Bernice Summerfield Anthologies

Series · 14

books · 2002-2020

By Mags L. Halliday, Nick Wallace, Mark Clapham, and more

Books in series

A Life of Surprises

2002

Professor Bernice Summerfield, interstellar archaeologist, adventurer, and romantic, has had either one very big life or a number of only slightly smaller ones. This anthology contains stories from many times and places across her long career, ranging from the starkly dramatic, through the thrilling, to the hilarious.

Life During Wartime

2003

The Braxiatel Collection has been occupied by the Fifth Axis. This shouldn't have happened: Brax picked this place to be safe, and surely he knows the history of time and space? Bernice and her friends find themselves living under a military government. Bev joins the resistance. Adrian is thrown into a prison camp for aliens. Jason finds a comfortable little niche for himself in the new administration. Bernice's half-human son, Peter, is now under threat every minute of every day. Bernice finds herself caught in the middle of the occupation, her old friends, and her desperate need to protect her child. THE STORIES The Fall by Paul Cornell Careless Talk by Justin Richards The Birthday Party by Simon Guerrier Five Dimensional Thinking by Nick Wallace Meanwhile by Robert Shearman The Price of Everything by Gregg Smith Hit by John Binns The Garden of Whispers by Martin Day The Crystal Flower by Cavan Scott & Mark Wright Midrash by Ian Mond Fear of Corners by Mark Stevens The Traitors by Jonathan Morris Paths Not Taken by Rupert Booth & Barr Williams Every Picture Tells a Story by Jim Sangster Fluid Prejudice by Paul Ebbs Suffer the Children by Dave Stone Drinking with the Enemy by Jonathan Blum Passing Storms by Peter Anghelides Speaking Out by Simon Guerrier The Peter Principle by Kate Orman A Bell Ringing in an Empty Sky by Jim Mortimore

A Life Worth Living

2005

This book is a short story anthology set in Big Finish Productions' Professor Bernice Summerfield series. Bernice Summerfield appears in many original New Adventures of Doctor Who novels, as well as short stories and other fiction. Fourteen brand-new short stories about Bernice Summerfield (some-time adventurer, even-less-time academic) and her extended "family". There's Jason Kane (ex-husband, ex-buccaneer, ex-author of xeno-porn) and Irving Braxiatel (employer, Renaissance Man, sneaky devil). There's Bev, Adrian, Ms Jones and Peter. There's Hass, the new gardener, just arrived from Mars. There's the invasion of new students. And, inevitably, there's the mysteries, murders, mayhem and major weirdness that happen whenever Benny gets out of bed. The war is over. The Braxiatel Collection is back to normal. Better than that, people are all making more of an effort to rebuild, to get on, to re-establish the Collection at the forefront of academic excellence. Benny and Jason are back together. Life is good. It's not going to last, is it? Soon Benny is up to her eyeballs in strange deaths, sinister cults, peculiar love affairs and a Collection full of people who haven't yet stopped fighting. Spend a whole year with Benny! The Stories Misplaced Spring by Paul Cornell Welcome to the Machine by Sin Deniz Final Draft by Cameron Mason Against Gardens Eddie Robson A Summer Affair by Joseph Lidster Denial by Ian Mond Sex Secrets of the Robot Replicants by Philip Purser-Hallard The Blame of the Nose by Ben Woodhams Reparation by Gregg Smith Nothing up my Sleeve by Richard Salter Buried Alive by Kate Orman There Never Need be Longing in your Eyes by Ian Farrington Mentioning the War by Nick Walters Fragments by Stewart Sheargold

A Life in Pieces

2005

Benny is on holiday. Dealing with sand, sea, and sunshine. Oh, and intrusive reality TV camera crews. Adrian and Bev are on a secret mission, trying to be subtle and undercover. Yeah, that'll work. Irving Braxiatel is on Earth, helping an old friend solve a political problem with his usual tact and diplomacy. And linking all of these little sojourns is one Jason Peter Kane. He's on trial for his life, accused of stealing the legendary Purpura Pawnand somehow everyone else has to try and find a way to help him. But is someone out to stop them doing so, no matter what the cost?

Parallel Lives

2005

This book is a novella anthology in Big Finish Productions' Professor Bernice Summerfield series. Bernice Summerfield appears in many original New Adventures of Doctor Who novels, as well as short stories and other fiction. The Collection has lost one of its own. Someone who made a mistake once, and has never been forgiven for it. Someone whose hard work and need to make amends has been taken for granted. Someone who doesn’t fit in. Clarissa Jones has been head of administration at the Braxiatel Collection for many years. Enough time to really know her way around the place – its security, its weaknesses, its secrets. Knowledge, in fact, of great value to any of the neighbouring powers. So it’s bad news for everyone when she disappears. The Collection has lost one of its own. Unless Clarissa has taken others with her. The Novellas The Serpent's Tooth by Rebecca Levene Hiding Places by Stewart Sheargold Jason and the Pirates by Dave Stone

Something Changed

2005

This book is a short story anthology set in Big Finish Productions' Professor Bernice Summerfield series. Bernice Summerfield appears in many original New Adventures of Doctor Who novels, as well as short stories and other fiction. There's a fresh grave on planetoid KS-159, but only Bernice Summerfield seems to have noticed. Her friends on the Braxiatel Collection are too busy with their own affairs to see how distraught she is, how keenly she feels this loss. There's no time to grieve. Life must carry on, different and strange as it may be. Benny has a son and a bloke to look after, and a feud with Bev Tarrant to keep up. And she's also got dumped with a new assignment, babysitting some daft experiment. Doggles claims his "history machine" will change everything. And the worst thing is that he's right. The Stories Inappropriate Laughter by Simon Guerrier Siege Mentality by James Swallow Dead Mice by Joseph Lidster Acts of Senseless Devotion by Pete Kempshall Walking Backwards for Christmas by Ben Aaronovitch Match of the Deity by Eddie Robson Night of the Living Martian by John Isles The God Gene by Ben Woodhams Writing in Green by Dave Hoskin Showing Initiative by David Cromarty A Murderous Desire by Ian Farrington Back and There Again by Dave Stone One of my Turns by Sin Deniz The Ice Garden by by Jonathan Clements Family Man by Ian Mond After Life by Simon Guerrier

Collected Works

2006

This book is a short story anthology set in Big Finish Productions' Professor Bernice Summerfield series. Bernice Summerfield appears in many original New Adventures of Doctor Who novels, as well as short stories and other fiction. "It might be your name on the deeds, but you don't belong here any more. This is our home, our collection." The Braxiatel Collection. It's a museum, art gallery, and academic institute. A home for renowned archaeologists, runaway art thieves, and galactic waifs and strays. It's been a private playground and the battlefield in the fight against tyranny. And now things are changing again. With the Collection's founder missing, it's up to those left behind to make this place their own. Amidst the chaos of visitors from the far future, dark secrets, old friends and new enemies, Bernice Summerfield must do whatever's necessary to keep the doors open and her family safe. Yet through it all, there's one truth she cannot escape. Braxiatel is gone. And nature abhors a vacuum. The Stories Work In Progress by Nick Wallace The Tears Of Laughter by David N. Smith Perspectives: Tribal Reservations by Philip Purser-Hallard Outside the Wall by Sin Deniz Key by Jonathan Blum The Inconstant Gallery by James Swallow Perspectives: Quire As Folk by Philip Purser-Hallard Cabinets Of Curiosities by Mags L. Halliday Anightintheninthage by Lance Parkin Grey's Anatomy by Simon A. Forward The Tree That Was by Steven Kitson Perspectives: Forging A Bond by Philip Purser-Hallard The Two-Level Effect by Eddie Robson Let There Be Stars by Mark Michalowski Sleeptalking by John Fletcher Perspectives: Intermissions by Philip Purser-Hallard False Security by Nick Walters The Painting On The Stair by Simon Bucher-Jones Cost For A Collection by Ian Mond Lock by Kate Orman Perspectives: The Injured Party by Philip Purser-Hallard Mother's Ruin Dale Smith Future Relations by Philip Purser-Hallard and Nick Wallace

Bernice Summerfield

Old Friends

2006

This book is a novella anthology set in Big Finish Productions' Professor Bernice Summerfield series. Bernice Summerfield appears in many original New Adventures of Doctor Who novels, as well as short stories and other fiction. Late 2562. Bernice Summerfield is 22 and enroute to the ruin of Earth. She's young, she's single, she's just got an MA in archaeology. There's a life of adventure in front of her. And then she meets the half-human, half-lemur Ivo, whose life she'll completely knock sideways. Late 2607. Professor Bernice Summerfield is... well she looks nearly 40, but it's difficult to tell what with all the time travel. She's on her way to a funeral, and to meet up with people she's not seen since her 20s. Ex-husband / current-beau Jason is keen to go with her. Benny never talks about that period of her life - what she did to keep out of the war, where she travelled, how she survived, or who it was broke her heart. She's run through all time and space to avoid this reunion. But the best-selling author of Down Among The Dead Men must finally uncover her own past. The Novellas The Ship of Painted Shadows by Marc Platt Cheating the Reaper by Jonathan Clements The Soul's Prism by Pete Kempshall

#10

Bernice Summerfield

2007

This book is a novella anthology set in Big Finish Productions' Professor Bernice Summerfield series. Bernice Summerfield appears in many original New Adventures of Doctor Who novels, as well as short stories and other fiction. The war is meant to be over. The Draconian Empire has won the day, and the Mim have lost pretty much everything. That includes the borogoves of Proxima Longissima, the Mim's beloved children. The Draconians claim the borogoves are foundlings, abused and neglected by their parents. In the Empire they will be protected and provided for. Fearing that his species faces extinction, one of last surviving Mim begs Bernice Summerfield to come and see for herself. Benny just wants to do right by her own son, Peter, and the brother or sister who may follow him. But soon the borogoves are, rather unexpectedly, her godchildren, and Benny becomes their best hope for a future peace. As if dead oceans and burning deserts weren't hostile enough, Benny must enter the labyrinthine corridors of diplomacy - where right and wrong are questions of perspective, and even her own loved ones are not wholly innocent... The Stories All Mimsy Were the Borogroves by Kate Orman The Loyal Left Hand by Jonathan Blum Nursery Politics by Philip Purser-Hallard

#11

Missing Adventures

2007

This book is a short story anthology set in Big Finish Productions' Professor Bernice Summerfield series. Bernice Summerfield appears in many original New Adventures of Doctor Who novels, as well as short stories and other fiction. One day she will bring down empires and decide the fate of the universe. One day she will be feared by the creatures of evil and revered wherever people have had just a little bit too much to drink. But all that is yet to come… This very special collection celebrates 15 years of Bernice Summerfield. It explores her early life and the events that shaped the archaeologist and space-adventuress we know today. A circus offers solace for the loss of her father; boarding school will try anything to make her behave; and when the military catch up with runaway Benny, her freedom will cost her dearly… Missing Adventures features 12 all-new stories, many of them by those who played a formative part in Benny's development, including Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Peter Darvill-Evans and Andy Lane. There's also a genuine puzzle to be solved – with a prize hidden somewhere in the UK! The Stories Biology Lesson on Mal Oreille by Xanna Eve Chown The Evacuation of Bernice Summerfield Considered as a Short Film by Terry Gilliam by Ben Aaronovitch The Tunnels To Heaven by Andy Bodle Benny and Louise by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright Charged by John Binns Prime Five by Jason Arnopp Home by Peter Darvill-Evans The Slight Façade by Magnus Anderson Bernice Summerfield and the Library of Books by Andrew Cartmel Postcards From the Edge of Reason by Andy Owens Blood On The Tracks by Andy Lane Thirty Love by Eddie Robson

#12

Bernice Summerfield

Vampire Curse

2008

Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Vampire Curse - Three novellas in one book! These stories take place in different periods of Benny's life and all feature her encounters with vampires!

#13

Secret Histories

2009

In a broken down church on an isolated planet, Bernice discovers more than she bargained for on her latest excavation. An old crime is uncovered, and Bernice is asked to find out what she can about the culprits. The long-dead victims are surprisingly talkative, but they ask for something in return. They want someone to tell them stories. With an audience of the dead to entertain, Bernice tells them stories from her life and those of her friends, spanning the distant past to her recent present, from before civilisation to depths of space. Contents: \* A Game of Soldiers by Lance Parkin \* Cooker Island by Paul Farnsworth \* A Gallery of Pigeons by Jim Smith \* The Firing Squad by Eddie Robson \* You Shouldn't Have by Cody Schell \* The Illuminated Man by Mark Michalowski \* Redacted by Jonathan Dennis \* The Song of Old Man Bunyip by Richard Freeman \* Turn the Light On by Nick Wallace

#14

Present Danger

2010

When the entire galaxy finds itself under attack from the Deindum – a highly advanced but aggressive and paranoid race from the future – Bernice Summerfield and her various friends and colleagues are scattered across space, doing what they can for the war effort. Bernice makes her way home before heading back into history, searching for knowledge about their adversary and (hopefully) a weapon which might help the cause. Braxiatel, leading a coalition of civilised worlds against the attack, has cause to question his methods. An exhausted Bev runs the Braxiatel Collection as a refugee centre, fearful of an imminent attack. Adrian and Doggles must overcome their shared history and work together, whilst Hass embarks on a dangerous journey through the galaxy’s war zones to the heart of the Deindum’s new empire. But will it be enough? What can they do against one of the most daunting enemies that they have ever faced?

#17

Bernice Summerfield

The Christmas Collection

2020

An anthology of festive tales featuring Bernice Summerfield. Christmas... Advent... Midwinter Festival... Spiriting... No matter what you call it on your home planet, this magical holiday at the end of the year, when the nights are dark, and the lights are sparkly, is the perfect time for telling stories... And who doesn’t have a tale or two to tell about Christmas? Certainly not Benny. Did she ever tell you about the time she had to escape from a herd of rampaging battle-armoured cyborg reindeer? Or the time she had to convince three tentacled young sea creatures that she was the real Santa? Or the time she nearly let an evil deity back into the world just in time for New Year… These ten stories are collected from all across Benny’s eventful life, from St Oscar’s to the Braxiatel Collection, to Legion and even in the Unbound Universe...

Authors

Eddie Robson is a comedy and science fiction writer best known for his sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully and his work on a variety of spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who. He has written books, comics and short stories, and has worked as a freelance journalist for various science fiction magazines. He is married to a female academic and lives in Lancaster. Robson's comedy writing career began in 2008 with material for Look Away Now. Since then his work has featured on That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Tilt, Play and Record, Newsjack, Recorded For Training Purposes and The Headset Set. The pilot episode of his sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 5th July 2012. It starred Katherine Parkinson and Julian Rhind-Tutt. His Doctor Who work includes the BBC 7 radio plays Phobos, Human Resources and Grand Theft Cosmos, the CD releases Memory Lane, The Condemned, The Raincloud Man and The Eight Truths, and several short stories for Big Finish's Doctor Who anthologies, Short Trips. He has contributed comic strips to Doctor Who Adventures. Between 2007 and 2009, Robson was the producer of Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of products, and has contributed four audio plays to the series. He has also written books on film noir and the Coen Brothers for Virgin Publishing, the Doctor Who episode guide Who's Next with co-authors Mark Clapham and Jim Smith, and an illustrated adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Simon Guerrier is a British science fiction author and dramatist, closely associated with the fictional universe of Doctor Who and its spinoffs. Although he has written three Doctor Who novels, for the BBC Books range, his work has mostly been for Big Finish Productions' audio drama and book ranges. Guerrier's earliest published fiction appeared in Zodiac, the first of Big Finish's Short Trips range of Doctor Who short story anthologies. To date, his work has appeared in the majority of the Short Trips collections. He has also edited three volumes in the series, The History of Christmas, Time Signature and How The Doctor Changed My Life. The second of these takes as its starting-point Guerrier's short story An Overture Too Early in The Muses. The third anthology featured stories entirely by previously unpublished writers. After contributing two stories to the anthology Life During Wartime in Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of books and audio dramas, Guerrier was invited to edit the subsequent year's short story collection, A Life Worth Living, and the novella collection Parallel Lives. After contributing two audio dramas to the series, Guerrier became the producer of the Bernice Summerfield range of plays and books, a post he held between January 2006 and June 2007. His other Doctor Who work includes the audio dramas, The Settling and The Judgement of Isskar, in Big Finish's Doctor Who audio range, three Companion Chronicles and a contribution to the UNIT spinoff series. He has also written a play in Big Finish's Sapphire and Steel range. Guerrier's work is characterised by character-driven humour and by an interest in unifying the continuity of the various Big Finish ranges through multiple references and reappearances of characters. As editor he has been a strong promoter of the work of various script writers from the Seventh Doctor era of the Doctor Who television series

Jonathan Clements

Author · 45 books

Jonathan Clements is an author, translator, biographer and scriptwriter. His non-fiction works include biographies of Confucius, Marco Polo, Mao Zedong, Koxinga and Qin Shihuangdi. He also writes for NEO magazine and is the co-author of encyclopedias of anime and Japanese television dramas.

Rebecca Levene

Author · 14 books

British author, editor and tv storyliner. Educated at Clare College, Cambridge. She has written books for Virgin's Doctor Who line, Abbadon books and Black Flame. She also writes for Doctor Who Magazine and SFX.