Ben Dylan Aaronovitch (born 22 February 1964)[2] is an English author and screenwriter. He is the author of the series of novels Rivers of London. He also wrote two Doctor Who serials in the late 1980s and spin-off novels from Doctor Who and Blake's 7.
Ben Aaronovitch
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Aaronovitch at a Forbidden Planet event
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| Born | Ben Dylan Aaronovitch (1964-02-22) 22 February 1964 (age 60) Camden, London, England |
| Occupation | Author, screenwriter |
| Notable works | Rivers of London Remembrance of the Daleks |
| Spouse |
Marie Fofana (m. 1992) |
| Relatives | Sam Aaronovitch (father) Owen Aaronovitch (brother) David Aaronovitch (brother) |
Born in Camden,[3] Aaronovitch is the son of the economist Sam Aaronovitch who was a senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain,[4] and the younger brother of actor Owen Aaronovitch and journalist David Aaronovitch.[5] He attended Holloway School.[6]
Aaronovitch left school with no particular plan. “Instead of going to university I basically faffed about. I had a series of terrible jobs, the kind you get when you have no qualifications.” These included working as a security guard for Securitas, which he says taught him “to understand shoplifting a lot better... So it did come in quite handy later, for work”.[7] During one of the short-term jobs he submitted some scripts to the BBC, which led to him writing Doctor Who stories, and finally, while working at Waterstones, Aaronovitch published his first Rivers of London novel, which rapidly became a word-of-mouth success, enabling him to write full-time. He is passionate about diversity in literature,[8] and in 2020 he founded the Future Worlds Prize, then known as the Gollancz and Rivers of London BAME SFF Award, aimed at opening up science fiction and fantasy publishing to more diverse writers.[9][10]
In 2023 it was announced that Rivers of London would be adapted for TV as a co-production between Pure Fiction Television, See-Saw Films and Aaronovitch’s own production company, Unnecessary Logo.[11]
Aaronovitch wrote two Doctor Who serials, Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) and Battlefield (1989), for BBC television, and also the novelization of the former.[13]
He wrote one episode for Casualty (1990) and was then a regular writer on the science fiction series Jupiter Moon.[14]
He subsequently wrote or co-wrote three Doctor Who spin-off novels in the Virgin Publishing New Adventures range; he created the character Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart who became a semi-regular in the New Adventures. He has also written a novel and several short stories published by Big Finish Productions featuring the character of Bernice Summerfield, who was originally developed in the New Adventures. He also co-wrote a Doctor Who audio drama for Big Finish, and has written a number of Blake's 7 spin-off audio dramas.
Knight Fall
In May 1987, Aaronovitch submitted Knight Fall to the Doctor Who production office for Season 25. The story concerned privatization.[15] Script editor Andrew Cartmel liked the story ideas, but felt that the script was inappropriate for the series and had too many supporting characters.[15]
Transit
After failing to feature Aaronovitch's Knight Fall storyline to production, Aaronovitch submitted a story in June 1987, entitled Transit. The story would see the Doctor and Ace in the future, land in a metro station, and discover transportation portals that could lead any body throughout the Solar System, but one of the portals leads a gate way to hell.[15] Even though Aaronovitch's scripts of Transit never came to fruition, he would adapt the story as a book for Virgin New Adventures series in December 1992.[15]
Bad Destination
During Summer of 1988, Aaronovitch submitted a three-part adventure story for Doctor Who’s 27th Season (which never came to fruition), and was called Bad Destination. The story would feature The Doctor seeing Ace as a captain of a hospital spaceship which is being under attack by the Metatraxi.[16] The story, however, was abandoned when, in September 1989, the BBC cancelled Doctor Who after its 26 Season, due to declining audiences.[15][16] In July 2011, Big Finish Productions released the story as Earth Aid, by Aaronovitch and Cartmel.[15]
The short stories below are published in 'Tales from the Folly: A Rivers of London Short Story Collection'.
