And before you all say I've answered my own question in the thread title, I don't think he did!

There is a saying that the histories of wars are written by the victors, but who would actually have written that book?

The accepted wisdom from what we know is that there was no victor in the Time War, the Doctor somehow ended it by destroying all the combatants, including his own people, and then time locked the whole thing.

He would hardly have considered himself to be the victor and then sat down and written a history of the conflict he's apparently been trying very hard to forget about ever since!

So, who was that book actually written by?

Yeah I was wondering that too. Such a nice, leather bound embossed book too and also not written in Gallifreyan I guess...

David Starkey wrote it to glorify Rassilon and vilify the Doctor as a psychotic little oik.

good question. unless the Doctor has taken up bookbinding as a hobby. doesn't seem like there was anyone else left after the time war who could have done it?

It may have been written by The Doctor at some point in order to get over it.

It could be like the bible (without causing a religious argument here) written by others and put together in a book.

Or due to the vast amount of books in the library, it could be possible the TARDIS writes events as she travels through time and space. After all the TARDIS would have been at the forefront of the War.

Also if the Doctor had written it but wanted to keep his name secret, why write it in a book?

ah, this has its own thread, I just asked the same question in the thread about the episode.

It could have been written by the simply millions of daleks who escaped the Time War (see Seasons 1-5 for numerous examples) but other than the wee mental one without a shell, they don't seem a particularly literary race, and I simply don't know who would have bound it for them.

Therefore I think one possible answer is that it's a creation of the TARDIS and that the TARDIS chose to show it to Clara. But that's not a particularly satisfying answer for what is simply an awful piece of scriptwriting

It might not be awful scriptwriting though, it might be something that will be explained in a later episode (I hope).

We'll see John Hurt writing it in his part as the final incarnation of the dr, about to shuffle off his mortal coil?

The Doctor didn't seem to be shocked by the book's existence. Maybe he wrote it?

Maybe he doesn't want the Tardis to hear what his name is?

There's no way, absolutely no way we're gonna hear his name! Though, I have a feeling we will discover exactly why it's so important and why no-one's meant to know it. His name will be the key to...something.

I think the idea that the TARDIS itself produced it is quite satisfactory, to be honest. And of course we may find out more about this in future episodes.

Maybe the TARDIS grew a preprogrammed machine that printed and bound it?

The name that Clara saw in the book: how did she know that it was the real name of the Doctor?
And how did she turn to the correct page so quickly?

Perhaps it was a picture book?

Perhaps a certain Professor of Archaeology who's been known to turn her hand to a bit of writing.

"<doctor name here>, also known as "The Doctor", then proceeded to..."

Also maybe it was something The Doctor obsessively read, and big books generally open on the page most frequently (or recently) read.

It may have been created by the Time Lords during the War, and then salvaged and preserved by the Doctor as he sealed the deed that finished it.

As handily pointed out by 'Sherlock Holmes' in The Snowmen.

My guess is the Doctor wrote it.

Someone needs to to keep a record on what happened.

In "The Silence in the Library", doesn't The Doctor tell Donna something like...

The Doctor: The Library. So big it doesn't need a name. Just a great big "The".

Donna: It's like a city.

The Doctor: It's a world. Literally. A world. The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions, specially printed. We're near the equator, so... checks the wind. This must be biographies! I love biographies!

Donna: Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end.

Being a bookseller this is the first thing strike me about the OP.

That was also my thinking, that she wrote it. I was more interested in the source of Encyclopeadia Gallifreyis* and what happened to the words that spilled out.

Gary
* My very limited Latin declensions gave way at that point

I wonder when it will be released?

The author is Professor Stephen Hawking.