Following Craig Hinton's death by heart attack in December 2006, the Shelf Life series of charity publications was started by Adrian Middleton in Hinton's memory. The books were to be privately printed and distributed in return for donations to the British Heart Foundation. Ultimately, only one release was published, an anthology called Shelf Life, edited by Julian Eales with David A. McIntee and Middleton. Several of the anthology's stories were written by authors of official Doctor Who universe material and featured licensed use of their original concepts.
The name Shelf Life was an homage to Hinton's reviews for Doctor Who Magazine's "Shelf Life" column.
Releases[[edit] | [edit source]]
Shelf Life[[edit] | [edit source]]
The stories in Shelf Life all were somehow connected to Craig Hinton, either because they were inspired by his work or linked to him in a personal way. Middleton originally planned for the anthology to be released in December 2007 for the first anniversary of Hinton's death, but due to the effort involved, he enlisted Jay Eales – who had previously edited the Perfect Timing series and Walking in Eternity – and David A. McIntee to help edit. It ultimately took substantial work to finish the stories and illustrations in time for the second anniversary in 2008.[1]
Each story was accompanied by full-page artwork. In addition to these, Shelf Life included standalone "pulp covers" for Craig Hinton's five DOctor Who novels, illustrated by Marvin Mann, Chris Askham, Jonathon Dalton, Caroline Parkinson, and Terry Wiley, respectively.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
An unofficial collection of illustrated fiction inspired by the Doctor Who writings of CRAIG HINTON, and dedicated to his memory. All profits will be donated to the BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION.
Stories[[edit] | [edit source]]
| Title | Writer | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preface | Jay Eales, David McIntee, Adrian Middleton | Featured a brief message from Russell T Davies. | |
| Wish You Were Here - A Memorial | Andy Lane | ||
| Manuscript Found in an Old Bookcase | Robbie Langton | Peter Neville | |
| Doomsday Minus One | Christer Van | Lee O'Connor | |
| The Monster Factory | Alec Daniels | Terry Wiley | |
| Requiescat | William Andrews | Peter Neville | |
| Relative Dimensions | Andrew Cheverton | Tim Keable | |
| Third Eye View | Chris McKeon | Paul Peart-Smith | |
| Manchusis Psychosis | Roger Clark | John Aggs | |
| Crawlspace | Simon A. Forward | Josceline Fenton | |
| The League of Extraterrestrial Gentlemen[1] | Dale Smith | D'Israeli | An adaptation of Smith's pitch The League of Extraterrestrial Gentlemen. |
| Indigenous Species | Steve Hatcher | Darren Douglas | |
| Façade of Demons | Andy Lane, Craig Hinton | Allan Harvey | |
| Tempus Fugit | Jen Leavesley | Garen Ewing | |
| The Darkest Corner[2] | Adrian Middleton | Vince Danks | |
| Fair Exchange | Mike Morgan | ||
| Return on Investment | Rachel Steffan | Andy Baker | |
| Of Eden Stood Disconsolate | Rachel Simpson Hutchens | Oli Smith | |
| A Very Valeyard Christmas | Craig Hinton | Peter Neville | |
| The Jumping of the Shark | Steve Graeme, Adrian Middleton | Dave Windet | |
| The Finest Restaurant Known to Man | Jon Arnold | Ant Mercer | |
| Tears in Time | Damon Cavalchini | Stephen Prestwood | |
| Time's Champion: Prologue | Craig Hinton, Chris McKeon | Terry Wiley | An excerpt from Time's Champion, adapted by McKeon from Hinton's notes. |
| Perriot le Who? | Andrew K Lawston | Bevis Musson | |
| Room With No Doors Cutaway | Kate Orman | Yishan Li | A deleted scene from The Room With No Doors. |
| Behold the Martian | Matthew Griffiths | Laura Howell | |
| Missing Episode | Roger Gibson | Vince Danks, Roger Gibson | |
| Dial M for Metaphysics | Simon Bucher-Jones | Graeme Neil Reid | |
| A Meeting of Minds | Craig Hinton | Toby Ford | |
| One Perfect Twilight | Emma Vieceli | ||
| Auld Lang Syne | Daniel Tessier | Mike Juniper | |
| Fearful Symmetry | Jim Mortimore | ||
| No Place Like Home | Stuart Douglas | Peet Clack | Reprinted in Bafflement & Devotion. |
| Location | Paul Ebbs | Roger Langridge | |
| Skulduggery | Fiona Moore, Alan Stevens | Brian Gorman | Later released as a Kaldor City short story. |
| Tread on a Crack: A Tale of the Malleus | Jay Eales | Pete Rajski | |
| The Watcher | Nick Wallace | Natalie Sandells | |
| A Fistful of Drabbles | James Ambuehl | ||
| Quantum Mnemonics | Adrian Middleton | Featured quantum mnemonics, which Middleton created for Apocrypha and Hinton used in Millennial Rites. | |
| The Legend of Rassilon's Cat | |||
| The Quantum Archangel Notes | Craig Hinton | Notes on The Quantum Archangel. | |
| House of Pain and Pleasure | |||
| The Final Word | Peter Anghelides, Daniel O'Mahony, Mark Michalowski, Dave Whittam | ||
Further releases[[edit] | [edit source]]
Adrian Middleton planned to release further volumes of Shelf Life in 2009 and 2010 without the help of Jay Eales and David McIntee.[1] However, these were never released.
External Links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official site (accessed via archive.org)
- Shelf Life: An Editor's Perspective
- Review on Doctor Who Reviews