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Shearman, Robert

Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.

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(1970-    ) UK playwright, scriptwriter and author, most of whose fiction has been fantasy, sometimes with an Horror in SF coloration; Zombies have for instance appeared in such tales as Granny's Grinning (in The Dead That Walk, anth 2009; 2015 ebook). His numerous plays, beginning in the early 1990s but none seemingly published, are adventurous, innovative, show the influence of his mentor Alan Ayckbourn; but do not directly range into the fantastic.

Shearman is initially of sf interest for his various contributions to the Doctor Who universe, initially with Radio scripts, the first of them, Punchline [broadcast date not determined] as by Jeremy Leadbetter – after the character played by Paul Eddington (1927-1995) in The Good Life (1975-1978), a BBC Television series, this pseudonym being typical of Shearman's complex intimacy with British popular culture. After various radio scripts, and other work, he wrote Dalek (30 April 2005), for the main television Doctor Who series and later novelized it as Dalek (2021). He is perhaps of greatest interest in this context for the ongoing nonfiction Running Through Corridors sequence comprising detailed comments on each episode of the series, from the 1960s on, beginning with Running Through Corridors: Rob and Toby's Marathon Watch of Doctor Who (Volume 1: the 60s) (2010) edited by Shaun Lyon and Mark Phippen.

Shearman's negotiations with Fantastika as a whole in his dark and weird fiction can seem off-hand, combining with seemingly casual grace elements of surrealism (see Absurdist SF) and not quite demure English domestic Satire; in the telling, however, his stories are often powerful enough to burn through their settings, and are almost always elegantly couched, beginning with "A Writer's Tale" in Missing Pieces (anth 2001). Much of his work has been assembled in various collections, including Tiny Deaths (coll 2007), which won a World Fantasy Award, Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical (coll 2009) and Everyone Is Just So Special (coll 2011). Remember Why You Fear Me: The Best Dark Fiction of Robert Shearman (coll 2012) and They Do the Same Things Different There: The Best Weird Fantasy of Robert Shearman (coll 2014) together assemble more than forty tales of considerable interest; more recent stories are assembled in the ambitious We All Hear Stories in the Dark (coll of linked stories 2020 3vols), in which the order the 101 individual tales is read may or may not lead to some true redemptive Story. [JC]

Robert Charles Shearman

born Horsham, Sussex: 10 February 1970

works

  • Dalek (London: BBC Books, 2021) [tie to Doctor Who: novelization of his own 2005 script: Doctor Who: pb/]

collections and stories

  • Tiny Deaths (Manchester, England: Comma Press, 2007) [coll: pb/]
  • Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical (Maidenhead, Berkshire: Big Finish Productions, 2009) [coll: hb/]
  • Roadkill (Yokine, Western Australia: Twelfth Planet Press, 2009) [novelette: dos: pb/Dion Hamill]
  • Everyone Is Just So Special (Maidenhead, Berkshire: Big Finish Productions, 2011) [coll: hb/]
  • The Dark Space in the House in the House in the Garden at the Centre of the World (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2012) [story: chap: dos: first appeared in House of Fear: an Anthology of Haunted House Stories (coll 2011) edited by Jonathan Oliver: pb/Erik Mohr]
  • Remember Why You Fear Me: The Best Dark Fiction of Robert Shearman (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2012) [coll: pb/Erik Mohr]
  • They Do the Same Things Different There: The Best Weird Fantasy of Robert Shearman (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2014) [coll: pb/Erik Mohr]
  • Alice Through the Plastic Sheet (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in A Book of Horrors (anth 2011) edited by Stephen Jones: na/]
  • Blue Crayon, Yellow Crayon (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Remember Why You Fear Me above: na/]
  • Clown Envy (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Remember Why You Fear Me (coll 2012): na/]
  • Cold Snap (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared 2010 The Lifted Brow: na/]
  • Damned If You Don't (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Tiny Deaths (coll 2007): na/]
  • Elementary Problems of Photography (Number Three): An Analysis, and Preferred Solution (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Hauntings (anth 2012) edited by Ian Whates: na/]
  • Favourite (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Tiny Deaths (coll 2007): na/]
  • Featherweight (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts (anth 2010) edited by Stephen Jones: na/]
  • George Clooney's Moustache (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in The British Fantasy Society Yearbook 2009 (anth 2009) edited by Guy Adams: na/]
  • Good Grief (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead (anth 2011) edited by Stephen Jones: na/]
  • Granny's Grinning (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in The Dead That Walk: Flesh-Eating Stories (anth 2009) edited by Stephen Jones: na/]
  • Jason Zerrillo Is an Annoying Prick (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Remember Why You Fear Me (coll 2012): na/]
  • Merely a Horror Writer (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Remember Why You Fear Me (coll 2012): na/]
  • Mortal Coil (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Phobic: Modern Horror Stories (coll 2007) edited by Andy Murry: na/]
  • One More Bloody Miracle After Another (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Remember Why You Fear Me (coll 2012): na/]
  • Pang (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical (coll 2009): na/]
  • So Proud (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Tiny Deaths (coll 2007): na/]
  • The Bathtub (Toronto, Ontario: ChiZine Publications, 2015) [story: ebook: first appeared in Remember Why You Fear Me (coll 2012): na/]
  • We All Hear Stories in the Dark (Hornsea, East Yorkshire: PS Publishing, 2020) [coll of linked stories: published in three volumes: illus/hb/Reggie Oliver]

works as editor

nonfiction

series

Running Through Corridors

links

previous versions of this entry



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