It’s time for the third of five culinary conversations I brought back from the Glasgow Worldcon, following my chats with Jenny Rowe, creator of the one-woman show Tiptree: No One Else’s Damn Secret But My Own, based on the life of the remarkable James Tiptree Jr./Alice Sheldon, and Wole Talabi, author of the seemingly universally acclaimed Nommo Award-winning novel Shigidi And The Brass Head Of Obalufon.

This third episode I brought back features Paul Cornell, with whom I’ve been trying to break bread ever since the 2019 Dublin Worldcon. Paul started out writing Doctor Who fan fiction, which led to him writing canonical Doctor Who novels (where he created the companion Bernice Summerfield), audio plays, and comics. Plus he recently won the Terrance Dicks Award for lifetime achievement in Doctor Who writing from the Doctor Who Appreciation Society.

But aside from his achievements in the Doctor Who universe, he’s created so many other awesome experiences for us. He’s written episodes of Elementary, Primeval, Robin Hood, and many other TV series, including his own children’s show, Wavelength.  He’s worked for every major comics company, including his creator-owned series I Walk With Monsters for The Vault, The Modern Frankenstein for Magma, Saucer Country for Vertigo, and This Damned Band for Dark Horse, plus runs on Young Avengers and Wolverine for Marvel, and Batman and Robin for DC,  

He’s the writer of the Lychford rural fantasy novellas from Tor.com Publishing. His short fiction has been published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Interzone, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, and at Tor.com, plus he also written for George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards short story anthologies. He’s won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, an Eagle Award for his comics, a Hugo Award for his SF Squeecast podcast, and shares in a Writer’s Guild Award for his Doctor Who work.  He’s the co-host of Hammer House of Podcast.  

We discussed where he stands on the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby debate, how his UK mind was blown the first time he saw a U.S. issue of The Avengers, why fannish history fascinates him, the reason he went the self-funding route for Who Killed Nessie (and what that did to his blood pressure), how some of his Doctor Who fan fiction eventually became canon, the reason he’s suspicious of nostalgia, how he knows when ideas pop into his head which of his many projects they’re right for, the legacy comics characters he’d love to write more of, what he learned from the great Terrance Dicks, how he manages to collaborate while remaining friends with his co-creators, his fascination with Charles Fort, why he announced there’d be no more Doctor Who in his future, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at the 106-year-old University Cafe —

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And here’s what you would have seen had you been with is at the University Cafe —

Looking down at our fish and chips

Staring into the sun outside the University Cafe

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Coming up two weeks from now — my lunch with Gareth L. Powell, who twice won the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel — in 2014 for Ack-Ack Macaque and 2019 for Embers of War — and has become one of the most shortlisted authors in the award’s 50-year history.

Thanks for listening!