As an imaginative child of the 1960s, David J Howe, like so many of his generation, became entranced by the adventures in space and time of a certain ramshackle traveller known as the Doctor, whose weekly Saturday teatime exploits became part of the fabric of family life in the UK. But unlike many (if not most) of his generation, David went on to turn his obsession with Doctor Who into something rather more.
A ferocious and determined collector of Who-related merchandise and memorabilia (which would allow to him to open his own museum dedicated to the display of his collection in later years), David found himself drifting into the orbit of a nascent Doctor Who fandom in the 1970s when like-minded afficionados were banding together to share their appreciation of the series and to quietly investigate its history and chronicle the making of the show by talking to the people who made it happen. In subsequent years, David found himself involved in the writing of a dizzying array of officially-licensed books on the series – the hardback Decades volumes he co-authored with Stephen James Walker and Mark Stammers still have pride of place on many fans’ shelves – and his own Telos publishing imprint is pretty much the byword for quality niche genre publishing.
Who Me! is David’s story… but it’s also the story of Doctor Who fandom as it emerged blinking from the monochrome 1960s into the Technicolor ’70s. Many readers of this chatty, likeable memoir will be reminded of those long-lost days of writing and collating enthusiastic and cheaply produced fanzines using the primitive printing technology available to teenagers at the time and forming friendships and associations based on a shared passion that would last a lifetime.
David’s story is full of landmark moments in his lifelong journey with the Doctor; taking snapshots from TV transmissions at a time when official BBC photographs were hard to get hold of, making his own Dalek with his Dad, attending studio recording sessions at BBC Television Centre, tracking down and interviewing legendary writers such as Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks who became firm friends, and eventually becoming a well-respected published authority on the history of Doctor Who and, especially, the collectibles and the ephemera it has generated across sixty-plus years on TV. He’s made enduring friendships amongst the show’s cast and his devotion to the Doctor has taken him and his wife Samantha all over the world as they attend conventions as fans and as guests. It’s a story that, in the age of social media and instant access, just couldn’t be told from a modern perspective.
Such is David’s dedication to all things Who it’s perhaps almost inevitable that the “me” in his memoir is almost secondary. Yet he touches on key personal moments in his life – family loss, the birth of his children, his 9 to 5 work in the banking sector – but he doesn’t dwell or linger on them because he knows that what his readers really want are those stories and anecdotes and snippets that connect him to Doctor Who. His personal life and the show do cross streams occasionally, to sometimes amusing effect – he tells of how his first date with his first wife Rosemary was a trip to the BBC Radiophonic Workship in Maida Vale! Who said romance was dead? But there’s high drama too, as David suffers a near-fatal heart attack in 2015… en route to a visit to the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff!
Like so many Who fans who connected with the show in the 1960s, the show runs through David’s veins like blood, and Who Me! is the warm, welcoming and hugely enjoyable story of a life not defined by Doctor Who but clearly enriched by it. At a time when Doctor Who fandom is divided by ugly toxicity and bitter entitlement, Who Me! is a reminder of the rich, life-affirming power of the series and how stepping aboard the TARDIS can take people to extraordinary places and offer up wonderful opportunities.
WHO ME! is published by Bedford Square on October 9th.
