{"id":25,"date":"2025-10-27T09:47:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/?p=25"},"modified":"2026-01-06T08:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T08:43:09","slug":"language-centre-graduate-emily-cooks-debut-novel-fear-by-water-doctor-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/2025\/10\/27\/language-centre-graduate-emily-cooks-debut-novel-fear-by-water-doctor-who\/","title":{"rendered":"Language Centre Graduate Emily Cook\u2019s Debut Novel – Fear Death By Water (Doctor Who)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We caught up with Emily Cook a Kent graduate from the Language Centre and author of her debut novel Fear Death by Water<\/strong><\/a>, an original Doctor Who adventure. In this blog, Emily shares her career journey navigating the writing, television, and radio industry and how they achieved fantastic success and published their debut novel. Take a look at Emily’s inspirational story below:<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t be where I am today without my time at the University of Kent.<\/em><\/p>\n

I started as an English Language and Linguistics undergraduate, with a long-held ambition to become a teacher. But there was one particular module that completely changed the course of my career. ‘Writing in the Media’ gave me a small taste of what life as a journalist might be like – and I loved it. One of the assignments was to write a (hypothetical) pitch to a magazine editor. I decided to take a chance and send mine off for real – to Doctor Who Magazine. I\u2019d been an avid reader and fan of the show since childhood, so it was a huge thrill when they replied and offered me some work experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

That week turned out to be the start of a career beyond my wildest dreams. After completing a Master’s in Linguistics (also at Kent), I was offered a job. Before I’d even officially graduated, I started freelancing as an editorial assistant for both\u00a0Doctor Who: The Complete History\u00a0partwork and\u00a0Doctor Who Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bit by bit, I began writing for the magazine: researching features, interviewing cast and crew, writing reports from the sets in Cardiff. This gave me a front-row opportunity to glimpse what it was like to make television – and, again, I loved it. But I\u2019m getting ahead of myself\u2026 because before TV, I worked in radio.<\/em><\/p>\n

As any freelancer will tell you, it’s wise to spread your wings. Around five years into my time working with\u00a0Doctor Who Magazine,\u00a0I also began freelancing for BBC Radio as a producer and broadcast journalist. I honed many valuable skills here, and started to spot a pattern in all the roles I\u2019d taken on so far: I was always editing, organising (whether that be people, ideas, information), or storytelling.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then came lockdown. Like everyone else, I was stuck at home – hungry for the next career step, though I wasn\u2019t exactly sure what this would be. So while waiting for the world to reopen, I focused on a passion project of my own:\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0Lockdown.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, it didn\u2019t begin as a full-blown project. It all started when I posted a single tweet, suggesting that fans could virtually get together to watch an old-favourite episode at a set time. The idea took off, the tweet went viral, and the first ‘tweetalong’ became the top global Twitter trend that night. From there, the initiative grew rapidly. More tweetalongs followed, and pretty soon, stars of the show, as well as writers and directors, were joining in with us too. Each event connected everyone with an episode-specific hashtag – which is academically significant as my Kent MA dissertation was on hashtag usage and language on social media.<\/em><\/p>\n

With no budget (this wasn\u2019t a paid job, though it kept me busy throughout the pandemic), just for fun, I started producing mini\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0episodes to accompany each tweetalong – prequels and sequels to the stories we were revisiting. These ‘minisodes’ became increasingly ambitious and drew in some big names. One even starred David Tennant, was written by Russell T Davies, and featured a brand-new score by\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0composer Murray Gold.<\/em><\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t all: the infectious joy of the\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0Lockdown tweetalongs ultimately paved the way for David Tennant, Catherine Tate, and Russell T Davies to reunite for the show’s 60th Anniversary Specials in 2023. This butterfly effect even inspired one fan’s university dissertation, which was titled: ‘Examine how Twitter lockdown watch parties of Doctor Who lead to the emergence of a new era for the franchise in relation to convergence culture, nostalgia and media practice.’<\/em><\/p>\n

For me,\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0Lockdown led to producing a short film (featuring Sir Derek Jacobi) and more\u00a0Doctor Who-inspired freelance work. I produced some\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0audio drama series for Big Finish Productions, including one episode I wrote myself (featuring Billie Piper’s character Rose Tyler). I also worked with BBC Studios, presenting some documentaries and special features for\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0Blu-rays.<\/em><\/p>\n

After eight incredible years and over 100 issues, I finally stepped away from\u00a0Doctor Who Magazine\u00a0and scaled down my freelance work to take on a full-time job in television. I started as a script editor on the Apple TV+ sci-fi psychological thriller Constellation, created and written by Peter Harness. Now, I work as Development Executive for Peter Harness’s wonderful new production company Haunted Barn, helping to shape an exciting slate of TV and film projects.<\/em><\/p>\n

Doctor Who\u00a0is still in my orbit, though. Earlier this year, my debut novel,\u00a0Fear Death By Water<\/strong><\/a>, was published. It\u2019s a historical adventure which pairs the Fifteenth Doctor with real-world Victorian heroine Grace Darling – a lighthouse keeper’s daughter who famously rescued nine survivors from a shipwreck in 1838. Grace’s life – her bravery and humility – is compelling. Yet it’s surprising how little people know about her today. I think her story aligns well with the heart of\u00a0Doctor Who\u00a0storytelling – it entertains, educates, inspires – and I wanted to bring her courageous spirit to a whole new audience. (Also: Grace just so happens to be in my family tree!)<\/em><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what the future holds (who does?!), but I\u2019m excited for whatever\u2019s next, because University of Kent gave me a lifelong love of language and learning, and opened my eyes to career possibilities younger-me thought would be impossible.<\/em><\/p>\n

If I could give any advice to students or new graduates, it\u2019d be this: identify your passions, invest in your skills. Find a mentor in your field. Ask for opportunities – and don\u2019t be afraid to create your own. Put yourself out there. You might be surprised by how much people are willing to help. Work hard, stay curious, and never stop learning!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We caught up with Emily Cook a Kent graduate from the Language Centre and author of her debut novel Fear Death by Water, an original … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85438,"featured_media":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[978,124,202868],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85438"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions\/65"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/lc-student-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}