Books by Alec Charles

What takes place when we examine texts close-up? The art of close reading, once the closely guarded province of professional literary critics, now underpins the everyday processes of forensic scrutiny conducted by those brigades of citizen commentators who patrol the realms of social media.

Lee is beaten and left for dead outside Whicker following his vengeful attack of the rotten core of the seemingly peaceful town.His broken body is taken in by The Missionaries of Charity. Father Doyle's dog-collar saving his skin once more when the Sisters take him for a man of God - but are the Sisters also what they claim to be?When he meets Beth, it seems that Lee's life is back on track, his past life of debauchery, crime and excess put behind him for a while. But the ghosts of his past and ever-present demons catch up with him and engulf him once more.This final story in the Our Shadows will Remain trilogy continues to deliver strong language throughout and scenes of an adult nature.

Doctor Who is one of television's most enduring and ubiquitously popular series. This study contends that the success of the show lies in its ability, over more than half a century, to develop its core concepts and perspectives: alienation, scientific rationalism and moral idealism. The most extraordinary aspect of this eccentric series rests in its capacity to regenerate its central character and, with him, the generic, dramatic and emotional parameters of the programme. Out of Time explores the ways in which the series' immortal alien addresses the nature of human mortality in his ambiguous relationships with time and death. It asks how the status of this protagonist - that lonely god, uncanny trickster, cyber-sceptic and techno-nerd - might call into question the beguiling fantasies of immortality, apotheosis and utopia which his nemeses tend to pursue. Finally, it investigates how this paragon of transgenerational television reflects the ways in which contemporary culture addresses the traumas of change, loss and death.