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Book News: New Book Goes In Search of the Cyberman Man

Written by J. R. Southall Wednesday, 21 March 2012

Book News

Kit Pedlar might be well known amongst fans of science fiction – and particularly SFTV – for any number of things. The original ‘Prophet of Doom’ who foresaw all the problems our love affair with technology might bring (including the internet itself), Pedlar (in collaboration with Gerry Davis) was the brains behind the BBC’s Doomwatch, and even more famously devised the Cybermen for Doctor Who. He was also the author of 1979’s The Quest for Gaia, and the brains behind ITV’s Mind Over Matter, a series concerned with finding rational explanations for paranormal events.

But Kit Pedlar was also something of a mystery himself. We might know the public face of the man who famously ripped the packaging from his shopping right there at the supermarket tills, and who designed and built a nuclear bomb in rural Kent, but what do we really know of the man himself? The private life behind the legend?

Fortunately, Miwk Publishing have come to the rescue, and in March 2013 are publishing The Quest for Pedlar: The Life and Ideas of Kit Pedlar, a comprehensive volume about the life and work of the man, with contributions from colleagues, critics, family and friends, by Michael Seely (author of Prophets of Doom, the definitive guide to Doomwatch). You can pre-order it at the Miwk website for £12.99 – a steal on the rrp of £19.99.