Speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last night (25 August 2013), screenwriter and author Paul Cornell finally honestly answered a long-asked question—why is he not writing any more for Doctor Who on TV? “It’s upsetting,” he admitted.

“I get asked this regularly,” he said. “Sometimes several times a day on Twitter. You know what? I’m gonna do something I don’t normally do when I’m asked that question—I’m gonna tell you the truth. It’s upsetting. I’m not writing for Doctor Who on television because they’ve never asked me back. It’s like the answer Graham Chapman gave when asked about being cast as the Doctor in a movie: ‘I never take parts that I’ve not been offered…’”

Cornell previously scripted the Ninth Doctor adventure Father’s Day (2005), starring Christopher Eccleston, and the two-part David Tennant-starring Tenth Doctor adventure Human Nature/The Family of Blood (2007), based loosely upon his own New Adventures Doctor Who novel Human Nature (1995).

However, Cornell now considers himself “free” of Doctor Who. “I’m creating my own stuff now,” he said, during an earlier panel with fellow Doctor Who writer Ben Aaronovitch (Remembrance of the Daleks, 1988). His horror thriller London Falling has recently been published and he revealed that the sequel The Severed Streets would feature the return to contemporary times of Jack the Ripper, “except this time he’s killing rich white men…”. Cornell said the novel would deal with the coalition government and the “cuts”.