Ghost Light (novelisation)

Doctor Who – Ghost Light
Based on:	Ghost Light
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace
Main enemy:	Light Josiah Smith
Main setting:	Perivale, London, 1883
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Target Books, W.H. Allen & Co]]
Writer:	Marc Platt
Release details
Release number:	92
Release date:	20 September 1990
Format:	Paperback Book, 160 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20351-8
Target novelisations
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Novelisation

• This novelisation is based on the original television serial (TV): Ghost Light, written by Marc Platt and shown from 4 October 1989.
• The cover and information on the right are for the original Target edition. It featured the artwork of Alister Pearson. (See below for information on editions with different covers).

Publisher's summary

Perivale, 1983
A column of smoke rises from the blazing ruins of a forgotten, decaying mansion. Perivale, 1883
In the sleepy, rural parish of Greenford Parva, Gabriel Chase is by far the most imposing edifice. The villagers shun the grim house, but the owner, the reclusive and controversial naturalist Josiah Samuel Smith, receives occasional visitors.
The Reverend Ernest Mathews, for instance, dean of Mortarhouse College, has travelled from Oxford to refute Smith’s blasphemous theories of evolution.
And in a deserted upstairs room, the Doctor and Ace venture from the TARDIS to explore the Victorian mansion …
Who – or what – is Josiah Smith? What terrible secrets does his house conceal? And why does Ace find everything so frightening familiar?

Deviations from televised story

To be added

Writing and publishing notes

• Alister Pearson’s original cover design featured the faces of Josiah Samuel Smith and Light, which were removed in the final cover.
• Dedication: “For Ian, Margaret and the wonderful Alice”

British publication history

One single paperback edition, priced £2.50 (UK), estimated print run: 25,000 copies.

• The Target Book by David J Howe (Telos Publishing 2007)