Michael Marshall Smith
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Michael Marshall Smith (born May 3, 1965) is a British novelist, screenwriter and short story writer. Born in Knutsford, Cheshire, he moved with his family at an early age to first Illinois and then Florida. At the age of seven he moved again, this time to South Africa, and then to Australia before eventually returning home to England in the early 70s.
He was educated at Chigwell School and King's College, Cambridge, where he studied Philosophy, Social and Political Science, and became involved with the Cambridge Footlights. Under the pseudonym of Michael Rutger, he moved on to become a comedy writer and performer on the BBC Radio 4 series And Now, in Colour which has been described as a 'cult hit' ("which probably meant our parents and three other people listened in") and ran for three series.
His first published story was The Man Who Drew Cats which won the British Fantasy Award in 1991 for "Best Short Story". He has been published in Postscripts. His first novel, Only Forward, was published in 1994 and won the August Derleth Award for Best Novel in 1995. In 1996 his second novel, Spares, was released, the film rights to which were purchased by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks. While the rights lapsed, Dreamworks did produce The Island, whose plot had strong similarities to Spares, though Michael did not consider it worthwhile to pursue legal action over the similarities. He now considers it unlikely a Spares film will ever be made.[1]
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, Michael 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 (cf. Iain (M.) Banks).
On 1st September 2006, it was announced on his official website that the horror short story Hell Hath Enlarged Herself was in development as a feature film by Cuba Productions and Lightworks Films, financed by the UK Film Council. Smith will be a producer and co-screenwriter on the film.
Contents |
[edit] Novels
- Only Forward (1994)
- Spares (1996)
- One of Us (1998)
- The Straw Men (2001) (as Michael Marshall)
- The Lonely Dead (2004) (as Michael Marshall) - Released in the US under the title The Upright Man
- Blood of Angels (2005) (as Michael Marshall)
[edit] Novellas
- The Vaccinator (1999)
[edit] Collections
- When God Lived in Kentish Town (1998) - a small paperback containing four stories, distributed for free by W H Smith at tube and rail stations around London and in Heathrow airport 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)
[edit] About the Author
- Michael Marshall Smith: The Annotated Bibliography (2004) by Lavie Tidhar
[edit] Awards
- British Fantasy Society award for Short Fiction, The Man Who Drew Cats (1991)
- British Fantasy Society Icarus Award for Best Newcomer (1991)
- British Fantasy Society award for Short Fiction, The Dark Land (1992)
- British Fantasy Society August Derleth Award (Best Novel), Only Forward (1995)
- British Fantasy Soeciety award for Short Fiction, More Tomorrow (1996)
- Philip K. Dick Award - Norwescon, Only Forward (2001)
