Travelling with the Doctor: Book Style

It’s a known fact that Doctor Who is awesome. I think that anyone who hasn’t secretly wished for the Doctor (preferably the 10^th...) to turn up on your doorstop and whisk you away are lying. I’ve spent a worrying amount of time thinking about where and when I would ask the Doctor to take me, and that’s only for Earth! As someone who thinks about book with most of my free brain space, lots of my requests were book related and here they are!

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The first place I would want to go to is the legendary Library of Alexandria. It was periodically destroyed between 48 BC and AD 642 (according to Wikipedia, anyway) and no one knows for sure what happened to it, other than that there were several fires. I know, it makes me shudder as well. can you imagine the amount of mythology, history and knowledge was in that place? It blows my mind. I wonder how different our world would be if it hadn’t all have been lost. I reckon there are also a few curses and mythical monsters to keep the Doctor busy while I die of happiness among to rolls of scrolls.

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Jumping back to England and the 1500s to something that was actually covered in the second episode of season three, The Shakespeare Code, with Martha but I just...it’s Shakespeare! That’s actually one of my favourite ever episode of Doctor Who and I love the idea of seeing the man himself in a play he wrote in the original Globe Theatre (though the picture below is the rebuilt version that’s used today). I don’t know if he ever acted in either of these but I’d love to see Antony and Cleopatra or Romeo & Juliet as they’re my favourites.

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Next I’d jump back to the present day and pick up one of my best friends, Sean, to meet John Keats, preferably before the whole TB thing. He’s a bit of a Keats fangirl and I’d love to see him lose it in from of him. They could chat and try and convince him to sign Sean’s battered copy of his poetry collection. I’d definitely get him to read me a poem, probably Bright Star.

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Staying in the Romantic era, I’d whisk my mum off the Bath (oh, Bath. I miss you) to have afternoon tea in The Pump Rooms with Jane Austen. I took my mum there for Mother’s Day earlier this year and it was gorgeous. You walk in there and you can vividly imagine the women of Regency society going to have a glass of the natural spring water and gossiping over mini sandwiches. I’d love to meet Jane Austen and see what she was really like and I’m sure my mum would have a heart attack; where better place to do it! Maybe the Doctor can give saving the world a rest and charm his way into getting us into a ball...

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From one of literature’s greats to another, I would love to meet Roald Dahl. It makes me so sad that the man who made me fall in love with reading died a mere two years before I was born and I’d love to thank him. He was notoriously cagey so he might not even talk to me properly, but I’d still love to say it. I’d love to try and get him to sign my battered and falling apart copy of Matilda which I’ve had since I was about 8. I also think he’d be involved in some secret, alien plot to do with his characters, maybe the Twits, for the Doctor to figure out.

Finally, I’d like to do something for my future children. I’d go back and buy a first edition copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Those that know me will know just how much I love first edition hardbacks and this is one of those that I’d never be able to afford now as they’re worth a fair bit. I’d bequeath it to my first born when they’re old enough to look after and respect it. It’d also add rather spectacularly to my collection of first edition hardbacks and while I was dribbling over this, the Doctor reveal to me that there’s actually a planet where Harry’s world is real and all my dreams would come true...

So there they are: the places I would drag the Doctor to.

Where would you go? Which authors would you meet?