It might seem to be an odd choice to have Paul Magrs write your celebratory 100th BBC Doctor Who novel. Then again, it might just be an inspired choice if your want something light and airy.

Mad Dogs and Englishmen fits this bill well.

The first shock is that it's written in a relatively conventional form - no multiple POVs, no odd constructs, no multiple one sentence paragraphs cramming up a single page.

Shock #2 is that Magrs has written a plot driven story, bereft of his normal metatextual hijinks.

Magrs, though, has his targets. He aims his goofy put downs toward Tolkien and George Lucas, Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings. Some of the stuff is truly funny, others will make you crawl under a rock. But, it's nice to see him not taking cheap shots at DW.

The story involves political intrigue in the dogworld, run by Technicolor poodles. A book written by Reg Tyler (JRR Tolkien in all but name) turns out to have been changed into the events of the dogworld. A movie about the book is coming out which will cause revolution amongst the poodles. The Doc, Fitz and Anji split into three time zones to try to find out where history has gone awry.

The Doc, Anji and Fitz are all done well. We see the return of the spiky yet goofy Doc from Scarlet Empress. Fitz is Fitz - Magrs did him well in The Blue Angel. Anji is okay, although a bit bland.

Then there's the poodles, with Char and Fritter being most developed of the bunch. Reg Tyler is good fun. Then we have the surprise guest stars, Noel Coward, who is a big part of the plot, and torch singer Brenda Soobie, who turns out to be... well, I won't say who; I'll let you be surprised on your own.

Um, it was a bit odd reading a Magrs book that was presented so normally, although the psychedelic loopiness does appear here and there. There are some great LOL moments, including one bit where the Doc is explaining a "story" he's written that mishmashes some of the classic Pertwee and T Baker stories.

Well, in the end, it's a light little romp of a story, the polar opposite of the magnificent literary beast that preceded it. Once again, Magrs has done something different. And gave me a few laughs along the way.

Recommended.