor Who website described it as the "definitive guide to Doctor Who"). In 2007–2008, Howe also served as the editor for Time's Champion, an independent Doctor Who novel based on Craig Hinton's final unpublished novel and completed by his friend Chris McKeon, which features the Sixth Doctor and the Valeyard.

Howe also wrote Dæmos Rising, an original film directed by Keith Barnfarther. He also wrote a story for the first Virgin Decalog short story collection, his only piece of licensed Doctor Who fiction to be published. He continues to work as co-director of Telos Publishing, which has expanded to publish a wide range of classic and new science fiction stories. In 2011 Howe published talespinning, a collection of short fiction, including several horror stories, Doctor Who fiction and drabbles.

Howe also has one of the largest collections of Doctor Who merchandise in the world. His collection was featured in the television programme Collectors Lot and on a special Doctor Who edition of Antiques Roadshow.

Aside from his Doctor Who work, Howe was the reviews editor for the horror film magazine Shivers from 1994 to 2008, when it ceased publication. He was also a contributing editor to Starburst magazine from 1984 to 2001, and edited the book reviews column for that magazine for sixteen years. Howe has also contributed reviews, articles and interviews to publications including Fear, Dreamwatch, Infinity, The Stage, The Dark Side, Doctor Who Magazine, The Guardian, Film Review, SFX, Sci-Fi Entertainment, Collectors' Gazette, Death Ray, Doctor Who Insider and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Howe edited the British Fantasy Society's bi-monthly newsletter from 1992 to 1995, and was the chair of that organisation from September 2010 to October 2011.