Kim Newman
Kim Newman | |
---|---|
![]() Newman at the 2007 World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, NY | |
Born | Brixton, London, England | 31 July 1959
Pen name | Jack Yeovil |
Occupation | Film critic, journalist, writer |
Website | |
johnnyalucard |
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer.[1] He is interested in film history and horror fiction - both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven - and alternative history. He has won the Bram Stoker Award, the International Horror Guild Award, and the BSFA award.
Early life
[edit]Kim Newman was born 31 July 1959 in Brixton, London, the son of Bryan Michael Newman and Julia Christen Newman, both potters.[1][2] His sister, Sasha, was born in 1961, and their mother died in 2003.[1] Newman attended "a progressive kindergarten and a primary school in Brixton, and then Huish Episcopi County Primary School in Langport, Somerset".[1] In 1966 the family moved to Aller, Somerset.[1] He was educated at Dr. Morgan's Grammar School for Boys in Bridgwater.[1][3] While he attended, the school merged with two others to become Haygrove Comprehensive.[1] He graduated from the University of Sussex with an English degree in 1980 and set a short story, Angel Down, Sussex (1999) in the area.[1] Newman acted in school plays and with the Bridgwater Youth Theatre.[1]
Non-fiction
[edit]Early in his career, Newman was a journalist for the magazines City Limits and Knave.
Newman's first two books were the non-fiction Ghastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations (1985), co-written with his friend Neil Gaiman, a light-hearted tribute to entertainingly bad prose in fantastic fiction and Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film, 1968–88 (1988) is a serious history of horror films. An expanded edition, an update of his overview of post-1968 genre cinema, was published in 2011. Nightmare Movies was followed by Wild West Movies: Or How the West Was Found, Won, Lost, Lied About, Filmed and Forgotten (1990) and Millennium Movies: End of the World Cinema (1999). Newman's non-fiction also includes the BFI Companion to Horror (1996).
Newman and Stephen Jones jointly edited Horror: 100 Best Books, the 1988 horror volume in Xanadu's 100 Best series and Horror: Another 100 Best Books, a 2005 sequel from Carroll & Graf, U.S. publisher of the series. The books comprise 100 essays by 100 horror writers about 100 horror books and both won the annual Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction.[4]
Newman is a contributing editor to the UK film magazine Empire, as well as writing the monthly segment, "Kim Newman's Video Dungeon", in which he gives often scathing reviews of recently released straight-to-video horror films. He contributes to Rotten Tomatoes, Venue, Video Watchdog ('The Perfectionist's Guide to Fantastic Video') and Sight and Sound.[5] Newman is the author of the Doctor Who entry in the British Film Institute's book series on TV Classics.[6] In 2018, Newman became the chief writer on the BBC Four documentary series Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema.
Newman participated in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll, where he listed his ten favorite films as follows: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now, A Canterbury Tale, Céline and Julie Go Boating, Citizen Kane, Duck Amuck, Let's Scare Jessica to Death, Mulholland Drive, Notorious, and To Have and Have Not.[7]
Fiction
[edit]Newman's first published novel was The Night Mayor (1989), set in a virtual reality, based on old black-and-white detective movies.[8] In the same year, as "Jack Yeovil", he began contributing to a series of novels published by Games Workshop, set in the world of their Warhammer and Dark Future wargaming and role-playing games. Games Workshop's fiction imprint Black Flame returned the Dark Future books to print in 2006, publishing Demon Download, Krokodil Tears, Comeback Tour and the expanded, 250-page version of the short story "Route 666".
Anno Dracula was published in 1992. The novel is set in 1888, during Jack the Ripper's killing spree—but a different 1888, in which Dracula became the ruler of England. Anno Dracula was followed by the Anno Dracula series of novels and shorter works, that followed the same alternative history. The fourth novel in the series was published in 2013 as Johnny Alucard.[9]
Other novels include Life's Lottery (1999), in which the protagonist's life story is determined by the reader's choices[10] (an adult version of the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children's books), The Quorum (1994), Jago (1991) and Bad Dreams (1990).
Newman wrote a Doctor Who novella, Time and Relative in 2001.
Selected Fiction
[edit]Novels
[edit]- The Night Mayor (1989)
- Bad Dreams (1990)
- Jago (1991)
- The Quorum (1994)
- Life's Lottery (1999)
- Anno Dracula series
- Anno Dracula (1992)
- The Bloody Red Baron (1995)
- Dracula Cha Cha Cha (also published as Judgment of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959) (1998)
- Johnny Alucard (2013)
- One Thousand Monsters (2017)
- Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju (2019)
- Time and Relative (2001)
- Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles (Titan Books, 2011; ISBN 9780857682833)
- An English Ghost Story (2014)
- The Secrets of Drearcliffe Grange School (2015)[11][12][13][14][15]
- The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School (2018)
- Angels of Music (2016)
- Something More Than Night (2021)
Short story collections
[edit]- The Original Dr. Shade, and Other Stories (1994)
- Famous Monsters (1995)
- Back in the USSA (1997) (with Eugene Byrne)
- Seven Stars (2000)
- Where the Bodies are Buried (2000)
- Unforgivable Stories (2000)
- Dead Travel Fast (2005)
- Diogenes Club series
- The Man from the Diogenes Club (2006)
- The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club (2007)
- Mysteries of the Diogenes Club (2010)
- The Man From the Diogenes Club (2017)
- Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories (2017)
Comics
[edit]- Anno Dracula – 1895: Seven Days in Mayhem (Titan Comics, 2017, five issues) with artist Paul McCaffrey.
As "Jack Yeovil"
[edit]- Warhammer setting
- Drachenfels (1989)
- Beasts in Velvet (1991)
- Genevieve Undead (1993, three novellas published as a single book)
- Silver Nails (2002, short stories)
- The Vampire Genevieve (2005, compilation of the above four books)
- Dark Future setting
- Krokodil Tears (1990)
- Demon Download (1990)
- Route 666 (1993)
- Comeback Tour (1991)
- Orgy of the Blood Parasites (1994)
- "The Big Fish" in Shadows over Innsmouth (1994)
Non-Fiction
[edit]- Nightmare Movies: Wide Screen Horror Since 1968 (1984)
- Ghastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations (1985) (with Neil Gaiman)
- Horror: 100 Best Books (1988) (with Stephen Jones)
- Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film, 1968–1988 (1988)
- The BFI Companion to Horror (1996)
- Millennium Movies (1999)
- Cat People (1999)
- Science Fiction / Horror: A Sight and Sound Reader (2002)
- Horror: Another 100 Best Books (2005) (with Stephen Jones)
- Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s (2011)
- Horror!: The Definitive Companion to the Most Terrifying Movies Ever Made (2013) (with James Marriott)
- Quatermass and the Pit (2014)
Awards
[edit]Work | Year & Award | Category | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ghastly Beyond Belief
(with Neil Gaiman) |
1986 Locus Award | Nonfiction/Reference | Nominated | [16] |
The Next-But-One Man | 1988 Interzone Readers Poll | Fiction | 3rd Place | [17] |
Horror: 100 Best Books
(with Stephen Jones) |
1989 Locus Award | Related Nonfiction | Nominated | |
1989 Bram Stoker Award | Non-Fiction | Won | ||
The Original Doctor Shade | 1990 BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Won | |
1991 British Fantasy Award | Short Story | Nominated | ||
1991 Interzone Readers Poll | Fiction | 3rd Place | [18] | |
The Original Doctor Shade and Other Stories | 1995 British Fantasy Award | Anthology/Collection | Nominated | |
In the Air | 1991 BSFA Award | Short Fiction | Nominated | |
Anno Dracula | 1992 The Dracula Society | Children of the Night Award | Won | [19] |
1993 Bram Stoker Award | Novel | Nominated | ||
1993 World Fantasy Award | Novel | Nominated | ||
1993 Lord Ruthven Award | Fiction | Won | ||
1994 Locus Award | Horror Novel | Nominated | ||
1994 International Horror Guild Award | Novel | Won | [20] | |
1999 Prix Ozone | Foreign Horror Novel | Won | [21] | |
Tom Joad
(with Eugene Byrne) |
1993 Interzone Readers Poll | Fiction | 6th Place | [22] |
The Quorum | 1995 British Fantasy Award | August Derleth Award | Nominated | [23] |
1995 Locus Award | Horror/Dark Fantasy Novel | Nominated | ||
Out of the Night, When the Full Moon Is Bright... | 1995 British Fantasy Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
1995 World Fantasy Award | Novella | Nominated | ||
The Bloody Red Baron | 1996 Sidewise Award for Alternate History | Long Form | Nominated | [24] |
1996 Locus Award | Horror/Dark Fantasy Novel | Nominated | ||
2000 Prix Ozone | Foreign Horror Novel | Won | [25] | |
Famous Monsters | 1996 British Fantasy Award | Anthology/Collection | Nominated | |
Abdication Street | 1997 Sidewise Award for Alternate History | Short Form | Nominated | [26] |
Coppola's Dracula | 1997 International Horror Guild Award | Long Fiction | Won | |
1997 Bram Stoker Award | Long Fiction | Nominated | ||
1998 Locus Award | Novella | Nominated | ||
1998 World Fantasy Award | Novella | Nominated | ||
Citizen Ed | 1997 British Fantasy Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
Teddy Bears' Picnic | 1998 Sidewise Award for Alternate History | Short Form | Nominated | [27] |
Residuals | 1998 Locus Award | Novelette | Nominated | |
Back in the USSA | 1998 Locus Award | Collection | Nominated | |
Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959 | 1999 Locus Award | Horror/Dark Fantasy Novel | Nominated | |
Seven Stars | 1999 International Horror Guild Award | Novel | Nominated | |
Andy Warhol's Dracula | 1999 International Horror Guild Award | Long Fiction | Nominated | |
2000 Locus Award | Novella | Nominated | ||
Americanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue | 1999 International Horror Guild Award | Short Story | Nominated | |
2000 World Fantasy Award | Short Fiction | Nominated | ||
Millenium Movies | 2000 World Fantasy Special Award—Professional award | Nominated | ||
The Other Side of Midnight: Anno Dracula 1981 | 2001 Sidewise Award for Alternate History | Short Form | Nominated | [28] |
Where the Bodies Are Buried | 2001 British Fantasy Award | Collection | Won | |
Is There Anybody There? | 2001 World Fantasy Award | Short Fiction | Nominated | |
A Drug on the Market | 2002 International Horror Guild Award | Intermediate Form | Nominated | |
Horror: Another 100 Best Books
(with Stephen Jones) |
2005 Bram Stoker Award | Non-Fiction | Won | |
2005 International Horror Guild Award | Non-Fiction | Nominated | ||
2006 Locus Award | Non-Fiction | Nominated | ||
The Serial Murders | 2005 International Horror Guild Award | Long Fiction | Nominated | |
Soho Golem | 2005 World Fantasy Award | Novella | Nominated | |
Clubland Heroes | 2006 Bram Stoker Award | Long Fiction | Nominated | |
The Gypsies in the Wood | 2006 Locus Award | Novella | Nominated | |
The Man Who Got Off the Ghost Train | 2007 World Fantasy Award | Novella | Nominated | |
The Man from the Diogenes Club | 2007 British Fantasy Award | Collection | Nominated | |
2007 Locus Award | Collection | Nominated | ||
The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club | 2008 World Fantasy Award | Collection | Nominated | |
Cold Snap | 2008 World Fantasy Award | Novella | Nominated | |
Mysteries of the Diogenes Club | 2011 Locus Award | Collection | Nominated | |
Professor Moriarty: The Hound of D'Urbervilles | 2012 Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | Nominated | |
Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s | 2012 British Fantasy Award | Non-Fiction | Nominated | |
Johnny Alucard | 2014 Locus Award | Fantasy Novel | Nominated | |
An English Ghost Story | 2014 The Dracula Society | Children of the Night Award | Nominated | [29] |
Guignol | 2016 World Fantasy Award | Novella | Nominated | |
Daikaiji | 2020 Locus Award | Horror Novel | Nominated |
Newman has been nominated for the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award six times[nb 1] and for the World Fantasy Award seven times.[nb 2]
Explanatory notes
[edit]- ^ Kim Newman's Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award nominations include Best Article for 'Rediscovering Polanski' in Video Watchdog #108, 'Edgar Wallace: Your Pocket Guide to the Rialto Krimi Series' in Video Watchdog #134, and 'Suspense: The Lost Episodes' in Video Watchdog #140; Best Commentary for I Walked with a Zombie and Mark of the Vampire (both with Stephen Jones); and DVD Reviewer of the Year (for 2008)
- ^ Kim Newman's World Fantasy Award nominations include Best Novel for Anno Dracula; Best Collection for The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club; and Best Novella for Out of the Night, When the Full Moon Is Bright...; Coppola's Dracula; Soho Golem; The Man Who Got Off the Ghost Train and Cold Snap.
References
[edit]Citations
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i Newman, Kim (24 May 2011). "Biography". The Kim Newman Web Site. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
- ^ Kim James Newman. Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2007.
- ^ Newman, Kim (7 September 2020). "Fifty years ago today was my first day at Dr Morgan's Grammar School for Boys, Bridgwater". Twitter. Retrieved 4 August 2021.
- ^ Bibliography: Horror: 100 Best Books". Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
"Bibliography: Horror: Another 100 Best Books". ISFDB. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
Select a "Title" for more data including a complete table of contents. - ^ "Kim Newman | the Guardian". TheGuardian.com.
- ^ "Doctor Who: A Cultural Reading by Kim Newman - GoodReads". GoodReads. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
- ^ "Kim Newman | BFI". Archived from the original on 18 August 2016.
- ^ Clute and Grant 1997, p. 682.
- ^ "Kim Newman's Anno Dracula – Johnny Alucard cover art and release date unveiled". Archived from the original on 13 October 2012.
- ^ "Life's Lottery by Kim Newman review". 16 September 2014.
- ^ Lovegrove, James (24 October 2014). "'An English Ghost Story', by Kim Newman". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "Back in Black: The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman". Tor.com. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "THE SECRETS OF DREARCLIFF GRANGE SCHOOL". Starburst Magazine. Archived from the original on 25 February 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School by Kim Newman". SFFWorld. 7 November 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ "THE SECRETS OF DREARCLIFF GRANGE SCHOOL by Kim Newman: Frightfest Gore on the Shelf book review copy copy". Film4 FrightFest. Archived from the original on 25 February 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Locus_Awards
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Interzone_Readers_Poll_1988
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Interzone_Readers_Poll_1991
- ^ https://thedraculasociety.org.uk/the-children-of-the-night-award.html
- ^ https://horroraward.org/prevrec.html
- ^ https://www.bdfi.net/prix/prix.php?id=ozone
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Interzone_Readers_Poll_1993
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/British_Fantasy_Awards_1995
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Sidewise_Awards_1996
- ^ https://www.bdfi.net/prix/prix.php?id=ozone
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Sidewise_Awards_1997
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Sidewise_Awards_1998
- ^ https://www.sfadb.com/Sidewise_Awards_2001
- ^ https://thedraculasociety.org.uk/the-children-of-the-night-award.html
General and cited references
[edit]- Clute, John and John Grant (1997). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-15897-1.
External links
[edit]- Kim Newman – official site
- EOFFTV: Kim Newman Archive – Newman's film related writings archive (ongoing project)
- Kim Newman at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Works by or about Kim Newman at the Internet Archive
- "Bloody Material: Kim Newman Interviewed by Barry Forshaw". Crime Time. Archived from the original on 18 April 2000. Original publication date unknown.
- 1959 births
- 20th-century English short story writers
- 20th-century English novelists
- 20th-century pseudonymous writers
- 21st-century English novelists
- 21st-century English short story writers
- 21st-century pseudonymous writers
- Alumni of the University of Sussex
- British alternative history writers
- British film historians
- British psychological fiction writers
- Cthulhu Mythos writers
- English film critics
- English horror writers
- English male novelists
- English science fiction writers
- English short story writers
- Film theorists
- Living people
- Novelists from London
- People from Brixton
- People from South Somerset (district)
- Warhammer Fantasy writers
- Writers from Somerset
- Writers of Sherlock Holmes pastiches