Eoin Colfer to write Dr Who story for Puffin

Eoin Colfer has been named as the author of the first of Puffin's eleven Dr Who short stories, with his tale—A Big Hand for the Doctor—to be published globally in e-book form on 23rd January.

The Artemis Fowl author has written a story featuring the First Doctor, as played by William Hartnell, set in London in 1900. It sees the Doctor missing his hand and his granddaughter, Susan. The publisher summarises the story: "Faced with the search for Susan, a strange beam of soporific light, and a host of marauding Soul Pirates, the Doctor is promised a dangerous journey into a land he may never forget."

Colfer said: "As a boy I had been reading the Doctor Who books for years before I ever saw a single episode and I found that the on-screen version of the First Doctor was almost identical to the version in my imagination."

The eleven stories in the 50th anniversary Doctor Who series will be published digitally at the rate of one a month until November, with the full collection to be published in a physical anthology, also in November.