Matthew Sweet (1) (1969–)

The conceit here is that some of Shakespeare's old notebooks have been unearthed, and the odd bits of writing in them prove that Shakespeare and the Doctor met a lot more often than the TV show ever indicated. None of which makes a whole lot of sense, but then it's clearly not really trying to, being mostly just an excuse for some Doctor Who fans/Shakespeare nerds to write little snippets of mashups between the two, including famous Shakespearean speeches and sonnets that have been rendered Doctor Who-themed, alternate versions of plays in which the Doctor (or his friends, or his enemies) meddle with events, bits of Doctor Who episodes rendered in iambic pentameter, and so on.

It does manage to be pretty funny in places, but, I don't know, the whole thing was really just a little bit too silly for me, even by Doctor Who standards. And I don't care how good a Doctor Who writer you are, putting your own prose side-by-side with Shakespeare's never does anybody any favors.… (mer)

Ultimately a really enjoyable book. Incorrigibly gossipy and with plenty of name-dropping, it manages to reveal a real heart in places. In between the campy goings-on of the habitués of the Ritz, the Dorchester, the Savoy and Claridges while Lutfawaffe bombs were falling all around, it has real, frequently tragic stories about ordinary people whose lives intersected with the hotels. Most moving is the chapter on Mary Pickwoad, a young woman who died in Room 365 of the Ritz after a botched abortion. Both her married lover and the abortionist got off more or less scot-free. There is also Stella Lonsdale, who was either a master spy or one of the biggest liars of WWII. She played off both Mi5 and the Abwehr, and to this day no-one is sure who she was actually spying for. A nice little chapter details the secret society of the hotels' gay clientele, at a time when not only was homosexuality illegal, but the police were hunting them with vigour. On the whole, if you can get past the gossip column fodder, this is a worthwhile piece of social history.… (mer)