Michael Paul Marshall Smith (born 3 May 1965) is an English novelist, screenwriter and short story writer who also writes as Michael Marshall, M. M. Smith and Michael Rutger.

Biography

Born in

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town and civil parish in the Cheshire East district, in Cheshire, England; it is located south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and south-east of Warrington. The population of the parish at the 2021 Uni ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

, Smith moved with his family at an early age to first

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

and then

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. When he was seven, the family moved again, this time to South Africa, and then to Australia before eventually returning home to England in 1973. He was educated in

Chigwell Chigwell is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is part of the urban and metropolitan area of London, and is adjacent to the northern boundary of Greater London. It is on the Central line of the Londo ...

and at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, where he studied Philosophy, Social and

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

, and became involved with the

Cambridge Footlights The Cambridge Footlights, commonly referred to simply as Footlights, is a student sketch comedy troupe located in Cambridge, England. Footlights was founded in 1883, and is one of Britain's oldest student sketch comedy troupes. The comedy so ...

. Under the pseudonym of Michael Rutger, he became a comedy writer and performer on the

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 ...

series '' And Now in Colour'', which ran for two series. Between 2002 and 2004, he also co-wrote material for two series of surreal comedy '' Dare to Believe''.

Writing career

Smith's first published story was "The Man Who Drew Cats", which won the

British Fantasy Award The British Fantasy Awards (BFA) are awarded annually by the British Fantasy Society (BFS), first in 1976. Prior to that they were known as The August Derleth Fantasy Awards (see August Derleth Award). First awarded in 1972 (to ''The Knight of ...

in 1991 for "Best Short Story". He has been published in ''

Postscripts ''Postscripts'' was a quarterly British magazine of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and crime fiction, first published in June 2004.

''. His first novel, ''

Only Forward ''Only Forward'' is a science fiction novel by English writer Michael Marshall Smith; his debut novel, it was first published in 1994 by HarperCollins. It was the winner of the August Derleth Award (1995) and Philip K. Dick Award (2000).

'', was published in 1994 and won the

August Derleth Award The August Derleth Award is one of the British Fantasy Awards bestowed annually by the British Fantasy Society. The award is named after the American writer and editor August Derleth. It was inaugurated in 1972 for the best novel of the year, was n ...

for Best Novel in 1995, and then the Philip K. Dick Award in 2000. The plot involves the lead character, Stark, having to find a missing man he believes to have been kidnapped, and travel through the strange zones of his city. In 1996 his second novel, ''Spares'', was released, a novel in which the lead character, Jack, goes on the run with clones who are used for spare body parts for rich people, when he realises they are people with feelings.

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

's DreamWorks purchased the film rights for Spares, but a film was never made. When the rights lapsed, DreamWorks did produce '' The Island'', whose plot had strong similarities to ''Spares'', though Smith did not consider it worthwhile to pursue legal action over the similarities. He now considers it unlikely a ''Spares'' film will ever be made. The novel ''The Straw Men'' was the first to be written under the shortened name "Michael Marshall". This change of name was originally due to the publishing of another book of the same name in 2001 by Martin J. Smith. However, Marshall Smith then decided to use the split to offer the possibility of publishing different genres of books under the two names – "modern day" novels as Michael Marshall, and horror/science fiction as Michael Marshall Smith. In 2012 he set up Ememess Press, a virtual small press specialising in producing electronic versions of the short fiction written under the name Michael Marshall Smith. '' Intruders'', a television series on

BBC America BBC America is an American basic cable network that is owned by AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary series). Unlike the BBC's ...

, is based on Smith's 2007 novel ''The Intruders''.

Bibliography

Novels

* ''

'' (1994, HarperCollins) – * '' Spares'' (1996, HarperCollins) – * '' One of Us'' (1998, HarperCollins) – * '' Hannah Green and her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence'' (2017) – As M. M. Smith: * '' The Servants'' (2007, HarperCollins) – As Michael Marshall: * '' The Straw Men'' (2001, HarperCollins) – * '' The Lonely Dead'' (2004): ** Published in the UK by HarperCollins – ** Released in the US under the title ''The Upright Man –'' * ''Blood of Angels'' (2005, HarperCollins) – * ''The Intruders'' (2007, HarperCollins) – * ''Bad Things'' (2009) – * ''Killer Move'' (2011) – * ''We Are Here'' (2013) – ''The Anomaly'' Series, as Michael Rutger: # ''The Anomaly'' (2018) – # ''The Possession'' (2019) –

Novellas

* '' The Vaccinator '' (1999)

Collections

* '' When God Lived in Kentish Town'' (1998) – a small paperback containing four stories, distributed for free by

WHSmith WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service s ...

tube Tube or tubes may refer to: * ''Tube'' (2003 film), a 2003 Korean film * "Tubes" (Peter Dale), performer on the Soccer AM television show * Tube (band), a Japanese rock band * Tube & Berger, the alias of dance/electronica producers Arndt Rör ...

and rail stations around London and in

Heathrow airport Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

to promote the publication of ''One of Us''. 5,000 copies were produced. * '' What You Make It'' (1999) * '' Cat Stories'' (2001) * '' More Tomorrow & Other Stories'' (2003) * ''This Is Now'' (2007) * ''Everything You Need'' (2013) * ''The Best of Michael Marshall Smith'' (2020)

Awards

References

* ''Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography'' (2004) by Lavie Tidhar

External links

Official Michael Marshall Smith Web site

This is Now
A short story at th
BBC's Cult website

Interview with Michael Marshall Smith for MSN UK Tech & Gadgets

Michael Marshall Smith Interview About the Art of the Thriller * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Michael Marshall 1965 births Living people English science fiction writers English fantasy writers Alumni of King's College, Cambridge People from Knutsford English male novelists