THE ART OF REPAIR AND RESTORATION... (Updated)

Copyright BBC TV and the Estate of TERRY NATION

As all you Crivvies will know by now (because I never shut up about it), I own all three DALEK books from the 1960s.  However, what you don't know (because I haven't told you yet) is that I also have a spare copy of each of the first two books.  (Okay, now you know.)  Try and control your seething jealousy at my good fortune.  (Update, April 2024: I now also have a second copy of the third book, so - a 'hat trick' !)

Thing is, when I got them, they both had pages missing.  I knew before I bought The DALEK WORLD, but didn't find out in the case of The DALEK BOOK until after I received it.  (That's the order in which I purchased them, not the sequence in which they were published.)  It's unlikely that the seller knew either, because the missing pages weren't immediately obvious (yes, I got a partial refund).  Not a problem to me, as I simply scanned the absent pages from my complete copies, then printed them out and restored them to their alloted space in the books.

The first book doesn't have the usual laminate wrinkling that this edition often suffers from (not on the front cover anyway, and just a little on the back), so it would've been a sinful waste to dispense with it merely because of four missing pages.  The second book (which was issued without a laminate covering) is pretty much scuff-free, a problem that it's often prone to.  (It was also short of four pages.)

So they're now complete, and you'd have to look twice (maybe even three times) when browsing through them to spot that they aren't the original pages.  They're even more or less the same thickness as the originals.  Ah, I'm so gifted.  My parents told me when I was a kid that I was a 'gifted' baby - "You surely don't think we'd have paid for you?" my father said.

Anyway, wondering whether I did a good job or not?  (Don't lie, you know you are.)

Then check out the piccies below.  (Incidentally, the camera flash bouncing off the replacement pages have made them look a little whiter than they actually are, but the difference between new and old is less apparent than appears here.  The pages are simply 'cleaner', with no age spots or discolouration.  However, that will probably change over time.

And now, in response to reader DW's special request (see comments section) - 'BATTLE For The MOON'...  (I don't make a habit of this, so don't anyone be deluging me with requests.)