From "About the Author" in Father Time:

Lance Parkin has, perhaps surprisingly, only had one novel published by the BBC before, the thirty-fifth anniversary story The Infinity Doctors, although he did write four and a half books for Virgin Publishing.  He's kept himself busy contributing to short story collections, writing scripts for audio and video, and was a storyline writer on Emmerdale.  He also edited the diaries of his close friend Mandy Dingle, and these were published last year.