Charles Murray Higson (born 3 July 1958) is an English actor, comedian, author and former singer. He has also written and produced for television and is the author of the

young adult In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction are genres of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astronom ...

book series ''The Enemy'', as well as the first five novels in the '' Young Bond'' series.

Early life

Born in Frome,

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, Higson was educated at

Sevenoaks School Sevenoaks School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school. It is co-educational, a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school, located in Sevenoaks, Kent, England. Established in 1432, it ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

and at the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

(UEA) in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

(where his brother taught from 1986 to 2008, latterly as Professor of Film Studies). At UEA, Higson met Paul Whitehouse, David Cummings and Terry Edwards. Higson, Cummings and Edwards formed the band The Higsons, of which Higson was the lead singer from 1980 to 1986. They released two singles on

the Specials The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, J ...

2 Tone Records 2 Tone Records was an English independent record label that mostly released ska and reggae-influenced music with a punk rock and pop music overtone. It was founded by Jerry Dammers of the Specials and backed by Chrysalis Records. History J ...

label. This was after he had formed the punk band The Right Hand Lovers, wherein he performed as "Switch". Higson then started squatting in London and became a decorator, coincidentally decorating the house of

Stephen Fry Sir Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director, narrator and writer. He came to prominence as a member of the comic act Fry and Laurie alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in ''A Bit of ...

and Hugh Laurie.

Career

Higson started writing for Harry Enfield with Paul Whitehouse and performing comedy. He came to public attention as one of the main writers and performers of the

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

sketch show '' The Fast Show'' (1994–2000). He also worked with Whitehouse on the radio comedy '' Down the Line''. In 1994 Higson co-wrote the screenplay for the thriller film ''Suite 16'' with Lise Mayer. He worked as producer, writer, director and occasional guest star on '' Randall & Hopkirk'' from 2000 to 2001. Subsequent television work has included writing and starring in

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

's ''Fast Show'' spin-off sitcom '' Swiss Toni''. He first appeared as a panellist on '' QI'' in 2007. In 2010 he co-directed and starred in the series '' Bellamy's People''. In 2013 Higson adapted

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...

's '' A Caribbean Mystery'' for ITV's '' Agatha Christie's Marple'' series. In 2015 Higson reimagined the novel '' Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'' by

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

for

ITV Studios ITV Studios Limited is a British multinational television media company owned by British television broadcaster ITV plc. It handles production and distribution of programmes broadcast on the ITV network and third-party broadcasters, and is ba ...

into a ten part adventure series, set in the 1930s titled '' Jekyll and Hyde''. In 2017, Higson appeared as Ian Winterman in series three of '' Broadchurch'' and as Ronnie Maguire in series three of ''

Grantchester Grantchester () is a village and civil parish on the River Cam or Granta (river), Granta in South Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about south of Cambridge. Name The village of Grantchester is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book as ''Granteset ...

''. 2020 saw Higson compete on '' Richard Osman's House of Games''. alongside Chizzy Akudolu, Kate Williams and Tom Allen. Higson has also starred in ''Lobby Land'', a radio sitcom on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

, as Tom Shriver MP.

Books

'' Time Out'' has described Higson as "The missing link between Dick Emery and

Bret Easton Ellis Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an American author and screenwriter. Ellis was one of the literary Brat Pack (literary), Brat Pack and is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique as a writer is the expression of extreme acts ...

". Higson wrote a series of five '' Young Bond'' novels, aimed at younger readers and concentrating on

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

's school-days at Eton starting with '' SilverFin'', released in 2005, and ending with '' By Royal Command'' (2008). Higson had been at school with Jonathan Evans, former Director General of MI5. Higson wrote a

, zombie- horror series of books for young adults. The eponymous first book in the series, titled '' The Enemy'', was released in 2009. At a school event at Abingdon School on 14 September 2011, Charlie told children: "Originally it was going to be three books and then my publisher, Puffin, said make it five, and now we're up to it being seven." The seventh novel, ''

The End The End may refer to: Film * The End (1953 film), ''The End'' (1953 film), a film by Christopher Maclaine * The End (1978 film), ''The End'' (1978 film), a comedy by Burt Reynolds * ''The End'' (1995 film), a List of Canadian films of 1995, Cana ...

'', was published in 2015. In 2018 Higson wrote a '' Fighting Fantasy'' gamebook titled The Gates of Death, which was published by Scholastic books as part of their campaign to relaunch the ''Fighting Fantasy'' franchise. He is a long term ''FF'' enthusiast, having attended Fighting Fantasy Fest 2 in London the previous year and also made a cameo appearance in the Ian Livingstone gamebook ''Blood of the Zombies''. In May 2023 Higson released his first adult Bond novel, ''On His Majesty's Secret Service'', to mark the Coronation of King Charles III and support the National Literacy Trust.

Personal life

Higson lives in London with his wife and three sons.

Filmography

Film

Television

Bibliography

Novels

* ''King of the Ants ''(1992) * ''Happy Now ''(1993) * ''Full Whack'' (1995), * ''Getting Rid of Mister Kitchen'' (1996) * ''Monstroso'' (2010) * ''Whatever Gets You Through the Night'' (2022) ISBN 9781408714287

The Enemy

The Enemy novels

# '' The Enemy'' (2009) # '' The Dead'' (2010) # '' The Fear'' (2011) # '' The Sacrifice'' (2012) # ''The Fallen'' (2013) # '' The Hunted'' (2014) # ''

'' (2015) ASIN B00Z8PHRKS

The Enemy short story

* ''Geeks vs. Zombies'' (2012) (This companion book in the series, released by Disney Hyperion, portrays an exclusive scene from ''The Fear'', on World Book Day.)

Young Bond

# '' SilverFin'' (2005), # '' Blood Fever'' (2006), # '' Double or Die'' (2007), # '' Hurricane Gold'' (2007), # '' By Royal Command'' (2008), # ''SilverFin: The Graphic Novel'' (2008), (with Kev Walker) # '' Danger Society: The Young Bond Dossier'' (2009), (authored short story included in book)

Fighting Fantasy

* ''The Gates of Death'' (2018)

James Bond

* ''On His Majesty's Secret Service'' (2023),

Non-fiction

* ''The 'Fast Show' Book'' (1996), (with Paul Whitehouse)

Short stories

* "The Red Line" in ''The 'Time Out' Book of Short Stories'', edited by Maria Lexton (1993), * "The Beast of Babylon" in ''Doctor Who: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories: 11 Doctors, 11 Stories'', with

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman (; born Neil Richard Gaiman; 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, audio theatre, and screenplays. His works include the comic series ''The Sandman (comic book), The Sandma ...

, Richelle Mead, Eoin Colfer, Marcus Sedgwick, Michael Scott, Philip Reeve, Patrick Ness, Malorie Blackman, Alex Scarrow,

Derek Landy Derek Landy (born 23 October 1974) is an Irish author and screenwriter, known for the ''Skulduggery Pleasant'' and ''Demon Road'' book series. Since 2018, he has also written numerous comic book series at Marvel Comics. Career Landy has written ...

(2013), ISBN 978-0-14-134894-0

References

External links

*
BBC Talent Guide profile

Another BBC profile of Higson
* * * *

Charlie Higson Archive, University of East Anglia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Higson, Charlie 1958 births 20th-century English novelists 20th-century squatters 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English writers Alumni of the University of East Anglia Comedians from Somerset English children's writers English comedy writers English male comedians English male singers English male television actors English male television writers English male voice actors English sketch comedians English television writers Living people Male actors from Kent Male actors from Somerset Musicians from Kent Musicians from Somerset People educated at Sevenoaks School Actors from Frome Comedians from Kent Writers from Somerset British television show creators