Robert Hale Limited
Entry updated 13 September 2021. Tagged: Publisher.
UK publishing firm which from 1936 through 1984, though mainly in the 1970s, published more than 450 sf novels, in hardbound editions, primarily for the library market. (In 1990 a few US sf titles were reprinted, but no originals.) A large majority of titles originating with the firm were uniform in length (192 pages) and routine in substance, most being Space Operas varied with occasional Dystopias, though other forms of sf also featured. In its early years Hale published speculative fiction from authors like S Fowler Wright and Wyndham Lewis, and in the 1970s many established foreign writers – including Poul Anderson, A Bertram Chandler, Hal Clement, Gordon R Dickson, Ron Goulart, Harry Harrison, Keith Laumer, Frank Belknap Long, Andre Norton, Robert Silverberg and Kate Wilhelm – released titles to the UK market through the house; but from the middle of that decade Hale published mostly books signed by names otherwise unknown to the sf world. Some of these were young authors – for example, Adrian Cole and David S Garnett – who would soon move on to more ambitious projects, and some – for example, the actor Michael Elder – were authors who published primarily with Hale but who were clearly real individuals. Many, however, were pseudonyms, some of which have been identified and can be found so designated either below or in their linked entries. Almost certainly several remaining names – some of those below whose entries have no birth-dates being reasonable suspects – are also pseudonymous.
The list below comprises Robert Hale authors in the sense of authors whose names are solely or primarily identified with the Hale imprint. Such listings in publisher entries are not the normal practice of this encyclopedia. The simple historical reason is that the severe space constraints of the 1993 print edition led to most of the more than 120 Hale authors and pseudonyms being lumped together here rather than given separate entries. [JC/DRL]
see also: Mike Ashley; George Borodin; Colin Cooper; Terry Greenhough; Lee Harding; Philip E High; John Lymington; Robert Ray.
Robert Hale authors
- Roy Ainsworthy: pseudonym of Lauran Bosworth Paine.
- Adrienne Anderson.
- Walter Bacon.
- Bee Baldwin.
- Jo Bannister.
- Mark Bannon: pseudonym of author who most often wrote as Paul Conrad.
- Alan Barclay.
- D A Barker.
- G J Barrett, whose pseudonyms include Edward Leighton, Dennis Summers and James Wallace.
- Roger Beaumont.
- John Bedford: pseudonym of David Wiltshire.
- Peter Bentley.
- Leigh Beresford.
- Fenton Brockley: pseudonym of Donald S Rowland.
- Eric Burgess.
- Roger Carlton: pseudonym of Donald S Rowland.
- Mark Carrel: pseudonym of Lauran Bosworth Paine.
- R M H Carter.
- Garet Chalmers.
- Jonathan Chance: pseudonym of John Newton Chance; see John Lymington.
- David Clements.
- Paul Conrad, who wrote also under his real name, Albert King, and as Mark Bannon, Floyd Gibson, Scott Howell, Christopher King and Paul Muller.
- Edmund Cooper
- Paul Corey.
- James Corley.
- George Corston.
- S H Courtier.
- N J Cullingworth.
- Jules N Dagnol.
- Leonard Daventry.
- Cyril Donson.
- Iain Douglas.
- Alfred Dyer.
- Michael Elder.
- James England.
- R Snowden Ficks: collaborator of Roger Beaumont.
- Arthur Friggens, collaborator of Eric Burgess.
- Donald J Garden.
- Nicholas Garlick.
- Graham Garner: pseudonym of Donald S Rowland.
- T S J Gibbard: pseudonym of Michael Vinter below.
- Floyd Gibson: pseudonym of Paul Conrad.
- John Gilchrist.
- David Graham.
- J M Graham.
- Anthony Grant.
- Hilary Green.
- Harry J Greenwald.
- Brian Griffin.
- Peter J Grove.
- J W Groves.
- Richard Haigh.
- Norman Hall.
- Kenneth Harker.
- William C Heine.
- Ernest Hill.
- Gordon T Horton.
- Troy Howard: pseudonym of Lauran Bosworth Paine.
- Scott Howell: pseudonym of Paul Conrad.
- Mark Jales.
- R Alan James.
- Norman Jensen.
- Neville Kea.
- Albert King: pseudonym of Paul Conrad.
- Christopher King: pseudonym of Paul Conrad.
- Edward Leighton: pseudonym of G J Barrett.
- John Light.
- Richard Lindsay.
- Ronald A McQueen.
- Michael F Maikowski: collaborator of Chris L Wolf.
- Sue Mallinson.
- David Mariner.
- Dave Morgan.
- Paul Muller: pseudonym of Paul Conrad.
- Helen C Nisbet.
- Hugh A Nisbet.
- John October.
- Maurice Owen.
- Lauran Paine, whose pseudonyms include Roy Ainsworthy, Mark Carrel and Troy Howard.
- John Paget: pseudonym of John Aiken.
- John Paton.
- Colin D Peel.
- David G Penny.
- W D Pereira.
- Roger Perry.
- Audrey Peyton.
- Alex Random: pseudonym of Donald S Rowland.
- L P Reeves.
- Jack Rhys.
- Julia Riding.
- J R Robertson.
- Brian Rolls.
- Raymond J Ross.
- Donald S (Sydney) Rowland, whose pseudonyms include Fenton Brockley, Roger Carlton, Graham Garner, Alex Random, Roland Starr, Mark Suffling.
- James Ryder.
- Ras Ryman.
- J W Schutz.
- William T Silent.
- D N Sims.
- A C Smith.
- Walter J Smith.
- Roland Starr: pseudonym of Donald S Rowland.
- Mark Suffling: pseudonym of Donald S Rowland.
- Dennis Summers: pseudonym of G J Barrett.
- David Thurlow.
- Nevil Tronchin-James
- James B Tucker
- Michael Vinter; also wrote for Hale as T S J Gibbard, as above.
- Walter Walkham.
- James Wallace: pseudonym of G J Barrett.
- Chad Warren.
- William Thomas Webb.
- Philip Welby.
- Martyn Wessex.
- Ronald Wilcox.
- Eric C Williams.
- T Owen Williams.
- Robert Hendrie Wilson.
- David Wiltshire.
- Chris L Wolf.
- J A Wood.
further reading
- Roger Robinson and Richard Williams. Hale and Gresham Science Fiction 1936-1984 (Dragonby, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire: Dragonby Press, 2001) [bibliography: chap: second edition (first was by Robinson alone, 1988): pb/nonpictorial]
previous versions of this entry