Candy Jar Books has announced a special novel in its successful Lucy Wilson range, The Three Lucys – due out later this month, and written by me!
The Lucy Wilson Adventures features the granddaughter of Doctor Who legend, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, as she battles alien invaders alongside her best friend, Hobo. While The Three Lucys is the landmark 30th book in the popular series, it’s designed to welcome readers new and old alike.
And it’s perfect for Doctor Who fans, who will immediately recognise the title’s allusion to Who’s 10th anniversary special, The Three Doctors.
It also happens to be my first young adult novel!
The book is released later this month, on 25th June 2026, to celebrate Candy Jar Books’ 15th anniversary.
In The Three Lucys, Lucy Wilson meets two other versions of herself: one, a middle-aged professor who is fleeing mysterious ‘chaos’ that’s unravelling time and space; and the other, a young girl held captive at a sinister military instillation.
Beyond the title, there are plenty of Doctor Who Easter eggs inside. Shaun Russell, the Head of Publishing at Candy Jar, approached me to write a Lucy that pays homage to The Three Doctors – hugely exciting not just because it’s to celebrate a big anniversary but also as it’s my first full Lucy Wilson novel – so I mapped out my idea against the plot of that serial, taking inspiration from its villain and his antimatter world.
I sprinkled references to Who throughout: most notably, the majority of the chapter titles come from the Target novelisation of The Three Doctors, albeit giving a few a uniquely ‘Lucy’ twist. I’m especially proud of refashioning ‘A Shock for the Brigadier’ – a character who doesn’t appear in The Three Lucys, but is certainly there in spirit. It was quite a challenge, but a hugely fun one.
Anyone who read 100 Things That Happened on Easter Island and The Green Dog will already have met Professor Lucy Wilson; now, fans can find out more about Lucy-in-the-future and the ‘chaos’ she’s running from…
The Three Lucys will be released at the same time as Paul Wines’ The Games Master, a book initially only available at the Barry Card and Collector Con 2026.
Here’s the blurb for The Three Lucys:
‘Me don’t know what’s happening.’
One day, Lucy Wilson wakes up and suddenly can’t say the word ‘I.’ Its whole meaning starts to dissolve in her head, and soon, it spreads. She can’t recall what day comes after Thursday. She doesn’t know what that lesson with all the numbers is called. How soon before she loses the names of her own parents? Or her best friend, Hobo?
And she’s not the only one. Or maybe she is. Because someone is stealing the words of numerous Lucy Wilsons, across time and space. One is a middle-aged professor. One is a rebellious teen who has run away from home.
And one is our Lucy: pulled out of her universe; running out of words; running out of hope.
