Paul Cornell's Friday Newsletter

Marvel Panel in Oxford Next Week!

On Wednesday, December 10th at 5.30pm I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion at Blackwell’s in Oxford, chiefly about my Marvel Age of Comics book on the Avengers. I’ll be joined by Jason Atomic and Owen Michael Johnson and we’ll be interviewed by Sarah Miles. Tickets cost £6 and are available here, where you can find all the info. (I’ll be happy to sign things after the panel.)

I’m on Comic News Insider!

Episode #1678 of the great Jimmy Aquino’s Comic News Insider podcast features Thought Bubble interviews with myself, Lucy Sullivan and Sarah Gordon! Flattered to be included!

The Lychford Collection 2

Up for pre-order now, and out in June next year is The Lychford Collection 2, featuring my fourth, fifth and sixth Lychford novellas!

Stolen Face

Lizbeth Myles and I have done another commentary track for a Hammer blu-ray box set! Stolen Face (1952) is a neat little black and white thriller, and we found lots to say about it! It’s out on February 16th, and you can read all about it and pre-order it here at Hammer.

Sophie Aldred in Salvation’s Child!

While I was away, Winter is Coming did a big article on Doctor Who’s Sophie Aldred appearing as the clone warrior army the Partheni in the graphic novel my company Cosmic Lighthouse is publishing next year: Salvation’s Child.

Salvation’s Child is the graphic novel Prologue to Adrian Tchaikovsky’s best-selling SFF novel series The Final Architecture. (So new readers can start here!) It’s by Adrian himself, artist Mike Collins, colour artist Pippa Bowland and letterer Simon Bowland. We’re publishing it together with our partners ComiXology.

In that article you can see lots of panels featuring Sophie, and read quotes from everyone involved.

Check out these pre-order links at Amazon US and Amazon UK.

And you can find Cosmic Lighthouse at these links on BlueSky and Instagram.

Salvation’s Child will be released by ComiXology Originals on June 16th, 2026!

Get Signed and Personalised Copies of My Work!

Now that Thought Bubble has gone, I’ve re-stocked my Ko-fi online store, with all my current works, which you can get cheaper than anywhere else, plus you can have them signed and personalised! Right now, it’s just for UK residents, but that’ll change as I sort out international postage.

Of Intrigue and Espionage

I have a story in this just-announced forthcoming volume from Stars and Sabers publishing, which is due out in October 2026. I’m in good company, as you can see from the full announcement here.

Telefantasy Time Jump (including our Christmas Special!)

The new podcast from me and Lizbeth Myles covers the history of SFF on TV, from 1953 onward, with our regular episodes (on the 14th of every month) covering a show released that year in the UK, and the Patron Bonus episodes (on the 28th) covering a show from the rest of the world. The shows for December (covering 1964) are Studio 64: The Crunch/Bleep and Booster and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. And on the 21st we’ll be releasing our Christmas Special, which will feature, every year, us watching a Christmas episode of a show in the date range we covered in the previous year, in this case The Avengers: ‘Too Many Christmas Trees’. The main episode is available free wherever you get your podcasts. To get the bonus episode, you need to follow us on Patreon at £3/$3 or above. (And you get access to seven years of Hammer House of Podcast bonus episodes!) You can find all the info here.

My Linktrees

You can now find all my social media links, my website/blog and links to where you can buy my books, in one place here, thanks to Linktree!

The Work of Friends (Advent Podcast Edition!)

No less than three Advent Calendar podcasts from friends of mine are making their way day by the day through the season as we speak. (There’s no way I could get Liz to agree to us doing this.)

Radio Free Skaro is running its annual ‘Fluid Links’ marathon, with the team every day answering Doctor Who questions from listeners.

Tea and Sanctuary is Emma Newman’s podcast, and she’s offering a little bit of hope and light every day, with guests (including myself later in the run) filling in on some days.

And Starship Alexandria is Emma’s other podcast (yeah, she’s doing two of these!) in which she and Adrian Tchaikovsky recommend media to each other, with them taking turns to talk about quick favourite things in the festive season.

Not a podcast, but also in the world of audio, Antony Johnston’s musical project Silencaeon have released an album of ambient electronica on Bandcamp to mark the anniversary of the day Pioneer 10 came within less than 100,000 miles of Jupiter for the first time. It’s called Heliosphere, an album composed around the concept of NASA's various space probes.

And finally, Aliette de Bodard is re-launching her Dominion of the Fallen fantasy novel trilogy with new covers and with introductions by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

“The Great War between magical Houses of Fallen angels has devastated the city. The Seine runs black with ashes, the great monuments are blackened ruins, and the Houses still fight. It is a quiet war of alliances and intrigues played in worn drawing-rooms and once-elegant gardens. Silverspires, once the greatest House, is now nothing more than a minor player in those intrigues. Philippe, a young man from the colonies of the East, is caught harming a helpless Fallen, and held prisoner in House Silverspires. His path intersects with Isabelle, the naive Fallen he has wounded; Selene, the insecure Fallen head of the House; and Madeleine, a washed-out alchemist addicted to angel drugs. Together, they will either save the House, or cause its final, irrevocable Fall…”

My Week

So Thomas, alongside Nanny Louise, went to visit Father Christmas at the Cotswold Reindeer Herd. Before he went he wrote a letter to Santa, and I’ve managed to purloin a copy.

I love the slightly formal tone, as if he’s finalising an agreement exchanging gifts for pies. To be fair, he has indeed been ‘excellent in all areas’ at school. He’s going to be out of the way by 8.30pm and expects prompt delivery.

He’s been really enjoying his Lego Advent Calendar, and has started to take each individual Lego item into school to show his friends. It delights me that he has friends he feels secure enough with to do that.

Myself, I’ve been working away on the still-unannounced official sequel to a beloved children’s classic, and have been having some very encouraging meetings about a TV thing. Plus, Cosmic Lighthouse is on the verge of signing contracts for our second, and maybe third, book.

Mind you, it’s been a tough week in other ways. I’ve been angry at an old friend, leading to a very tense meeting, and I’m annoyed at myself for holding my anger to me and cherishing it rather than regarding it as something to be rid of. Christmas is often an emotional time for me, as those who remember the 12 Blogs will be aware of, and it’s often the season when I need to learn a lesson or two. I hope I’ve now put myself back on the right track.

There is light ahead: tomorrow Caroline and I are off to Oxford to see an old friend for brunch (there may be photos next week) and that evening is the Festive Market in my little town, with mulled wine and the switch-on of the lights. I think my lights could also do with being switched on.

To Be Continued

I look forward to sharing some of that with you, and I hope to see some of you in Oxford on the 10th, and all of you here again next week!