Born in East Ham, London, in 1935, Terrance Dicks was educated at the local grammar school and went on to read English at Downing College, Cambridge. After two years' national service in the army, he got a job as an advertising copywriter. This lasted for five years, during which time he started writing radio scripts as a sideline. Eventually he switched to full-time freelance writing, first on plays and comedy series for radio and then in television on programmes like The Avengers and Crossroads. Following some five years as script editor on Doctor Who, ending in 1974, he returned to a freelance writing career. Later he produced some of the BBC's classic serials. Aside from his contributions to the Doctor Who TV series, he has also written two spin-off plays: The Seven Keys to Doomsday in 1974 and Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure in 1989; and well over fifty novelisations. Today he is one of the UK's most prolific authors of children's fiction.