Lost Media - Doctor Who Quiz Books
Doctor Who Quiz Books
Space and Science (Books 3 and 4)
Due to the popularity of Doctor Who coming off the back of Tom Baker, a number of activity books for children were published throughout the late seventies and early eighties. These books often stayed close to the early premise of Doctor Who - to both entertain and educate. The Doctor Who Quiz Books, written by Michael Holt, were very popular. Holt was a British author of puzzle and quiz books for children, and had taught mathematics and geometry. He would go on to write over a hundred books, mostly for children, and appear on his own show "Mathemagical" on BBC.
The idea was to emulate the style of the popular Target Novelisation of the time - complete with an image of current Doctor Peter Davison on the cover of each book - and include mini stories interlaced with facts and quizzes related to the topic of the book.
The four that were released as part of this series were the Quiz Book of Dinosaurs (1982), the Quiz Book of Magic, the Quiz Book of Space and the Quiz Book of Science (1983), and they were published by Magnet Books, a subsidiary of Methuen Children's Books. Each was just under one hundred pages. The books all featured the Fifth Doctor and Tegan, with Nyssa appearing in three and Turlough replacing her in the Quiz Book of Space. There were also illustrations done throughout by Rowan Barnes-Murphy.
In 1985, Severn House issued hardcover editions of the series for libraries, retitled without the "Quiz" in their names. These library editions are considered lost by this archive. Holt wrote one further book for Magnet Books, Doctor Who: Puzzle Book, in 1985, which featured the Sixth Doctor, Peri and K9. He also later wrote the book Crisis in Space for the Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who series in 1986.
The first two Quiz Books are preserved digitally, if not physically, through this archive. However, the latter two are not available digitally, and rarely available physically.