Mad Dogs and Englishmen is a BBC Books

BBC Books

BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...

 original novel written by Paul Magrs

Paul Magrs

Paul Magrs is a writer and lecturer. He was born in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, England, and now lives in Manchester with his partner, author and lecturer Jeremy Hoad.-Early life:...

 and based on the long-running British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 science fiction television

Science fiction on television

Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...

 series Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

. It features the Eighth Doctor

Eighth Doctor

The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...

, Fitz

Fitz Kreiner

Fitzgerald Michael Kreiner, or simply Fitz, is a fictional character in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novels based upon the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. The Eighth Doctor first met him in the novel The Taint by Michael Collier — the character was co-created by Stephen Cole...

 and Anji

Anji Kapoor

Anji Kapoor, or simply Anji, is a fictional character in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, a novel series based upon the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. The Eighth Doctor first met her in the novel Escape Velocity by Colin Brake, and she went on to become one of his companions....

.

Plot

A race of alien poodles alters a 20th century fantasy epic to aid their civil war.

The Doctor infiltrates a groups of writers known as the Smudgelings, Anji experiences some very, very special effects in 1970s America and Fitz meets an old friend.

The book also features a jolly hotel chef and dogs with opposable thumbs.

Tolkien

• The novel contains a spoof of J. R. R. Tolkien
  J. R. R. Tolkien
  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
  
  's experiences writing The Lord of the Rings
  The Lord of the Rings
  The Lord of the Rings is a high fantasy epic written by English philologist and University of Oxford professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit , but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in...
  
  . The character representing C. S. Lewis
  C. S. Lewis
  Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
  
   in this also appears in Magrs's non-Doctor Who novel To the Devil — a Diva! and the Smudgelings reappear in his novel Something Borrowed. Another character represents Ray Harryhausen
  Ray Harryhausen
  Ray Harryhausen is an American film producer and special effects creator...
  
  .

External links

• The Cloister Library - Mad Dogs and Englishmen