Stand To Detention

Red Dwarf producer Doug Naylor stays behind after school for new book

- WORDS: RICHARD EDWARDS

AFTER MORE THAN 30 YEARS shepherding the deep space adventures of Dave Lister, Arnold Rimmer, Kryten and the Cat, Red Dwarf co-creator Doug Naylor is coming back down to Earth.

In his debut kids' novel Sin Bin Island, the students of a very odd boarding school are kept on the straight and narrow via unconventional means - namely the threat of a stay on the spooky, mod-cons-free landmass of the title.

“It’s very much based on my feelings about the school I went to,” Naylor tells Red Alert. “It was quite scary for me when I attended at seven, and we did have things like baronial halls and refectories, day boys and boarders. Of course, the book’s highly exaggerated, but I felt the kids would have more of a journey to go on if the school had this restrictive regime they’d have to navigate their way around.”