Keith Andrew Topping (born 26 October 1963 in

Walker Walker or The Walker may refer to: People * Walker (given name) *Walker (surname) * Walker (Brazilian footballer) (born 1982), Brazilian footballer Places In the United States *Walker, Arizona, in Yavapai County *Walker, Mono County, California ...

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as publishe ...

) is an author, journalist and broadcaster. He is most well known for his work relating to the

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...

'' and for writing numerous official and unofficial guide books to a wide variety of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

and

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

series, particularly ''

Buffy the Vampire Slayer ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the 1992 film of the same name, also written by Whedon, although the events of the film are not consid ...

''. He is also the author of two books of

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States a ...

critique. To date, Topping has published more than 40 books.

Early life and background

Keith Topping's parents were Thomas Topping (1918–1991) and Lily Lamb (b. 1920) and he has two much older brothers, Terrence John (b. 1944) and Thomas Colin (b. 1948). Topping's family have Irish, Scottish, East Anglian (

Snape, Suffolk Snape is a small village in the English county of Suffolk, on the River Alde close to Aldeburgh. At the 2011 census the population was 611. In Anglo-Saxon England, Snape was the site of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial. Snape is now best known for ...

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

) and

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

n ( Crosby-on-Eden) roots as well as North Eastern. He is a distant relative of the Morpeth landscape artist Thomas Bowman Garvie (1859–1944). Topping's great-great-uncle was the Tyneside journalist and columnist Albert Elliott. He worked for the

Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

as an Administrative Officer in the, then, Department of Employment between 1983 and 2001 when he left to pursue a full-time freelance writing career.

Work

Topping's first published fiction was the

BBC Books BBC Books (also formerly known as BBC Publishing) is an imprint majority-owned and managed by Penguin Random House through its Ebury Publishing division. The minority shareholder is BBC Studios, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasti ...

" Past Doctor Adventure" '' The Devil Goblins from Neptune'' in 1997. The novel was co-written with his friend and frequent collaborator Martin Day. The pair quickly followed this up with the acclaimed novel ''

The Hollow Men "The Hollow Men" (1925) is a poem by the modernist writer T. S. Eliot. Like much of his work, its themes are overlapping and fragmentary, concerned with post– World War I Europe under the Treaty of Versailles (which Eliot despised: compare ...

'' in 1998. Following Day's move into TV scripting, Topping wrote the novels '' The King of Terror'' (2000) and ''

Byzantium! ''Byzantium!'' is a BBC Books original novel written by Keith Topping and based on the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It features the First Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Vicki. Synopsis Byzantium Byzan ...

'' (2001) solo. The latter novel is the only BBC Books Past Doctor Adventure to be set entirely within one episode of the television series ''Doctor Who'' — 1965's '' The Romans'' by Dennis Spooner. Topping also wrote the

Telos Doctor Who novella The Telos ''Doctor Who'' novellas were a series of tie-in novellas based on the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', officially licensed by the BBC and published by Telos Publishing. Each novella was published in t ...

'' Ghost Ship'' which was published in 2002 and reissued as a paperback in 2003. As well as writing fiction, Topping has also authored numerous programme guides to television series. These were all published by

Virgin Books Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing ...

, and co-written with Martin Day and Paul Cornell. Cornell, Day and Topping also collaborated on the '' Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide'', published by

in 1995 and re-issued, in the US, by

MonkeyBrain Books MonkeyBrain Books (MonkeyBrain, Inc.) is an independent American publishing house based in Austin, Texas, specialising in books comprising both new content and reprinting online, international, or out-of-print content, which show "an academic i ...

in 2004, a lighthearted guide to the mistakes and incongruities of the television series. Subsequently, Topping wrote ''The Complete Slayer: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Every Episode of

'', amongst others. On radio, Topping was the Producer/Presenter of the monthly ''Book Club'' (2005–2007) and co-presented a daily television review slot, ''Keith Telly Topping's Top TV Tips'', Monday to Friday, on ''The Simon Logan Show'' for

BBC Newcastle BBC Radio Newcastle is the BBC's local radio station serving Newcastle upon Tyne, the neighbouring metropolitan boroughs, Northumberland and north east County Durham. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from BBC studios ...

(2006-2012).

Bibliography

* ''The Guinness Book of Classic British TV'' (1993: Guinness Publishing) cowritten with Paul Cornell and Martin Day * ''The Avengers Programme Guide'' (1994: Virgin Books) cowritten with Paul Cornell and Martin Day * '' The Doctor Who Discontinuity Guide'' (1995: Virgin Books) cowritten with Paul Cornell and Martin Day * ''The New Trek Programme Guide'' (1995: Virgin Books) cowritten with Paul Cornell and Martin Day ** (Also published as ''Der Neue TREK Episoden-Führer'' () in Germany by VGS Verlagsgescellschaft, Köln (1996)) * ''The Guinness Book of Classic British TV econd Edition' (1996: Guinness Publishing) cowritten with Paul Cornell and Martin Day * ''X-Treme Possibilities - A Paranoid Rummage Through The X-Files'' (1997: Virgin Books) cowritten with Paul Cornell and Martin Day * ''Doctor Who: The Devil Goblins From Neptune'' (1997: BBC Books) cowritten with Martin Day * ''The Avengers Dossier'' (1998: Virgin Books) cowritten with Paul Cornell & Martin Day * ''Doctor Who: The Hollow Men'' (1998: BBC Books) cowritten with Martin Day * ''X-Treme Possibilities - A Comprehensively Expanded Rummage Through Five Years of The X-Files'' (1998: Virgin Books) cowritten with Paul Cornell and Martin Day * ''Shut It! A Fan’s Guide to 70s Cops on the Box'' (1999: Virgin Books) cowritten with Martin Day . * ''Slayer: The Totally Cool Unofficial Guide to Buffy'' (2000: Virgin Books) ** (Also published in France as ''Tueuse de Vampires: Le guide non officiel de Buffy'' by Editions Hors Collection, (2000)) * ''Hollywood Vampire: The Unofficial Guide to Angel'' (Nov 2000: Virgin Books) ** (Also published in France as ''Le Vampire D’Hollywood: Le guide non officiel de La Serie Angel'' by Editions Hors Collection, (2001)) * ''Doctor Who: The King of Terror'' (Nov 2000: BBC Books) * ''Slayer: The Revised and Updated Unofficial Guide to Buffy The Vampire Slayer'' (Mar 2001: Virgin Books) * ''Doctor Who: Byzantium!'' (Jul 2001: BBC Books) * ''High Times: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Roswell'' (Oct 2001: Virgin Books) ** (Also published in France as ''Roswell: Le Guide non officiel les 2 premières saisons'' by Editions Hors Collection, (2002)) * ''Hollywood Vampire: A Revised and Updated Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Angel'' (Dec 2001: Virgin Books) * ''Slayer: An Expanded and Updated Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (Feb 2002: Virgin Books) * ''Inside Bartlet’s White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing'' (April 2002: Virgin Books) . * ''Doctor Who: Ghost Ship'' (August 2002: Telos Publishing), ISBN Standard Hardback 1-903889-08-1. ISBN Deluxe Hardback 1-903889-09-X. ISBN Paperback 1-90-3889-32-4. * ''Beyond the Gåte: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Stargate SG-1'' (October 2002: Telos Publishing). . * ''Slayer The Next Generation: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Season Six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (January 2003: Virgin Books) * ''A Day in the Life: The Unofficial & Unauthorised Guide to 24'' (April 2003: Telos Publishing) * ''The Complete Clash'' (September 2003: Reynolds & Hearn Publishing) * ''Hollywood Vampire: A Revised and Updated Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Angel'' (Jan 2004: Virgin Books) * ''Inside Bartlet’s White House: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The West Wing – Revised and Updated'' (April 2004: Virgin Books) . * ''Slayer: The Last Days of Sunnydale: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Final Season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (June 2004: Virgin Books) * ''Slayer: A totally awesome collection of Buffy trivia'' (August 2004: Virgin Books) * ''The Complete Slayer: An Unofficial; and Unauthorised Guide to Every Episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' (November 2004: Virgin Books) * ''A Vault of Horror: A Book of 80 Great (and not-so-great) British Horror Movies 1956-1974'' (Telos Publishing: October 2004) * '' The Discontinuity Guide: The Unofficial Doctor Who Companion'' ( MonkeyBrain Publishing: October 2004) co-written with Paul Cornell and Martin Day * ''Hollywood Vampire: The Apocalypse - An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Final Season of Angel'' (Virgin Books: January 2005) * ''Do You Want to Know a Secret?: A Fab Anthology of Beatles Facts'' (Virgin Books: July 2005) * ''Hollywood Vampire: A Totally Awesome Collection of Angel Trivia'' (Virgin Books: August 2005) co-written with Deborah Williams. * ''Triqueta: The Unauthorised and Unofficial Guide to the Hit TV Series Charmed'' (Telos Publishing: Feb 2006)

References

External links

From the North: Keith Topping's Blog

Outpost Gallifrey's Keith Topping pages

BBC Radio Newcastle The Book Club page

BBC Radio Newcastle The Book Club 2006 archive

BBC interview 2004

Outpost Gallifrey interview 2001

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Topping, Keith 1963 births Living people English science fiction writers English dramatists and playwrights 21st-century English novelists English short story writers Writers from Newcastle upon Tyne English male dramatists and playwrights English male short story writers English male novelists 21st-century British short story writers 21st-century English male writers Writers of Doctor Who novels