Shaun Hutson

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Shaun Hutson (born 1958) is a prolific writer of bestselling novels including horror novels and dark urban thrillers. He was born and brought up in Hertfordshire, England, and now lives and writes in Buckinghamshire.

He is a fan of Liverpool F.C..

His works have often been extremely gritty and violent. Sean Doyle, the antihero of several of his books, is a "counter-terrorist" with a penchant for brutal violence and a certain degree of contempt for authority. Doyle is frequently heavily armed, e.g. carrying a .50 calibre Desert Eagle and a fully automatic Beretta 93R machine pistol, both unusual in military/police use.

He is according to some the chief inspiration for comedy character Garth Marenghi, a caricature of a self-absorbed horror writer.

1 Trivia
2 Bibliography
3 External link
4 See Also

[edit] Trivia

According to his website, Hutson has appeared onstage with British heavy metal band Iron Maiden 13 times.

In an interview for the magazine Deep Red (given sometime in the late 80s/early 90s), Hutson relayed the following tidbits of interest:

He describes Alien as one of the greatest horror movies of all time (and derides its' sequel as "Rambo in space").
He also mentions that Alien is alongside The Wild Bunch as one of his favorite films ever.
During the interview, Hutson describes working on the book Chainsaw Terror; in particular, he mentions that during a horror authors' convention panel, he took glee in describing a scene where a woman gets nailed down to a worktable and is brutally violated with a chainsaw, solely for the joy of leaving fellow author and panel member Clive Barker speechless.
When asked if he gets along with fellow British horror authors Barker and Ramsey Campbell, Hutson stated that he has very little time for them and that he felt they were part of a backslapping "clique" of horror authors at that time, who would give glowing reviews of each others' work (mocking Campbell, he stated that a cover blurb Campbell might give for use on a fellow author's work would be something like 'The best book I've read since last week - Ramsey Campbell'). An unfavourable review of Hutson's novel Heathen, parodying Hutson's style, appears in Campbell's collection Ramsey Campbell, Probably. Hutson also stated that "the sole, and notable, exception" to his disdain for other British horror writers was James Herbert, because he felt Herbert shared his disdain for the "clique"-like atmosphere.
Regarding Juan Piquer Simon's film adaptation of Slugs, Hutson bemusedly recalled that he had remarked that as long as he got paid and his original work wasn't altered, a filmmaker could "do what he liked"; he then wryly noted that "this Piquer bloke" came along "and proceeded to take me at my word".
At the time of the interview, Hutson was well known for his horror works, which were unflinching in their depiction of scenes both sexual and horrific (and sometimes both at once); when asked if there was ever a time when he felt he had to censor or tone down something of his own accord, he admitted that there was a necrophilia scene he'd been working on in one of his books that he ended up toning down as he was enjoying writing it "a bit too much".