Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

film critic Film criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films and the film medium. In general, film criticism can be divided into two categories: Academic criticism by film scholars, who study the composition of film theory and publish their findin ...

, and fiction writer. He is interested in

film history The history of film chronicles the development of a visual art form created using film technologies that began in the late 19th century. The advent of film as an artistic medium is not clearly defined. There were earlier cinematographic scre ...

and

horror fiction Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defin ...

– both of which he attributes to seeing

Tod Browning Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of var ...

's ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

'' at the age of eleven – and

alternative history Alternate history (also referred to as alternative history, allohistory, althist, or simply A.H.) is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which one or more historical events have occurred but are resolved differently than in actual history. As ...

. He has won the

Bram Stoker Award The Bram Stoker Award is a recognition presented annually by the Horror Writers Association (HWA) for "superior achievement" in dark fantasy and horror writing. History The Awards were established in 1987 and have been presented annually since ...

, the International Horror Guild Award, and the BSFA award.

Early life

Kim Newman was born 31 July 1959 in

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, the son of Bryan Michael Newman and Julia Christen Newman, both potters.Kim James Newman. ''Contemporary Authors Online'',

Gale A gale is a strong wind; the word is typically used as a descriptor in nautical contexts. The U.S. National Weather Service defines a gale as sustained surface wind moving at a speed between .

, 2007. His sister, Sasha, was born in 1961, and their mother died in 2003. Newman attended "a progressive kindergarten and a primary school in Brixton, and then Huish Episcopal County Primary School in Langport, Somerset". In 1966 the family moved to Aller, Somerset. He was educated at Dr. Morgan's Grammar School for Boys in

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. The town had a population of 41,276 at the 2021 census. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies along both sid ...

. While he attended, the school merged with two others to become Haygrove Comprehensive. He graduated from the

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

with an English degree in 1980 and set a short story, ''Angel Down, Sussex'' (1999) in the area. Newman acted in school plays and with the Bridgwater Youth Theatre.

Non-fiction

Early in his career, Newman was a

for the magazines ''

City Limits City limits or city boundaries refer to the defined boundary (real estate), boundary or border of a city. The area within the city limit can be called the city proper. Town limit/boundary and village limit/boundary apply to towns and villages. ...

'' and '' Knave''. Newman's first two books were the non-fiction '' Ghastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations'' (1985), co-written with his friend

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 ...

, a light-hearted tribute to entertainingly bad prose in fantastic fiction and '' Nightmare 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 by ''Wild West Movies: Or How the West Was Found, Won, Lost, Lied About, Filmed and Forgotten'' (1990) and ''Millennium Movies: End of the World Cinema'' (1999). Newman's non-fiction also includes the ''BFI Companion to Horror'' (1996). Newman and Stephen Jones jointly edited ''Horror: 100 Best Books'', the 1988 horror volume in Xanadu's 100 Best series and ''Horror: 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 annual Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction.Bibliography: ''Horror: 100 Best Books''"

Internet Speculative Fiction Database The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB ...

.

"Bibliography: ''Horror: Another 100 Best Books''"
ISFDB. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
Select a "Title" for more data including a complete table of contents. Newman is a contributing editor to the UK film magazine ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'', 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 to

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, '' Venue'', '' Video Watchdog'' ('The Perfectionist's Guide to Fantastic Video') and ''

Sight and Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...

''. Newman is the author of the ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' entry in the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

's book series on TV Classics. In 2018, Newman became the chief writer on the

BBC Four BBC Four 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 launched on 2 March 2002

documentary series '' Mark Kermode's Secrets of Cinema''. Newman participated in the 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll, where he listed his ten favorite films as follows: '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''

Apocalypse Now ''Apocalypse Now'' is a 1979 American psychological epic war film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The screenplay, co-written by Coppola, John Milius, and Michael Herr, is loosely inspired by the 1899 novella '' Heart of Darkn ...

'', '' A Canterbury Tale'', '' Céline and Julie Go Boating'', ''

Citizen Kane ''Citizen Kane'' is a 1941 American Drama (film and television), drama film directed by, produced by and starring Orson Welles and co-written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. It was Welles's List of directorial debuts, first feature film. ...

'', '' Duck Amuck'', '' Let's Scare Jessica to Death'', '' Mulholland Drive'', '' Notorious'', and '' To Have and Have Not''.

Fiction

Newman's first published novel was ''The Night Mayor'' (1989), set in a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

, based on old black-and-white detective movies. In the same year, using the

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Jack Yeovil, he began contributing to a series of novels published by

Games Workshop Games Workshop Group (often abbreviated as GW) is a British manufacturer of miniature wargames, based in Nottingham, England. Its best-known products are ''Warhammer (game), Warhammer'' and ''Warhammer 40,000''. Founded in 1975 by John Peake ...

, set in the world of their '' Warhammer'' and '' Dark Future''

wargaming A normal wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to st ...

and role-playing games. Games Workshop's fiction imprint Black Flame returned the Dark Future books to print in 2006, publishing ''Demon 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, during

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer who was active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer was also ...

's killing spree—but a different 1888, in which Dracula became the ruler of England. ''Anno Dracula'' was followed by the Anno Dracula series of novels and shorter works, that followed the same alternative history. The fourth novel in the series was published in 2013 as ''Johnny Alucard''. Other novels include '' Life's Lottery'' (1999), in which the protagonist's life story is determined by the reader's choices (an adult version of the ''

Choose Your Own Adventure ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...

'' series of children's books), ''The Quorum'' (1994), ''Jago'' (1991) and ''Bad Dreams'' (1990). Newman wrote a ''

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

, ''

Time and Relative ''Time and Relative'' is an original novella written by Kim Newman and based on the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Set shortly before the first televised ''Doctor Who'' story, it features the First Docto ...

'' in 2001.

Selected fiction

Novels

* ''The Night Mayor'' (1989) * ''Bad Dreams'' (1990) * ''Jago'' (1991) * ''The Quorum'' (1994) * '' Life's Lottery'' (1999) * '' Anno Dracula series'' ** '' Anno Dracula'' (1992) ** ''

The Bloody Red Baron ''Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron'', or simply ''The Bloody Red Baron'', is a 1995 alternate history/Horror fiction, horror novel by British author Kim Newman. It is the second book in the Anno Dracula series, ''Anno Dracula'' series and take ...

'' (1995) ** '' Dracula Cha Cha Cha'' (also published as ''Judgment of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959'') (1998) ** ''Johnny Alucard'' (2013) ** ''One Thousand Monsters'' (2017) ** ''Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju'' (2019) * ''

'' (2001) * '' Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles'' (Titan Books, 2011; ) * ''An English Ghost Story'' (2014) * ''The Secrets of Drearcliffe Grange School'' (2015) * ''The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School'' (2018) * ''Angels of Music'' (2016) * ''Something More Than Night'' (2021)

Short story collections

* ''The Original Dr. Shade, and Other Stories'' (1994) * ''Famous Monsters'' (1995) * ''

Back in the USSA ''Back in the USSA'' is a 1997 collection of seven short stories by English writers Eugene Byrne and Kim Newman, which was published by Mark V. Ziesing Books. The title is a reference to the song "Back in the U.S.S.R." by The Beatles. The storie ...

'' (1997) (with

Eugene Byrne Eugene Byrne (born 25 February 1959) is an English freelance journalist and fiction writer. His novel ''ThigMOO'', and the story it was based on, were nominated for the BSFA award. His story "HMS Habakkuk" was nominated for a Sidewise Award for Al ...

) * ''Seven Stars'' (2000) * ''Where the Bodies are Buried'' (2000) * ''Unforgivable Stories'' (2000) * ''Dead Travel Fast'' (2005) * ''Diogenes Club'' series ** ''The Man from the Diogenes Club'' (2006) ** ''The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club'' (2007) ** ''Mysteries of the Diogenes Club'' (2010) ** ''The Man From the Diogenes Club'' (2017) * ''Anno Dracula 1899 and Other Stories'' (2017)

Comics

* ''Anno Dracula – 1895: Seven Days in Mayhem'' (Titan Comics, 2017, five issues) with artist Paul McCaffrey.

As Jack Yeovil

* '' Warhammer'' setting ** ''Drachenfels'' (1989) ** ''Beasts in Velvet'' (1991) ** ''Genevieve Undead'' (1993, three

s published as a single book) ** ''Silver Nails'' (2002, short stories) ** ''The Vampire Genevieve'' (2005, compilation of the above four books) * '' Dark Future'' setting ** ''Krokodil Tears'' (1990) ** ''Demon Download'' (1990) ** ''Route 666'' (1993) ** ''Comeback Tour'' (1991) * ''Orgy of the Blood Parasites'' (1994) * "The Big Fish" in '' Shadows over Innsmouth'' (1994)

Non-Fiction

* ''Nightmare Movies: Wide Screen Horror Since 1968'' (1984) * ''Ghastly Beyond Belief: The Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of Quotations'' (1985) (with

) * ''Horror: 100 Best Books'' (1988) (with Stephen Jones) * ''Nightmare Movies: A Critical History of the Horror Film, 1968–1988 (1988) * ''The BFI Companion to Horror'' (1996) * ''Millennium Movies'' (1999) * ''Cat People'' (1999) * ''Science Fiction / Horror: A Sight and Sound Reader'' (2002) * ''Horror: Another 100 Best Books'' (2005) (with Stephen Jones) * ''Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s'' (2011) * ''Horror!: The Definitive Companion to the Most Terrifying Movies Ever Made'' (2013) (with James Marriott) * ''Quatermass and the Pit'' (2014)

Awards

Newman has been nominated for the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award six times and for the

World Fantasy Award The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous ann ...

seven times.

Explanatory notes

References

Citations

General and cited references

* Clute, John and John Grant (1997). ''

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' is a 1997 reference work covering fantasy fiction, edited by John Clute and John Grant (author), John Grant. As of November 2012, the full text of ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' is available online, as a compani ...

''. New York: St Martin's Press. .

External links

* – official site
''EOFFTV: Kim Newman Archive''
– Newman's film related writings archive (ongoing project) * * * Original publication date unknown. {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Kim 1959 births 20th-century English short story writers 20th-century English novelists 20th-century pseudonymous writers 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English short story writers 21st-century pseudonymous writers Alumni of the University of Sussex British alternative history writers British film historians British psychological fiction writers Cthulhu Mythos writers English film critics English horror writers English male novelists English science fiction writers English short story writers Film theorists Living people Novelists from London People from Brixton People from South Somerset (district) Warhammer Fantasy writers Writers from Somerset Writers of Sherlock Holmes pastiches