Background
John Brosnan was born in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Since 1970, he became a resident of England.
John Brosnan was born in Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Since 1970, he became a resident of England.
John Brosnan’s career started from the clerk position in Inland Revenue in Kensington, London, United Kingdom. Since 1970s, John started to work in publishing in United Kingdom. He occupied the post of publicity manager at Foundation Press, Holborn, London, United Kingdom. Later, he became a freelance writer. John published his first book, James Bond in the Cinema, a guide to the seven Bond movies released at that time, at the age of twenty-five. The second edition was published in 1981.
Two years later, Brosnan created Movie Magic: The Story of Special Effects in the Cinema. In 1976, appeared his non-fiction book, The Horror People, which surveys many of the most important people, films, and developments in horror film-making, including detailed biographies of Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Lon Chaneys Sr. and Jr.
In 1977, Brosnan became a science fiction and fantasy editorial consultant at Granada Paperbacks. He held this post till 1982. In 1978, John published Future Tense: The Cinema of Science Fiction, a survey of almost four hundred films that constituted the history of the entire genre up to the late 1970s. It was foreworded by science-fiction writer Harry Harrison.
A lightweight version of Future Tense, The Primal Screen: A History of Science-Fiction Film, appeared in 1991. Simultaneously with his film histories, Brosnan was writing fiction, having entered the science-fiction field in 1975 with the anthologized short story, Conversation on a Starship in Warp-Drive. His first two novels were 1981’s Skyship and the 1983 work The Midas Deep, both adventures. In the mid-1980s Brosnan embarked on a rapidly produced sequence of novelizations of British television screenplays, published under the pseudonym John Raymond. He also wrote a succession of comic horror novels, most of them co-authored with Leroy Kettle or John Baxter under joint pseudonyms, such as Harry Adam Knight, Simon Van Childer. The books’ stark, ghoulishly funny titles about human beings destroyed by monsters of various kinds such as Worm, Slimer, Torched!, Tendrils, and The Fungus, also clued sophisticated readers into their tone.
In the late 1980s, John Brosnan began to write “Skylords” novels, a trilogy consisting of three books – The Skylords (1988), the sequel War of the Skylords (1989) and The Fall of the Skylords (1991). Brosnan also worked as a film columnist for the science fiction magazines, Science Fiction Monthly and Starburst, as former lead book reviewer for The Dark Side, a horror magazine.
(An entertaining and in-depth assessment of the world's mo...)
1981
Quotes from others about the person
"Mr. Brosnan is possessed of a fine critical wit and he often uses it to devastating effect, especially with regard to . . . [Sean Connery’s successor, actor] Roger Moore." John A. Barnes in the National Review.
"Aserious, though selective treatment ... [a] fascinating hodgepodge", "lucid style, sprinkled with the bittersweet observations of those most involved in the development of the horror craft." Publishers Weekly critic about The Horror People.
"A valuable and important book that surely touches all the major and many of the minor developments" A Booklist reviewer about Future Tense: The Cinema of Science Fiction.
"A comprehensive and timely work, one of the better ones on its subject" a critic for Publishers Weekly about Future Tense: The Cinema of Science Fiction.
"Thought Provoking and entertaining" a writer for Science Fiction Chronicle about The Primal Screen: A His- lory of Science-Fiction Film.
"Gross, visceral horror novels that were noted ... for the sort of amusement with which the authors regarded the genre" Paul Kincaid, in Twenieth-Century Science-Fiction Writers.
"A frankly entertaining science-fiction adventure story with no delusions of grandeur." Gerald Jonas, a critic, about The Skylords triology.
"Lives up to the book jacket comparisons with [British science fiction writer] Michael Moorcock." Catherine Clancy about The Skylords triology.