C. M. Taylor (born 1972) is the pen name of Craig Taylor, an English novelist, screenwriter and lecturer.

Life

Born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

in 1972, C. M. Taylor has lived in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, India, Spain and

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. He is married with two daughters and currently lives in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

. C. M. Taylor has ghostwritten for an internationally best-selling author, and contributed material to Plan B's ''The Ballad of Belmarsh'' album. His journalism has appeared widely, including in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' and ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''.

Early work

Taylor's novel ''Cloven'' is a dark treatment of the BSE epidemic in Britain in the 1990s. The dystopian satire ''Grief'' was nominated for Best Book of the Year 2005 by the

British Science Fiction Association The British Science Fiction Association Limited is an organisation founded in 1958 by a group of British person, British academics, science fiction fandom, science fiction fans, authors, publishers and booksellers in order to promote the writing, ...

and was described in the BSFA's review as a work of "breathtaking originality." Steve Redwood of ''

The Future Fire ''The Future Fire'' is a small-press, Online magazine, online science fiction magazine (), run by a joint United Kingdom, British–United States, US team of editors. The magazine was launched in January 2005 and releases issues four times a yea ...

'' also praised the novel. ''Grief'' was republished in 2020 as ''City of O''. The novella ''Light'' is set in the e-commerce boom of the late 1990s and features the author's own

Primitivist In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism propo ...

drawings. In

Time Out London ''Time Out'' is a global magazine published by Time Out Group. ''Time Out'' started as a London-only publication in 1968 and has expanded its editorial recommendations to 333 cities in 59 countries worldwide. In 2012, the London edition becam ...

the novelist

Nicholas Royle Nicholas Royle (born 20 March 1963 in Manchester) is an English novelist, editor, publisher, literary reviewer and creative writing lecturer. Literary career Author Royle has written seven novels: ''Counterparts'', ''Saxophone Dreams'', ''The Ma ...

described ''Light'' as "delightfully unusual."

The Kev King books

Published by Corsair, an imprint of

Constable & Robinson Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an imprint of Little, Brown which publishes fiction and non-fiction books and ebooks. History Constable & Co. was founded in 1795 by Archibald Constable, and became the publisher of works by Sir Walter Scott. In ...

, Taylor's ''Premiership Psycho'' is a dark satire on the excesses of celebrity and football culture. Simon Redfern of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' praised the book, saying: "As with all good satire, this dystopian vision inspires laughter and loathing in equal measure." Reviewer Gary Andrews described the novel as "a slight reworking – part pastiche, part homage – of

Ellis Ellis is a surname of Welsh and English origin. Retrieved 21 January 2014 An independent French origin of the surname is said to derive from the phrase fleur-de-lis. It has also been noted to be a Jewish surname. People with the surname include ...

’ classic novel 'American Psycho''">American_Psycho.html" ;"title="'American Psycho">'American Psycho'' only with the action relocation from Wall Street to the Premier League". ''FourFourTwo'' magazine called the book "''American Psycho'' for the hundred grand a week generation...".

Recent work

In December 2014, Taylor launched the "immersive narrative app" ''Reptile Resistance'' in collaboration with John Crump through the crowdfunding publisher Unbound; funding was secured in 2017. The app is illustrated by the artist

Pete Fowler Pete Fowler (born 1969 in Cardiff) is a Welsh artist best known for his artwork for the band Super Furry Animals and his Monsterism toys and goods. He is a freelance illustrator and "monster maker" inspired by animals, music, folklore, myths ...

. Taylor co-wrote (with

Jeremy Sheldon Jeremy Sheldon (born 1971) is a British screenwriter, author and lecturer. Sheldon was educated at Eton College and at the University of East Anglia where he graduated with a degree in English Literature and Philosophy and an MA in Creative Writi ...

) the screenplay of the 2015 film ''Writers Retreat''. Taylor's novel ''Staying On'' was published by

Duckworth Duckworth may refer to: * Duckworth (surname), people with the surname ''Duckworth'' * Duckworth (''DuckTales''), fictional butler from the television series ''DuckTales'' * Duckworth Books Duckworth Books, originally Gerald Duckworth and Co ...

in 2018 and described as a "geriatric coming-of-age story". In 2014 he began a project with the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

to document the creative process of writing the book. In a 2017 interview Taylor explained: "They have put what is effectively a piece of spyware on a laptop on which I’m writing a novel, and this spyware documents every key stroke I make, and documents the time it was made." The data from this collaboration was published in 2018. Taylor is senior lecturer in publishing at the Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies.Staff. Taylor
rookes.ac.uk

Published works

*''Light'', as C. M. Taylor (, ebook ) *''Grief'', as C. M. Taylor (first published under the name Ed Lark) (, ebook ) *''Cloven'', as C. M. Taylor (, ebook ) *''Premiership Psycho'', as C. M. Taylor (2011, ) *''Group of Death'', as C. M. Taylor (2012, ebook ) *''Staying On'', as C. M. Taylor (2018, )

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, C. M. 1972 births 21st-century English novelists English science fiction writers Living people Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands English male novelists 21st-century English male writers English male non-fiction writers