Harry Horse

Richard Horne, pen name Harry Horse (9 May 1960, Coventry - c. 10 January 2007, Shetland Island of Burra) was a British author, illustrator and political cartoonist. He was also known as a member of the band Swamptrash.

Works

Books

His first book, Ogopogo, My Journey with the Loch Ness Monster, was published in 1983. He also wrote The Last... series, which included The Last Polar Bears, which was made into a 30-minute cartoon for CITV and a touring theatre production for the National Theatre of Scotland, and The Last Castaways, which won the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize.

Political cartoons

From 1987-1992 Horne was a political cartoonist for Scotland on Sunday, The Scotsman and, until his death in 2007, the Sunday Herald newspapers. His illustrations also appeared regularly in The Observer and The Independent newspapers.

Computer game

In 1993 he created, designed, and wrote a point-and-click adventure game for Time Warner called Drowned God: Conspiracy of the Ages. The game was based on a forged manuscript he had written a decade earlier, purported to have been written by 19th century poet Richard Henry Horne, who shares Horse's name.[1]

Illustrations

His illustrations appeared in books as diverse as The Good Golf Guide to Scotland, a centenary edition of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, five books by Martin C. Strong all published by Canongate Books (The Great Rock Discography, 1st-4th ed. (1994-1998) and The Wee Rock Discography (1996))[2] and the children's book Magus the Lollipop Man

Music

In the late eighties he was the singer and front man of the legendary Edinburgh band Swamptrash, which later evolved, without Horse, into the still performing Shooglenifty.[3]

Death

On January 10, 2007, Horne's body was discovered holding his wife Mandy, who had been terminally ill with multiple sclerosis, in their bungalow in Papil, West Burra.[4] The Daily Mail reported on July 13, 2008 that rather than the "Romeo and Juliet" scene described in many articles relating to their deaths, Horse had stabbed her thirty times before killing their pets and stabbing himself until he too bled to death.[5] The Daily Mail piece, which appeared in the print edition on Monday July 14, was in fact a follow-up to a lengthy investigative feature in the Sunday Times Magazine of 13 July 2008 by Peter and Leni Gillman, in which they had revealed the truth about the couple's death. The Gillmans had multiple sources for their revelation, including information from both families and the death certificates, which described the cause of death as exsanguination.[6] Actor Tam Dean Burn, who had put together an aborted radio tribute to Horse the week before Horse's death said that the 2008 report was "a cruel distortion" in 2009, after speaking with Horse's female relatives.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Horse, Harry. Alien Tongue: An Interview with Drowned God creator Harry Horse. Interview with GameSpot. CNET. Archived from the original on August 19, 2000. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
  2. ↑ Music Reference Books by Martin C. Strong, FolkLib Index.
  3. ↑ Belcher, David (February 2, 1998). "Horse Power to Take Us Places". The Herald. p. 18. Retrieved July 12, 2013. – via HighBeam Research (subscription required)
  4. ↑ Urquhart, Frank (11 January 2007). "Couple found dead with their pets after relatives' call to paramedics". The Scotsman (Johnston Press). Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  5. ↑ McBeth, Jim (13 July 2008). "Children's author Harry Horse stabbed his wife 30 times as probe casts doubt on 'Romeo and Juliet suicide pact'". Daily Mail. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  6. ↑ Gillman, Peter and Leni Harry Horse: the man who loved his wife to death, Sunday Times Magazine 13 July 2008
  7. ↑ "Tam Dean Burn wants to restore Harry Horse's reputation as an artist after the controversy over his death. But won't his show reopen old wounds?". The Scotsman (Johnston Press). 12 February 2009. Retrieved 11 December 2012.

External links

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