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THE BENTON FILES IV

THE BENTON FILES IV

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Candy Jar is pleased to announce The Benton Files IV, the latest in their series of quick-read books about everyone’s favourite UNIT sergeant. The book features two new stories by Hayden Gribble and Ian Ball.

The first story is Rotten to the Core, by Candy Jar newcomer, Hayden Gribble.

“Hayden was recommended to me, although we had already connected via social media,” says Range Editor Tim Gambrell. “He pitched a strong idea, and what he’s written is essentially that same pitch, only with a few minor tweaks around the involvement of the Brigadier.”

Hayden says:

‘It’s always been an ambition of mine to write Doctor Who fiction. So, when Tim and the good people at Candy Jar asked me to write for the Benton Files, I was over the moon! It didn’t take long for me to come up with the idea of the Hem and what kind of terror they would put Benton through – it’s a solo adventure that puts our beloved UNIT man at the heart of danger.”

Tim takes up the story again…

“Hayden’s aliens were such an interesting concept that it seemed a shame to only have them in one story. I asked Hayden and he was happy for another writer to pick them up. I then approached Ian Ball, a writer who’d previously contributed a story for The UNIT Files: Operation Wildcat, about the second story.

“I’m getting suspicious,’ says Ian. ‘It’s happened twice now, that Tim has come to me with a very specific story requirement and a tight deadline! I loved the imagery that Hayden had created with the Hem for his story and could immediately see more possibilities there. The challenge was to make it sufficiently the same and different, to give a sense of continuity and progression. What helped hugely was being able to set the story in the JB Motors period of Benton’s life.”

Ian’s story is called Scrapped Plans. Tim continues:

“This book is essentially telling a story across a long period of Benton’s life, and it’s allowed me to integrate the modern-day pub scenes a little more than in previous books. That was probably the final piece of the puzzle to fall into place.”

But what are the Hem? How does Benton become embroiled in their invasion? You’ll have to read the stories to find out…

The Benton Files IV will be issued free with the hardback edition of The Vaughn Identity by Tim Gambrell. It will also be available to buy on its own, exclusively from the Candy Jar website.

UNIT: THE VAUGHN IDENTITY

UNIT: THE VAUGHN IDENTITY

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The Vaughn Identity

2024 will see the launch of Candy Jar’s UNIT range with a series of original novels. The first book, The Vaughn Identity, is written by the range editor, Tim Gambrell, and picks up where the TV story The Invasion left off.

Tim says:

“There’s a lot left open at the end of The Invasion. Tobias Vaughn’s story – and the whole International Electromatics set-up – is very layered and detailed. We see repeatedly in Doctor Who that once the main threat is dealt with the Doctor is quick to leave”.

This new series of books now squarely focuses on UNIT and explores the fall-out from The Invasion, both on a personal and national level, and how the story would have been spun by the government and the press. As the title suggests, the story looks into the background of Tobias Vaughn.

Tim continues:

“As a character, he was in a class of his own – due very much to Kevin Stoney’s bravura performance, but also because of Derrick Sherwin’s script and Douglas Camfield’s direction. We know Vaughn was killed at the end of The Invasion, and left hanging over the railings. I wanted to find a way to get more from the character without pretending that he hadn’t really died on screen, which would have felt like a cop-out. I also wanted to work purely within the situations and concepts that Derrick Sherwin had created, to give my story the sense that it was finishing off, or tidying up any strands left hanging loose after the TV story had concluded.”

But as well as looking back to The Invasion, The Vaughn Identity also looks forward to the series of books that will follow.

Tim takes up the story again:

“We’ve got a wider cast of UNIT regulars to take our books forward. Readers have already been introduced to many of them in the two UNIT Files short story collections (Operation Wildcat, 2022, and Operation Fall-Out, 2023) but The Vaughn Identity allows us to see how they were impacted by the events of The Invasion, making it more of a shared experience. As the first novel of the range, it’s important to introduce and involve new regular characters in the action and the storyline and not simply as an info-dump roll call.”

Some other familiar faces are also appearing, besides the Brigadier and his TV team. “There are a few minor nods to the Lethbridge-Stewart range,’ Tim explains, ‘but nothing that would faze new readers. We want this to be a jumping-on point, a fresh start whilst also quietly acknowledging the achievement of the previous range.”

There will be another short Benton Files book, free with the hardback of The Vaughn Identity. More details of that will be available nearer the time.

Blurb for the The Vaughn Identity