Virgin Books

Virgin Books, or Virgin Publishing, was the book publishing arm of Virgin Enterprises which published licensed Doctor Who fiction and non-fiction during the early-to-mid 1990s. Under the Doctor Who Books imprint, Virgin published the Doctor Who New Adventures (1991-99) and Missing Adventures (1994-97) novels, as well as the Virgin Decalogs (1994-97) anthologies and Licence Denied, a collected anthology of fan writing edited by Paul Cornell.
After the BBC withdrew Virgin's licence, the New Adventures continued with Bernice Summerfield as the primary character to continue publishing stories that take place in the Doctor Who universe but do not feature the Doctor.
Virgin were famous for opening their doors to submissions from new writers, often from fandom: Cornell, Gary Russell, Lawrence Miles, Kate Orman, Dave Stone and others all started at the company. In 2013, Russell said: "With hindsight of course, you go, 'It's because [new writers]'re bloody cheap, and they couldn't afford big posh writers to keep doing Doctor Who books because they had to do them on a shoestring'. But nevertheless, that ability to open up that market to unknown writers was phenomenal".Interview: Gary Russell | DOCTOR WHO (dead link)
With the show's return in 2005, Virgin published an unofficial reference book Who's Next: An Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to Doctor Who.
In 2007, a decade after they stopped publishing official Doctor Who material, Random House gained majority shareholding, effectively ending Virgin's life as an independent publishing company. Like BBC Books, it now exists as an imprint in the Ebury Publishing division. Due to them now sharing a publishing company, since 2014 a handful of Virgin novels have reemerged as BBC Books reprints.
== Illustrations ==
Other than the cover art, Virgin Books usually contained no illustrations. Internal illustrations were included in:
Series 	Novel 	# of illustrations	Illustrator
Virgin New Adventures 	Lucifer Rising 	8 	Lee Brimmicombe-Wood
Virgin New Adventures 	Blood Heat 	5 	Tim Keable
Virgin New Adventures 	All-Consuming Fire 	8 	Mike Nicholson
Virgin New Adventures 	Sky Pirates! 	4 	Roger Langridge
Virgin New Adventures 	SLEEPY 	2 	Jason Towers
Virgin New Adventures 	Original Sin 	2 	Tony Masero
Virgin Missing Adventures	The Empire of Glass 	2 	Mike Nicholson
Virgin Missing Adventures	The English Way of Death	4 	Phil Bevan
Virgin Missing Adventures	The Plotters 	2 	Paul Vyse
== Rereleases ==
=== BBCi ebooks (2002-2006) ===
Starting in 2002,Dr Who book goes online eight Virgin books novels were rereleased as free ebooks on the Doctor Who website with new cover art and new illustrations.Doctor Who Ebooks (archived)
Series 	Novel 	# of illustrations	Illustrator
Virgin New Adventures 	Nightshade 	11 + cover 	Daryl Joyce
Virgin New Adventures 	Human Nature 	17 + cover 	Daryl Joyce
Virgin New Adventures 	Lungbarrow 	17 + cover 	Daryl Joyce
Virgin New Adventures 	The Dying Days 	15 + cover 	Allan Bednar
Virgin Missing Adventures	The Empire of Glass 	9 + cover 	Mike Nicholson
Virgin Missing Adventures	The Scales of Injustice	7 + cover 	Daryl Joyce
Virgin Missing Adventures	The Well-Mannered War 	6 + cover 	Daryl Joyce
Virgin Missing Adventures	The Sands of Time 	11 + cover 	Peter McKinstry
=== The Monster Collection (2014) ===
Series 	Novel
Virgin Missing Adventures	The Scales of Injustice
Virgin Missing Adventures	The Sands of Time
Virgin New Adventures 	Shakedown
=== The History Collection (2015) ===
 
Series 	Novel
Virgin Missing Adventures	The English Way of Death
Virgin New Adventures 	Human Nature
== Logos ==
The New Adventures and other Doctor Who tie-in books and merchandise focusing on the Seventh Doctor era generally used the Seventh Doctor's logo as seen on television. Virgin also created an exclusive version of the classic "diamond logo" for use on the Missing Adventures and other material focusing on the eras of then-past Doctors. However, the Virgin logo itself was rarely, if ever, used on any Doctor Who output.
== External links ==
* Virgin Worlds - Writer's Guide
* Virgin Books website
* Virgin Books at the Penguin Random House UK website
== Footnotes ==