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Thursday 19 February 2026
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Smith, Michael Marshall
(1965- ) UK author, also raised in South Africa and the USA. He has published sf and horror under his full name, and thrillers as by Michael Marshall [see Checklist below]. He has also worked as a writer for radio and film. His first publication of genre interest was "The Man Who Drew Cats" in Dark Voices 2 (anth 1990) edited by David Sutton and Stephen Jones; it won the British Fantasy Award in 1991. Since then, he has continued to produce stories, mostly ...
Casanova, Giacomo
(1725-1798) Venetian author, moderately prolific, variously employed; best known for his Mémoires (1826-1838 12 vols), the repetitive single-mindedness of sections of which caused his name to pass into the language as a serial seducer of women. He wrote initially in Italian, but later moved over to French, the language in which he wrote his Fantastic-Voyage novel, ...
Gingrich, Newt
Working name of US history professor, politician and author Newton Leroy Gingrich (1943- ), Speaker of the House of Representatives 1995-1999, contender in the run-ups to the American presidential election fo 2012, of interest here for his collaborations with William R Forstchen, beginning with 1945 (1995), a Hitler Wins tale in which Germany confronts America after its 1945 victory in ...
Fancher, Jane S
(1952- ) US author, partner for many years of C J Cherryh (they married in 2014), who began publishing genre material with two Graphic Novels based on Cherryh's work: Gate of Ivrel: Claiming Rites (graph 1987) and Gate of Ivrel: Fever Dreams (graph 1988). Fancher was credited with artwork on #13-#16 of the Elfquest comic-book series by Wendy and Richard Pini, published ...
Purtill, Richard
(1931-2016) US academic and author whose first work of genre interest was the nonfiction study Lord of Elves and Eldils: Fantasy and Philosophy in C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien (1974); separate examinations of these two authors from a Christian standpoint followed [see Checklist below]. Purtill's Kaphtu Universe sequence, beginning with The Golden Gryphon Feather (1979) and extending to two trilogies, is fantasy inspired by archaeology and the myths of ancient ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...