 | This article'slead sectionmay be too short to adequatelysummarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead toprovide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article.(April 2023) |
Kim Newman | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Newman at the 2007World Fantasy Convention inSaratoga Springs, NY | |
| Born | (1959-07-31)31 July 1959 (age 65) Brixton,London, England |
| Pen name | Jack Yeovil |
| Occupation | Film critic,journalist, writer |
| Website | |
| johnnyalucard | |
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an Englishjournalist,film critic, andfiction writer.[1] He is interested infilm history andhorror fiction - both of which he attributes to seeingTod Browning'sDracula at the age of eleven - andalternative history. He has won theBram Stoker Award, theInternational Horror Guild Award, and theBSFA award.
Kim Newman was born 31 July 1959 inBrixton,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 toAller, Somerset.[1] He was educated at Dr. Morgan's Grammar School for Boys inBridgwater.[1][3] While he attended, the school merged with two others to become Haygrove Comprehensive.[1] He graduated from theUniversity 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]
Early in his career, Newman was ajournalist for the magazinesCity Limits andKnave.
Newman's first two books were the non-fictionGhastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations (1985), co-written with his friendNeil Gaiman, a light-hearted tribute to entertainingly bad prose in fantastic fiction andNightmare 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 byWild West Movies: Or How the West Was Found, Won, Lost, Lied About, Filmed and Forgotten (1990) andMillennium Movies: End of the World Cinema (1999). Newman's non-fiction also includes theBFI Companion to Horror (1996).
Newman andStephen Jones jointly editedHorror: 100 Best Books, the 1988 horror volume in Xanadu's100 Best series andHorror: 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 annualBram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction.[4]
Newman is a contributing editor to the UK film magazineEmpire, 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 toRotten Tomatoes,Venue,Video Watchdog ('The Perfectionist's Guide to Fantastic Video') andSight and Sound.[5] Newman is the author of theDoctor Who entry in theBritish Film Institute's book series on TV Classics.[6] In 2018, Newman became the chief writer on theBBC Four documentary seriesMark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema.
Newman participated in the2012Sight & 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, andTo Have and Have Not.[7]
Newman's first published novel wasThe Night Mayor (1989), set in avirtual 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 byGames Workshop, set in the world of theirWarhammer andDark Futurewargaming and role-playing games. Games Workshop's fiction imprintBlack Flame returned the Dark Future books to print in 2006, publishingDemon 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, duringJack the Ripper's killing spree—but a different 1888, in which Dracula became the ruler of England.Anno Dracula was followed by theAnno Dracula series of novels and shorter works, that followed the same alternative history. The fourth novel in the series was published in 2013 asJohnny Alucard.[9]
Other novels includeLife's Lottery (1999), in which the protagonist's life story is determined by the reader's choices[10] (an adult version of theChoose Your Own Adventure series of children's books),The Quorum (1994),Jago (1991) andBad Dreams (1990).
Newman wrote aDoctor Whonovella,Time and Relative in 2001.
Newman has been nominated for the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award six times[nb 1] and for theWorld Fantasy Award seven times.[nb 2]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
