Читать книгу A Life in Time and Space - The Biography of David Tennant - Nigel Goodall - Страница 7

This book is also dedicated to the memory of my doctor, Jeffrey Darwent, who died unexpectedly in October 2009, aged 57. His untimely death from a heart attack left my local community in shock and sadness. I still miss his good advice and counsel.

In writing this book, my first thanks must go to David Tennant. Even though I did not meet or interview him for this book, it has still been an absolute pleasure to write about his life and career so far. I would also like to thank my fabulous researchers, Keith Hayward and Mike Wilson, for coming up with so much valuable information and helping to make this book what it is – and also, Sean Delaney at the British Film Institute Library for the long out-of-circulation articles, production notes and other forgotten materials. I really must salute my very special Danish friend, Charlotte Rasmussen, whose glossary at the end of this book offers one of the best understandings for film language and film-speak that I have ever come across and deserves to be published in its own right. Further thanks to John Highfield, one of Britain’s leading entertainment journalists for doing such a fabulous foreword, and also for some lively debates on the merits of celebrity, and to Sophia Nelson at 2entertain for the Doctor Who DVD box sets, and the copy of David’s audition tape for Takin’ Over The Asylum. My thanks also to Peter Zimmerman for the great author photo that appeared on the hardback edition of this book, and to Chris Farley for setting it up with Ray James and Linda Weil who very kindly supplied the use of Dalek Caan. Thanks too, to Graeme Andrew for the stunning cover and brilliant design that he always comes up with; my publisher John Blake for asking me to write this book without even seeing a proposal for it, and of course, my editors: Joel Simons, Vicky McGeown and Jane Donovan for their usual tweaking of the manuscript, and especially to Vicky for the fabulous picture research and captions. I would also like to thank the official ‘David Tennant Site’ on the Internet that I consulted during my research and found very useful in helping to make this work as accurate as it can be without the participation of David or his agent, despite my request that they did so.

Some personal thank-yous to my sister Sue, who gave me so much new insight about my parents that it led me to examine more thoroughly David Tennant’s own heritage; Cynthia Shepperd for all her years of friendship and for finding me again; and Jon Terry, a great accountant and a great friend since my amateur drama days. And, finally, my biggest thank you of all goes to my son and daughter, Adam and Kim, for their love and support and, as always, spurring me on, and to my grandsons Harvey and Kenzie, who are the readers I most want to share this book with.