My mutual on tumblr @familyparadox owns a copy of The Dalek Book that contains this inscription:
They’d really like to know who this Ashley is or was, so I figured I’d share it here on the off-chance that anyone knows who this book belonged to.
They’d really like to know who this Ashley is or was, so I figured I’d share it here on the off-chance that anyone knows who this book belonged to.
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I don’t, sorry. That’s really cool, though!
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Yeah, it’s probably a long shot, but there’s some more older fans here than are around on tumblr, so I thought it’s worth a try. It’s definitely super cool either way
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I’m trying really hard not to be offended by the suggestion that all old Doctor Who fans know each other…
Although thankfully 1960 predates me…
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Just statistically more likely, that’s all 
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We don’t? I have been so lied to…
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I like to poke around old bookshops, antique fairs, and charity shops, searching for treasures from my childhood. Whenever I pick up an old annual and find an inscription like this, it breaks my heart.
Just think—one day in 1964, Ashley’s dad spotted that annual in a shop and thought it would be the perfect present for his Dalek-obsessed son. He bought it, took it home, and wrote those words before wrapping the book up—possibly hiding it high on a shelf where Ashley wouldn’t discover it. Imagine that little boy’s delight when he unwrapped the annual. Big grins all round, I should imagine.
Time passes. Days become weeks, weeks become months, then years, then decades. Once-prized treasures are left behind as adulthood beckons. Perhaps the annual winds up in a box in the attic or basement, long forgotten, gathering dust. Our parents grow old and die, and then those of us who grew up in the 1960s find ourselves moving closer to the end of life’s conveyor belt. One day, a box of old things gets dropped at a charity shop…
Which is why, whenever I see an inscription like this one, I find it bittersweet but beautiful.
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