Peter Alexander Haining (2 April 1940 – 19 November 2007) was a British

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 ...

, author and

anthologist In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

who lived and worked in

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 ...

Biography

Born in Enfield,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, Haining began his career as a reporter in Essex and then moved to London where he worked on a trade magazine before joining the publishing house of

New English Library The New English Library was a United Kingdom book publishing company, which became an imprint of Hodder Headline. History New English Library (NEL) was created in 1961 by the Times Mirror Company of Los Angeles, with the takeover of two small B ...

in 1963. He achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full-time writer in the early 1970s. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the

Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (), sometimes referred to by the Portmanteau, portmanteau Chunnel, is a undersea railway tunnel, opened in 1994, that connects Folkestone (Kent, England) with Coquelles (Pas-de-Calais, France) beneath the English Channel at ...

Sweeney Todd Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial '' The String of Pearls'' (1846–1847). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet St ...

and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the 1970s he wrote three novels, including ''The Hero'' (1973), which was optioned for filming. In two controversial books, Haining argued that

was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, '' The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack''.Mike Dash, "Spring-heeled Jack," in "Fortean Studies volume 3" (1996), pp. 1-125, ed. Steve Moore, John Brown Publishing He wrote several reference books on the BBC TV programme ''

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 ...

'', including the 20th anniversary special ''Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space'' (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

on the screen, ''The Television Sherlock Holmes'' (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including

Maigret Jules Maigret (), or simply Maigret, is a fictional French police detective, a '' commissaire'' ("commissioner") of the Paris ''Brigade Criminelle'' ('' Direction Régionale de la Police Judiciaire de Paris:36, Quai des Orfèvres''), created ...

Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...

, Dr. Finlay and

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 ...

. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: ''The Jail That Went To Sea'' (2003), ''The Mystery of Rommel's Gold'' (2004), ''Where The Eagle Landed'' (2004), ''The Chianti Raiders'' (2005) and ''The Banzai Hunters'' (2007). He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.

Partial bibliography

Peter Haining contributed to over 170 books, editing the vast majority, a few of which are listed here. *'' The Freak Show'' (1970) * *''The

Scrapbook'' (1973) Indispensable for collectors of Sherlockiana *'' The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack'' (1977) *''

M. R. James Montague Rhodes James (1 August 1862 – 12 June 1936) was an English medievalist scholar and author who served as provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936) as well as Vice-Chancellor of the Univers ...

- Book of the Supernatural'' (1979) () Introduction by Sir

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman, (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architect ...

. Articles and rare items about MRJ *''A

Compendium'' (1980) *'' The Barbarian Swordsmen'' (1981) *''

: The Key to Time A year by year record'' (1984) () * * *''

: The Real Story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' (1993) London: Robson Books * *''On Call with Doctor Finlay'' (1994) London: Boxtree Limited *''London After Midnight'' (1996) * *''The Nine Lives of

'' (1999)

In popular culture

Lucio Fulci Lucio Fulci (; 17 June 1927 – 13 March 1996) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Although he worked in a wide array of genres through a career spanning nearly five decades, including Commedia all'italiana, comedies and spagh ...

's film ''

Don't Torture a Duckling ''Don't Torture a Duckling'' () is a 1972 Italian ''giallo'' film directed by Lucio Fulci, starring Florinda Bolkan, Tomas Milian and Barbara Bouchet. The plot follows a journalist investigating a series of child murders in an insular Italian ...

'', at 1:42:32 in the film, one of the characters (Andrea Martelli) is seen reading the book "I Classici della Magia Nera" ("Classics of Black Magic") edited by Peter Haining, which actually belongs to the character Patrizia. This is an Italian translation of Haining's anthology ''The Satanists''.

References

External links

Obituary
in 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 foun ...

, 28 December 2007
Obituary
in

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 ...

, 28 November 2007
Books by Peter Haining
at Fantastic Fiction – with gallery *
Richard Peyton
at LC, with 3 library catalogue records {{DEFAULTSORT:Haining, Peter 1940 births 2007 deaths British male journalists British parapsychologists People from Enfield, London Journalists from London