David Taylor (Fanboys)

David Taylor was, with his brother, a major fan of Doctor Who who grew up in the 1980s. (PROSE: Fanboys)

By another account, he was a 21st century writer who wrote about "all kinds of things". (AUDIO: Imaginary Boys)

Biography
David grew up with his Mam and his brother Chris, after his Mam divorced his Dad, who was a police officer. His Mam who eventually meet Brian, but they were deeply unhappy together and they would continually argue. They lived in Sampson Place, a housing block located in Newton Aycliffe.

By January 1981, the two brothers were major fans of the Doctor Who TV series, despite their Mam's dislike for the show, and they would stay up all night to talk about "The Show". David would untruthfully tell Chris that he remembered the Third Doctor regenerating into the Fourth Doctor.

That month, David's parents would take him and Chris to Darlington, where they would eat French fries in Wimpys, and they would go into WHSmith's to buy Target novels.

Later that night, Chris would go sleepwalking and he left the house, and David and his parents would go looking for him. Unbeknownst to them, a neighbour taken Chris inside his house for safety. It was only when they returned from their search did they were reunited with Chris by their neighbour. (PROSE: Fanboys)

In Autumn 2013, when David was 17 and living in Newton Aycliffe with his mother, Lawrence the Novelisor began documenting David's life. Knowing of David's future, Lawrence gave David a notepad as a gift and encouraged him to pursue writing.

In the few weeks they knew each other, David and Lawrence became romantically involved. After leaving school one day, David was assaulted by a group of older boys for being homosexual. David's father was the police officer that came to David's house to ask David to issue a statement on the assault. David wasn't comfortable with telling his father that his attackers had used homophobic slurs.

The night after David saw his father, David had his first kiss with Lawrence. Realising that he had crossed the line in a relationship between a Novelisor and their subject, Lawrence regretfully summoned his spacecraft and prepared to leave Earth. Lawrence asked David if he wanted to come with him in the spacecraft, but David refused because he needed to stay with his mother and newly born sister. (AUDIO: Imaginary Boys)

Behind the scenes
David Taylor is in many ways a stand-in for writer Paul Magrs (of whom has an in-universe counterpart). Like David, Magrs was also raised by a single-mother in Newton Aycliffe. Magrs' father was a police officer; the final time Magrs saw his father was at the age of 17, when Magrs' father was the officer who took a statement from Magrs after he was queer-bashed.

David first featured in Imaginary Boys, a short story in Short Trips: Snapshots, which serves as a sequel to Paul Magrs' semi-autobiographical Strange Boy, and The Diary of a Dr Who Addict serves as a sequel to both these stories. Imaginary Boys is not entirely consistent with these stories, as although David is undeniably the same character, the specific date of his birth and childhood are contradictory, despite both being based upon Paul Magrs.

Strange Boy is about David as a ten-year old boy in 1980 discovering his homosexuality. Fanboys is about David and his brother, Chris, and their love for Doctor Who. The Diary of a Dr Who Addict is about David's relationship with Doctor Who around the beginning of the Fifth Doctor's era in 1981. Imaginary Boys replaces David's love of Doctor Who with a general love of science fiction novels.