Doctor Who cover I rejected for one of my novels

Back in January 2002, BBC Books sent me the proposed cover for my Doctor Who novel Amorality Tale [see above] - and I was forced to reject it. The montage had all the key elements I had suggested: Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen as his latter days companion Sarah Jane Smith; the strange obelisk steeple on St Luke's Church near Old Street, a central location in the book; swirling smog of greasy yellow; and the silhouettes of sinister policemen.

Unfortunately, the designer had chosen possibly one of the most famous images of Sarah Jane Smith - looking over her shoulder at a giant spider on her back, from Planet of the Spiders. [You can see the full version on the DVD in the extra photos section, bottom right here.] The designer had photoshopped away the spider, but any fan of Doctor Who would recognise the image's source in an instant. 

Amorality Tale was set before Planet of the Spiders, and had no links to that TV tale. I certainly didn't want readers picking up my new novel, thinking it was a direct prequel to Planet of the Spiders! So I rejected the cover and asked for a different image of Sarah Jane Smith to be used. You can see the final version in the extra photos, bottom right of this page. It's still a remarkably queasy cover, but at least it wasn't needlessly misleading.

Happily, Amorality Tale was reissued in a new edition last year with a much more compelling cover.