Guest Profiles

Guest of Honour: Kim Newman

Kim Newman was born in London in 1959 and, after living in Somerset for a period during his childhood, is now back there. An early fascination with all manner of things fantastical, both written and on TV and in the movies, as well as a penchant for wearing an opera-cape in his teen years, indicated early the direction Kim was likely to take.

After studying English at the University of Sussex, and following a brief period with the evocatively named Sheep Worrying Theatre Group in Bridgewater (where he played Kazoo in the cabaret band, amongst other things), Kim started to make his mark as a film critic and reviewer, as well as beginning to have stories published in magazines like InterZone.

By 1985, he had his first book on the shelf, a non-fiction book, co-authored with Neil Gaiman, called Ghastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations. This was soon followed, that same year, by Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film since 1968, which was entirely his own work. His first novel, The Night Mayor, was published in 1989, with the first of the books to appear under his pseudonym of Jack Yeovil, Drachenfels, appearing the same year. Since then he has published over a dozen books, including four collections of short stories and the highly successful Anno Dracula, a tale of a 19th Century where Dracula lives and the political elite, including good Queen Victoria, are amongst the Undead.

It is hard to mention Kim's body of work without appearing to be exaggerating. He has written for just about every publication there is in Britain, as well as abroad. He has a vast amount of TV appearances to his credit, as well as a bit part in a movie; he has directed his own short movie, and has adapted a number of his own books into screenplays; he has co-written an alternative history novel with author and friend Eugene Byrne, and has written what quite possibly the ultimate choose-your-own-adventure book, the dark and visceral Life's Lottery. He has won a number of awards for his work, and has made the short list for several more. Any place is a good place to start reading Kim's work, which we strongly recommend you do. For more about Kim, check his website, which is available at www.johnnyalucard.com

In June 2006, Kim and Stephen Jones won the 2005 Stoker Award (in the non-fiction category) for their collection Horror: Another 100 Best Books and Kim was featured in many (and quite possibly all) of the programmes in the Science Fiction Britannia season on BBC 4 television.

Kim's vast range of interests, as well as his huge and varied body of work, makes him one of the most versatile guests imaginable for a convention, and we are exceedingly happy to have him as Guest of Honour at P-CON IV.

Guest Profile (based on an earlier profile) by Pádraig Ó Méalóid